Stephen David Hurley's Blog

Who Will Be Our Next Susan B. Anthony?

I wish there were a cabinet level position devoted to protecting the rights of women, because when it comes to creating laws that promote equality our government is pretty much broken.
I have not given up on our democracy. I teach history and English and my students know I’m a fanatic when it comes to politics, equality and what history can teach us about both. The DNC last week was my Superbowl and as I watched the delegates nominate the next president, I listened to Joe and Kamilla talk a lot about women’s rights. Lots of politicians talk about women’s rights, but many of them just don’t know how hard it is to pass equal rights legislation.
But history is on our side this week. It’s the centennial celebration of the 19th amendment, that gave women the right to vote and no real-life superhero embodied that fight more than Susan B. Anthony.
There is a poster of Susan that hangs on our classroom wall (correction: used to hang on our classroom wall. I don’t have a classroom anymore. I teach now from a “pod.”) But when I had walls there was a portion of our classroom devoted to “Real Life Superheroes.” (A poster of Susan could be found between the pic of Catherine the Great and Joan of Arc.)
The media remembered Susan and her battle for emancipation as if she were born to lead a crusade, preeminently chosen the way we’d like to believe all our heroes are chosen for their larger-than-life roles. Many reported correctly that Susan was arrested for casting a ballot while posed as a man. But they failed to mention that it took forty-two years after her arrest for the 19th amendment to become law.
Forty-two years is a long time, and that’s not unusual when it comes to challenges as big as gender rights. Change does not come easily, especially change that requires the ruling class — not just rich people, not just white people — but all men to give up something they see as a birthright: Power. Domination.
I ask my students to vote on who can lead us on the next great crusade if not for equal rights, at least, the protection of those basic human rights that are blithely violated with rape, and workplace harassment. When you study the all too real people who demanded emancipation you don’t find perfection; that is, you don’t find all the natural gifts of oration and charisma you’d expect from a leader.
A real superhero can’t cast a spiderweb or leap tall buildings in a single bound. Many are not always naturally gifted. Some are deeply flawed. And many of those so-called flaws are what motivate them to take a stand in the first place.
Our current president is the leader of what can only be called a party of White Domination. Nevertheless, he found a clever way to redeem his misogynistic reputation by pardoning Susan for her arrest. (If only Susan were alive to see this spectacle. What do you think the feisty suffragette would have done to a man who is known as the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief?). But the PGIG isnt our only problem. Donald Trump may be evil. Donald Trump may be the anti-Christ. But he didn’t create gender inequality, we all did. And we need to admit that if we want to see lasting change.
How hard is it to make a lasting change when it comes to equal rights? Imagine you are the sole crusader for a cause in your favorite video game. When the game begins all the other players are against you. And they have all the weapons. And I don’t mean flashy lasers and stun bombs but real, primitive weapons like the rocks and gas-filled bottles that are being thrown around the county now.
I doubt there will ever be a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women’s rights alongside their right to vote. But why not a cabinet level position? We have secretaries devoted to our Health, Education and Welfare. Isn’t the mental and physical health of young women dependent on her safety? What kind of education system ignores teaching that promotes the rights of women?
My students and I couldn’t agree on a title of the cabinet position. Secretary of #Metoo? Department of Gender Equality? So, I ask you to help us with a title and tell us who would be the person you think would be best to fill the role.
She probably has to be a lot younger than I am because it will take another forty years for real change to take place. And I doubt she’ll be perfect. In fact, knowing history, I think the best choice would be a young person who knows that humility and vulnerability just might be the new superpowers we’ve all ignored.
Times Up, Donald. But we’ve still got a long way to go. Who would you nominate to promote gender equality in the next administration? I really want to hear from you.

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Why We’re Afraid of Fearless Girl

On Wall Street there’s a bronze statue of a girl who looks about the same age as the sixth graders in the middle school that I teach. She looks pretty fearless as she’s standing up to a raging bronze bull; and she’d better be, it doesn’t take much to see that bull represents men, greed and the lack of women in positions of financial power. The artist Kristen Visbal, maintains that the statue of a child posed with her fists on her hips represents “the power of women in leadership.” Many feminists who don’t like the statue claim she’s a cheap corporate-centric ploy to hide the real issues like equal pay and reproductive rights (the piece was commissioned by State Street Global Advisors).

Everyone loves the image of empowerment represented by a girl standing up for herself in the ruthless, financial jungle our world has become. But, how would some of us men feel if it were a woman standing there? Pretty intimated, right?

But the problem goes deeper than that for men, women and children.

We aren’t just angry at Fearless Girl. We’re afraid of her, afraid for her. We’re afraid because we know in our hearts her future is imperiled. She doesn’t stand a chance alongside a President who is being mocked as “the pussy-grabber-in-chief”; but also brags his daughter (or is that his wife? Even he often gets them confused) is a model–not just for the latest issue of Maxim–but for longer maternity leave. Will our fearless young women be devoured by the wave of sexism that many attribute to the presidents base? Hilary Clinton recently claimed that she lost the election because of misogyny, that America is threatened by having a woman in the oval office. I don’t believe that a majority of us feel that way. I watch young girls stand up for their rights every day in my classroom.

The real problem isn’t just emanating from the oval office. The truth is, Fearless Girl doesn’t stand a chance against the mixed messages the media sends all young women. We want our daughters to be strong, but don’t we also want them to look gorgeous in revealing bikinis? The media thinks so. And the truth is, we who call ourselves “feminists” don’t even know what that word stands for anymore. The most progressive and intelligent young women I talk to at my school don’t consider themselves feminists, because they think it stands for a woman who doesn’t like men and doesn’t enjoy being herself.

To speak against feminism is to speak against basic human rights. But it’s time for someone to admit that the type of feminism that once worked–or at least, forced people to take notice–has changed. Young women aren’t weaker than they were a generation ago, but they’re a lot more confused about how their voices will be heard. Fearless Girl doesn’t just need a woman mentor, she needs an interpreter who can help separate the truth from the bull.

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What’s the Real Provenance of this Ring?

On March 6th, 2016, The Telegraph, an English newspaper, announced the following:

“A ring believed to have belonged to Joan of Arc is being returned to France for the first time in 600 years after being sold at auction for almost £300,000.

The gold-plated silver ring was dated to the 15th century by an Oxford laboratory, but the trove of historical documents that came with it have yet to prove it belonged to the famous French martyr.”

If you’re reading my YA thriller, Cease & Desist, you know this ring has great symbolic importance in my work. I fictionalized it’s journey down through Jeanne’s bloodline. I wanted it to symbolize the paranormal power it bestowed upon all the girls who chose to wear it. My story is fiction, but the fact of a ring that belonged to Jeanne d’Arc is real and its description is documented at her trial. Nevertheless whether the ring auctioned recently is authentic is dubious to some–historians, for example, are skeptical about the provenance that was presented by Timeline Auctions–the English auction house that sold it–

According to the auction house, Jeanne gave the ring (or it was confiscated) by her Burgundian captors shortly before they handed her over to the English, and may have ended up in the hands of the archbishop of Winchester, Henry Beaufort, who was present at her trial, and stayed in Britain ever since.

Here are the only facts about Jeanne’s ring we know, from the transcripts of her trial:

The description of the ring–specifically that it contained three crosses and the words Jehsus Maria–were real, as Jeanne described it.

“I think it had on it three crosses, and no other sign that I know except the words Jesus Maria”

“It was a gift from her mother, Isabelle”.

In my version of the events, Jeanne handed the ring over to a Benedictine monk who heard her last confession. This is completely unsubstantiated, but it’s a whole lot more likely than having Jeanne turn it over willingly to Henry Beaufort, the archbishop who, as trial records show verbally abused Jeanne at trial and denied her the right of counsel. (One biographer suggested that he may have sexually abused Jeanne, the virgin as well) . It’s more likely that the ring was taken from Jeanne by her captors before her trial in Rouen.

So, is this the ring “The Maid” really wore? All we know for sure is that the French government refused to participate in the auction, citing concerns over authenticity and the buyer turned out to be an amusement park in France, not considered the typical home for a relic that belonged to the patron saint of France.

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Who Was Jeanne d’Arc?

Cease & Desist has two protagonists; Cease de Menich, a young actress, and the character Cease plays, a Roman Catholic Saint known as Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc). Jeanne was a real person, a girl who did some pretty incredible things in her short life and I chose her because I wanted to empower young people; to show you that real-life superheroes do exist. The real Jeanne never leapt tall buildings in a single bound or spun a spiders web; what she did was far more miraculous–She stood up to an entire army, and was put to death for what she believed. All before she was twenty years old.

Many people who I asked to read C & D thought the specific accounts I provide of Jeanne’s works were entirely fictional. I got emails (and even a letter) from people in my church stating that I’d maligned the life of an incredible person, turned a saint into a “juvenile delinquent”. This is not true. While I took a lot of liberties with the character I’ve created and the paranormal aspects of her life, every specific account “Jeanne” the character gives of her journey from a peasant girl, to the warrior she became is true, and drawn from primary sources at her trial for heresy and the oral accounts taken at her rehabilitation twenty years after she was put to death. I hope you check in with this page often as I document the real accounts of a real girl who was called by God to throw the British out of France almost six-hundred-years ago.

Let me start by sharing Jeanne’s letter of warning to her British occupiers. It’s a pretty interesting document, some believe, divinely inspired, as Jeanne was never taught to read or write.

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Happy Holidays

The post Happy Holidays

Dear President-Elect Donald Trump,

I’m a middle school student in Mr. Stephen David Hurley’s humanities class. I can see that you haven’t chosen a person to become the Secretary of Education, and I wanted to recommend John Green, the young adult author, for that position. You probably don’t know John. He wrote the novel, The Fault in our Stars, about a girl who gets cancer and falls in love with a boy in a support group. When I finished the book it felt as if John was in my head–that he knew everything I was afraid of–getting sick, falling in love–and it was like he was telling me it was ok to be afraid because we all are afraid of these things. OK, so you’re probably thinking John doesn’t have any experience in the classroom or managing a bunch of schools. This is probably true, but John’s a straight-shooter, and besides did you use experience to choose those other people in your cabinet?

So, what would John do for our education system? I think he’d abolish the Common Core, which has removed fiction stories from our curriculum and replaced them with “informational content”–and that’s a fancy way of teaching us how to read maps and fill out applications. John will replace them with stories, hopefully his stories. And you can be sure, Mr. President, these stories are as dark, and realistic as most of the things you say about people and institutions. But there is one big difference between what John writes and what you say. John doesn’t condemn people for being who they are; and that’s something you could learn from. Please just read John’s first book, Looking for Alaska. you will find it so funny you’ll probably want to hire John as one of your speech writers. Mr. President, you need to understand that young people are a lot smarter than you think. you need to see that we’re real and flawed. A map that can help us navigate through the terrible hate and confusion our world has become is what we need to learn right now. Can you teach us how to do that? I know John can. I hope you’ll consider him for the post of Secretary of Education.

Sincerely,

Melody Chen

7th grader

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We Should’ve Seen This Coming.

It’s the economy, stupid. That’s what the pundits said. And they were wrong. It’s because of immigrants, and our mistrust of institutions, the pollsters said. And they were wrong.

We lost this election because we’re angry. This is true. And it’s not just the righteous anger associated with morally-charged issues like immigration, or the rights of our dispossessed, but the kind of deep-seated resentment we feel when we can’t admit we think some of the things Donald Trump says about women. And the more we deny it, the deeper and unreachable our resentment becomes.

There’s a silent majority of resentful people out there. And it’s time we start looking in the mirror to find them. Donald Trump is one of us, and this election was about a man who can’t deny he’s a man in the worst way. But it was also about how we can no longer ignore the changing roles of women. Hilary Clinton lost this election because she thought she could become President by showing the world she was a tough as a man.

What we needed to see wasn’t her toughness. What we needed to see was how her unique perspective as a woman would’ve helped solve tough issues in a more effective way than a boorish egotist. She needed to show us–despite her promise to take the high road, how to beat a bully without having to become a bully. Paying lip-service to ivy league women who smash the glass ceiling may sound good, but it completely ignores the real victims of our sexist society; the helpless, uneducated victims of rape and harassment that Hillary ignored.

Feminism isn’t just about smashing the glass ceiling. It’s about allowing women to define their roles in a way that’s never been done before; not as equals, but as partners. The reason I encourage my students to share their favorite YA stories with their parents is because I think YA fiction—particularly dark YA—represents a common ground; a battleground state that can help parents understand just how scary it is to be a young person today.

Tell me your favorite protagonist and I’ll tell you something about your self many others probably miss. I wrote this on the board for Book Club this year, and want to share with you what I think it means. My students are fascinated with wounded, broken characters like Melinda Sordino (SPEAK), and Clay Jensen (13 Reasons Why) because they’re real, but we live in a world where so many adults still believe the only heroes meant for our stories wear capes and have superpowers.

Most politicians don’t really listen to young people, because they don’t vote (or, when they do, their votes don’t really make a difference.) That’s a big mistake. I think we’ll see a female president in my lifetime. But she won’t make grade without hearing the real life superheroes who make up the next generation.

Another simple homework assignment for you, dear reader. Tell me one person you really admire in real life or in the pages of your favorite YA novel.

Come join the dialogue at http://www.fictionfaithandyoungpeole.com

 

 

 

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“A Horrible Woman”

 

As good as I am about dismissing many of the sexist insults hurled by Donald Trump, I can’t shake one that he used in the final debate with Hillary Clinton. “She’s a horrible woman,” Trump said, dismissively with his signature flick of the wrist. He didn’t say she was a horrible politician, a horrible mother, or even as a horrible Democrat. But Hillary–the woman– is a threat to Donald.

And not just Donald. I’ve thought those words before, I admit it.

I still judge women by their sex. Are there any men out there who don’t? I don’t think I’m the only one who feels threatened by having a woman in the Oval Office. And I think the reason most people (62 percent of the electorate are ashamed about the way this election was handled by both parties) feel this way.

I feel threatened. after either years of not having a white man in the Oval Office, white male dominance has eroded. And now we may have at least four years of a woman as President.

Threatened. Say it.

White men have lost a lot of ground as the dominant class. Some of us paid lip-service to progress while we were on top. We begrudgingly accept that women should get the things they’ve rightfully earned. This is progress so long as it doesn’t get out of hand; so long as we can still control women, if not with laws, then with implicit force.

We’re scared, and angry. And I’m not just talking the barely employable white-trash that will vote for Trump. I still desperately want to believe sexist men are low class, uneducated imbeciles who also hate foreigners and anyone with a better job then they’ve got which, in this economy is just about everyone–including women.

I teach middle school, a job with more women than men. I write YA fiction; a field that is dominated by women. I become a good teacher only because of the advice I took from my mentors—all of whom are women. My debut YA novel, Cease & Desist, was edited by a woman.

What we need now isn’t more elegant speeches about equality. What we need is a new formula for how we

We need a new vocabulary to help us understand this new world behind the new empty rhetoric. A world where people of color and women really can become leaders of our racist society. The word “Equality” just doesn’t work anymore…it never really worked because being equal to us meant being all the same. Equality for men means that women should become just like us.

But women aren’t exactly like us, and never will be. That’s one of the reasons the old vocabulary of feminism failed. We need new words. Words that don’t lie as all the empty promises white people have made for so long.

Parity. Interdependence. As if two opposites find that the puzzle can only be solved by sharing their unique differences.

The new feminism that will come with a female president needs a new vocabulary; and talking the talk of this new language won’t be easy. That’s what we’ve learned from the last year of empty promises made on the campaign trial.

I don’t think the new vocabulary of equality will come from pundits, or politicians. It will come from those of us try to see the future every time we sit down to write, because let’s face it the notion of what feminism stands for has become so murky that we don’t just need new words. We need a whole new language with the boldness and unflinching gaze that can only come from fiction.

Symbiosis. Complimentarity.

Here’s why fiction can save us from our real life woes. Women still make up just 19 percent of Congress and only 33 percent of speaking roles in the 100 top-grossing films. But, the roles young women play in fiction is a far different story.

Most YA authors give young women lead roles or, at least, pivotal ones. The reason female YA protagonists are so empowering isn’t because they’re smashing glass ceilings like Marissa Mayer, or Sheryl Sandberg, but because they’re dealing with life threatening issues, many of which are caused by the horribly skewed signals young women get when learning how to deal with young men.

The star of Speak is Melinda Sordino, a girl with a serious eating disorder, because she was raped at a party.
Clay Jensen, the protagonist of Thirteen Reasons Why, must accept his role in the suicide of a friend.
Katniss Everdean, of The Hunger Games fights to the death in a sick world dominated by men.

Not exactly the material you’d find discussed on the campaign trail. These are authentic, damaged young people–not the ivy league image of a woman who has achieved equality after a bloody battle.

Welcome to the new feminism. For young women the new feminism means admitting you may not have all the same over-the-top ambition of the pathbreakers. It means admitting the tools you’ve been given to deal with sexism are inadequate, and you must through sheer grit forge your own tools for survival.

And for all the men who believe in young women and authentic fiction, you must accept just how threatened you feel right now.

Join the Dialogue

http://www.fictionfaithandyoungpeople.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Happy All Saints Day

Yes, the day after Halloween is a holy day, known as All Saints Day. Of course, few of us can remember how we got a day devoted to dead, holy people. Even fewer people know how “All Hallows Eve” is related to a holiday we all know and love as Halloween. But, we need to understand this connection if we are to understand the huge disconnect many young people are feeling today.

A parent recommended I share The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis with my students. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than watching a young person slowly turn the pages of that book; watch them as they fall into that dreamy, ice-encased universe that engulfed me in my youth.

What happened to enchanted Narnia? What happened to our golden age?–when proud lions could defeat evil queens, and good always triumphed in the end. Those days never really existed, is what young people are clamoring to tell us today.

Fiction is no longer about being transported away from real life perils. Fiction today is about getting down and dirty and facing our darkest fears. Isn’t that what great books do? Help you find a mythical place where all those fears you thought were yours alone are shared by the tribe. But this year, when I asked my bright students in one class if they knew C. S. Lewis. I got nothing but blank stares.

Why does this surprise me? Especially after checking out the books my kids want to share with their parents. Here are the top three:

Speak, by Laura Halse Anderson

Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day were usurped by Halloween because Halloween offered a dark and thrilling challenge to death that was much more palatable then standing in a darkened church reciting prayers. Halloween is about stories that scare you into a state of irresistible fear.

I’m convinced fewer of my students know Narnia today because of it’s Christian associations. Last week, I wrote “Gender” was the new dirty word. Might was well add “Christian” –as in “Christian Fiction”– to the list, and I can’t really blame young people for nixing it. Young people just aren’t into the cardboard characters, and morally-correct stories that make up most CF today. Who is?

We need to change that. I don’t think students should be required to recite prayers at school. Religion and God are dead in this new age of anxiety. But the saints were some pretty good role models for many of us. All Saints Day is about remembering real people who did some pretty unreal things.

Who do we have now to replace them?

Wonder Woman. A great choice, except she isn’t real and Hollywood has her sexed out like a supermodel.

 

Parents, wake up. If you really want a someone for your kids to look up to, find one who’s real enough to actually be redeemed. Why not Clay Jensen and Hannah Baker? How about Melinda Sordino?

We need more that talking animals to deal with issues like sexual assault, and suicide. I wish I could go back to once upon a time…but it’s time for all of us to answer another question:

Would you rather traipse through Narnia? Or, see if you can survive the trails of Panem?

You pays your dues. You makes your choice.

Join the dialogue

And get a free book about an idiosyncratic Saint.

Cease & Desist

 

 

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Don’t Be Fooled.

This Election is About Women.

 

Not a woman who may become President. Not even about a woman’s right to choose, equal pay, and all those things women and some men have been fighting for. Those are the things everyone in power wants you to believe this election is about.

But they’re wrong. This election is about the women we’re too ashamed to admit even exist. Women who’ve been assaulted on a date, women who’ve been demeaned at the office, groped and then told there just isn’t enough evidence to prove it–the kind of broken women we’re reading about more and more in fiction…but are afraid to admit really exist.

Donald is a demon. That may well be. But don’t think Hillary is going to help your daughters get equal anything. Why? Because the change we need goes deeper than institutions and laws, and that’s all politicians talk about.

A good writer sees what we are afraid to admit is there. A good writer reads the radar of things we don’t want to see coming. I doubt Laura Halse Anderson, Ursula Le Guin, or Margaret Atwood will ever be invited to join Hillary’s brain-trust, because these are writers who see battered women as more than just victims.

Sex assault victims are the lepers of our age. Sure, we help them with hugs and counseling; tougher laws and lip service, but the only way we are ever going to make them whole will be by standing up and admitting we’re all part of the problem.

We are men who secretly think the same things Donald is saying about women.

We are women who think the system works and all we have to do is get rid of a few bad apples.

We’re all broken, really. That’s what I think when I pick up a novel by Margaret Atwood, because she’s able to render that the problems we think are related to sex and gender go a lot deeper.

The only way I can show young people how deep the problem of sex and gender go is through fiction. The only way they can admit to me how afraid they are is by trying to talk about characters who aren’t real…

So, this November, vote for whoever you believe in. But don’t be fooled. Nothing is going to change until we admit we’re all part of the problem.

And please, before the rhetoric dies, join the real dialogue: http://www.fictionfaithandyoungpeople.com

*****

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