Microaggression

Microaggression (pronounced mahy-kroh-uh-gresh-uhn)

(1) A casual comment or action directed at a marginalized, minority or other non-dominant group that (often) unintentionally but unconsciously reinforces a stereotype and can be construed as offensive.

(2) The act of discriminating against a non-dominant group by means of such comments or actions.

1970: A construct of micro- + aggression coined by Chester Middlebrook Pierce (1927-2016), former Professor of Education and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.  Micro (small, microscopic; magnifying; one millionth) is a word-forming element from the New Latin micro- (small), from the Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós) (small).  The origin is disputed between etymologists, the traditional view being it was derived from the primitive Indo-European (s)meyg- & (s)mēyg- (small, thin, delicate) and was cognate with the Old English smicor (beauteous, beautiful, elegant, fair, fine, tasteful), source also of the Modern English smicker and related to the German mickrig.   However, there’s a highly technical discussion within the profession, hinged around the unexplained “k” in the Greek and there’s the suggestion of a pre-Greek origin on the basis of variation between initial /m/ and /sm/, as well as the variant forms μικός (mikós) and μικκός (mikkós).  Aggression, dating from 1605–1615, is from the French aggression, from the Latin aggressionem (nominative aggressio (a going to, an attack)), a noun of action from past participle stem of aggredi (to approach; attack) the construct being ad (to) + gradi (past participle gressus (to step)) from gradus (a step).  The Classical Latin aggressiōn (stem of aggressiō), was equivalent to aggress(us) + iōn derived from aggrēdi (to attack).  The psychological sense of "hostile or destructive behavior" had its origin in early psychiatry, first noted in English in 1912 in a translation of Freud.

Chester Middlebrook Pierce (1927-2016)

Microaggression is an adaptable and possibly infinitely variable concept which probably most belongs in sociology and is typically defined as any of the small-scale verbal or physical interactions between those of different races, cultures, beliefs, or genders that are presumed to have no malicious intent but which can be interpreted as aggressions.  The criteria can be both objective and subjective and it’s noted compliments or positive comments can be microaggression; the standard psychology texts suggest the behavior manifests in three forms:

Microassault: An explicit racial derogation which can be verbal or nonverbal which can include labelling, avoidant behavior and purposeful discriminatory actions.

Microinsult: Communications that convey rudeness or insensitivity and demean a person's racial heritage or identity; subtle snubs which may be unknown to the perpetrator; hidden insulting messages to the recipient of color.

Microinvalidation: Communications that exclude, negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person belonging to a particular group.

The concept emerged to address the underlying racism which endured even after overt, deliberate expressions of racism had become socially unacceptable.  It held that microaggressions generally happened below the level of awareness of well-intentioned members of the dominant culture and were different from overt, deliberate acts of bigotry, such as the use of racist epithets because the people perpetrating microaggressions often intend no offense and are unaware they are causing harm.  In the abstract, this positions the dominant culture as normal and the minority one as aberrant or pathological.

Although the word’s origin is in the politics of race and ethnicity, it proved readily adaptable to other areas such as gender, sexual orientation, mental illness, disability and age.  Within the discipline, there’s a (typically) highly technical debate about the nature of microaggression and the intersectionality at the cross-cutting cleavages of non-dominant groups.  As regards the media, the discipline had a well-refined model to describe how microaggressions were either reinforced or encouraged by a news and entertainment media which reflected the hegemony of the dominant culture.  The sudden shock of the emergence of social media has changed that in both diversity of source and content and its substantially unmediated distribution.  To date, much work in exploring this area has been impressionistic and it’s not clear if the analytical metrics, where they exist, are sufficiently robust for theories in this area to be coherent.  In a sense, social media and the development of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) are synergistic.

Anarchy

Anarchy (pronounced an-er-kee)

(1) A state of society without government or law.

(2) A political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control.

(3) Lack of obedience to an authority; insubordination.

(4) In casual use, confusion and disorder; the absence of any guiding or uniting principle; chaos.

1530–1540: From the Middle English, from the Middle French anarchie, from the Medieval Latin anarchia, from the Ancient Greek ἀναρχία (anarkhía) (lawlessness, literally “lack of a leader”), the construct being ánarch(os) (leaderless) ((ἀν- (an-) (not; without) + ἀρχή (arkhḗ) arch(ós) (leader; power; authority) + -os (the adjectival suffix)) + -ia (the noun suffix).  Anarchy & anarchism are nouns, anarchist is a noun & adjective, anarchic & anarchical are adjectives and anarchically is an adverb; the noun plural is anarchies.

Lindsay Lohan Anarchy tattoo by TADEONE!

Use of the word began in the 1530s in the sense of an "absence of government" describing the Year of Thirty Tyrants (in Athens 404 BC, when there was no archon (leader)), as an abstract noun from anarkhos (rulerless).  The noun anarchism, denoting the political doctrine advocating leaderlessness, the idea that a community is best organized by the voluntary cooperation of individuals, rather than by a government, which is regarded as being coercive by nature, was first noted in the 1640s; from the 1660s, it was used to mean “confusion or absence of authority in general" and by 1849 in reference to the social theory advocating "order without power," with associations and co-operatives taking the place of direct government, as formulated in the 1830s by French political philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865).  The adjective anarchic (chaotic, lawless, without order or rule) appears not to have been used until 1755 (the poet Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) using it in 1824) although anarchical had existed since 1710.  The deliciously paradoxical anarch (leader of the leaderless) was used by John Milton (1608–1674), Alexander Pope (1688–1744), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) & Lord Byron (1788–1824) and is said to be a favorite word in undergraduate anarchist clubs during discussions about whether leadership in actually possible in such organizations.  Whether any consensus tends to emerge from these ponderings is hard to say because, being anarchists, they're not inclined to keep minutes. 

The Russian connection

Mikhail Bakunin.

One of the seeming contradictions in the histories of anarchism and nihilism, despite essentially being about the absence of systems and structures and having been unsuccessful as political doctrines, is that both have attracted theorists who have produced detailed descriptions of their intellectual underpinnings and created complex layers of categories.  For whatever reason, it does seem Russians authors were those most attracted, possibly because the movements became popular during the late tsarist epoch and may have appeared uniquely attractive to activists seeking a philosophy with which to excite revolutionary possibilities.  The three categories of Russian anarchism were anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism and individualist anarchism, the ranks of all three drawn predominantly from the intelligentsia and the working class, though the most numerous group, the anarcho-communists, appealed also to soldiers and peasants.  Anarchy was, in pre-revolutionary Russia, a movement which was never envisaged as merely theoretical or utopian, it’s proponents bent upon radically reforming Russian society, by violent means if need be.  An underground movement during the reactionary time after the tumult of 1848, Nicholas I (1796–1855; Tsar of Russia 1825-1855) imposed a harsh crack-down, persecuting writers such as Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881), Vladimir Dahl (1801-1872), and Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883) in a period known as the gloomy seven years (1848-1855).  The roots of Russian nihilism are present in early work of the political anarchists, most notably Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876) but can be found also in the Byronic philosophy of negating social and political cant such as found in the narrator's critical position in Don Juan (1819-1824).

Attracted by the homophonic properties, one model adopted Anekee van der Velden (sometimes as Anekee Vandervelden) as her internet identity and, operating somewhere on the soft core spectrum, had for some years a presence on a number of platforms, the merchandise including calendars.  She seems to have been from the Netherlands and the Dutch name Anekee is an affectionate diminutive of Anna.  Anneke means “favor”, “grace”, “gracious” & “merciful” or “He (God) has favored me” (from the Hebrew חֵן” (hen) (grace & favor) or  חָנַן” = (ḥanán) (to show favor; to be gracious)) and her photographs do suggest God was generous in his favor.  This being the internet, there's the not untypical mystery about her identity and history.  Some sources say her real name was Anne Isabella Raukema (b 1985 or 1988) while others deny this but all her accounts seem now closed or inactive and there are reports of her death but the veracity of such claims is difficult to determine.

Ms van der Velden interpolated the anarchist symbol (built with an upper-case "A" surrounded by a circle (in typography one of the enclosed alphanumerics)) into her branding which was a nice touch.  The symbol has for decades been used and there have been attempts to interpret the meaning but while the "A" is obvious (from the Ancient Greek ἀναρχία (anarkhía) (lawlessness, literally “lack of a leader”)) and the circle is regarded usually a some sort of boundary (though after that the deconstructionists can weave some complexities), what's probably more interesting is that the anarchist symbol is depicted most frequently in the combinations black on white or red on black, exactly the same color palette used by the communists in Weimar Germany (1918-1933) and "borrowed" in the mid-1920s by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) to render the swastika.  Hitler made no secret of his purloining and always delighted in telling how he turned the imagery of his opponents against them.  As a general principle, plagiarism (some of this blog) is better admitted than denied but Hitler actually boasted of it. 

The use of red and black in the iconography of anarchism dates from the earliest days of the various movements in the nineteenth century.  Red flags, scarves, shirts etc had for centuries been popular in political and religious movements, both for their vividness and the representation of "blood to be spilled" but after the color was adopted by first the more numerous socialists and later the communists (its allocation by US TV networks to the Republican Party was done without any sense of irony), the anarchists switched to black and there have been various interpretations of that, ranging from "mourning for the exploited & oppressed" to "the cold fury of the exploited & oppressed"; depending on their world view, anarchists can make of it what they will.  In an allusion to both traditions, a heterochromic blend (diagonally bisected red and black) is sometimes used by offshoots such as anarcho-syndicalism & anarcho-communism.

Arsenal Women team members in NMR shirts.

The association of “red” with “blood” is obvious and Arsenal Football Club in 2022 began their “No More Red” (NMR) campaign to draw attention to the increasing prevalence of knife crime in London (London now a “stabby-stabby” place in the parlance of the TikTokers).  The increasing use of edged weapons was a consequence of the UK’s success in limiting the availability of hand-guns although 3D printed versions (made in combination with parts freely available from hardware stores) are now seen; people will always be drawn to the best available technology.  Arsenal's campaign includes team kit in white with none of the red in which the team traditionally has appeared and, unusually for the merchandize-oriented EPL (English Premier League), the gear isn’t available for public sale, awarded only “…to individuals who are making a positive difference in the community.”  Inevitably, within days, knock-offs of the NMR kit, fabricated in the Far-East, appeared on-line.

Anarchy & anarcho-communist pencil mini-skirts.  Capitalism is actually selectively anarchic in that ruthlessly it lobbies for legislation and regulations which protect it from competition or increases their profits while usually maintaining a public position of opposition to "intrusive", "unnecessary", "inefficient" or other laws which may impose costs.  Their preferred model is "self-regulation", administered by suitably vague "guidelines" or "codes of conduct", the charm of this approach being nothing is enforceable and everything can be ignored.  Although it's doubtful anyone has run the numbers, the suspicion is there would be something of a correlation between the extent to which certain industries are allowed to run under a "self-regulation" model and the value of political donations made.

Anarchists can spread brand awareness in a way only nerds will understand and some even carry a stencil and a rattle-can of red paint so the equation can in seconds appear anywhere which seems appropriate.  The anarchist symbol (right) is rendered with the (seductively easy-to-use) Demos on-line calculator but the graffitied (the “street-art” community deny that verb exists and for some it may be a microaggression) splash (left) displays what Henry Fowler (1858–1933) in his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) called a “pride of knowledge” in that functions are used to describe the circle, thus two are needed to describe the shape.  The single expression (y-2)^2+(x+2)^2=1 could have been used, creating the more elegant math: 4 features; 4 equations.

f = top half of circle
g = bottom half of circle
h = line to bottom right
i = line to bottom left
j = central line

Spinster

Spinster (pronounced spin-sta (U) or spin-ster (non-U))

(1) A woman still unmarried beyond the usual age (according to the usual social conventions) of marrying.  Except when used historically, spinster has long been thought offensive or at least disparaging.

(2) In law (and still used in some jurisdictions), a woman who has never married.

(3) A person (historically always a woman) whose occupation is the spinning of threads (archaic).

(4) A jocular slang variation of the more common a spin doctor, spin merchant or spin master (one who spins (puts a spin on) a political media story so as to lend a favorable or advantageous appearance.

(5) A woman of evil character who has committed evil deeds, so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction (obsolete).

(6) A spider; an insect (such as a silkworm) which spins thread (a rare, dialectal form).

1325–1375: The construct was spin + -ster.  From the Middle English spynnester & spinnestere (a woman who spins fibre).  The early form combined the Middle English spinnen (spin fibers into thread) with -stere, the Middle English feminine suffix from the Old English -istre, from the Proto-Germanic -istrijon, the feminine agent suffix used as the equivalent of the masculine –ere.  It was used in Middle English also to form nouns of action (meaning "a person who ...") without regard for gender, a use now common in casual adaptations.  Spinster came to be used to describe spinners of both sexes which clearly upset some because by 1640 a double-feminine form had emerged: spinstress (a female spinner) which, 1716 also was being used for "a maiden lady".  Spinster, spinsterishness, spinsterism, spinsterism, spinsterdom, spinstership and spinsterhood are nouns and spinsterish, spinsterly, spinsterlike & spinsteresque are adjectives; the noun plural is spinsters.

The unmarried Lindsay Lohan who would probably have been described as a bachelorette, "Heart Truth Red Dress", Fall 2006 fashion show, Olympus Fashion Week, Manhattan, February 2006.

How prevalent the practice actually was is impossible to say because of the paucity of social histories of most classes prior to the modern age but the public attitude was said to be that unmarried women were supposed to occupy themselves with spinning.  This spread to common law through that typically English filter, the class system.  So precisely was the status of the spinster defined that the cut-off point was actually where one’s father sat in the order of precedence, a spinster "the legal designation in England of all unmarried women from a viscount's daughter downward".  Thus a woman’s father had be on the third rung of the peerage to avoid spinsterhood and that meant to avoid the fate the options were either marriage or to secure him an upward notch (from viscount to earl).  The use in English legal documents lasted from the seventeen until well into the twentieth century and, by 1719, had become the standard term for a "woman still unmarried and beyond the usual age at which it was expected".

A metallic wood-boring beetle (left) and a thornback ray (right).

One alternative to spinster which still shows up in the odd literary novel was the Italian zitella (an older unmarried woman).  Zitella was the feminine form of zitello (an older, unmarried man), which was from zito (a young, unmarried man), from the Neapolitan or Sicilian zitu, both probably related to the Vulgar Latin pittitus (small, worthless).  The feminine form of zito was zita (young unmarried woman) and both in southern Italian dialectical use could be used respectively to mean boyfriend & girlfriend and also a type of pasta (correctly a larger, hollow macaroni but as culinary terms they’ve apparently be applied more liberally).  The Italian zitellaggio (zitellaggi the plural) was the state of spinsterhood, the construct being zitella +‎ -aggio.  The suffix -aggio was from the Latin -āticum, probably via the Old Occitan –atge and was used to form nouns indicating an action or result related to the root verb.  Pleasingly, Zitella is a genus of metallic, wood-boring beetles in the family Buprestidae, containing four species and commonly known as jewel beetles or metallic wood-boring beetles.  Quite why the name was chosen isn’t immediately obvious but it’s not uncommon for genera and species to be named after an individual or a place associated with the discovery.  It’s therefore wholly speculative to suggest a link between an entomologist’s girlfriend and a wood-boring beetle.  Still, even that connection might be preferred to the archaic English form "thornback" (a woman over a certain age (quoted variously as 26 or 30 and thus similar in construction to the modern Chinese Sheng nu (剩女; shèngnǚ) (leftover women) who has never married and in the eighteenth century a thornback was thought "older than a spinster").

The slang “old maid”, referring to either to a spinster of a certain age or one who, although younger, behaves in a similar way (the implication being negative qualities such as fussiness or undesirability) is from the 1520s and the card game of that name is attested by 1831 (though it may now be thought a microaggression).  Bachelorette or the gender-neutral forms “unmarried” or “single” tend now to be preferred.  Spinster is a noun, spinsterish an adjective and spinsterishly an adverb but the most commonly used derived forms were probably the noun spinsterhood and the adjective spinsterlike.  The noun plural is spinsters.

End of spinsterhood.

On Sunday 28 November, Lindsay Lohan posted on Instagram her notice of engagement to Bader Shammas (b 1987), an assistant vice president at financial services company Credit Suisse.  At that point Ms Lohan should have been styled as betrothed which is the state of being engaged; the terms fiancé (or fiancée) also used.  By tradition, engagement rings are worn on the left hand.  Fortunately (for Instagram and other purposes), the ring-finger, partially severed in a nautical accident on the Aegean in 2016 was re-attached with some swift micro-surgery, the digit making a full recovery.  The couple's marriage was announced during 2022.