tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/icons-59468/articlesIcons – The Conversation2023-10-17T14:29:15Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2125822023-10-17T14:29:15Z2023-10-17T14:29:15ZBabe Ruth, patron saint of the home run, turned the ball field into a church – and lived his own Catholic faith in the spotlight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548632/original/file-20230916-36057-gwy97g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1022%2C858&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Sultan of Swat turned every stadium into a cathedral, and home runs into a sacrament.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/babes-fungo-bat-sets-record-highlight-of-the-charity-news-photo/515291512?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“I’ve tried ‘em all, I really have,” Susan Sarandon’s character Annie Savoy says in the movie “<a href="https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/69864/bull-durham/#overview">Bull Durham</a>.” But “the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.”</p>
<p>If your beliefs look anything like Annie’s, then you surely know that October is the equivalent of the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-high-holidays/">Jewish High Holy Days</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/holy-week">Christianity’s Holy Week</a> and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/holy-week">Muslim month of Ramadan</a> rolled into one, because you are eating and breathing the MLB playoffs and World Series.</p>
<p>If you are like the majority of Americans, though, the game is just not on your radar, unless you live in a city with a team that’s <a href="https://www.mlb.com/postseason">still in the running</a>. And, as even lovers of the game must admit, baseball is certainly no longer the “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691058856/creating-the-national-pastime">national pastime</a>.”</p>
<p>But there is one part of the game that still makes home-page news: the home run.</p>
<p>If you were aware last year that New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge <a href="https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34727723/new-york-yankees-star-aaron-judge-launches-62nd-home-run-sets-al-single-season-record">hit 62 of them</a>, or know about the prodigious feats of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/sports/baseball/shohei-ohtani-babe-ruth.html">Shohei Ohtani</a>, or you tune in to see the <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Home_Run_Derby">Home Run Derby</a>, it’s because you know watching a baseball fly majestically in the air 400 or 500 feet and land among worshipping fans is indeed a religious experience of awe and wonder. One of those fans, in fact, will be thrilled to bring that ball home as a “relic.”</p>
<p>Baseball historians agree that Babe Ruth made the home run baseball’s revelatory moment. The connections between the Sultan of Swat and religion go further, though. The prodigious slugger is not just baseball’s patron saint, but its savior, returning a holy aura to the scandal-plagued game. As <a href="https://sites.temple.edu/rebeccatalpert/">a scholar of religion and sports</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050337">I have argued</a> that Ruth played another important role by making Americans more comfortable with Catholicism.</p>
<h2>Saving a troubled sport</h2>
<p>Before Ruth, the record for home runs belonged to Ned Williamson, <a href="https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/september-24-1919-babe-ruth-passes-ned-williamsons-homer-mark/.">who hit 27</a> in 1884. But the Bambino slugged 29 in 1919, 54 in 1920 and <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruthba01.shtml">reached the Holy Grail</a> of 60 in 1927. He finished his career with 714, breaking <a href="https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/roger-connor/">Roger Connor’s</a> record of 138.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548634/original/file-20230916-21-qc7w4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a white baseball uniform, with a baseball glove on one hand, shakes hands with a man in a dark coat and fedora." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548634/original/file-20230916-21-qc7w4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548634/original/file-20230916-21-qc7w4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548634/original/file-20230916-21-qc7w4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548634/original/file-20230916-21-qc7w4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548634/original/file-20230916-21-qc7w4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548634/original/file-20230916-21-qc7w4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548634/original/file-20230916-21-qc7w4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Babe Ruth shakes hands with U.S. President Warren Harding during a game while playing for the New York Yankees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/great-all-round-baseball-player-babe-ruth-shakes-hands-with-news-photo/2665068?adppopup=true">Keystone/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His headline-grabbing feats had an outsized impact. In 1919, baseball was reeling from the “<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780805065374/eightmenout">Black Sox scandal</a>” that destroyed “the faith of fifty million,” as <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Great-Gatsby/F-Scott-Fitzgerald/9781982146702">F. Scott Fitzgerald</a> put it. Several players on the Chicago White Sox were discovered to have taken money from gamblers <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-gambling-built-baseball-and-then-almost-destroyed-it-123254">to throw the World Series</a>, and baseball’s reputation and popularity were in jeopardy.</p>
<p>Ruth – with his larger-than-life presence, rags-to-riches life story and capacity for hitting home runs galore – was baseball’s salvation. His impact on American culture can be summarized by <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-books/9780803292185/">his answer</a> to a newspaper reporter in 1930 who questioned why Ruth thought he deserved to make more money than President Herbert Hoover. “Why not?” he said. “I had a better year than he did.” </p>
<p>Yet Ruth’s iconic status made life hard on those players who eventually broke his records. <a href="https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/roger-maris/">Roger Maris</a> was reviled when he hit 61 home runs in 1961. Worse, when African American star <a href="https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/01/22/hank-aaron-atlanta-braves-baseball-hall-of-fame">Henry Aaron reached 715 career home runs</a> in 1974, he received racially motivated death threats.</p>
<h2>Carouser and Catholic</h2>
<p>During Ruth’s heyday, his fame didn’t only help baseball, but religion, too. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.316">Anti-Catholic sentiment was prevalent</a> in the United States during Ruth’s era, and his proud demonstrations of his Catholic faith helped ameliorate that prejudice.</p>
<p>George Herman “Babe” Ruth, Jr. was raised not by his parents, who could not handle his wild ways, but at St. Mary’s Industrial School in Baltimore, run by the lay Catholic order of St. Xavier. He was <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Babe/Robert-Creamer/9780671760700">particularly influenced by Brother Matthias</a>, who taught him to play baseball, nurtured his abilities and encouraged him to play professionally. Ruth left St. Mary’s to do so, but he retained his allegiance to the school and Catholicism throughout his life.</p>
<p>Everything Ruth did was reported in the newspapers, including in his own <a href="https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ford-frick/">ghost-written columns</a>. It was public knowledge that he attended mass frequently and gave generously to <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-big-fella-jane-leavy?variant=32207595438114">Catholic charities</a>. He married in the church twice – the second time after his first, estranged wife died, reflecting <a href="https://www.dioceseofspokane.org/documents/2016/4/tribunal_2016.pdf?preview">Catholic teachings on divorce and remarriage</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548635/original/file-20230916-21-8u04z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Half a dozen people pose in a row, wearing formal clothing. One of them is a priest wearing a stole." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548635/original/file-20230916-21-8u04z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548635/original/file-20230916-21-8u04z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548635/original/file-20230916-21-8u04z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548635/original/file-20230916-21-8u04z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548635/original/file-20230916-21-8u04z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548635/original/file-20230916-21-8u04z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548635/original/file-20230916-21-8u04z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Babe Ruth and his second wife, Claire Hodgson, pose with the priest who performed their marriage ceremony in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ruth-and-bride-babe-ruth-wedding-at-st-gregorys-l-to-r-news-photo/515170948?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ruth demonstrated Catholic values in other ways. He was viewed as a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/116439/the-big-bam-by-leigh-montville/">patron saint of children</a>: delighted to be surrounded by them, never refusing them autographs, and visiting them in hospitals and orphanages wherever he went. One, Johnny Sylvester, made a surprising recovery after Ruth <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-big-fella-jane-leavy?variant=32207595438114">promised him a home run</a> and subsequently hit three in the World Series. Newspapers credited Ruth with a miracle. </p>
<p>Often characterized as a sinner, given his penchant for flaunting club rules and carousing off the clock, Ruth <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-books/9780803292185/">frequently and publicly repented</a> and consulted with priests, often from St. Mary’s, who helped him acknowledge his failures and work to change his ways. He lived out the Catholic cycle of sin and repentance regularly throughout his life, expanding American society’s awareness of the Catholic value of forgiveness. </p>
<p>Finally, Ruth consistently <a href="https://upress.missouri.edu/9780826221605/breaking-babe-ruth/">stood up to team owners</a> in support of his own and all players’ rights to fair pay, demonstrating the Catholic value of social and economic justice.</p>
<p>Ruth’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050337">presence as a public Catholic</a> <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-big-fella-jane-leavy?variant=32207595438114">continued in death</a>. Hundreds of thousands filed past his coffin as he <a href="https://www.life.com/history/bye-bye-bambino-the-funeral-of-babe-ruth/">lay in state in Yankee Stadium</a>, rosary beads in hand, a huge crucifix and vigil candle beside his coffin. His funeral was conducted at St. Patrick’s Cathedral by 44 priests, including New York’s Cardinal Francis Spellman. One hundred thousand people lined the route as his coffin was transported to Gate of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548636/original/file-20230916-25-g6296f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three preteen boys in t-shirts and pants walk solemnly past an open casket surrounded by plants." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548636/original/file-20230916-25-g6296f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548636/original/file-20230916-25-g6296f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548636/original/file-20230916-25-g6296f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548636/original/file-20230916-25-g6296f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548636/original/file-20230916-25-g6296f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548636/original/file-20230916-25-g6296f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548636/original/file-20230916-25-g6296f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Babe Ruth’s body lay in an open casket in Yankee Stadium, where tens of thousands of fans paid their respects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-body-of-babe-ruth-lies-in-an-open-casket-in-yankee-news-photo/73333902?adppopup=true">Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I was teaching a sport and society course in 2018, I came across a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/05/nyregion/babe-ruth-grave-yankees-red-sox.html">New York Times</a> article about Ruth’s grave still being a pilgrimage site for Yankees fans, including an occasional nun, who hoped to help the Yankees win the World Series. Others who came to pay respects over the years were, ironically, fans of the Boston Red Sox – the Yankees’ archrival, who traded Ruth away in January 1920 – and thought his powers could reverse “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Legend-of-the-Curse-of-the-Bambino/Dan-Shaughnessy/9780689872358">the Curse of the Bambino</a>.” And who knows, maybe they did. </p>
<p>His large gravestone depicts Jesus blessing a young ballplayer. For many Americans who feel something holy is happening on the ball field, Ruth was both: the miraculous ballplayer, and the godlike figure who could perform miracles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca T. Alpert does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ruth’s headline-grabbing home runs helped his sport recover from scandal, while his own story helped combat anti-Catholic prejudice.Rebecca T. Alpert, Professor of Religion Emerita, Temple UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1783942022-03-09T13:16:08Z2022-03-09T13:16:08ZAs war rages, some Ukrainians look to Mary for protection – continuing a long Christian tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450810/original/file-20220308-17163-10823od.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C1022%2C665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The flag of Ukraine has been tied around a statue of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ outside a church in Pennsylvania amid the Russian invasion.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ukrainian clergy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/24/ukrainians-protest-at-downing-street-gates-over-russian-invasion-uk-military-sanctions">demonstrating against the war</a> in their country have appeared <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/world/europe/ukraine-expats-invasion-protest.html">in media coverage</a> carefully holding an image of the Virgin Mary, her outstretched hands lifting up the edges of a cloak. </p>
<p>These pictures depict a particular religious icon <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3220003">known as the “Pokrova</a>” in which Mary’s veil – a “pokrova,” or “cover,” in Ukrainian – is a sign of protection.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An icon shows the Virgin Mary holding a cloak, surrounded by two angels." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450807/original/file-20220308-23-csolzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450807/original/file-20220308-23-csolzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450807/original/file-20220308-23-csolzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450807/original/file-20220308-23-csolzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450807/original/file-20220308-23-csolzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450807/original/file-20220308-23-csolzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450807/original/file-20220308-23-csolzp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ukrainian Marian Collection, The Marian Library, University of Dayton</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I am <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/libraries/harriskayla.php">an archivist</a> for <a href="https://udayton.edu/marianlibrary/index.php">the Marian Library</a> at the University of Dayton, which includes a <a href="https://udayton.edu/marianlibrary/collections/ukrainian-marian-collection.php">collection of Ukrainian artwork about Mary</a>. For Ukrainian Christians, both Orthodox and Catholic, the “Pokrova” image held by protesters represents a long history of seeking Mary’s protection during difficult times.</p>
<h2>Queen of Ukraine</h2>
<p>According to <a href="https://catholicukes.org.au/protection-blessed-virgin-mary-pokrov/">Orthodox tradition</a>, Mary miraculously appeared at a church in Constantinople, or modern-day Istanbul, when the city was under attack in the early 10th century. As the story goes, Mary prayed at the church’s altar, then spread her veil over the congregation, and the invading armies withdrew.</p>
<p>Around a century later, in 1037, Yaroslav the Wise, the Grand Prince of Kyiv, <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Yaroslav_I_the_Wise">dedicated Ukraine to Mary</a>. To this day Mary is known as “<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250585/pope-francis-sends-cardinals-to-ukraine-where-rivers-of-blood-and-tears-flow">Queen of Ukraine</a>,” among her many other titles, and <a href="https://ukrainianinstitute.org/today-october-14-ukrainians-celebrate-the-feast-of-the-protection-of-our-most-holy-lady-%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0-and-the-defender-of-ukraine-day-%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C-%D0%B7/">Oct. 14</a> is celebrated as the Pokrova, or Feast of the Protection.</p>
<p>There are other icons of Mary that have special meaning to Ukrainian Christians.</p>
<p>One of these is known as the “Oranta” or the Great Panagia. A mosaic of the Oranta is located in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, built in the 11th century, which is one of the city’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-kyiv-europe-caves-0373c67a7c70f8585859c5c6ae4c6766">most famous spiritual landmarks</a>. With her arms extended upward, this icon of Mary is also known as the “<a href="https://www.maryofegypt.com/post/statement-on-the-human-rights-violations-at-the-u-s-mexico-border">Immovable Wall</a>” or “Indestructible Wall.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A religious icon with a gold background shows a woman with a halo, hands raised in prayer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450067/original/file-20220304-15-n58jtl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450067/original/file-20220304-15-n58jtl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450067/original/file-20220304-15-n58jtl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450067/original/file-20220304-15-n58jtl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450067/original/file-20220304-15-n58jtl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450067/original/file-20220304-15-n58jtl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450067/original/file-20220304-15-n58jtl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Oranta of Kyiv.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oranta-Kyiv.jpg">Saint Sophia Cathedral/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>St. Sophia Cathedral has survived centuries of destruction from war and is now a <a href="https://st-sophia.org.ua/en/museums-en/st-sophia-museum/st-sophia-museum/">museum</a>. Many Ukrainians in Kyiv <a href="https://diopitt.org/news/memo-from-god-via-kyiv">believe</a> that as long as the icon stands, Kyiv and Ukraine will continue to stand as well.</p>
<p>The cathedral is one of seven <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/ua">UNESCO world heritage sites</a> in Ukraine, and religious <a href="https://whbl.com/2022/03/08/u-n-cultural-agency-moves-to-protect-ukraines-heritage-sites/">and cultural</a> authorities <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/ukrainian-christians-fear-russia-plans-aerial-attack-on-st-sophia-cathedral">have voiced concern that it could be at risk</a> during the invasion.</p>
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin has often stressed Ukrainians’ and Russians’ <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-kyiv-europe-nationalism-ff22c6c17784674a5eaad0f0a1ff17ca">common religious roots</a> in the Eastern Orthodox Church. But the cathedral is also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-russian-invasion-putin-round-yard-gosprom-building-st-sophia-cathedral-church-of-the-savior-at-berestove-kyiv-monastery-of-the-caves-babyn-yar-11646350029">a proud national symbol</a>.</p>
<p>In 1988 Ukrainians across the world celebrated <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000079702">the millennium anniversary</a> of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus. At the time, Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union, but declared its <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/12/24/1066861022/how-the-soviet-unions-collapse-explains-the-current-russia-ukraine-tension">independence</a> shortly after in 1991. </p>
<p>Icons created of Mary during this era show the importance of freedom and independence. In one of the icons in the Marian Library, for example, by Slovenian artist Mikuláš Klimčák, Mary stands above the entire world while angels hold a banner reading “Freedom.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An icon shows the Virgin Mary standing over the world." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450066/original/file-20220304-17-c2sz8z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450066/original/file-20220304-17-c2sz8z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450066/original/file-20220304-17-c2sz8z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450066/original/file-20220304-17-c2sz8z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=813&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450066/original/file-20220304-17-c2sz8z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450066/original/file-20220304-17-c2sz8z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450066/original/file-20220304-17-c2sz8z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1021&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary the Woman of Freedom II, by Mikuláš Klimčák, 1993.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ukrainian Marian Collection, Marian Library, University of Dayton.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Widespread devotion</h2>
<p>It is quite common for Christians, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-virgin-mary-brings-together-different-faiths-in-pakistan-and-india-71030">and even people of other faiths</a>, to ask Mary to intercede on their behalf during hardship. </p>
<p>For the past two years, for example, <a href="https://udayton.edu/marianlibrary/collections/documented-devotion-during-pandemic.php">many across the world</a> have asked Mary <a href="https://www.catholicsun.org/2021/05/12/pray-our-ladys-rosary-for-an-end-to-pandemic/">to end the COVID-19 pandemic</a>. In March 2020, Pope Francis himself <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-03/pope-francis-mary-prayer-crucifix-coronavirus.html">prayed before Salus Populi Romani</a>, a famous Marian icon in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major <a href="https://www.museumofrussianicons.org/salus-populi/">long associated</a> with requests for healing. In 2020 the Italian Air Force, whose <a href="https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/o/our-lady-of-loreto-and-aviation.php#:%7E:text=Q%3A%20Is%20Our%20Lady%20of,XV%20on%20March%2024%2C%201920.">patron saint</a> is Mary, Our Lady of Loreto, took a statue of her <a href="https://wayback.archive-it.org/13066/20200331212845/http://adventmessenger.org/the-italian-air-force-flies-a-statue-of-the-virgin-mary-over-italy-to-combat-the-coronavirus/">by plane across the country</a> to protect citizens from the coronavirus.</p>
<p>Mary is also <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/features/2017/06/17/Ramadan-profiles-How-the-Virgin-Mary-is-honored-in-the-Quran-">revered in Islam</a>, and mentioned dozens of times in the Quran, as “Maryam.” In Saudia Arabia, a governor asked people <a href="https://wayback.archive-it.org/org-835/20200408232739/http://asianews.it/news-en/Saudi-governor-turns-to-the-Mother-of-Jesus-to-overcome-the-coronavirus-49769.html">to look toward Mary’s perseverance as an example</a> to find courage at the start of the pandemic.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/warrior-servant-mother-unifier-the-virgin-mary-has-played-many-roles-through-the-centuries-165596">mother of Jesus</a> represents strength for many oppressed groups, from <a href="https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/o/our-lady-of-guadalupe-mexican-national-symbol.php">Mexican revolutionaries</a> to Polish LGBTQ activists. In 2019, three Polish women were arrested for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56250453">adding a rainbow to an icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, but later acquitted</a>.</p>
<p>And in recent years, as refugee crises mount around the world, many religious leaders <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/12/27/were-jesus-mary-and-joseph-refugees-yes">have drawn parallels</a> to the holy family’s flight to Egypt. </p>
<p>Devotion to Mary is one bridge between the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, as well as other faiths. As someone who has experienced human struggles of her own, and even lost her only son, Mary is a source of comfort for many.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kayla Harris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To many Ukrainians, Jesus’ mother has a special relationship with their country.Kayla Harris, Librarian/Archivist at the Marian Library and Associate Professor, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1354152020-04-09T12:06:18Z2020-04-09T12:06:18ZVisualizing the virus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326570/original/file-20200408-19246-1ot64b5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C17%2C3970%2C2227&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Two illustrators for the CDC created an iconic image that would become ingrained in the minds of millions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://phil.cdc.gov/Details.aspx?pid=23312">Alissa Eckert, Dan Higgins/CDC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.csd.udel.edu/people/faculty/cgaiter?uid=cgaiter&Name=Colette%20Gaiter">As a professor of visual communications</a>, I can’t help but notice all the images of COVID-19 that have been circulating. </p>
<p>You’ve probably seen some version of it: a ball with distinctive spikes that vary in style – from triangular bursts to rounded knobs.</p>
<p>It’s become both <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/icon">an icon</a> – a simplified representation that people instantly recognize – and a symbol for the terrifying and wildly contagious virus that has put the world on hold.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about what the icon and its variations communicate – and what that says about how we’re all grappling with this strange, uncertain time. </p>
<p>Probably the most well-known image of the coronavirus is the three-dimensional digital representation created by medical illustrators Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins for the Centers for Disease Control. </p>
<p>The image resembles <a href="https://www.nih.gov/sites/default/files/styles/floated_media_breakpoint-large/public/news-events/research-matters/2020/20200303-conv.jpg?itok=z82OwbOe&timestamp=1583244144">the actual virus as it appears under a microscope</a>. The red protruding clumps – called S proteins – are <a href="https://elemental.medium.com/what-the-coronavirus-image-youve-seen-a-million-times-really-shows-3d8de7e3eb1f">what the virus uses to enter and attach to the cell</a>. They also create the effect of a halo, or corona, around the virus.</p>
<p>After latching onto human cells, these red spikes cause the virus and cell membranes to fuse together. Spikes on the new coronavirus can be <a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/novel-coronavirus-structure-reveals-targets-vaccines-treatments">up to 20 times more likely</a> to bind to human cells than the spikes from the 2002 SARS coronavirus.</p>
<p>Since this image first emerged <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/health/coronavirus-illustration-cdc.html">in January</a>, hundreds of others inspired by it have proliferated.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326571/original/file-20200408-153819-1bnzm7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326571/original/file-20200408-153819-1bnzm7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326571/original/file-20200408-153819-1bnzm7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326571/original/file-20200408-153819-1bnzm7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326571/original/file-20200408-153819-1bnzm7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326571/original/file-20200408-153819-1bnzm7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326571/original/file-20200408-153819-1bnzm7u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ubiquitious biohazard symbol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Biohazard_symbol_%28black_and_yellow%29.png">Offiikart</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Considering how serious and deadly the pandemic is, it’s interesting to me that many of these offshoots are the opposite of alarmist. They grab your attention. But unlike, say, the biohazard symbol – with its spiky tentacles that allude to stingers, pincers, tentacles and danger – most coronavirus images seem to be relatively benign, even attractive. </p>
<p>Take an <a href="https://static.politico.com/dims4/default/185bfba/2147483647/resize/1160x/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.politico.com%2Fb6%2F64%2Fb13e1e86467fa4233784ed18bb64%2Fpolitico-friday-5-color.jpg">illustration</a> by the graphic design team DAQ for <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579?fbclid=IwAR1ndqSsdN9iwjVUlx1x97LT0vPc1RhRmsJ2-xO-wnqp7PlXwc2n6ba24go">a Politico article</a>. The virus particles are blue and placid – cartoonish, almost, with rounded spikes. They look like they would be soft to the touch.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326644/original/file-20200408-109213-a31c0i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326644/original/file-20200408-109213-a31c0i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326644/original/file-20200408-109213-a31c0i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326644/original/file-20200408-109213-a31c0i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326644/original/file-20200408-109213-a31c0i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326644/original/file-20200408-109213-a31c0i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326644/original/file-20200408-109213-a31c0i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579?fbclid=IwAR1ndqSsdN9iwjVUlx1x97LT0vPc1RhRmsJ2-xO-wnqp7PlXwc2n6ba24go">Politico/QVC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of these images make the virus appear manageable. <a href="https://media.wired.com/photos/5e3cb64f3130b10008e82c64/master/w_775%2Cc_limit/know%252520it%252520all%252520-%252520coronavirus-01.png">One cartoon-like image</a> of the virus that has been appearing on Wired’s website reduces the icon to something that resembles a toy. It comes from the mouth of a smiling, waving person. Again, the illustration expresses reassurance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326655/original/file-20200408-5654-1141mhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326655/original/file-20200408-5654-1141mhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326655/original/file-20200408-5654-1141mhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326655/original/file-20200408-5654-1141mhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326655/original/file-20200408-5654-1141mhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326655/original/file-20200408-5654-1141mhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/326655/original/file-20200408-5654-1141mhj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.wired.com/photos/5e3cb64f3130b10008e82c64/master/w_775%2Cc_limit/know%252520it%252520all%252520-%252520coronavirus-01.png">Wired</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And in a somewhat playful commentary of the virus’s extension into all aspects of our lives, illustrator <a href="https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Ricardo_Tomas.jpg">Ricardo Tomàs created an image of the virus</a> out of a crossword puzzle and posted it on Instagram on March 20. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B98twOTBS8W","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Where more ominous images have emerged, action is a key component of the messaging. The March 23 <a href="https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5e6a4c1570630e0008ababf7/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/CoverStory-story_niemann_coronavirus.jpg">New Yorker cover by Christoph Niemann</a> replaces the spikes with a set of dominoes. The figure in the center will either get crushed by falling dominoes – or will push them out from the center to cause them to fall away from him.</p>
<p>The virus, the image seems to be saying, will either destroy us or be destroyed.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1239496400632713216"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B-sieJZp_mn/">In another New Yorker illustration by Niemann</a>, the proteins are depicted as deadly spikes that need to be fended off.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1247252061651156994"}"></div></p>
<p>The themes present in all of these images – calm, reassurance and danger – seem to speak to the ambiguity and fear surrounding the virus, as well as the efforts to combat it. </p>
<p>Though we don’t have a vaccine, panicking accomplishes little – hence the lack of alarmist imagery. Patience is important, since cures and treatments will take time. </p>
<p>But we don’t need to feel helpless: Action can save lives, whether it’s scientists developing antiviral drugs or regular citizens following guidelines for social distancing and personal hygiene. </p>
<p>These are science-based approaches, and perhaps that’s why there’s a modicum of reassurance in an icon that was inspired by a microscope in a lab.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colette Gaiter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Far from alarmist, images of the coronavirus seem to communicate patience and trust in science – both of which will be needed in the coming weeks and months.Colette Gaiter, Professor, Department of Art & Design, University of DelawareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1101872019-03-12T19:07:06Z2019-03-12T19:07:06ZWhy Dorothy’s red shoes deserve their status as gay icons, even in changing times<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259656/original/file-20190219-121729-ew7mqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dorothy's shoes in The Wizard of Oz.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">MGM</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The legendary film, The Wizard of Oz (1939) and the glorious, dazzling ruby slippers worn by its heroine, Dorothy Gale, (played by Judy Garland), have long been symbols of hope – especially for the LGBT+ community.</p>
<p>Last year, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, unveiled a pair of glittering red shoes from the film <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/smithsonian-ruby-slippers-1375519">that had been restored at a cost of $300,000</a> (funded via a Kickstarter campaign). </p>
<p>Why restore a pair of the original shoes at such an exorbitant price?
And in a more fluid age of sexuality and gender, are the shoes still relevant as gay icons? </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4IErqIMLwtQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>‘An Elvis for homosexuals’</h2>
<p>It has been said that Judy Garland is “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/29/how-the-rainbow-became-the-symbol-of-gay-pride/?utm_term=.bab2838ee709">an Elvis for homosexuals</a>”. During her lifetime she featured in over 30 films, but it was her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz that catapulted her to star status. </p>
<p>Garland was a prominent Hollywood figure with whom gay people could easily identify. Her own personal struggles resonated more broadly with their own during the Cold War – a time of unparalleled persecution of gay people in the west. </p>
<p>Moreover, Garland’s most performed song, Over the Rainbow, is believed to be one of the sources of inspiration for the universal symbol of the LGBT+ movement – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/29/how-the-rainbow-became-the-symbol-of-gay-pride/?utm_term=.d5c59281189c">the rainbow flag</a> – first adopted in the 1970s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259657/original/file-20190219-121763-1r5tb3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259657/original/file-20190219-121763-1r5tb3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259657/original/file-20190219-121763-1r5tb3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259657/original/file-20190219-121763-1r5tb3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259657/original/file-20190219-121763-1r5tb3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259657/original/file-20190219-121763-1r5tb3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259657/original/file-20190219-121763-1r5tb3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259657/original/file-20190219-121763-1r5tb3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Smithsonian’s slippers pre-restoration in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What makes a queer object?</h2>
<p>Objects, or material culture, provide fascinating insights into the study of history. Nearly a decade after the British Museum’s landmark exhibition and complementary book by Neil MacGregor, <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx">A History of the World in 100 Objects</a>, the appeal of them as a window into the human past has spawned numerous other studies, and books.</p>
<p>Certain objects have become queer icons. The editors of the forthcoming book Queer Objects assert that “the idea of queer exposes the instability of the status quo and challenges the power of heterosexuality as well as the marginal status of homosexuality”. And the ruby slippers have various meanings to those who cherish or fetishise them.</p>
<p>The slippers carry some <a href="https://www.thelist.com/34367/things-you-didnt-know-about-dorothys-ruby-slippers/">tantalising stories</a>. The <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/smithsonian-ruby-slippers-1375519">Smithsonian</a> reports that five known pairs were created by MGM Studios’ chief costume designer, Gilbert Adrian. <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/lady-gaga-given-judy-garland-s-ruby-red-slippers-1.625035">Lady Gaga owns one pair </a>. Another was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005 (the shoes were <a href="https://www.theherald.com.au/story/5628267/wizard-of-oz-ruby-slippers-recovered/?cs=6171">recovered in 2018</a> after a 13-year disappearance.) </p>
<p>From their association with Garland and the rainbow, these slippers point to the glamour of torch singers and flamboyance of drag queens: symbolising the beauty and release that comes from dressing-up. As Oz fan <a href="https://noisey.vice.com/en_au/article/r3zgmw/making-friends-with-your-demons-rufus-wainwright-judy-garland">Rufus Wainwright</a> once recalled, as a small child, he would fantasise that he was “either the Wicked Witch or Dorothy, depending on my mood.”</p>
<p>They also represent transformation – of a homely farm girl into a dazzling heroine, who leaves home, finds herself and creates a raggle-taggle, quasi-family along the way (something familiar to many LGBT+ people). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259658/original/file-20190219-121738-8twy0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259658/original/file-20190219-121738-8twy0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259658/original/file-20190219-121738-8twy0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259658/original/file-20190219-121738-8twy0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259658/original/file-20190219-121738-8twy0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259658/original/file-20190219-121738-8twy0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259658/original/file-20190219-121738-8twy0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259658/original/file-20190219-121738-8twy0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dorothy and her friends: Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr in The Wizard of Oz (1939).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MGM</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Garland’s own personal journey as an actor and singer has also spoken to generations of gay men. Many identified with the struggles, humiliations and exploitation of both the child star and the fading adult star, who in her tragic final decades embodied and performed all the pain of the ultimate torch singer.</p>
<p>Dorothy sang of hope amid hardship, of a land that she “heard of, once in a lullaby” and Garland continued to sing these words of optimism and courage as she stood before her audience, emaciated, drug-addled, beaten down.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HzLUqIc2Iik?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Changed times</h2>
<p>Still, the stereotype of the fussy, passive queen who sought and found emotional sustenance from divas such as Judy Garland, and her alter-ego, Dorothy Gale, is now sometimes regarded as antithetical to the progressive individuals who have come to represent the LGBT+ community. In an era of <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/gender-sexuality/nonbinary-gender/">non-binary</a> gender and sexual affiliation, <a href="https://www.ywboston.org/2017/03/what-is-intersectionality-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-me/">intersectionality</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-a-better-way-to-think-about-identity-politics-84144">identity politics</a>, are the slippers now destined to be tossed to the back of the LGBT+ closet? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-intersectionality-mean-104937">Explainer: what does 'intersectionality' mean?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What was once valorised as iconic can, as society and its values shift, become redundant and a symbol of a community’s collective embarrassment. For the LGBT+ community, such a change in attitude is partly generational.</p>
<p>Garland’s story is not needed as much any more, and for this we should celebrate. In the west, young gay men now occupy a different world from their forefathers. As <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/michael-joseph-gross/">Michael Joseph Gross</a> has written:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Judy Garland began losing her power over gay men because we got that message and started becoming more integrated characters than the screaming queens of yore. We no longer need a surrogate to embody the conflicts that so many of us experience, because we now have more and better resources for sorting them out for ourselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What, then, is to be gained from keeping the ruby red slippers on display in an institution such as the Smithsonian? </p>
<p>We would argue that the shoes are a significant piece of material culture that open a window to our historical memory. They convey respect for all the gay men who struggled, who were ostracised and humiliated for having the courage to keep on being their authentic selves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Dorothy’s slippers, worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, have long been celebrated as a ‘queer object’. With one pair recently restored at a price of $300,000, do they deserve such adulation?Marguerite Johnson, Professor of Classics, University of NewcastleJames Bennett, Senior Lecturer in History in the School of Humanities and Social Science, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1112252019-02-06T09:44:56Z2019-02-06T09:44:56ZBBC Icons: Alan Turing was a worthy winner – but where were the women?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257448/original/file-20190206-174851-ppm020.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Let us now praise famous men.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/72 Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Who was the greatest icon of the 20th century? The <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/TftBcdwzpP4y7qlzXmXRTy/about-the-show">BBC2 Icons</a> show reminded us of people who had struggled against adversity to fight for a better, fairer, more inclusive world. But whatever you thought of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3Tk2LpLg755Js0LQF7t3TQ2/the-finalists">line up</a> for the grand final on February 5, one thing was striking – there were no women on the list. Not one. The most iconic leader, activist, artist or writer, explorer, entertainer, scientist and sports star were all deemed to be men.</p>
<p>So what happened to the women? How could it be that not one woman ended up in the final? Usually in these situations we would blame the programme makers. However, to do so in this case would be rather unfair. I speak with some experience here, as I sat on the shortlisting panel in two of the categories (leaders and activists). </p>
<p>The production company was aware of diversity and was careful to include balance both in the longlists that we were given to consider, and the composition of the panels that considered them.</p>
<p>This is further evidenced in the shortlists that emerged from those panels, and upon which the public voted to produce the final (all-male) line up. There were outstanding women on every single one of those shortlists. Women who achieved great things, changed the world, reached the very zenith of their careers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257451/original/file-20190206-174870-zg3ogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What would Emmeline Pankhurst have said?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/72 Films/Alamy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Women such as Marie Curie or Helen Keller, without whom the world would be a much poorer place. Women such as Billie Jean King or Tanni Grey-Thompson who dominated their field. Brilliant women such as Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter, Enid Blyton, Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner, Rosa Parks, and many many more who didn’t even make it to the shortlists.</p>
<h2>Social prejudice</h2>
<p>So why, in the face of so many iconic women, did the final feature only men?</p>
<p>To answer this, we have to move beyond the shortlists and think more broadly about our collective attitudes. As a society, we do not always reward merit when we see it, sometimes blinded by our own prejudice. </p>
<p>The declaration of Alan Turing as the overall winner came as recognition both of his outstanding achievement and of the failure of society to acknowledge his contribution in his own lifetime, due to attitudes at that time towards autism and homosexuality. While many of us are now able to see past such prejudice, other forms of bias endure.</p>
<p>For example, while we rightly celebrate Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr for standing up to racial discrimination, we have seen recent evidence from other televised contests such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/16/black-strictly-come-dancing">Strictly Come Dancing</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/30/the-disturbing-racial-bias-of-the-greatest-dancer">The Greatest Dancer</a> that racial bias still influences public voting. But for the Icons show, the voting public comprised at least as many women as men. So why were men preferred systematically over women?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2c9sCWlQbk4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>There is some truth to the claim made by presenter Clare Balding that women were not given as much opportunity as men to flourish in the 20th century. For example, on the leaders panel, we shortlisted more men than women for the simple reason that there were few female world leaders. But many of the women who did make it onto the various shortlists did so in spite of the restrictions placed upon them and the barriers that they encountered, and their stories of triumph over adversity were at least as inspiring as those of the men who were chosen over them.</p>
<h2>Everyday sexism</h2>
<p>So we need to dig deeper and consider how we, as a society, still treat people differently depending on whether they are male or female. Both historically and today, we are more likely to praise, celebrate and remember men’s achievements. In contrast, many of the achievements of women – even when, as was the case for many of the women who did not make the Icons final, those achievements were spectacular – are more likely to be downplayed, overlooked, and ultimately forgotten. In a show that asks the public to vote based on our collective awareness and memory of achievement, it is perhaps not so surprising after all that we more easily accord iconic status to men than to women.</p>
<p>And this inequality really matters. It matters symbolically – every girl and young woman who watched that final will be left with the false impression that all of the most important figures of recent history were men. This might curtail their own ambition and sense of self-worth.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257452/original/file-20190206-174887-44ulh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alan Turing: also a victim of prejudice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/72 Films/Elliott & Fry/NPG</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it also matters substantively. There is repeated evidence that people rate men more highly than women on things like <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018839203698">job applications</a>, <a href="https://news.yale.edu/2012/09/24/scientists-not-immune-gender-bias-yale-study-shows">salary evaluations</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00781.x">political candidate evaluations</a>. This is the case even when fictional examples are used where the candidates are identical in everything except assigned gender. In other words, where all other things really are equal, we are still more likely to think that men are worth employing, promoting, even electing, rather than women.</p>
<p>It doesn’t end there. The <a href="https://everydaysexism.com/">#EverydaySexism</a> project documents thousands of testimonies of women being patronised, insulted, harassed and even assaulted in routine, everyday contexts. From the summit of achievement to daily lived experience, women are accorded less worth and status than men. The incidences of everyday sexism are so common as to be perceived as banal – and yet they are very real in the way that they undermine women, silence them or render them invisible.</p>
<p>What can we learn from all this? First, that it is not women’s lack of achievement, but our collective inability to give adequate recognition to that achievement, that is at fault. Second, that we are not yet as meritocratic a society as we might imagine ourselves to be. Third, that we need to do all that we can to acknowledge the true contribution of women, past, present and future, because one of the most important lessons of a historical show is to ensure that the errors of the past are not repeated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rainbow Murray was an advisor to the BBC series, The Icons.</span></em></p>Several outstanding women were nominated, but Rainbow Murray, an adviser to the series, says the public vote showed how we’re still more inclined to recognise male achievement.Rainbow Murray, Professor of Politics, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1024662018-09-13T10:46:51Z2018-09-13T10:46:51ZWhy we love robotic dogs, puppets and dolls<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235426/original/file-20180907-90574-1obkomk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why are we drawn to tech toys?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/arselectronica/36739648920">Ars Electronica</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sony-announces-limited-first-litter-edition-release-of-aibo-in-us-300701503.html">lot of hype around the release of Sony’s latest robotic dog</a>. It’s called “aibo,” and is promoted as using artificial intelligence to respond to people looking at it, talking to it and touching it. </p>
<p>Japanese customers have already bought over 20,000 units, and it is expected to come to the U.S. before the holiday gift-buying season – at a price nearing US$3,000. </p>
<p>Why would anyone pay so much for a robotic dog?</p>
<p>My ongoing research suggests part of the attraction might be explained through humanity’s longstanding connection with various forms of puppets, religious icons, and other figurines, that I collectively call “dolls.” </p>
<p>These dolls, I argue, are embedded deep in our social and religious lives. </p>
<h2>Spiritual and social dolls</h2>
<p>As part of the process of writing a “spiritual history of dolls,” I’ve returned to that ancient mythology of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions where God <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2%3A4-3%3A24&version=CJB">formed</a> the first human from the dirt of the earth, and then breathed life into the mud-creature.</p>
<p>Since that time, humans have attempted to do the same – metaphorically, mystically and scientifically – by fashioning raw materials into forms and figures that look like people. </p>
<p>As folklorist <a href="https://web.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Mayor.html">Adrienne Mayor</a> explains in a recent study, “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/14162.html">Gods and Robots</a>,” such artificial creatures find their ways into the myths of several ancient cultures, in various ways.</p>
<p>Beyond the stories, people have made these figures part of their religious lives in the form of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/463984">icons</a> of the Virgin Mary and human-shaped <a href="https://www.bgc.bard.edu/gallery/exhibitions/81/agents-of-faith-votive-objects">votive objects</a>. </p>
<p>In the late 19th century, dolls with a gramophone disc that could recite the Lord’s Prayer were produced on a mass scale. That was considered a <a href="http://forums.ssrc.org/ndsp/2014/01/29/prayers-of-a-phonographic-doll/">playful way of teaching a child</a> to be pious. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, <a href="https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/mavungu.html">certain spirits are believed to reside</a> in figurines created by humans. </p>
<p>Across time and place, dolls have played a role in human affairs. In South Asia, dolls of various forms <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Tiruchirapalli/celebrating-navaratri-with-display-of-dolls/article19767269.ece">become ritually important</a> during the great goddess festival Navaratri. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/35924051_Carving_self-identity_Hopi_Katsina_dolls_as_contemporary_cultural_expression">Katsina</a> dolls of the Hopi people allow them to create their own self-identity. And in the famed Javanese and Balinese Wayang – shadow puppet <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Javanese_Shadow_Puppets.html?id=ZshkAAAAMAAJ">performances</a> – mass audiences learn about a mythical past and its bearing on the present. </p>
<h2>Making us human</h2>
<p>In the modern Western context, <a href="http://www.mudec.it/eng/barbie/">Barbie dolls</a> and <a href="http://www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/gi-joe">G.I. Joes</a> have come to play an important role in children’s development. Barbie has been <a href="https://orca.cf.ac.uk/48291/1/PhDJ.Whitney2013.pdf">shown</a> to have a negative impact on girls’ body images, while G.I. Joe has made <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3840.2004.00099.x">many boys believe</a> that they are important, powerful and that they can do great things.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235440/original/file-20180907-90553-1655lmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Barbie dolls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tinker-tailor/6383911765/in/photolist-aJ8dye-dJ4wnb-9FExaM-r8Ye5m-egen9a-kPSwsc-nNZCAQ-anZhzQ-5a7doe-mKc79t-oMfPax-jqLz9H-nuEaZ7-cuHwvy-nt31xr-pD2dXr-qzBhff-ns5JLY-9hMYPY-ajEPsU-dGjzYR-f8uidJ-L3qP3d-272wyHN-b7hvwM-fHBuxJ-oWMjJZ-mj5LK8-sU6cfg-fQHWny-dwCasm-er5Bbz-8bPDUK-os9cNx-mWFRvA-oZZJXZ-FcUGpa-fqdaVS-e8u1gw-gdKFtL-c3cbqQ-aJ77m8-pRmsoL-e3w4Cv-oWvQiB-pqzdXc-oTztVo-qPqKuf-exfgUf-qgoz47">Tinker Tailor loves Lalka</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is at the root of our connection with dolls? </p>
<p>As I have argued in my <a href="http://www.beacon.org/A-History-of-Religion-in-5-Objects-P997.aspx">earlier research</a>, humans share a deep and ancient relationship with ordinary objects. When people create forms, they are participating in the ancient hominid practice of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/becoming-human-the-origin-of-stone-tools-55335180/">toolmaking</a>. Tools have agricultural, domestic and communication uses, but they also help people think, feel, act and pray. </p>
<p>Dolls are a primary tool that humans have used for the spiritual and social dimensions of their lives. </p>
<p>They come to have a profound influence on humans. They help build religious connections, such as teaching children to pray, serving as a medium for answering prayers, providing protection and prompting healing. </p>
<p>They also model gender roles and teach people how to behave in society. </p>
<h2>Tech toys and messages</h2>
<p>Aibo and other such technologies, I argue, play a similar role. </p>
<p>Part of aibo’s enchantment is that he appears to see, hear and respond to touch. In other words, the mechanical dog has an embodied intelligence, not unlike humans. One can quickly find <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/11/16876086/sony-aibo-hands-on-video-ces-2018">videos</a> of people being emotionally captivated by aibo because he has big eyes that “look” back at people, he cocks his head, seeming to hear, and he wags his tail when “petted” the right way. </p>
<p>Another such robot, <a href="http://www.parorobots.com/index.asp">PARO</a>, a furry, seal-shaped machine that purrs and vibrates as it is stroked, has been <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130624075748.htm">shown</a> to have a number of positive effects on elderly people, such as <a href="http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/summer-house-residential-memory-care-communities-introduce-paro-robot-therapy-2108672.htm">reducing anxiety</a>, increasing social behaviors and counteracting loneliness.</p>
<p>Dolls can have a deep and lasting psychological impact on young people. Psychotherapist <a href="https://mommikin.com/laurel-wider-is-a-psychotherapist-turned-toy-inventor/">Laurel Wider</a>, for example, became concerned about the gendered messages that her son was receiving in social settings about how boys were not supposed to cry or really show many feelings at all. </p>
<p>She then <a href="https://www.wondercrew.com/pages/about-us">founded</a> a new toy company to create dolls that could help nurture <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/well/family/wonder-crew-dolls-boys-empathy.html">empathy in boys</a>. As Wider <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/well/family/wonder-crew-dolls-boys-empathy.html">says</a>, these dolls are “like a peer, an equal, but also small enough, vulnerable enough, to where a child could also want to take care of him.”</p>
<h2>Outsourcing social life?</h2>
<p>Not everyone welcomes the influence these dolls have come to have on our lives. Critics of these dolls argue they outsource some of humanity’s most basic social skills. Humans, they argue, need other humans to teach them about gender norms, and provide companionship – not dolls and robots.</p>
<p>MIT’s <a href="http://www.mit.edu/%7Esturkle/">Sherry Turkle</a>, for example, somewhat famously dissents from the praise given to these mechanical imitations. Turkle has long been working at the human-machine interface. Over the years, she has become more skeptical about the roles we assign these mechanical tools. </p>
<p>When confronted with patients using PARO, she found herself “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/08/16/172988165/are-we-plugged-in-connected-but-alone">profoundly depressed</a>” at society’s resort to machines as companions, when humans should be spending more time with other humans.</p>
<h2>Teaching us to be humans?</h2>
<p>It’s hard to disagree with Turkle’s concerns, but that’s not the point. What I argue is that as humans, we share a deep connection with such dolls. The new wave of dolls and robots are instrumental in motivating further questions about who we are as humans.</p>
<p>Given the technological advances, people are asking whether robots “<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hot-thought/201712/will-robots-ever-have-emotions">can have feelings</a>,” “<a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/248774/can-robots-be-jewish">be Jewish</a>” or “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-04989-2">make art</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235441/original/file-20180907-90565-1yesxoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A question being asked is, can robots have feelings?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenm1/6340377633/in/photolist-aEh6nK-dtAV6J-88ajiy-aErGvC-szMPe-28aU3K5-6sffsJ-arYhVS-h4UrTE-d3Raw9-bnX4Ja-4njGV-9kMSgS-e4tzo4-bHviTD-qNVJPV-tKVxX-7gnVhi-5ddYsr-2TdX9-m15Rki-m16F3U-2RwW1W-2bCK6R-3hTjfG-5mAcY1-3hSmPj-3hSX87-dfYmeN-4gBusR-dYPfBj-LwZTq-3hQUaz-5PS1E9-pxDtVq-3hQQ16-61oLTo-SsR43-7SS1Cq-3hQFJB-oH1MY-6RojjC-Ejwu4-5PSmS1-ae8Lgr-4KUiyX-gJDZz-7pwjx5-nxPg1-5NtP6">ellenm1</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When people attempt to answer these questions, they must first reflect on what it means for humans to have feelings, be Jewish and make art.</p>
<p>Some academics go so far as to argue that humans have always been cyborgs, always a mixture of human biological bodies and technological parts. </p>
<p>As philosophers like <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/andy-clark">Andy Clark</a> have <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/natural-born-cyborgs-9780195177510?cc=us&lang=en&">argued</a>, “our tools are not just external props and aids, but they are deep and integral parts of the problem-solving systems we now identify as human intelligence.”</p>
<p>Technologies are not in competition with humans. In fact, technology is the divine breath, the animating, ensouling force of Homo sapiens. And, in my view, dolls are vital technological tools that find their way into devotional lives, workplaces and social spaces. </p>
<p>As we create, we are simultaneously being created.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert argues our connection with these figures is longstanding. They are embedded in our myths and help us explore deeper questions about being human.S. Brent Rodriguez-Plate, Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Hamilton CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.