“Everyone has a right to their own opinion, and I’d like to make it clear that I wore Planned Parenthood because I was expressing my opinion, not the opinion of my network or my show,” she said during an interview at Build (a part of the Oath media brand, as is Yahoo) on Monday. “I’ve been supporting Planned Parenthood for a long time, I’ve donated to them, I’ve given them my time, I know [president] Cecile Richards really well, I was with them at the Women’s March. It was my honor to be able to do that.”
Lakshmi, who stopped by the New York City studio to chat about the March 15 launch of her MAC Capsule Collection (see the full video below) and her ideas on topics from beauty to feminism, said she “had a handful” of the pins, and asked the show’s other judges — Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, and Graham Elliot — if they would each wear one, too. “Immediately, without blinking, all of them said, ‘Yes, I’d love to,’” and while the guest judges wanted to wear them, too, she didn’t have enough to go around.
Padma Lakshmi visits Build Studio on March 12th, 2018. (Photo: Mike Pont)
But anyway, she said, “I didn’t want to put them on the spot. Because I do believe that everyone has a right to their own opinion.”
In fact, the single mom, 47, noted, “I was actually in love with a person who was pro-life — it happens — and I respected his opinion and he respected mine, and we could discuss those things. I think we’ve gotten very polarized, and so I’m interested in talking to those people who don’t agree with me. I’m happy to hang out and have a beer with the people who do agree with me, but I’m preaching to the choir. I think we need to really listen to each other more. I think there’s a lot of talking on TV. There’s not a lot of listening.”
Lakshmi also addressed another recent Twitter tiff, in which an immigration activist called her out for wearing a low-cut top on the Top Chef season finale. “It’s 2018 — do we really need @PadmaLakshmi boobs all open and squished up on TV??” wrote Shirley Leyro, setting off a storm of defenses from Lakshmi’s loyal fans.
As for why society is still wondering whether women can show some skin and still be feminists?
“I don’t know,” Lakshmi said. “I really don’t know. And it’s a thing that I struggle with, because I want to look beautiful, and I want to look sexy, [especially] if I’ve taken the trouble to work out as much as I do… I feel comfortable, and goddammit, I may not look this way someday so I want to document it when I do!”
Padma Lakshmi visits Build Studio on March 12th, 2018 to promote her new MAC Capsule Collection. (Photo: Mike Pont)
She said she believed that women could of course dress in any manner they choose and still be feminists. “I think society likes to put people in boxes. So when she made that comment, I was like, ‘So what? Why can’t I?’” Another comment disturbed her further when it assumed that Lakshmi clearly “has no control over content.”
And putting aside your discomfort with my boobs, as an @ACLU ambassador I want to applaud your work on immigration Shirley. This is way more important than any silly piffle about my boobs. Love a good “activist scholar”. ❤️ https://t.co/IJ8Dgt80US
“I was like, actually, I do. I’m an executive producer of my show, and I don’t have control over a lot of stuff, but I do certainly over my own person and what I wear,” Lakshmi said. “Also my boobs probably were squished up, because I’m consuming like 8,000 calories a day! And that was toward the end of shooting, [when] I gain 15 pounds. We have dresses in three sizes.”
Finally, shared Lakshmi — after letting her “really loyal fans” jump to her defense for a while — she responded in a non-defensive way because she didn’t want the discussion to spiral out of control.
“I know I have been snapped at online, or a little thing I said innocently turns into an internet brushfire, so I went back and… I went to her site and looked at a blog she wrote. She’s a professor, and she’s an immigration activist… I just wanted to extinguish that brushfire… I could tell that this person was a really good person, and she just kind of said something.”
Famed trauma therapist responds to allegations of bullying: ‘It’s an outrageous story’
Bessel van der Kolk (Photo: Courtesy of Bessel van der Kolk)
Following his termination for alleged misconduct from the treatment center he founded 35 years ago, renowned trauma researcher, author, and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk is speaking out in vigorous self-defense — just as many of his colleagues, friends, and admirers are voicing support on his behalf.
“No allegations have been made,” van der Kolk, author of the New York Times-bestselling The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma and founder of the Trauma Center in Brookline, Mass., tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “It’s an outrageous story — nobody’s come forward, and I’ve never been accused of improprieties by anybody… and now there are these insinuations about how ‘he’s a sexist,’ intimations that I’m a sexual abuser, which is of course devastating not only for me but for the tens of thousands of people who believe in me.”
Last week, the Boston Globe reported that van der Kolk was fired by the Trauma Center’s umbrella organization, the Justice Resource Center (JRI), in January, following the removal of the center’s executive director, Joseph Spinazzola, over alleged mistreatment of female coworkers.
Van der Kolk’s firing, according to JRI president Andy Pond, was based on allegations by staffers that the psychiatrist had “created a hostile work environment” and behaved in a way that “could be characterized as bullying.” Pond told Yahoo Lifestyle that he was unable to share specifics of the allegations because the accusers had asked that the details be kept private.
In response to his termination, van der Kolk has filed a lawsuit against JRI, as well as Pond and JRI executive vice president Kari Beserra, naming eleven counts of action, including breach of contract, misrepresentation, and defamation.
One of the main issues of the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to Yahoo Lifestyle, is the Trauma Center’s autonomy, as based on the memorandum of understanding that the Trauma Center and JRI entered into when the administrative relationship began between the organizations in 2005. The contract (a copy of which is attached to the lawsuit), specifies that the Trauma Center is an independent organization, and that all funds and grants generated by the Trauma Center belong to the Trauma Center; but according to the lawsuit, JRI is currently holding more than $2.5 million hostage from the Trauma Center.
Pond tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the claim regarding those funds is “false,” and that the entire lawsuit is “without merit.” He reiterates his belief that “the Trauma Center at JRI is not an independent organization. It is a part of JRI and Bessel was a part time employee of JRI.
Van der Kolk says it’s possible that Pond’s decision was financially motivated. “He took all those funds… they are now basically stolen by JRI and all these funders are out of their money,” he says. But a “more gentle” theory of motive, he says, is that the allegations against Spinazzola had been known for a while, and that Pond “was the direct supervisor of this guy, and that he felt so embarrassed by his lack of action for so long that he needed to find someone else to put it on. So I think he found me.”
The lawsuit also claims that the implication of the MOU was that van der Kerk would be employed “for life,” and that it was up to the Trauma Center to terminate its own employees. “That’s a dispute,” van der Kolk says, and is “between lawyers.”
“The weird thing is,” he shares, “I always liked [Pond], and when I walked into his office I said, ‘hi, how are you doing,’ and his face froze and he says, ‘I’m firing you.’ We had no prior discussions ever about anything, and I said, ‘This is crazy, there’s as much reason to fire you as fire me, I’ve never done anything.’ And that’s it — no warning, no investigation, no discussion, like, ‘hey, I’ve heard these things about you.’ Nothing.”
While van der Kolk was traveling and unable to speak much about the situation when news broke last week, he posted a response on Facebook over the weekend — calling the story a “very public character assassination of me” — which has since received more than 560 shares, 825 reactions, and 240 comments, the vast majority of them supportive of the trauma expert.
“That is not to say that I cannot be impatient at times, and I have been known to he harsh — that’s something that I’ve been working on in my own therapeutic endeavors & will continue to do,” he added. “I actually think that kindness is our greatest virtue. I am deeply touched by the overwhelming support that I have received from around the world (in fact, it was really good to hear from so many old friends). We are working on reconstituting the Trauma Center by July 2018, with almost our entire current staff slated to join. We already have at least one (very lovely) location that is ready to receive us.”
In his post, van der Kolk also shared the email that he sent to his Trauma Center colleagues regarding the news of his termination, which read, in part, “As you can imagine, I am devastated reading the allegations in the Boston Globe that I have been bullying and denigrating my colleagues at the Trauma Center. I am also aware that such accusations cannot be entirely pulled out thin air, and that some of you must have felt bullied and denigrated by be, though, as far as I remember, none of you have ever confronted me with such misbehavior. If I have inadvertently denigrated or bullied any of you, I would like to know about it, apologize and make amends.”
Many of his supporters commended him for having changed their lives, noting that they were saddened and sorry to hear of his firing but relieved to learn of his side of the story. (“I have never felt so loved as I have in these last few days, the support is overwhelming,” van der Kolk says in response to the outpouring, noting also that “being contaminated” by the allegations has led to organizations distancing themselves from him and the Trauma Center.)
A handful of Facebook commenters took the psychiatrist to task for not owning up to alleged shortfalls, with at least one responding to his comment about never having been confronted. “Well when you’re in a position of power, it’s likely that those you’re bullying have less power and may be rendered unable to confront,” she noted. “It’s not the job of the victim to confront their bully in the work place. It’s the job of management to remove the bully.”
Van der Kolk agrees with that take on power imbalance. “That is a reality. I’ve grown up in the medical world, and people have said all kinds of things, like, ‘If you ever do this again I’ll fire you,’ and ‘I will not promote you unless you do this.’ …You just suck it up. Certainly, when I first started the trauma center a long time ago and came from that world I thought that was sort of OK. But very quickly my colleagues said, ‘No, we don’t do it that way. So I learned I should not adopt the model I was trained in in medicine.”
Regarding comments he hears about his ability to be “harsh,” he says, “I wrote about this journey in my book. All of us need to go through the journey of self-examination.”
Further, van der Kolk notes, “It’s interesting — I saw a movie of Ingmar Bergman directing Fanny and Alexander, and Bergman has a little bit of the same background as I do. He was so gentle with his actors, and I thought, if Bergman can do it, I can do it, too. I thought, I’m going to be as gentle as Bergman. That became my aspiration, actually.”
Famous trauma therapist fired over allegedly traumatizing his staff
Bessel van der Kolk. (Photo: Getty Images)
A renowned researcher, advocate, and psychiatrist in the field of trauma and abuse has been fired from the therapy center he founded 35 years ago, following allegations that he bullied his colleagues.
“No one is denying the impact that Bessel has had on the world,’’ noted Andy Pond, president of the Trauma Center’s parent organization, Justice Institute, in an email to employees, according to the Globe. “But a professional workplace has rules, and no amount of talent or skill excuses violations of those rules.’’
Pond further told the Globe that van der Kolk, “a part-time employee for 16 hours per week, violated the code of conduct by creating a hostile work environment. His behavior could be characterized as bullying and making employees feel denigrated and uncomfortable.” He also spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle via email regarding the allegations, and said he could not discuss whether the behavior was sexist in nature.
“The employees who came forward want us to keep these kinds of details private. Women do make up the majority of the workforce at JRI and elsewhere in these kinds of settings,” Pond, who has known van der Kolk for 13 years and “admired his work,” tells Yahoo Lifestyle, adding that he was “surprised and saddened” by the allegations.
Regarding how the situation might impact the field of trauma work, Pond says this: “While I am a social worker and manager, and would not characterize myself as an expert in trauma, I do have a broad understanding of the work. The world is much more informed about the impact of trauma, and the ways we can prevent it, or mitigate its effects. Back when Bessel started, that was not the case. But today, there are many researchers, thinkers, and treatment professionals who will carry on the work. It is a mature field, and is not reliant on any one person. At my agency and others, the principles of treating victims of trauma are woven into nearly everything we do. I am confident that the work will continue, stronger than ever, here and elsewhere.”
As to why even this field, with its deep understanding of psychology and abuse and healing, is not immune to society’s ongoing #MeToo moment, he says, “I think the answer is simple: No field is immune. But one reason I took such strong action is that I have a strong belief that any agency committed to social justice has to hold its employees to a high standard. In this case, there was no external pressure—we heard from the people affected, and acted ourselves to improve the workplace.”
Van der Kolk was traveling on Friday and not available for comment, according to his assistant. The Globe noted that he has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Resource Institute, accusing its leaders of violating his employment contract.
While various trauma-therapy colleagues of van der Kolk’s did not respond to requests for comment from Yahoo Lifestyle, some expressed a range of feelings about the situation — from shock and dismay to unsurprised relief — on social media platforms, including Twitter:
Bessel van der Kolk (influential researcher in #trauma) was fired from the Trauma Center over allegations of bullying employees. Sadly, this news reminds us that the mental health field is not immune to the challenges of harassment and bullying. https://t.co/FAgcEIepVn
OH MY WORD. BESSEL VAN DER KOLK HAS BEEN SACKED FOR BULLYING WOMEN. That really depresses and appalled me, given his status as an absolute expert in trauma. https://t.co/0kLG577iXU
— God loves women ن (@God_loves_women) March 8, 2018
Sad day for my profession, and especially since Dr. Bessel van Der Kolk specialized in treatment of trauma! He has been fired from the Center he founded over allegations he bullied and denigrated employees at his renowned Trauma Center. https://t.co/Pqs6ViKCGi via @BostonGlobe
— Patricia Ravitz LMFT (@PatriciaRavitz) March 8, 2018
#TimesUp#MeToo has finally started reaching The Trauma Center with departures of Bessel van der Kolk & Joseph Spinazzola. Long, long overdue. Hope the unhealthy institutional culture there will finally get addressed too.
On various Facebook posts and groups, therapists who say they had trained or attended conferences with van der Kolk shared that they had found his behavior to be “arrogant,” “condescending,” and “dismissive.” One noted, “I never discussed it with anyone, especially colleagues, because I figured, ‘Who would believe me? He’s practically a god!’”
Wrote another, “I’m now hearing many other clinicians speak out about how he has been like this FOR YEARS,” and another, “I knew him personally. This reaffirms what my gut told me 25 years ago. Sad.”
One trauma psychotherapist spoke anonymously to Yahoo Lifestyle about how she’s been affected by both the official report and by hearing colleagues speak about not being surprised.
“He’s a symbol of so many of the things we have to externalize in therapy. The whole thing is strangely validating despite being darkly disappointing,” she says. “In general, as someone socialized as a woman, who’s queer and a survivor, and who came from a working-class background, I have learned to blame myself for other people’s bad behavior. Especially when they are in power. Or I fall prey to thinking that there’s something wrong with me when people abuse their power and privilege.” If the allegations prove true about van der Kolk’s behavior, she says, he would have likely gotten away with it for a while “because people thought they wouldn’t be believable if they said anything against him. Or people thought they took something the wrong way when their experience and gut told them something else.”
While it’s disheartening and even shocking to learn that someone who has dedicated his life to helping others heal from abuses and traumas could ever possibly engage in destructive behaviors, there’s actually no logical reason to be surprised — especially when taking into account the number of abusers, particularly sexual abusers, who are trusted and revered gurus, priests, professors, and, of course, parents, abusing their own children.
“Bullying occurs at all levels. I do not know him personally, but I do know that bullying and doing brilliant work are not mutually exclusive,” Connecticut-based psychologist Barbara Greenberg tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “We would be foolish to think otherwise at this point in time. Bullying occurs in ever strata of society, and the brilliant among us are not immune from engaging in that sort of problematic behavior. I like everyone else who has been informed by his work am saddened to hear about this.”
Van der Kolk, 74, was born in the Netherlands during the German occupation, and his father was imprisoned in a Nazi work camp. He is considered a pioneer and an icon for his early work with veterans suffering from PTSD, and his book, The Body Keeps the Score — translated into 19 languages praised as a “tour de force,” “a watershed book,” “essential reading,” “brilliant,” and “a masterpiece” by top researchers and clinicians in their field — delves into deep discussions of how trauma effects brain development and attachments, and out-of-the-box treatments including yoga, EMDR, and neurofeedback.
“This book is the fruit of thirty years of trying to understand how people deal with, survive, and heal from traumatic experiences,” van der Kolk writes in the acknowledgments of his book. “Thirty years of clinical work with traumatized men, women and children; innumerable discussions with colleagues and students, and participation in the evolving science about how mind, brain, and body deal with, and recover from, overwhelming experiences.” He goes on to thank his Trauma Center colleagues and students, as well as his patients, noting, “you were my true textbook — and the affirmation of the life force, which drives us human beings to create a meaningful life, regardless of the obstacles we encounter.”
Tamika Mallory and is a fan of Louis Farrakhan and people are outraged
Women’s March co-founder Tamika Mallory, who is under fire this week. (Photo: Getty Images) The Women’s March organization — decried from the start for being non-inclusive by a variety of critics, including some trans women, women of color, sex workers, and even and anti-abortion activists — can now add another rapidly growing rank to that list: Jewish feminists. Or, more broadly, those who oppose anti-Semitism. The latest controversy stems from Women’s March cofounder Tamika Mallory and her recent attendance at a speech given by incendiary National of Islam leader and noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. “Satan is going down. Farrakhan has pulled the cover off the eyes of the Satanic Jew and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through. You good Jews better separate because the satanic ones will take you to hell with them because that’s where they are headed,” the controversial leader said in what was reportedly a three-hour speech given in Chicago on Feb. 26 in honor of Saviour’s Day, a Nation of Islam holiday celebrating the birth of its founder. Mallory posted a quick Instagram video from the event, plus photos, and received a shout-out from the stage by Farrakhan, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League. “He even mentioned the Women’s March, saying that while he thought the event was a good thing, women need to learn how to cook so their husbands don’t become obese,” the ADL reported. “Tamika Mallory, one of the March organizers, was in the audience, and got a special shout-out from Farrakhan. Mallory posted two Instagram photos from the event, which Carmen Perez, another Women’s March organizer, commented on with ‘raise the roof’ emojis.” Louis Farrakhan. (Photo: Getty Images) This is far from the first public calling-out of Mallory’s association with Farrakhan (not to mention repeated charges of anti-Semitism aimed at cofounder Linda Sarsour), but this one — stoked by Jake Tapper of CNN — appears to be a churning storm that just keeps gaining power, and from which there may not be any turning back for many. “Tamika Mallory has not just gone to see a man oozing of such hatred speak. She has publicly endorsed him,” noted Elad Nehorai in an opinion piece for the Forward. “She has refused to back down for her attendance. She has refused to denounce his words. She has composed her own anti-Semitic dog-whistling comment. And she has thanked others for supporting her attendance.” Much of the increasing blowback has indeed been related to Mallory’s response tweets (in lieu of her releasing an official statement), and to the official Women’s March response, being called too little, too late by many critics. https://twitter.com/TamikaDMallory/status/970487355856576512 The statement, provided to Yahoo Lifestyle and posted on social media by the Women’s March, reads in part: “Anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism and white supremacy are and always will be indefensible. Women’s March is committed to fighting all forms of oppression as outlined in our Unity Principles. We will not tolerate anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia and we condemn these expressions of hatred in all forms. “Women’s March is an intersectional movement made up of organizers with different backgrounds, who work in different communities. Within the Women’s March movement, we are very conscious of the conversations that must be had across the intersections of race, religion and gender. We love and value our sister and co-President Tamika Mallory, who has played a key role in shaping these conversations. Neither we nor she shy away from the fact that intersectional movement building is difficult and often painful. Women’s March co-founders Tamika Mallory, right, and Linda Sarsour, at the Power to the Polls event in Las Vegas. (Photo: Getty Images) “Minister Farrakhan’s statements about Jewish, queer, and trans people are not aligned with the Women’s March Unity Principles, which were created by women of color leaders and are grounded in Kingian Nonviolence. Women’s March is holding conversations with queer, trans, Jewish and Black members of both our team and larger movement to create space for understanding and healing.” Mallory addressed questions regarding her support of Farrakhan (already known by many who have been following the issue) in a Canada public television interview on Feb. 16, before she spoke at a NDP (New Democratic Party) Convention in Ottawa. “I think people have to ask Mr. Farrakhan about his views. I’m not responsible for Mr. Farrakhan nor am I a spokesperson for him,” Mallory said. “What I do know is that I’ve worked with him for many years to address some of the ills in the black community where we’ve transformed lives. Under his guidance, there have been many people who have turned away from drugs, away from crime, to get themselves cleaned up. Many black men have reentered their homes to take care of their families. In those areas, we’ve been able to work together.” When further pressed by the interviewer about how her support could be troubling to many Women’s March supporters, she said, “I would be afraid to go into your families and check to see that all the people that you have dinner with and break bread with during holidays… So when we start this moral purity question, it really is a pretty dangerous road to travel.” Mallory then attempted to shift attention to her own activism. “If we just look at the Women’s March, the most recent action that I was involved with, and something that I led, it was truly intersectional… that’s the work that we need to be focused on.” As part of that work, at the Women’s March Power to the Polls event in Las Vegas on Jan. 21, Mallory gave a rousing speech, calling out many of the white women in the audience. “Don’t come to this rally today and sit here with your pink hat on, saying that you’re with us and you’re nowhere to be found when black people ask you to show up in the streets and defend our lives… Stand up for me, white woman. Come to my aid.” She spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle about that powerful moment recently. “It is always very uncomfortable to be the one or to be among the few who are willing to speak truth to power — even when you happen to be speaking to people who are considered to be friends — and no one wants to be that girl, if you will,” Mallory said. “That you’re the one who is constantly removing the veil from some of these really deep, hurtful, and confrontational discussions is not a popular position… But I’m able to sleep better at night with myself, knowing that I am not just sort of existing within the space without being a part of the voices that actually transform the space.” But now the fact that Mallory has not personally denounced Farrakhan’s bigoted beliefs has put many other women in that same “removing the veil” position, with some believing that her specific silence in this instance makes her — and the other individual March cofounders — complicit. https://twitter.com/jcinthelibrary/status/970093524027957249
A short thread on the Women’s March leaders & their support for Farrakhan.
1) Three out of the four co-Presidents of the Women’s March have expressed their support for Farrakhan, one of the most vile antisemites in America.
https://twitter.com/x0x0x00x0x0/status/970538744481804288 Some Jewish feminists, in particular, expressed feelings of abandonment and disappointment. https://twitter.com/erintothemax/status/970864852808978432https://twitter.com/jaclynf/status/970728629855404036 Mallory still has plenty of prominent activists in her corner, including Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and writer and Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, who both tweeted support. https://twitter.com/JustAskDonna/status/970322013901467648https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/969705132421197825 But a pointed essay in the Medium, “An Open Letter to Tamika Mallory,” takes the activist to task over a particular phrase — “enemies of Jesus” — used in one of Mallory’s tweets. “Perhaps you truly do not know that the phrase ‘enemies of Jesus’ is an anti-Semitic dog whistle,” writes Ariela Bee, “that goes back to when the Romans converted to Christianity and they needed a religious narrative that would suit the political demands of the empire.” But in any case, she continues, she is “hurt.” “Let me be very clear: I am not hurt because you are a black woman who is tweeting these words… I am hurt because you are a leader who is tweeting these words. You have influence. You have visibility. You do not force anyone involved in the Women’s March to follow you. People follow you because you have power. Because you have power, your words have the power to hurt.” Adding to that growing chorus this week was Lily Herman, writing for Refinery 29 and laying out not only the recent Farrakhan situation but past evidence of anti-Semitism on the part of Sarsour and cofounder Carmen Perez. “Understandably, the Jewish community — particularly people who have supported the Women’s March and other social justice causes — wanted answers. We also wanted something that most thought would be pretty simple for a bunch of women who spend their days parading around their intersectionality: We wanted them to denounce anti-Semitism and the words Farrakhan said against Jews. This isn’t a new thing; after all, we ask public figures to denounce awful people and hate speech all the time,” she wrote. “To say we didn’t get that is an understatement.”
LGBT seniors are being bullied in housing facilities: ‘This is happening all the time’
Marsha Wertzel, 70, is suing her former senior housing facility, which is alleged to have not protected her from anti-gay, bullying residents. (Photo: Courtesy of Lambda Legal)
A 70-year-old lesbian’s lawsuit against her senior housing facility, which she claims has failed to keep her safe from anti-gay harassment, is highlighting a troubling fact of life for many LGBT seniors: the return, in their supposed “golden years,” of bullying.
“I thought, oh no, here we go again: gay hate,” shared Marsha Wertzel in a video she created with her attorneys at Lambda Legal.
Wertzel is currently appealing her recently dismissed case against the Glen Saint Andrew Living Community in Niles, Ill., where she lived for three years (and which maintains it did not discriminate against Wertzel). After coming out to another resident there, Wertzel says she was forced to dodge peers who physically attacked her and called her names including “fucking dyke” and “homosexual bitch.”
“I tried to avoid them, but they would seek me out and taunt me,” she said. “I’ve heard every negative homosexual term, I’ve been hit more than once… When is it going to stop?”
For Wertzel, at least, it has stopped for now, as she’s relocated to a supportive facility in Chicago. But many other LGBT seniors like her — who faced years of bullying in their youth and had hoped to finally be living out their golden years in safety and contentment — find themselves in residential facilities where they must deal with homophobic and transphobic harassment.
“Senior spaces are seeing a huge increase of people who have lived their entire adult lives out of the closet… but then find themselves with aggressors who are completely emboldened in terms of their generational attitudes,” Karen Loewy, lead counsel on Wertzel’s case and the seniors’ program strategist at Lambda Legal, tells Yahoo Lifestyle.
LGBT seniors, already facing health and financial issues of aging, can be more vulnerable to isolation and harassment. (Photo: Getty Images)
Situations like Wertzel’s are very common, she adds, though there are scant statistics on the issue. “We know we’re not hearing about the vast majority of them,” largely because coming forward to find help and support in such a threatening environment takes huge resolve, she says. “But anecdotally, we know this is happening all the time.”
According to 2010 statistics (the most recent available) from the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging, an estimated 1.5 million adults age 65 and over are lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB); about 4.1 percent of American adults identify as LGB, for an estimated 1.5 million LGB elders today — a total that is expected to grow to nearly 3 million by 2030. (Unfortunately, there is little information on the number of transgender older adults, the report noted.)
Regarding much-needed support in post-retirement years, the resource center notes the following: Although 80 percent of long-term care in the U.S. is provided by family members, LGBT elders are twice as likely to be single and three to four times more likely to be without children than their heterosexual counterparts. Further, many professional caregivers are not accepting of LGBT elders and not trained to deal properly with their unique needs, and therefore might be hostile, discriminatory or simply unaware that LGBT elders exist. For example, 8.3 percent of LGBT elders reported being neglected or abused by a caretaker due to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
LGBT folks can face more isolation and discrimination as they age. (Photo: Jeff Greenberg/UIG via Getty Images)
“LGBT people face myriad complications when aging,” Hilary Meyer, chief enterprise and innovation officer at SAGE, a national advocacy organization for LGBT elders, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “On top of the same concerns that non-LGBT people face as they age, such as financial insecurity and declining health, studies have shown that LGBT elders are more likely than their non-LGBT peers to be at risk for social isolation due to shrinking support networks and higher rates of living alone, and face higher rates of discrimination when accessing healthcare and housing. For older people who may already be vulnerable, dealing with discrimination and bullying by peers in a residential setting can be even more difficult.”
She adds that “LGBT older people have lived through decades of stigma and discrimination by their peers, families, and society’s systems of care. For much of their lives — and still for some people, especially trans folks — LGBT people could be fired, involuntarily hospitalized, arrested and prosecuted, and worse by the very societal systems designed to protect people. Because of that, LGBT people carry a tremendous amount of fear and concern about mistreatment.”
In an effort to make it easier, SAGE offers a national training and credentialing program on LGBT aging to facilities and providers across the country on how to provide “culturally competent care to LGBT people,” Meyer says. An agency that completes the program then earns a SAGECare credential, signaling that it’s a safe place for LGBT seniors.
Another helpful trend has been the rise of LGBT senior communities and housing facilities opening up around the country — including in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland, Provincetown, and Pecos, New Mexico. SAGE is behind the effort to bring such a facility to New York City, where the project has broken ground in Brooklyn and is expected to open in 2019.
Marsha Wertzel. (Photo: Courtesy of Lambda Legal)
In the absence of such safe havens, though, there is often fear of abuse — rightly so, in many cases.
“Many of our constituents describe the action of ‘scanning the environment’ for clues that this is a safe place to be openly LGBT. If they don’t see signs of safety, or worse, hear disparaging remarks or see harassing behaviors, they will likely stay closeted so as to try to ensure that they do not become victims themselves,” Meyer explains. “For anyone having to hide core parts of their identity, especially where they would otherwise call ‘home,’ there are damaging results to a person’s ability to be happy, healthy and age successfully. For example, just imagine if you lived in a place where you could never talk with your neighbors or peers about a deceased partner with whom you shared your life, instead pretending the person never existed? It’s incredibly destructive to a person’s wellbeing.”
As for Wertzel, she moved into Glen Saint Andrew after losing her partner of 30 years to colon cancer — which followed being shunned by her adult son, being evicted from her home, and getting shut out of the family by her late partner’s relatives. “No one would drive me to her funeral,” she said. It was then, amidst her grief, when she opened up about her late partner and the child they had raised together, that she wound up being bullied, and luckily being directed to the Lambda Legal help desk by a caseworker. The staff at the residence facility, she reported, did nothing to try to protect her.
“I don’t feel any safety in going to them… they ignore me like I’m a ghost,” she explained in the video. “I put in a complaint, I hear nothing. I’m not treated like the other residents. If you can’t go to the staff, who do you go to?”
And while taking the abuse is in some ways easier than it might be for children and adolescents, Wertzel noted, it definitely took its toll. “The older I’m getting and the pride I feel knowing [my late partner] Judy Kahn and loving her, and her loving me, it’s easier to handle these taunts,” she said. “But still, there are some that surprise you and hurt you.”
‘We’re sex workers and we vote’: Women’s March event shines light on a marginalized group
Arielle Aquinas, an adult-film actress and former professional dominatrix, attends the Power to the Polls rally in Las Vegas to speak out for sex-worker rights. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)
Of the many, many impactful statements made onstage at the Women’s MarchPower to the Polls event in Las Vegas on Sunday, one stood out for the uniqueness of its voice in the largely mainstream political context: “I am a mother, I am a grandmother, and I am a sex worker.”
The statement was made by Cris Sardinia, head of Desiree Alliance, a national coalition of sex workers and health professionals working toward harm reduction, advocacy, and education. She was the only one of 30-plus onstage speakers to focus on the rights of prostitutes, adult-film stars, strippers, and other sex workers as an issue.
But even as a lone voice in the day’s lineup, she symbolized a powerful shift — as did the noticeable presence of many sex-worker rights activists, who turned out more forcefully than for last year’s main Women’s March event. That was due, said many, to a more targeted welcome effort on the part of event organizers. They aimed to right a perceived wrong last year, as publicized by Janet Mock, over briefly watering down and then removing a sentence embracing sex workers from its mission statement, before reinstating it under pressure.
Still, the issue remains a touchy one among women who equate all prostitution and sex work with sex trafficking; activists, meanwhile, see a difference, and defend their work as a freedom-of-choice issue.
“I want you to see the sex worker rights movement as part of the solution and not the problem,” Sardinia said to great applause from the stands of the Sam Boyd Stadium. She took the stage near the end of a four-hour lineup of speakers, when the sea of 20,000 women in requisite pink pussy hats had begun to thin out, most of the day’s clever, anti-Trump and pro-woman signs cast aside after a long, chilly afternoon.
“We are a strong and fierce community made up of every color, every race, every identity, every shape, every economy, every religion, and so much more,” Sardinia continued, before declaring, “I’m a sex worker. And I have the right to be here.”
Dee Severe brought her message to Power to the Polls on Sunday. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)
It’s unlikely that most women in the crowd caught her reference to the unwelcome feeling had by many sex workers regarding last year’s Women’s March events. But it certainly resonated with those in the business.
“I think last year [Women’s March organizers] were less on the same page about sex workers,” Lux Lives, a Las Vegas-based pornographic film actress with faded lavender hair who held a sign reading “Sex worker wisdom can change the world,” told Yahoo Lifestyle. “They made it clear they wanted us here this year.”
It’s why she had come to Power to the Polls with her partner, Casey V, to assert her rights, along with a loosely knit group of about 20 others in the sex business. Many others were scattered throughout the crowd, including Amber Batts, who had traveled all the way from Alaska to represent SWOP Behind Bars, a support community for incarcerated sex workers. “I think, finally, sex workers are being afforded the opportunity to be heard,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle.
Madline Marlowe of Las Vegas attends Power to the Polls. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)
That was particularly true at the local level, according to Deborah Harris, Women’s March coordinator for Nevada — a state that has legal, strictly regulated brothels. “We wanted to make sure sex workers are represented,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle in the days leading up to Power to the Polls. “We want to center our efforts on the most marginalized. And they deserve to be understood and respected.”
Sex workers were indeed just one of the many marginalized groups who found a welcoming space at Sunday’s rally — others included black women, indigenous women, Latina women, poor women, immigrant women, migrant workers, domestic workers, sex-trafficked women and girls, disabled women, Muslim women, abused women, incarcerated women, and LGBT women.
The issue of sex workers and their rights is a particularly complex and hot-button issue, though, particularly within feminist circles. That’s largely because many equate all pornography, prostitution, and other forms of sex work with human trafficking, or the capture of women and children who are coerced into the trade, or sold into it against their will.
Lux Lives, left, and Casey V attend Power to the Polls in Las Vegas. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)
But sex worker rights activists dispute that all forms of sex work are equal, arguing that they too want to fight trafficking — and that the most effective way to do so is through the decriminalization of sex work, which would theoretically empower coerced sex workers to come forward to authorities without fear of arrest. They also argue that granting women full autonomy over their bodily choices is an essential freedom — no different than the right to use contraceptives or have an abortion (a belief countered by some feminists, who see sex work as inherently nonconsensual because of money throwing off the power balance).
Amnesty International favors the decriminalization of sex work — which “does not mean the removal of laws that criminalize exploitation, human trafficking or violence against sex workers. These laws must remain and can and should be strengthened,” its website explains. “It does mean the removal of laws and policies criminalizing or penalizing sex work.”
The inclusion of sex workers’ rights by this year’s Women’s March was particularly noteworthy to those in the business — especially after last year’s behind-the-scenes controversy was brought to light by author and activist Janet Mock in a January 2017 Tumblr post. In it, she explained that she had helped march organizers write the mission statement, but that the line she wrote, about sex workers, had been removed, repeatedly altered, and eventually reinstated, due to internal conflicts.
Roxy Renee attended Power to the Polls on Sunday, January 21, in Las Vegas. (Photo: Ronda Churchill for Yahoo Lifestyle)
“I helped draft the vision and I wrote the line ‘…and we stand in solidarity with sex workers’ rights movements,’” Mock explained in her Tumblr post. “It is not a statement that is controversial to me because as a trans woman of color who grew up in low-income communities and who advocates, resists, dreams and writes alongside these communities, I know that underground economies are essential parts of the lived realities of women and folk. I know sex work to be work. It’s not something I need to tiptoe around. It’s not a radical statement. It’s a fact.”
She went on: “I reject the continual erasure of sex workers from our feminisms because we continue toconflate sex work with the brutal reality of coercion and trafficking. I reject the policing within and outside women’s movements that shames, scapegoats, rejects, erases and shuns sex workers… There are no throwaway people.”
A Women’s March national spokesperson, Sophie Ellman-Golan, acknowledges last year’s controversy, telling Yahoo Lifestyle, “We’re grateful for the sex workers who continue to hold us accountable and push us to be more inclusive. We aren’t fully there yet — we still have a lot of trust to rebuild — but we are making progress. There is always more work to do.”
“The intentional inclusion of sex workers in the program and the planning process was a combined effort,” Ellman-Golan continues. “The moment we decided on Las Vegas [known for its Sin City offerings], members of our national team discussed the need to include sex workers on the host committee.” The Nevada team was on the same page, she says, inviting groups like the Sex Worker’s Outreach Project and Desiree Alliance, although not all local-level organizers were in agreement on the issue.
“There’s still an enormous amount of work to do, and to do it, we need to have sex workers at the table,” she says. “That means building a table where all sex workers feel safe and welcomed, and I think we are still in the process of building that table.”
This year, the Women’s March national mission includes the following language: “…we stand in full solidarity with the sex workers’ rights movement. We recognize that exploitation for sex and labor in all forms is a violation of human rights.”
Also signaling change was the fact that some sex-worker activists operated an informational table at the event, right alongside other organizations such as the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, and Planned Parenthood. And at points throughout the day, women holding sex-worker themed signs and red umbrellas — the international symbol for sex-worker rights — were visible to the entire stadium, as they’d been onstage with other activists as a sort of backdrop for various speakers.
“It was a really beautiful moment to see all those red umbrellas on stage, with a national platform,” Ellman-Golan says.
Madeline Marlowe, of Las Vegas, was among those positioned onstage. “Obviously the stigma of what we do runs very, very deep,” said Marlowe, who is a porn actor and director, as well as a professional dominatrix, who started out in the industry as a webcam model. “But we need decriminalization. It’s important that people start to recognize sex work as work. There’s been all this talk about sexual violence in Hollywood, but we’re still not including sex workers in that narrative. We need to have space, like in any job, to report abuse. But thanks to mainstream feminism promoting the stigma over the years, police just say, ‘Well, isn’t that part of the job?’ Ending violence against women starts with ending violence against sex workers.”
Dee Severe, who had traveled to the rally from Los Angeles, where she directs adult films, told Yahoo Lifestyle she was there because “sex workers are among the most stigmatized, demonized people in the world, and it’s time to be decriminalized.”
Roxy Renee of Las Vegas, who works as a fetish model, said she had come to let people know that “sex workers’ rights are women’s rights.” She added, “We’re all fighting for the ability to make our own decisions.”
While most of the sex workers who spoke with Yahoo Lifestyle on Sunday expressed a feeling of being well received, some said they were left with mixed feelings.
Valerie Stunning, a stripper in Las Vegas who blogs about her experiences and maintains an impressive Instagram following, left the event right after an appearance by Cher, carrying her “Stigma increases violence” sign and walking towards her car with fellow strippers Kelsey Griffith, also of Las Vegas, and Giselle Marie, of New York City. Stunning said she had felt repeatedly disappointed throughout the day when speakers would run down the list all the marginalized groups they supported — from immigrants and transgender women to women of all colors and religions. “They would not say ‘sex workers’,” she noticed.
Still, she said, “It’s really important that we keep coming back. The official statement from Women’s March was validating… It’s empowering when you feel like you’re being heard.”
Her death immediately brought out a flood of loving thank you messages and testimonials — including from Carr and Bernstein, among others, especially on her Facebook page, where an announcement that she’d “transitioned… of natural causes” was shared more than 97,700 times and inspired more than 27,300 comments. Fans called Hay “profound,” “captivating and authentic,” and “a trailblazer of the mind-body connection, not afraid to speak her truth in a world of skeptics.”
But the news also touched a painful nerve for many who lived through the height of the AIDS crisis.
That stems from 1985, when Hay was largely an unknown counselor and began hosting West Hollywood support groups for people living with AIDS. Her gatherings eventually attracted upwards of 800 people at a time, mostly gay men, drawn to her message that self-love could heal.
“The celebration of life, known as the Hay Ride, was often the only time a person with AIDS might be touched, hugged or massaged with care, not rough disdain,” noted gay publication the Los Angeles Blade in its obituary of Hay, whose own backstory included surviving sexual abuse and curing herself of cancer through a non-medical regimen including positive visualizations.
(Photo: Louisehay.com)
But her message — which gave the impression to many that AIDS could be cured with love, and that therefore, if you weren’t cured then you were to blame for not loving yourself enough — also brought out powerful resentment and anger from many within the gay community, some expressing those feelings with still-fresh hurt this week.
“So long Louise Hay, who made a lot of money exploiting desperate people with AIDS,” noted writer, humanities professor and longtime AIDS activist Sarah Schulman on Facebook. (Hay’s publishing company, Hay House, grossed a reported $100 million in 2007 alone.)
Schulman’s post unleashed a long thread of discussion, and while a good number thought her assessment to be harsh or unfair, noting that Hay “gave hope to a lot of people,” many more agreed. They called Hay “an opportunist,” “the equivalent of a snake-oil salesman, but with the lives of AIDS sufferers tacked on,” “a fraud,” and, in one particularly concise critique “a subversively toxic presence whose fatuous and ultimately disempowering message indicated how starved we were for care and connection in a criminally careless era.”
More critics expressed their disdain for Hay’s approach through personal essays, including LGBT activist Peter Fitzgerald, for Medium, who writes about he was hopeful about her teachings until a friend with AIDS was rejected by Hay when he got very sick. “Once again a spiritual fraud had let me, and a great many of my people down,” he wrote.
But according to Hay’s longtime friend David Kessler — grief expert and author, who coauthored You Can Heal Your Heart: Finding Peace After a Breakup, Divorce, or Death with Hay in 2015 and who sometimes led Hay Rides for Hay when she was unavailable — Hay’s message has been largely misunderstood. “As far as the false hope, that she was telling people with AIDS that you don’t have to die, that wasn’t true,” Kessler tells Yahoo Beauty. “She was always clear that healing was always possible, and it may not be of the body — that we can find peace, but it doesn’t always mean your body is going to get better… And men left that room feeling more at peace than when they walked in.”
A post shared by Gabrielle Bernstein (@gabbybernstein) on Aug 30, 2017 at 10:09am PDT
As far as some believing that Hay blamed people who were sick, he says, “I think the message is that we’re responsible for our lives, but we’re not to blame for our illnesses… She said, ‘Whether you live or die, you don’t have to be a victim of life.’ It was a message of empowerment.”
Kessler continues, “This was such a horrible time — a time when doctors said ‘I can’t do anything for you,’ when family was turning on you. Louise was welcoming people and saying, ‘You’re loved and you’re worthy and cared for.’ To me, that was amazing.”
He adds, “Many of the people I met back then who had issues with Louise had issues with spirituality.” But, “Clergy weren’t letting [people with AIDS] into their churches. So if you wanted spirituality, it was Louise or Mariann [Williamson, another self-help guru of the time].” Finally, for those who thought Hay “didn’t believe in death,” Kessler points to the book they wrote together, which focuses on grief. So before dying herself this week, he says, “She tackled the subject of death.”
Loved or hated, Hay’s message contained “zero new,” according to Beryl Satter, a Rutgers University history professor with expertise in early New Age movements. The school of thought, she tells Yahoo Beauty, has its roots in the late 19th century, in what’s called “mesmerism,” as well as Christian Science.
“There were healers who put forth the idea that you could control your thoughts through affirmations and denials, and then control the ‘God’ within you — ‘I am healthy, God cannot be sick, therefore I will never be sick,’” she explains. “These were popular healing practices at a time when medicine was in transition, and it wasn’t clear that a doctor would be able help you, which is a parallel with AIDS. You want hope but you can’t get what you need, so you turn to God, meditation, and these practitioners who make claims that they can help you control your mentality, and therefore the health of your body.”
Hay was influenced by these early teachings, Satter notes, including that of “religious science” and the New Thought of the 1890s, which paved the way for the broader New Age movement. And everyone involved, no matter what the era, Satter points out, naturally gave rise to controversy.
“It’s always had that double edge of being a source of hope for those who can’t get treatment, and a very ugly self-blaming tendency — because they’re saying ‘you should be able to control thoughts, and anything that happens is because you have not adequately meditated,’” she says. “It’s implicit and explicit: If it’s true that you can meditate your way to health, then being sick it’s nobody’s fault but your own.”
Satter notes she finds nothing wrong with touting benefits of relaxation and meditation, which can often bring a needed sense of control. “What’s horrible about it if is if it prevents you from actually getting medical help, and that it so drastically turns the attention on your inner self and not the world around you,” she says. “It’s no surprise that [someone like Hay] would emerge in this context. It makes sense, and I think it’s a sign of the desperation people were feeling. I doubt she was intentionally hustling and trying to exploit. My guess is that she and most [similar gurus] are fairly sincere.”
Bottom line, she says of Hay’s beliefs, and those that are similar, and the many who are devotees: “Whenever you touch the discourse of attempting to give yourself all power, you are also giving yourself all blame. That is the line that you walk.”
Should kids get tattoos? One mom landed in hot water for allowing her daughter to get inked. (Photo: Getty Images)
The mother of a 12-year-old girl has been arrested after a “Jesus Loves” tattoo was spotted on her daughter’s shoulder.
The tattoo, also featuring a blue-green cross, was seen by a fifth-grade teacher at the Arnco-Sargent Elementary in Newnan, Georgia during a school dance, when the girl wore a strapless dress, according to 11 Alive Atlanta. The teacher called the police to report it.
“Each of the parents had a different story and it boiled down to frankly just finger pointing,” Lt. Jason Fetner, of the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office , told the news station.
The girl originally told authorities that her father forced her to get the tattoo, and that it angered her mother; later, she reportedly changed her story to say that she had wanted to get the tattoo. The father, meanwhile, told authorities that his daughter had gotten the tattoo at a Super Bowl party; this was confirmed by a video of tattoo artist Brenda Gaddy tattooing several people there, including “a number of minors,” said Fetner. “It’s difficult to imagine how as a parent you think it’s appropriate to supervise or allow someone to give your child a tattoo at that age.”
Gaddy was arrested along with the girl’s mom, Emmie Nolan, 35, who was charged with being a party to a crime. “I think it’s unfortunate in that the child actually wanted to get the tattoo,” said Fetner. “It’s not like the child was forced to get the tattoo, I think it just comes down to bad parenting.”
The story of the “Jesus Loves” tat sparked controversy on Facebook, where 11 Alive posted its report on Tuesday morning. Although tattooing minors is illegal in the state of Georgia — and laws vary by state, with some allowing the tattooing of minors with parental consent — the post asked its readers, “Are tattoos under the age of 18 appropriate? We’re asking because a mom was charged after her 5th grader got this tattoo at a Superbowl party.”
Some answered in black-and-white terms, including the woman who noted, “The point of it being appropriate or not is not the issue. It is against that law. There are some things that people just have to wait on. There is a consequence to the action of allowing the child to do it and the artist for doing it.” Others said this, “Under 18 is not acceptable. Kids are impulsive and unable to make proper decisions on their own. Just look at how ugly that tattoo is. He’s going to regret it later. The mother should be charged. That’s irresponsible parenting.”
And this: “At that age, no way. I was in my mid twenties when I got my first tattoo, and I am glad I waited that long. Knew of someone that would do tattoos for ‘kids’ when I was a teenager, but never had the guts to do it. If I had, I would have been stuck forever with something silly, and could have gotten a nasty infection.”
But others had more surprising reactions. “Not when you have parents telling their little girls they are little boys…not when you allow 13 year olds to begin sex change transitions…Tattoos? Childs play,” noted one man, while another drew connections to reproductive rights. “It is perfectly legal and socially acceptable for mothers to abort their children, but it’s illegal and socially unacceptable for mothers to get their child a tattoo..Now that makes sense.”
Finally, though, was the comment from a mother who said her own 15-year-old had just decided to get a tattoo to honor his recently deceased father. “So don’t judge people,” she wrote, “because you never know what their story is!”
Kathy Griffin Photographer Tyler Shields Is No Stranger to Controversy
The Kathy Griffin photo that started the fire. (Photo: Tyler Shields)
Following her posting of a photo in which she is holding a fake but bloody, severed head of President Donald Trump on Tuesday, comedian Kathy Griffin found herself in the midst of a major Twitter storm of outrage from both sides of the aisle — not to mention on the radar of the Secret Service. The response led her to offer a pleading apology in which she admits to having gone “way too far,” but that didn’t stop CNN from swiftly firing her as the network’s New Year’s Eve co-host (along with Anderson Cooper) after a decade-long run.
Griffin’s photo was not a selfie, though, but a planned and conceptualized shoot by a seasoned professional: Tyler Shields, the Los Angeles–based “bad boy of photography” who has worked with celebrities from Lindsay Lohan to Mischa Barton and never shied away from controversy.
Photographer Tyler Shields and Kathy Griffin attend Shields’s “Provocateur” opening in L.A on May 11. (Photo: Earl Gibson III/Getty Images)
“I am sure there is a line, I have just never seen it,” he recently told the Dallas Observer regarding his sense of humor. (Shields did not immediately respond to Yahoo Style’s request for comment on the Griffin photo.)
Although he, along with Griffin, has removed the triggering Trump image from social media, this is far from the first time that Shields, 35, has found himself in the eye of a storm.
The filmmaker and artistic photographer with a skewered high-fashion perspective has made waves with imagery ranging from men (like Colton Haynes) in drag, and women (like Lohan) stained with blood — not to mention beauty tools (like a blow dryer) being used as weapons, and luxury accessories (a $100,000 Hermes Birkin bag, a $15,000 Louis Vuitton trunk) being sawed and burned to death.
A post shared by Tyler Shields (@thetylershields) on Feb 19, 2017 at 3:19pm PST
GQ has said of Shields’s work, “While big-shot Hollywood producers once demanded a trophy Banksy canvas to be hanging above their faux-Spanish fireplaces, now all they want is one of [Tyler] Shields‘ gloriously twisted photographs.”
Photo Whoa Blog‘s Freddy Martinez was a bit more loquacious. “His images are working, at their best, to dislodge portraiture from reality, reminding you that photography — even supposedly honest photography — still obscures the truth,” he wrote in 2014.
“But,” he added, “if they cause you any hesitation, remember it’s all makeup, toy guns, Mickey Mouse heads, and red corn syrup. It’s nasty and hilarious — not the ideal, lofty, up-in-the-clouds glitz and glamour but the nose-bleed afterparty, the concrete-glitter, the other side to imagination.”
A post shared by Tyler Shields (@thetylershields) on May 25, 2017 at 1:52pm PDT
In that interview, when asked why he incorporates violent images of “blood, guns, knives, biting, punching, hunger, sex,” Shields said, “I love playing with reality in fiction. It makes you feel something. It affects you and it’s too real for some people, but the people who love it, really love it, and that makes me happy.”
A post shared by Tyler Shields (@thetylershields) on Dec 27, 2016 at 10:41am PST
The photographer has gotten flak from some for “glorifying” violent imagery of women. Regarding that, he told Elle some years ago, “People automatically assume that if a girl is in that position or in that situation, that it is violence against her and that she’s weak, and ‘Oh, he’s making girls look weak.’ Girls and women are the most powerful creatures on this planet. Without them, nothing exists. Period.”
A white, blond-haired Kansas State University student has been expelled from school after Snapchatting a photo of herself and a friend wearing black clay face masks with the caption “Feels good to finally be a nigga.”
The young woman, Paige Shoemaker, posted the image to her Snapchat story, meaning it could be seen by any of her followers, on Tuesday night. But the trouble started when a fellow student, Desmund Weathers, posted the image to Twitter, where it swiftly went viral — prompting public outcry, a formal response from the university, and a Facebook apology by Shoemaker on behalf of herself and her friend, Sadie Meier.
Welcome to Kansas State University. Where breakfast in the morning is some K-State Family with a side of Racism. pic.twitter.com/Vmdkl5g27g
“We clearly understand that what was said and done was completely disrespectful,” she wrote, in part, in her Thursday post, since shared more than 1,300 times. “I did want to inform everyone that it was NOT ‘black face,’ but it was a L’Oréal clay facial mask. The signs that were thrown also is an inside joke between our friends that represents ‘West Coast is the best coast.’ We never intended for the picture to offend anyone.”
Shoemaker added, “We accept that there will be people who won’t forgive us, but something had to be said. Ask anyone who knows us, we are the most accepting and least racist people. We know that we will ride up and learn from this mistake. We will be better. … We know what we did was wrong.”
Kansas State University interim associate provost for diversity Zelia Wiley addressed the situation with a post to the school’s website on Thursday. “On Sept. 15, the university received notice that a derogatory social message and photo was sent out via social media. The involved person is not currently enrolled at the university. It is our understanding the second individual in the photo is not associated with the university,” Wiley began. “This racially offensive photo with a derogatory message has upset the K-State family and is not in concert with our principles of community. Such messages on social media are harmful to all.”
She concluded, “As members of the K-State family, we should always visualize and work toward a safe, welcoming environment for our community. I and other members of the CCRT [Campus Climate Response Team] welcome the opportunity to speak with our affected students and employees as we continue create a culture of inclusion for the entire K-State family.”
The message was in response to the hundreds of messages that flooded the university’s Facebook page.
The post of Shoemaker’s Snapchat image, by @JustDesmund with the caption “Welcome to Kansas State University. Where breakfast in the morning is some K-State Family with a side of Racism,” has been retweeted more than 14,000 times. It’s prompted tweets of support, from “smfh this is so unacceptable” to “Truly indefensible. There are complete morons out there, and sadly Trump has empowered/brought out some of the worst of them,” but also plenty of comments suggesting he was taking Shoemaker’s post too seriously.
@JustDesmund who cares ? quit being a baby and scared of racists. I’m brown and don’t fear the world like you.
Shoemaker, speaking on camera to local news station WGAL, said, “Well, I would’ve been a senior” before being kicked out of school. She then added, about her use of “nigga” in the caption, “That word just kind of happens in our friend group, ’cause we know … we’re a big family, so that word does not offend anyone in our group.”
Civil rights journalist Shaun King was among those who retweeted the image, without comment, spurring a lengthy dialogue on oppression, blackface, and racist intent.
In addition to getting booted from school, the young woman’s former sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, made it clear she was no longer in the sisterhood. “While she did join the Beta Upsilon Chapter at Kansas State University in 2013, she has not been a member since spring 2015 and is no longer affiliated with the organization in any capacity,” a Facebook post noted about Shoemaker. “Her words and actions certainly do not reflect the values and principles of Zeta Tau Alpha. Our Creed teaches us to look for the good in everyone and to seek understanding in order to gain true wisdom.”
