Category Archives: Immortality

Hey, now youre immortal, Paul Westphal said in relating what someone told him when they learned he was going to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

No, Westphal said during his induction speech in September 2019, responding to the well-wisher, immortality doesnt come from basketball.

As we pause to remember Westphal, and share how saddened we are at his passing, we recognize how prophetically spot-on he was.

Westy will not be immortalized for just playing basketball. He will be remembered for how he lived his life, and how he treated others.

The Phoenix Suns organization shares its thoughts and prayers with the Westphal family through this difficult time.

Westy will forever be remembered as a prominent Valley sports legend both on and off the court, said Suns Managing Partner Robert Sarver. He built an illustrious career as both a player and a coach. His legacy ranks among the most quintessential basketball icons of all time.

Westphal left an indelible signature on the Phoenix Suns franchise with his All-NBA talent, his brilliant mind and his elite character. From guiding the team on the court in the 1976 NBA Finals to leading them from the sidelines in the 1993 NBA Finals, Westphals legacy in Phoenix crossed decades and his overall impact on the organization is virtually unmatched.

Throughout the past 40 years, Westy has remained a great friend of the organization and as a trusted sounding board and confidant for me, Sarver continued. His number 44 will forever hold its place in our Ring of Honor, enshrined as one of the utmost deserving members.

Born on November 30, 1950, Westphal was a native of Torrance, CA, and spent 14 seasons with the Suns as a player and a coach.

The eventual Basketball Hall of Famer known as Westy was acquired by the Suns in a trade with the Boston Celtics in 1975 and spent six seasons as a player with Phoenix. He ultimately found his way back in the Valley a few years later on the Suns coaching staff from 1988-95. Due to his astounding career and impact across the NBA, Westphal was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on September 6, 2019.

There may be just a handful of people who have as much influence and significance on the history of the Phoenix Suns, Jerry Colangelo said. All he accomplished as a player and as a coach. Off the court, he was a gentleman, a family man, great moral character. He represented the Suns the way you want every player to represent your franchise.

Known for his high basketball IQ, Westphal was instrumental in leading the Suns to their first NBA Finals appearance in 1976 against the Celtics. This series featured The Greatest Game Ever Played a triple-overtime thriller during which Westphals quick thinking helped put the Suns in position to extend the game behind Garfield Heards famous Shot Heard Round the World.

He was cerebral in his game, Colangelo said. He was always thinking one step ahead. Even the infamous triple-overtime game in Boston during the Final series, when he was the one who said, 'Call the timeout.' which forced a free throw, but gave us the ball at halfcourt and set up the opportunity to tie the game, which we did. That's thinking right on the spot at the moment.

Westphal became a five-time All-Star (four with the Suns) and garnered All-NBA recognition for four consecutive seasons, including three selections to the First Team. He sits as the eighth-leading scorer in Suns history, totaling 9,564 points and averaging 20.6 points per game, and was inducted into the Suns Ring of Honor on April 15, 1989.

Westphal joined the coaching ranks upon retirement and came back to the Suns as an assistant in 1988. Once back with the organization, Westphal learned under fellow Suns Ring of Honor member Cotton Fitzsimmons as he brought his basketball intelligence to the sidelines. Even as an assistant coach, Westphal proved his worth and garnered credit for his player relationships and development skills, including that of 1989 Sixth Man of the Year Eddie Johnson.

He led by example, Johnson said. He didn't change off of the court. It's just a positive atmosphere that he exudes when he's around. He always greets you with a pleasant smile. You always feel like you are a part of his clique. He's somebody we can put on a pedestal.

Westphal spent four seasons in this role under Fitzsimmons before taking over as head coach for the 1992-93 season. His success came early and often, leading the Suns to the best record in the league and a trip back to the NBA Finals in his first season at the helm. During his time as head coach in Phoenix, Westphal amassed a record of 191-88, which ranks as the fourth-most wins of any head coach in team history while his .685 winning percentage is best in Suns coaching history.

We had a personal relationship that spans decades, Colangelo said. He played for me. He coached for me. I always had great respect for Paul and he added to the quality of my life just with his presence. I'm very thankful that I had the opportunity to be associated with him."

Westphal left an everlasting legacy on the Suns franchise and within the city of Phoenix. While his greatest accomplishments may have come in the Valley of the Sun, his ultimate impact on basketball stretches from a young high school star in Southern California through a storied career as player, coach and broadcaster.

Westphal attended Aviation High School in Redondo Beach, Calif., where he was named the 1968 California Interscholastic Federation Player of the Year as a senior. He attended USC and earned All-Pac 8 honors in all three seasons with the Trojans. USC retired Westphals number 25 jersey and he was inducted into their Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.

Westphal was drafted 10th overall in the 1972 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics where he spent the first three years of his career, including the Celtics 1974 championship season. He was traded to Phoenix for future Basketball Hall of Famer Charlie Scott on May 23, 1975. He also first left the Suns in exchange for a future Basketball Hall of Famer, Dennis Johnson, on June 4, 1980.

He played one season with the Seattle SuperSonics and two seasons with the New York Knicks, winning Comeback Player of the Year for the Knicks in 1982-83. He returned to Phoenix for the final season of his 12-year playing career in 1983-84.

Westphal began his coaching career in 1985 with Southwestern Baptist Bible College (now Arizona Christian University). After finishing the season 3-20 the year before, he guided them to a 21-9 record in his lone season. He was then hired as the head coach of Grand Canyon University, leading them to a 63-18 record over his two seasons, including a NAIA National Championship in 1988.

In addition to four season as Head Coach of the Suns, Westphal spent three seasons as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics, five seasons as head coach of Pepperdine University, one season as an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks, three seasons as head coach of the Sacramento Kings, and finished his coaching career with two seasons as an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets.

Westphal is survived by his wife Cindy, and his son Michael and daughter Victoria.

Thank you, Paul. Rest in Peace.

More:
Recognizing Hall of Famer Paul Westphal - Suns.com

Keanu Reeves isfamousnot just for his acting skills and hit movies but his timeless John Wick hairstyle which has been popular since the film's first installment. Keanu Reeves fans argue that it isn't just his hairstyle that is timeless but fans think the actor seems to never age, some even suggest that the actor is immortal, in what has become a running trope. During one of his interviews when he was confronted about this, he expertly dodged the nonsensical non-seriousclaims. Read all the details about this interview here.

ALSO READ:'John Wick 2' Cast: Know The Actors Who Starred In This Keanu Reeves' Action Thriller Film

During an interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2017, the presenter of the show asked Keanu Reeves about the immortality claims by the fans. He confronted the actor with some pictures from the fan site Keanuisimmortal.com. He showed him a series of photographs which show that the actor looks similar to some of the historic figures shown. While the actor agreed that there are some similarities between all these personalities he neither accepted nor denied the claims made.

Reeves and Fallon both joked about the notion and theories of how Keanu could actually be immortal and has been alive for centuries. Although these jokes acknowledge the similarities it doesn't cancel the potential immortality theory. These jokes still seem like an expert dodge and another bit towards a confirmation according to some conspiracy theorists.

ALSO READ:Keanu Reeves Sports A Buzzcut, Chops Off Famous Long Locks For Upcoming Movie

ALSO READ:Cyberpunk 2077 Mix It Up Poster: Learn About The Controversial Ad In The Game

Keanu Reeves is not active on social media. The actor keeps a very low profile and doesn't share a lot of personal updates on the internet. Even after all his attempts to not be very social, the actor's fans have made him a social media superhero. According to the reports by Showbiz Cheat Sheet Reeves' acts of generosity and philanthropy have established the actor in everyone's good books. In 2019 when he went public about his relationship with his girlfriend Alexandra Grant the internet fanseven titled him asthe internet's boyfriend.

While there have been many memes surrounding the actor, many claims were made about his immortality and ageless looks. Fans have noted similarities between Keanu Reeves and many other historical figures such as Vlad the Impaler, artist Parmigianino and actor Paul Mounet. The 56-year-old actor resembles these popular figures who lived centuries apart.

ALSO READ:Keanu Reeves To Feature In Tom Cruise's Next Mission Impossible Film?

Get the latest entertainment news from India & around the world. Now follow your favourite television celebs and telly updates. Republic World is your one-stop destination for trending Bollywood news. Tune in today to stay updated with all the latest news and headlines from the world of entertainment.

Read more:
Keanu Reeves addresses rumours of him being immortal, jokes with Fallon in an interview - Republic World

The voting process for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Class of 2021, ended on December 31. The ballot has 25 candidates in total, and eight of them spent at least part of their career with the New York Yankees.

Bobby Abreu, A.J. Burnett, LaTroy Hawkins, Nick Swisher, Roger Clemens, Andruw Jones, Andy Pettitte, and Gary Sheffield are among the Yankees that are eligible for immortality.

However, as of right now with 115 ballots published, no one is making the cut to get in. Players in the ballot need to get a minimum of 75% of the votes to gain immortality. So far, Clemens (72.2%) is the closest of the former Yankees, with Barry Bonds and Curt Schilling also flirting with the minimum threshold.

The results will be announced on January 26, and the inductees will be honored in Cooperstown, New York, on July 25, barring any COVID-19-related postponement.

So far, here are the former Yankees and their progress through 115 votes, per NJ Advance Media:

Four first-time candidates were elected to the Hall in the last three years: Chipper Jones and Jim Thome in 2018, and former Yankees legends Mariano Rivera in 2019 (unanimous election), and Derek Jeter in 2020.

Jeters case was notorious, as he fell just one vote short of being the second unanimous election to the Hall after his friend and former teammate Rivera.

Abreu appears destined to get the minimum votes to see his name on the ballot for next year (5%), but Burnett, Hawkins, and Swisher, so far, look as one-and-done candidates.

More:
How are former Yankees doing in the Hall of Fame voting? - Empire Sports Media

At the risk of denigrating the accomplishments of this year's nominees, it's hard to recall a weaker Hall of Fame ballot.

Of course Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens deserve enshrinement, depending on your tolerance for their truthfulness before Congress, but their case stopped being argued on its merits a long time ago.

I'll always consider Curt Schilling a slam-dunk choice for his postseason exploits alone, but I can see why others disagree, and frankly, in light of the comically toxic disinformation that spews from his feeds in a Deepwater Horizon-style geyser, I don't mind seeing him twist in the wind, because I am incredibly petty.

The fourth and final name on my ballot, Gary Sheffield, receives even less support, but I happen to believe he's one of the 30 greatest hitters ever, and if we won't reward that just because he plodded across the outfield like a hastily recommissioned Soviet Era tank, then what are we doing?

So we can quibble about this candidate or that, but here's what I can't countenance: examining this ballot and deciding that eight, nine, even 10 names belong in Cooperstown.

It is time to stage a BBWAA-wide intervention.

Over the last seven years, a record 22 players have earned enshrinement from the writers, finally breaking the PED backlog that basically coincided with the arrivals of Bonds and Clemens.

The 2021 ballot includes 25 names and if you pick 10 of them, that means you believe 40 percent of the qualifiers deserve immortality. That's not exactly an Ivy League acceptance rate, and we're supposed to be honoring the absolute best of the best.So what's going on?

Chalk it up to a pair of developments ruining our lives in different ways -- social media and the statistical revolution.

The former speaks for itself. Loudly. And not always with real people supplying the words.

Though the One True Ballot police have thankfully lowered their weapons since the overheated heyday of 2014, there's still an element of the voting populace that would rather satisfy Twitter banshees than defend leaving someone else's favorite player off their ballot. Easier to just check the maximum and then back away slowly with hands raised. "I would've voted for your guy, but the limit is 10. Can I go now? I have a wife and family."

I believe it was the great Ray Ratto who boiled this conflict down to, "I want a vote / you can't have one." The armchair experts -- whose theoretical ballots look suspiciously homogenous, by the way -- believe that their choices are The Way with the fervency of a Mandalorian. And if you disagree, it's to be expected, because that what happens when you entrust the vote to a group cursed with such breathtaking collective ignorance.

So where do they derive their preternatural confidence? Statistics, of course. The rise of analysts like Jay Jaffe of Fangraphs has given voters new ways to consider the ballot. Jaffe's case for Sheffield, for instance, helped clarify my own stance on his candidacy. (As an aside, I'm just not holding defensive metrics against someone who played the majority of his career before that data was even tracked accurately).

The larger point that's missed when considering his work, and others like it, is that it's not presented as definitive. Jaffe makes a case. His JAWS metric provides context for how a candidate's peak seasons compare to the average Hall of Famer's.

It's not meant to be absolutist, but it's often interpreted that way. When the Hall of Fame becomes an actuarial exercise of sorting career WAR and JAWS in descending order, and go bleep yourself if you even consider subjective measures like MVP votes or All-Star games or postseason dominance or hell, how watching Sheffield swing his bat like a cornered antihero made you feel, then we've lost our way in a style befitting today's broken game, where a Cy Young winner can get lifted in Game 6 of a World Series shutout after only two hits and 73 pitches, because that's what the numbers say.

The numbers also say that Bobby Abreu is a Hall of Famer. They say the same thing about Todd Helton and Andruw Jones and Scott Rolen and Billy Wagner.

They were all very good players. Rolen probably borders on great. But I'll again ask: what are we doing? Are we granting every above-average player immortality? Or are we holding the Hall of Fame to a higher standard than enshrining four out of every 10 nominees?

I know where I fall, which is why I'm comfortable submitting a ballot with four names total. Feel free to @ me. I will definitely ignore you.

See the original post:
Tomase: There's no defending voting for 10 Hall of Famers this year - NBC Sports Boston

Like the word Blackpool running through the centre of a stick of seaside rock, Galileo's influence was a constant feature during 2020.

That won't come as a huge surprise to those in tune with the ways of the bloodstock world as Galileo has now been champion sire in Britain and Ireland for each of the last 11 years and 12 of the last 13 having briefly loaned his crown to Danehill Dancer in 2009.

However, even given his own standards of uncommon excellence, the last 12 months rank highly in Galileo's march towards immortality, not least because he passed a number of significant breeding milestones.

He ended last year with his progeny having earned 5,274,968 in prize-money, a haul that is more than double that of Dubawi, who finished runner-up for a fifth time with earnings of 2,456,588.

Galileo's 12th British and Irish sires' championship sees him move within hailing distance of the record set by his own sire, Sadler's Wells, who won 14 titles during a breed-shaping career that many thought they would never see the likes of again.

Sadler's Wells and handler Noel Stapleton lead Galileo, Montjeu and High Chaparral around Coolmore

Edward Whitaker

Their exploits have ensured that the leading sire crown has gone to a Coolmore stallion for each of the last 31 years, a run that stretches back to the first of Sadler's Wells' victories in 1990, takes in Caerleon's second title the following year, includes Danehill's hat trick of successes between 2005 and 2007 and, latterly, the Galileo era from 2008 to the present day.

Three horses registered a trio of European Group 1 victories during 2020, and, in a reflection of the dominance he exerts, Galileo duly figured prominently in all three pedigrees.

No horse contributed a greater sum to Galileo's annual progeny prize-money tally than the mighty mare Magical. She was never out of the first three in seven starts throughout 2020 and duly claimed 1,509,184 during a global campaign that not only saw her win three domestic Group 1s namely the Pretty Polly Stakes, the Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Irish Champion Stakes but also finish runner-up in the Breeders' Cup Turf and a closing third in the Hong Kong Cup. She rates a most exciting retiree to Coolmore's broodmare band for 2021.

Galileo was also responsible for three-time Group 1 winner Love, who swept the 1,000 Guineas, Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks as well as the champion three-year-old filly title. Love's Epsom triumph came just over an hour before Serpentine etched Galileo's name into the history books by giving his sire an unprecedented fifth success in the Derby.

The shock pillar-to-post victory saw Serpentine join New Approach (2008), Ruler Of The World (2013), Australia (2014) and Anthony Van Dyck (2019) on Galileo's Epsom roll of honour. The historic achievement saw Galileo overtake Sir Peter Teazle, Waxy, Cyllene, Blandford and Montjeu, who each sired four Derby winners apiece.

Serpentine gives Galileo his fifth Derby success

Edward Whitaker

Becoming the winningmost sire of the Turf's blue riband event was not the only record that Galileo claimed outright in 2020, as by that point he had also become the most prolific sire of Group/Grade 1 winners in history when Peaceful became his 85th elite-level scorer in the Irish 1,000 Guineas in June.

That success saw Galileo wrest the title from his former studmate Danehill. It had looked inevitable that Galileo would claim Danehill's Group/Grade 1 crown in 2020, having equalled the record on November 9, 2019 when Magic Wand landed the Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington.

Four more new Group/Grade 1 winners followed Peaceful, with Serpentine joined by Grand Prix de Paris and Hong Kong Vase hero Mogul, Moyglare Stud Stakes victress Shale,and Lael Stable's Magic Attitude, who claimed the Belmont Oaks. Those results mean Galileo's stud record now features 89 Group/Grade 1 winners atop a list of 535 black-type performers 224 of which have won at Group level, while a further 108 have struck in Listed company.

Moreover, Galileo's domination of 2020was not merely confined to the success of his own runners as he also claimed his maiden champion broodmare sire crown. His daughters were responsible for 144 winners (36 per cent strike-rate) in Britain and Ireland, among which were 17 stakes scorers who contributed to earnings of 3,539,753.

Ghaiyyath: Juddmonte International hero is out of Galileo's daughter Nightime

Edward Whitaker

He is, of course, the damsire of the world's highest-rated runner in Ghaiyyath, the son of Dubawi who has taken up residency at Darley's Kildangan Stud for 2021. The Godolphin colour bearer, who was bred by Dermot Weld's Springbank Way Stud, earned his monster rating courtesy of his romp in the Juddmonte International, which was the third of his three Group 1 wins last year following victories in the Coronation Cup and Coral-Eclipse.

Galileo was also represented as broodmare sire of Group 1 winners Barney Roy, St Mark's Basilica and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hero Sottsass the son of Siyouni who will stand alongside Galileo at Coolmore in 2021.

As if all that weren't enough, Galileo further underlined his growing importance as a sire of sires with his stallion sons supplying a slew of significant winners of their own. The top 35 in last year's British and Irish sires' table featured nofewer than five of Galileo's sons.

Most prominent of those was the 11th-placed Australia, who enjoyed something of a breakthrough year thanks to Galileo Chrome's St Leger success, a first at Group 1 level for his sire. Galileo Chrome's Classic strike was swiftly followed by the Grade 1 victory of Order Of Australia in the Breeders' Cup Mile, and supplemented by Group 2 wins for Cayenne Pepper and Leo De Fury.

Australia: Galileo's leading sire son in 2020 supplied a brace of top-level winners

Coolmore

One place below Australia was Frankel, who may not have sired a British or Irish Group 1 winner in 2020 but did amass 1,168,104 in progeny earnings, while he was represented by top-flight scorers Grenadier Guards, Mirage Dancer and Mozu Ascot on the international stage.

A third King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes for the brilliant Enable helped her sire, Newsells Park Stud's Nathaniel, into 18th place, while the redoubtable Teofilo finished in 21st.

The second-crop son of Galileo, who stands at Darley's Kildangan Stud, also enjoyed a notably strong year with his overseas performers, with Exultant bagging a brace of Hong Kong Group 1s; in France each of Gear Up (Criterium de Saint-Cloud), Subjectivist (Prix Royal-Oak) and Tawkeel (Prix Saint Alary) struck at the top level; German filly Donjah won the Preis von Europa, while Twilight Payment landed the Melbourne Cup.

New Approach, who finished in 34th spot, added an eighth Group 1 winner to his record when Mac Swiney, bred and trained by Jim Bolger, landed the Vertem Futurity Trophy.

With sons Churchill, Decorated Knight, Highland Reel and Ulysses among the sires fielding their first juveniles in 2021, it is not much of a stretch of the imagination to think Galileo will be adding to his list of 20 Group 1 winner-siring sons in the near future.

Churchill: among the first-crop two-year-old sires in 2021

Coolmore

Although he officially turned 23 on New Year's Day, a promising crop of first-season sire sons is far from the only reason to believe therewill be more of the same from Galileo in 2021. He has, of course, another incredibly strong hand among this year's three-year-olds, including ante-post Derby favourite High Definition.

He also has a crop of 137 blue-blooded juveniles to go to war with, among which are the sons and daughters of 32 Group/Grade 1-winning mares, 30 names who boast at least one top level-winning sibling and four two-year-olds who have both a dam and at least one sibling who have struck at the elite level.

Given the numbers involved it would take far too long to detail all of Galileo's well-bred two-year-olds this year. But, for a flavour of what's in store, there are siblings to the likes of Anthony Van Dyck, Found, Gleneagles, Hermosa, Magical, Minding, Tepin and Thunder Snow in the pipeline, as well as the most expensive yearling filly sold in 2020, the 3,400,000gns sister to Japan and Mogul.

Among the Group 1-winning mares with a Galileo two-year-old on the ground are Beauty Parlour, Dancing Rain, Goldikova, Homecoming Queen, Just The Judge, Legatissimo, Mecca's Angel, Quiet Reflection, Sky Lantern, Stellar Wind and Tiggy Wiggy.

So much of what we all thought was normal life has been turned on its head of late. But, for the time being, it looks as though it is still Galileo's world and we are all just living in it. Long may that continue.

More to read:

Honouring the best of breeding in 2020: the Racing Post Bloodstock Awards

Find out which sires recorded the most eyecatching statistics in 2020

From young guns to sires on fire: hunting out value among the 2021 covering fees

From the unexpected to the unwelcome: the biggest bloodstock shocks in 2020

View post:
Why it's Galileo's world in 2021 and we're all just living in it - Racing Post

The Bayeux Tapestry.

The woman is inside, framed in a doorway. Shes fully cloaked and wears a headscarf; only her hands and face are visible. Her arms are open, palms tilted upa universal gesture, but of what? Protest? Surprise? Welcome?

The man, a monk, is outside. His left hand is on his hip, hissy fit style. He lunges toward the woman and penetrates her space, touching her face with his right hand. Is it a slapor a caress?

No one knows. The pair lived a thousand years ago, but like insects trapped in amber, we can still see them, borne through time far from their few short years of life and breath. I feel for themthey didnt ask for immortalityand I almost want to look away, but I never do.

The woman and monk were embroidered into the Bayeux Tapestry in rich, vegetable-toned yarns in the years following William of Normandys invasion of Britain, in 1066. The Tapestry tells the storyskewed to Williams conquering point of viewof how he vanquished King Harold of England at the Battle of Hastings.

Its a rousing boys adventure: broken oaths and feasting, ships braving the English channel, a brutal battle scene strewn with body parts, chainmail, and upended horses. Of the 626 human figures depicted, three are female. The Queen of England, a refugee escaping battle, and AElfgyva, the woman in the doorway: an enigma with a name.

Here atMs., our team is continuing to report throughthis global health crisisdoing what we can to keep you informed andup-to-date on some of the most underreported issues of thispandemic.Weask that you consider supporting our work to bring you substantive, uniquereportingwe cant do it without you. Support our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month.

The Bayeux Tapestry is 230 feet long and under two feet wide. A football field is only 160 feet long, so that should give you a sense of the immense, thundering onrush of Williams narrative. Yet towards the beginning it rams smack into AElfgyva and comes to a screeching halt:

VBI VNVS CLERICVS ET AELFGYVA.

The Latin text above the image of the lady and monk reads, Here a Certain Cleric and AElfgyva. After their encounter, the story gallops forward towards conquest.

Thats all weve got. Actually, not quitea tiny, naked man, genitalia on full display, squats in the margin below AElfgyvas feet, mimicking the monks gesture in reverse. At one time her story clearly carried powerful significance for its viewers, but like the meaning of Stonehenge, weve clean forgotten what it was.

I dont know what happened between AElfgyva and her monk, but I do know that when I encountered the Bayeux Tapestry in college, over 30 years ago, AElfgyva leapt straight off the linen into my life. Shes resonated there ever since. Shes never been a mystery Ive needed to solve; whats engaged me all this time is how history has treated her.

the cleric may be making a pass, or slapping the woman for having impure thoughts or for being a witch, writes David Wilson, commentator on a Knopf facsimile of the tapestry.

Male opinion down the ages has allowed just a trinity of identities, as I discovered reading about AElfgyva in college. In text after text I read, we must surmise she was a victim, whore or witch. Apparently, those are the only roles open to women who ride the centuries with insufficient personal stories.

What really happened? All we can say is that someone did something to her, or she did something to thwart 11th century conventions of female behavior. Yet based on her scene in the tapestry, shes been reduced to those three nouns, no more: Victim, Whore, Witch.

Think thats just male scholars sitting in judgment of women in medieval tapestries? Think again.

Think of Breonna Taylor: Breonna Taylor Is a Victim of Bad Decision Making.

Think of Christine Blasey Ford: CRTVs Steven Crowder: Christine Blasey Ford is a lying whore.

Think of Meghan Markle, now Duchess of Sussex: Meghan Markle Called Witch, Prince Harry Under Her Spell.

AElfgyva the individual has vanished, but AElfgyva the templatea silhouette stitched in yarn, like the chalk outline of a bodyis very much with us, and were still filling it with the same trinity of nouns. We dont use tapestries to tell our stories anymore, but even in our 24/7 news cycle, we can never have omniscient knowledge of what happened to any of these women, even if theyre our immediate contemporaries. Theyre not fictional characters and were not authors; we lack sufficient stories. And so we fill in the news with shorthand.

What we need to examine is the kind of shorthand we use, and who dictates it.

The media and the public pretty much agree that Breonna Taylorthe young Black woman shot and killed by police in her own apartment during a botched drug raid this past Marchwas a victim. Most agree she was an innocent victim; some, like Jason Whitlock of the You Tube program, Fearless, feel that she was the victim of her own bad decisions.

However you fill in her story, her imagelike AElfgyvashas taken on iconic status in the absence of the living woman. The shorthand remains in place and Taylors agency is quashed.

In 2018, Professor Christine Blasey Ford accused then Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers. As soon as she agreed to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to tell her story, the shorthand machine got to work. Despite Ford being 100% certain that it was Kavanaugh who attacked her, Republican senators undermined and disregarded her story and she was openly mocked by President Trump, who questioned her credibility. Conservative commentator Steven Crowder went further, calling her a lying whore.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, infamously opted out of the British Royal Family earlier this year along with her husband, Harry, Duke of Sussex. As if there could have been no other explanations for their decisionnot the British presss hounding of the couple, as they hounded Harrys mother, Diana; not the implicit (and sometimes explicit) racism brewing around the biracial Meghanmany declared the couples exit to be solely Meghans initiative. Conservative American writer, Candace Owens, succinctly explained how she convinced her husband to leave Britain: Meghan Markle is a witch. Harry is under her spell. Many readers responded online: Couldnt agree more.

The medium has changed but not the message. If AElfgyva could speak to us shed probably say, #MeToo. If I could speak for her Id add, #SayHerName (its pronounced something like ELV-jiva, and means gift of the elves).

We can never gather all the facts of any story that enters the public consciousness. What we can do is resist reducing our assumptions to the oldest nouns at hand. The ones that have been around for a thousand years or morethe ones that imprison women in two dimensions of male design.

You may also like:

Our opponents are using the lame duck periodthe time between now and when the new president is inaugurated, and a new Congress convenesto do asmuch damage as they can.Help ensureMs.remains strong and independent during this period of challenge and change. If you found this articlehelpful,please consider supporting our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month.

See the original post:
The AElfgyva Syndrome and Erasure of Women's Stories - Ms. Magazine