O

OUTSTANDING
ACADEMIC
PAPERS BY
STUDENTS
A collaborative, international program
by academic research libraries
to encourage, recognize, and preserve
excellence in student scholarship
USC LIBRARIES | USC UNDERGRADUATE
WRITERS CONFERENCE
A
P
S
UNI VERSI TY OF SOUTHERN CALI FORNI A
2014
OAPS
OUTSTANDI NG
ACADEMI C
PAPERS BY
STUDENTS
APRI L 2014
USC LIBRARIES
USC UNDERGRADUATE WRITERS CONFERENCE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
USC LIBRARIES
USC UNDERGRADUATE WRITERS CONFERENCE
Published by
Figueroa Press
840 Childs Way, 3rd Floor
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2540
2014 USC Libraries
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written
permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews.
ISBN-13: 978-0-18-217423-2
ISBN-10: 0-18-217423-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010925616
Contents
FOREWORD
Catherine Quinlan
INTRODUCTION
Nathalie Joseph
HOLD THE LINE: THE ANTI-NAZI WORK OF THE WRITER-
ACTIVIST LION FEUCHTWANGER
Tyler Cundi
HEAVEN IN HARLEM: ART AND EDUCATION AS SAVING GRACES
IN SAPPHIRES PUSH
Sonya Egoian
ENDS AND MEANINGS: SI GUARDA AL FINE
AND MACHIAVELLIAN VIRTUE
Amanda Griths
APPROPRIATED SPACE: SPATIAL AMBIGUITY IN HONG KONG
Jessica Leung
DUDE, WHERES MY GENDER FLUIDITY? ON HEGEMONIC
MASCULINITY, CULTURAL RESISTANCE, AND BRANDS
Snir Levi
POST-PORN CULTURE: THE EFFECTS OF SEXUAL MEDIA ON
SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS, IDENTITIES, AND DESIRE
Jordan Nowaskie
HELPING THE HELPER: PREDICTING THERAPIST RESILIENCE TO
VICARIOUS TRAUMA
Odette Overton
PITX2 TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR INHIBITS REPROGRAMMING
OF HUMAN DERMAL FIBROBLAST CELLS
Baotran Vo
4
6
8
26
38
64
86
100
126
180
Foreword
CATHERINE QUINLAN
Dean of the USC Libraries
5
This year marks the fth anniversary of our becoming the rst North American
academic library to join the Outstanding Academic Papers by Students (OAPS)
program and our third year working with the USC Undergraduate Writers
Conference to select and publish excellent student research and writing. Each
yearthanks to our libraries participation in OAPSa volume of excellent
papers by USC students becomes part of the collections at 11 major, Pacic Rim
universities in Asia and North America.
For our libraries, OAPS oers a means of recognizing student achievement
resulting from meaningful engagement with research materials, of showcasing
the breadth and depth of scholarship, creativity, and writing skills that
dene our outstanding student body. For our students, OAPS presents a
unique publishing opportunity, often a rst experience of the great sense of
accomplishments that attends creating new knowledge and sharing it with a
global academic community.
In honor of this fth year of USCs participation in OAPS, we have added a
new category of papers to the publication. USC is home to the Feuchtwanger
Memorial Library, named for exiled novelist Lion Feuchtwanger who donated
his residence and personal library to USC. Students who conduct research
using the exile studies primary sources in our special collections are eligible
to win our Feuchtwanger Travel Award to support their attending an academic
conference to present their work. The paper by this years recipient joins those
selected by our Undergraduate Writers Conference colleagues for this fth-
anniversary volume.
Professor Steve Ching, university librarian of the City University of Hong Kong
and chair of the OAPS Task Force, remains the inspiring, tireless force behind the
program, and I thank him for inviting us to join this esteemed group of libraries
in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. I am also grateful to
USC professors Norah Ashe-McNalley and Nathalie Joseph, as well as student
editors, who continue to help us share the transformational talents of USC
students with an international audience of their peers.
Introduction
NATHALIE JOSEPH
Associate Professor, USC Dana and David Dornsife
College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
7
This particular iteration of OAPS stands out not just for the consistently high
quality of work by students, but also because of the impressive dedication of the
faculty who guide these students in the process of fullling their goals. In some
academic environments, the established culture encourages a distance between
faculty member and student, often intended to maintain the obvious power
dynamic at play in these environments. I am regularly impressed to see that is not
the case here at USC. In working to be not just researchers or teachers, but also
mentors to the next generation of critical thinkers, we are training the up-and-
coming generation to eventually develop the same skills we ourselves continue
to hone every day. These critical thinking skills, coupled with a prioritization
of consistent quality in our students writing, ultimately prepare these student
authors to contribute to their disciplines in meaningful ways.
A quick glance through the following pages will reveal original scholarship on a
multitude of topics. Students carefully examine topics as disparate as biomedical
engineering is from spatial ambiguity, or Machiavelli is from the social eects of
sexual media. Though we edit the original texts to remove errors and establish
consistency of clarity and quality, the arguments are the students alone.
In terms of preparing this publication, we strive to improve year after year. Like
last year, we utilized the Scribe (scribe.usc.edu) sta to spot some of the initial
candidates among a huge volume of articles. This years main OAPS editor,
Shannon Zhang, not only worked through and ranked those articles in terms of
their appropriateness for this publication, but also recruited additional articles
under my guidance. It is also worth noting that in addition to diligently preparing
these texts, Shannon continued to participate actively in Scribes ongoing
preparation and publication of articles. Though Shannon and I had many meetings
to discuss the articles and pick the nal group, I found myself repeatedly humbled
by the formidable writing ability and ambitious drive of our students.
As is the case with so many university projects, OAPS succeeds due to the
contributions of so many people, some of whom are hidden behind the scenes.
Among these invisible contributors, my colleague Norah Ashe-McNalley has
always provided a rst reaction to so many of my ideas over the years. I sincerely
thank her for her participation in and support of every project I take on. Thanks
is also owed to the current Scribe sta: Lilian Min, Georgia Soares, Ryan Kindel,
Samantha Cadwell, Monisha Dadlani, Mayra Moran, and of course Shannon Zhang.
A warmest acknowledgment is also owed not just to the outstanding writers
featured here in this publication, but to the many more undergraduate writers who
move through our halls for a short four years.

Hold the Line: The Anti-Nazi Work
of the Writer-Activist Lion Feuchtwanger
TYLER CUNDIFF
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Departments of Political Science and Communication
WOLF GRUNER, Faculty Advisor
9
The battle against Nazi Germany under Hitler in the 1930s and early 1940s was
fought on multiple fronts, and in the ideological theater Hitler found a nemesis
in Lion Feuchtwanger. Feuchtwangers opposition was particularly threatening
due to his expansive international readership and inuence. This paper traces
the development of Feuchtwangers anti-Nazi writing for the English-speaking
international community. Examining his articles, interviews, and essays originally
in English, I contend that these sources depict a transition of Feuchtwangers
activism from raising international awareness of the Nazi threat to drawing a clear
dichotomy between the German people and the Nazis once war broke out, and
nally to advocating his particular brand of cosmopolitanism in the post-war era.
Due to the narrow scope of my research question, informed signicantly by my
own restrictions in terms of time and language, I endeavored to utilize almost
exclusively primary source material: Feuchtwangers articles, interviews,
and essays. The narrow focus of this brief paper also precluded a broader
examination of his anti-Nazi political activism within the context of his historical
novels. Additionally, I was loath to engage with translations of his more relevant
novels, as his general dissatisfaction with those translations was evident
throughout his life; however, for the sake of perspective I will also utilize the work
of his great-nephew Adrian Feuchtwanger on his political activism. Thus, the vast
majority of the writings I consider were written by Lion Feuchtwanger in English
and largely intended for an English-speaking audience. It is also important to
note that my use of the term anti-Nazi includes both Feuchtwangers work
before and during the war, which more directly opposed the National Socialist
party itself, and his work post-war, which was heavily marked by a desire to avoid
the perpetuation of the partys ideological elements.
10
Aside from Adrian Feuchtwangers dissertation Between Fascism and Stalinism:
Lion Feuchtwangers Political Engagement from the 1930s to the 1950s, there
is very little prior literature in English on the particular components of Lion
Feuchtwangers anti-Nazi political activism. It is, again, unfortunate that I could
not review the literature in German and other languages; the International
Feuchtwanger Society has elicited papers on various aspects of Feuchtwangers
life and work, but those papers were either topically irrelevant or unavailable
for review. It is also signicant to note that there is a large body of work on
Feuchtwangers experience purely as a novelist, as well as a good deal written on
the Jewish-German exiles of Southern California as a community; neither of these
areas have great bearing on my particularly narrow investigation.
The most signicant contextual phenomenon of any examination of
Feuchtwangers activism is the fact that he considered himself not a political
activist but a historical novelist and playwright that happened to nd topics
of political consequence worthy of his attention. This is apparent in his
view of the historical novelist; in a 1941 interview, he expounded upon
his didactic motivations:

I try to convey this sense of continuity in my historical novels.
I want every single character, every single event to impress you
not as some interesting and unique phenomenon, something
that had happened once and is now dead, but as something in
our immediate environment, something that lives on among us.
There is no dierence between Adolf Hitler and the False Nero
of my novel The Pretender, there is little dierence between the
Jew Joseph Suess-Oppenheimer of my novel Power and some
German Jew of our time. The stories I tell you about people
with a historical background, are stories of today.
1
11
In this manner, Feuchtwangers anti-Nazi undertakings are illuminated as being
molded tangentially to his historical considerations as an author. Indeed, Adrian
Feuchtwanger noted in his doctoral dissertation that Lions cosmopolitan, liberal
political identity (which stood awkwardly between parties in the highly polarized
German political landscape of the 1920s and early 1930s) was juxtaposed with his
general reluctance for political engagement:
Though he [Lion Feuchtwanger] may have delivered his
message through orthodox leftist channels, the content of
his statements reected his preferred standpoint of the
sceptical [sic] liberal humanist. Thus his essay Weg zur
Politik represented a somewhat tentative approach to
political engagement.
2

This tentative approach necessitated a situation of considerable impetus for
Feuchtwangers activation as a deliberate and outspoken activist, and the rise
of the Nazi Party provided this exigency. Feuchtwangers view on writer activism,
however, was by no means undened or confused; upon his rescue from Vichy
France and his arrival in New York, he gave a speech in which he painted writers
as guardians of morality and culture:
In the city of London to-day there must be a feeling of
depression and at the same time of elation that nothing but a
thin line of a few thousand pilots stands between the capital
and the enemy; that the fate of the British and their civilization
depends upon the courage, the dexterity, the nerves of these
few thousand pilots.
Just as this thin line protects the British civilization, in the
same manner a thin line of writers protects the cultural
inheritance of us all. A few thousand writers form the moral
front in this decisive struggle.
12
The enemy knows it as well as we do, and this is why he
persecutes this wretched little heap of writers with the whole
force of his gigantic war machine. Whatever new country he
conquers, the writers are the rst against whom he directs the
full impact of his brutal weapons.
It must be realized that the Fascists do not only persecute
the political opponents among the writers; they persecute
all writers who deserve the name. Fascism sees in the
creative writer the natural born enemy.
3

In drawing a parallel between writers and ghter pilots, Feuchtwanger is
taking an activist step all the more considerable because it militarizes an
art he considered most suitable for the rhetoric of peace. In this way, Lion
Feuchtwanger the cosmopolitan historical novelist was thrust to the forefront of
the political struggle against the fascism incarnate in the Nazi regime.
The rst major aspect of Feuchtwangers anti-Nazi writings for the international
English-speaking community relies only obliquely upon ideological basis, and
deals primarily with journalism in that it consists of his documentation and
subsequent attempts to raise awareness of Nazi oppression and atrocities; thus,
the initial salvo in his battle possesses an almost preventive sensitivity. In line
with his transition from novelist to activist, Feuchtwangers rst notable foreign
article, published in a March 1933 edition of New York Herald Tribune Magazine,
dealt with the threat the Nazis posed to creative intellectualism, tying the
German Jews inextricably to Germanys endangered cultural heritage:
German super-nationalism sees something uncanny in this
group of people who have lived for thousands of years without
militarism, which to the genuine nationalist seems to be the
13
only real force. The devilish group of Jews, therefore, must be
blamed for the lost war. The next move was to blame the Jew not
only for the outcome of the war but for its outbreak, devised for
the destruction of the German people. Adolf Hitlers conception
of the Jew as portrayed in his book, Mein Kampf, ought to be
extremely interesting to the psychiatrist. For him the Jew is the
incarnation of devil, responsible not only for the World War but
for Bolshevism, Socialism and capitalism. Hitlerism has declared
war on culture. Mans destructive urge, Sigmund Freud holds,
is humanitys worst enemy. National Socialism is a stimulant to
the destructive urge, and it combats enlightenment, which is
opposed to destruction. A movement proclaiming that people
did not have to repress their anti-social impulsive and primitive
instincts had, of course, a tremendous advantage over the
unpleasant loyalty to reason and to social impulse. One may
say with some justication that German Fascism is an organized
opposition against intellect and talent.
4
Feuchtwanger holds in this excerpt that the Nazi anti-Semitism directly threatens
German culture, a claim supported by the historically integral role of Jewish-
German intellectuals in Germanys intelligentsia. Feuchtwanger sought to stir up
international awareness of this threat, delivering his preliminary shot against a
still-young Nazi Party. Almost simultaneously, he appealed also to international
humanitarian and justice concerns by reporting on the early pogroms against
Jews, Catholics, and Socialists in 1933 Germany. In the article I Warn the Jew-
Baiters, published in the Evening Standard and reprinted as Terror in Germany
Amazes Novelist by the New York Times, Feuchtwanger alerts of atrocities
against the aforementioned segments of the German population and pays
particular attention to the actions of the S.A.:
What has, in fact, happened in Germany? Six hundred
thousand very young men to whom every characteristic can
be acknowledged except moderation have been stirred up by
14
every means against the workmen and the Jews. They have
been supplied with arms and given power such as has never
before been granted to a policeman in the police state of
Germany But that the six hundred thousand should have
gone so far as they have was probably not anticipated, even by
Herr Goering. I am not talking of such incidents as the driving
of Jewish doctors out of the clinics by government order, of
the fact that Jewish lawyers and judges are not allowed to
carry out their duties, that a large number of S.A. men have
been driving about in motorcars taken away from Jews on the
grounds that it was provocative for Jews to drive in cars. It is
far worse to think that we shall never know how many people
have been killed in these days simply because they looked
like Jews or bore Jewish names, or how many have been shot
while trying to escape.
5
Such bold allegations must have seemed, to the Americans of 1933, incredible;
indeed, the article ran with a subheading noting that, the Evening Standard,
while remaining impartial, publishes Dr. Feuchtwangers article as the pro-
nouncement of a distinguished author on a subject of world importance.
6

Despite this probability of skepticism, Feuchtwangers composition of the article
highlights his eorts to educate a foreign audience as part of his anti-Nazi
campaign. In his piece France after the Fall in Common Sense magazine he
brings to light the existence of widespread underground resistance in France as
well as a general feeling of nationalism against the German occupation, contrary
to the puppet Vichy governments portrayal of occupied France as a paradise.
Upon discussion of the Vichy governments promise of abundance for the French
peasant and its eect of eliciting popular French support for the occupation
government, Feuchtwanger counters:
15
A Frenchman does not look on ghting for a daily half a
potato as a way to live. Turnips and potatoes do not satisfy
his stomach, and the German radio does not satisfy his soul.
Hourly he is made to feel the consequences of his defeat.
In the face of these daily experiences the manifestoes of
Vichy have a ludicrous eect. Even the attempt to put the
blame on the suering shoulders of the British has failed. At
the Weisbaden conference France agreed to pay Germanys
million-man army of occupation at a rate of four hundred
francs per man per daywhich comes to about twenty-
ve times what the French people can aord for their own
subsistence, per man, per day. Since then everyone in France
is quite clear as to who is to blame for their misery. The
embitterment is general and it is immense. The German radio
broadcasts themselves prove it, with their repeated warnings
to the French about their lack of understanding. The nave
reports published in the Voelkischer Beobachter of the visit
of a delegation of German poets to Paris prove it, with their
expressions of surprise at the fact that the inhabitants of the
workers suburbs displayed such enmity toward them. The
poets reported correctly. The Frenchman refuses with his whole
heart to look on the present status of his country and of the
world as something nal. He hates the Nazis and he hates his
own fascists. He looks to Britain, to America, sets his teeth,
and waits.
7
This excerpt again demonstrates Feuchtwangers strategy of simply providing
an accurate account of life under the Nazis, this time in Vichy France; he works
to document the historical truth about Nazi governance and, subsequently,
inuence thought and elicit action at an international level. This eort to
raise awareness and document the realities and atrocities of the Nazi regime
constitutes the rst of three major elements of Lion Feuchtwangers anti-Nazi
writings abroad; the next aspect is of a more personal nature.
16
The second major facet of Feuchtwangers anti-Nazi writing is his intense interest
in delineating German and Nazi independently; establishing this dichotomy was of
vital importance to him, in the interest of postwar Germany, and thus represents
the transition of his anti-Nazi crusade from preventive measures to damage control
for the German cultural identity he held so dear and felt obligated to safeguard.
In a 1943 paper, Feuchtwanger argued passionately against the idea of any deep
association between the German people and the Nazis:
The Nazis, because of a tremendous inferiority complex, are
pathologically conceited, ambitious, pretentious and lled
with a mad race-pride. The Germans, however, are inclined
to appreciate the achievements and merits of foreigners, of
nations as well as individuals. The Nazis, with all their gift for
organization, are intellectually sterile. Feeling their lack of
talent they have a deep mistrust for everything intellectual.
They outlaw writers. They persecute real creative forces.
They burn the books. They ban the works of art. They adhere
to the motto: A man of German character can never be an
intellectual. The Germans on the other hand venerate deeply
intellectual achievement. Without the noise of many trumpets
Thomas Manns Buddenbrooks or Remarques All Quiet on the
Western Front found in one single year more readers than
Hitlers Mein Kampf in six years of the most violent propaganda.
During all these years, up to the beginning of the war, the Nazis
were never able to rule except at the point of bayonets. They
always had to use the wildest terror to maintain their rule over
the German people. To remain in power the Nazis were forced
to execute thousands in concentration camps and to deprive
millions of their livelihood. The German people have been
subjugated in a battle, less obvious and less crowned with
glory, but no less heroic than the ght of the other nations,
conquered by the Nazis. To exterminate Fascism means to
liberate the German people. Once the junkers and generals
and the guilty business leaders and their adherents are done
away with, then it will soon be obvious that the Nazi-coloration
which during these eleven years has disgured the face of the
German people, was nothing but grease paint.
8

17
By utilizing the grease paint metaphor, Feuchtwanger ensures that he portrays
the Nazis as a blight upon the German nation and works, through his stark, wildly
contrasting characterizations of the Nazi and German identities, to dissuade
international coupling of the two. This part of his anti-Nazi crusade, however, he
was not content to wage alone; he galvanized the entirety of the exiled Southern
California German intellectual community. In a cable telegram to the German
American Anti-Nazi Monthly, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Bertold Brecht,
Berthold Viertel, Bruno Frank, Hans Reichenbach, and Ludwig Marcuse joined
Feuchtwanger in signing the following German-American Peace Manifesto,
which is here transcribed in full from the original cable:
The National Committee of the Free Germany has asked the
German People to collaborate with the Allied Nations and to
force the common Nazi enemy to unconditional surrender.
Undoubtedly this manifesto will help the United Nations to
attain their war aims. It will contribute to expedite the end of
the war and the coming of a total democratic peace. It will
help to exterminate the plague of fascism all over the world. It
will save the lives of innumerable soldiers on all fronts and of
innumerable civilians in all countries. Just as it was called to
the attention of the world by Mr. Roosevelts and Mr. Churchills
manifesto that the Italian people are not identical with the
Italian regime, this manifesto of the German Committee
emphatically tells the world that the German people cannot
be identied with the Nazi regime. Never not even after Hitler
had seized power did the Nazi obtain a majority in any free
elections. The Nazi regime since its beginning could only
maintain its power by ghting against enormous underground
movements with the axe of the henchman and gigantic
concentration camps. We German writers who have fought the
Nazis for two decades and who have brought grave sacrices
in this ght we welcome it wholeheartedly when the German
people are asked to throw o the disgusting mask which had
been forced on them by the Nazis and the international fascists
all over the world.
9

18
It is immediately apparent, from the strict separation of German and Nazi
to the rhetoric of the Nazi mask upon the face of the German people, that
Feuchtwanger had a strong inuence on the composition of the manifesto. As
with his previously cited essay, this statement furthers Feuchtwangers mission
of drawing a dichotomy between the Germans and the Nazis in the eyes of the
international community.
The third major component in the tracing of Lion Feuchtwangers anti-Nazi
writing deals primarily in his firm antinationalism/pro-world-unity stance,
part and parcel of his life work and yet even more significant in the postwar
era. As noted previously, Feuchtwangers cosmopolitan worldview (while
somewhat misdirected during his support of Stalins Soviet state) always
incorporated this ideological stance, even before the rise of the Nazi threat.
In his unpublished 1927 essay On Sense and Nonsense of Nationalism, he
sought to destabilize every reasonable foundation for the nationalism of the
post-World War I era, opting instead for a truly reasonable, far more unifying
sense of belonging:
I have tried to demonstrate to you that only one reasonable
nationalism exists, that nationalism which is based on the
conformity of the individuals as to the problems of the view of
life. This nationalism does not know any political boundaries,
it goes right across through the other nationalisms. This
reasonable nationalism really divides the men of our time
into two groups. Not into Europeans and Americans, not into
Germans and Frenchmen, not into Aryans and Jews, not into
workmen and peasants, not into bourgeois and proletarians,
but into barbarians and non-barbarians. There is no doubt that
in consequence of the war [WWI], Europe has been barbarized
far more than for many generations back. There is no doubt,
that on the other hand America has gradually become more
19
meditative and begun to consider certain of her qualities to
be barbarian. The individual is free to decide to which group
he wants to belong. The dividing-line is drawn by the will of
the individual to contribute his part to the debarbarization
of the world. The nation of the barbarians has the majority
among the white peoples, and it would be foolish to cherish
any illusion about the fact that since the war the barbarians
have gained ground. Every individual has today to go through
situations, where he has to make his choice between the two
groups. The decision whether anybody belongs to Europe or
to America, has seldom been left to himself. But whether he
wants to belong to the nation of the barbarians or to that of the
antibarbarians; that decision is left to himself.
10
It is clear that the Nazi Party would belong, in Feuchtwangers worldview, to
the barbarians, and that he condemns not only their ardent nationalism but
that of every traditional European power, pointing instead toward the unity
fostered by Americas multicultural, multinational structure as the future of
civilization. It is interesting, then, that the currents of history pushed him
between not only fascism and Stalinism as Adrian Feuchtwanger suggests
but American and Soviet nationalism, for both of which he had a great
admiration. Indeed, it is just this cultural clash that he seeks to ameliorate
in his 1947 World Unity Plea:
What then remains for the writer to do, one who is tormented
when he considers how nationalistically split the world of
today is, and who perceives with anger what strong forces are
at work to deepen the split? I believe such a writer, if he is not
a great journalist, should wait a long time before testing his
projects. That does not mean that I am speaking in behalf of an
ivory-tower theory. I do not believe that a creative author is in
a position always to adapt his visions to the political needs of
any given moment. He must express whatever interests him.
And if he only writes well, then his work as a whole will be
20
saturated with his convictions, so that nally even his political
convictions will achieve clear formulation. Mark Twain, Jack
London, Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis and John Steinbeck
did not take pains to stress the peace-loving sentiment of the
American nation. For all that, those Soviet citizens who read
their books will begin to be uncertain whether the American
nation really stands behind those war-inciting utterances which
they are oered in some quarters today as the convictions of
individual Americans. And on the other hand, those American
readers who read Tolstoy or Scholochov will ask themselves
whether the nation of those writers would really aim at
conquering and dominating the world.
11

In comparing Twain, London, Sinclair, Lewis, and Steinbeck to Tolstoy and
Scholochov, Feuchtwanger aims to overcome the same nationalism he labeled
nonsensical in hopes of bridging cultures with shared republicanism and defusing
the coalescing Cold War. Here it is clearer than anywhere else in his work that the
antinationalist seeds planted in his ideology by WWI and nurtured under the Nazi
regime were directly responsible for his blossoming pro-unity activism at the tail
end of his arc of political engagement.
In conclusion, Feuchtwangers anti-Nazi activist writing for the English-speaking
international community have been shown to follow an arc from raising
awareness of the Nazi threat and atrocities to ensuring the distinction between
German and Nazi during the war, and nally to his platform of adamant pro-unity
and antinationalist cosmopolitanism in the postwar era; characterized by an urge
to share his intense insight into the currents of history, these writings paint a
brave portrait.
21
The scope of Feuchtwangers work, even when only the pieces targeted at the
English-speaking international community are taken as representative of the
larger body, is much more vast than I have portrayed it or, indeed, am able
to portray it. Similarly, this paper has not attempted to make any account of
his considerable time spent laboring under the illusion of utopia in Stalins
Soviet Union or the ideological consequences thereof; Adrian Feuchtwangers
previously-cited work is a much better resource for such inquiry. Additionally,
there are numerous works, among which Adrian Feuchtwangers dissertation
may again count itself, dedicated either in part or entirely to literary analysis
of Lion Feuchtwangers novels, a task that again is not claimed by this paper.
Finally, this paper does not attempt to provide an examination of Feuchtwangers
experience within the context of exile in Southern California; there are dozens
of books and papers dealing with the exiled German intellectual community on
the Pacic. However, his exile was signicant in that it forced his attainment of
familiarity with the English language, which enabled my research. In his lecture
The Working Problems of the Writer in Exile, Feuchtwanger cites his novel Paris
Gazette, originally entitled Exile, thusly:
Incorporated in this novel Exile is a chapter which deals
with the eects of banishment, written during one of the
gloomiest interludes of my exile, a pause between internment
in two dierent French concentration camps. Today Im glad
that, even in those sad days, I placed the emphasis not upon
the suerings of the exiled artist but upon the fact that the
true writer, the one deserving of this name, grows in strength
in exile.
12

22
In service of this growth in strength, he follows:
And till thine this deep behest:
Die to win thy being!
Art thou but a sullen guest
Upon the earth, unseeing,
says Goethe. Banishment is a hard school that sternly teaches
the meaning of the behest: Die to win thy being. A number of
exiled writers have become inwardly more mature, have been
renewed and rejuvenated. They have not only become more
bitter, but also more wise and more just toward their new
world, more grateful and more conscious of their own mission.
Die to win thy being, has become their experience and their
possession.
13

Feuchtwanger could count himself among these strong, exiled writers, as his
experience has informed mine and countless others. In the postscript for Paris
Gazette, he proclaims that in the case of the Germany of 19141939, posterity
will nd it dicult to understand why we should have waited so long before
drawing the only valid conclusion, namely, that the rule of force and unreason
must be ended by force and replaced by a reasonable social order. Any of the
aforementioned limitations could be addressed by further research in service of
assembling a more comprehensive picture of how the writer L.F. confronted the
threat of Nazi action and ideology and, consequently, how one might confront the
poisons of creeping injustice and sullen unreason where they may blight certain
major powers within the international community today.
23
Feuchtwanger, Adrian. Between Fascism and Stalinism: Lion Feuchtwangers Political
Engagement from the 1930s to the 1950s (PhD diss., University of Southern
California, 1991).
Feuchtwanger, Adrian. Lion Feuchtwanger and the Culture of Remembrance, in Against
the Eternal Yesterday: Essays Commemorating the Legacy of Lion Feuchtwanger
(Los Angeles: Figueroa Press, 2009).
Feuchtwanger, Lion. France After the Fall, Common Sense (January 1941), 1215.
Feuchtwanger, Lion. Hitlers War on Culture, New York Herald Tribune Magazine
(19 March 1933), 1, 16.
Feuchtwanger, Lion. I Warn the Jew-Baiters, The Evening Standard (22 March 1933), 7.
Feuchtwanger, Lion, ed. League of Writers (New York, 17 October 1940).
Feuchtwanger, Lion. On the Character of the Germans and the Nazis, Writers Congress,
University of California, Los Angeles (1943).
Feuchtwanger, Lion. On Sense and Nonsense of Nationalism (London, 1927).
Feuchtwanger, Lion. Paris Gazette (London: Hutchinson and Co., Ltd., 1940).
Feuchtwanger, Lion. The Reasons that Made me Write Historical Novels (Los
Angeles: Brush, KMPC, 17 December 1941).
Feuchtwanger, Lion. The Working Problems of the Writer in Exile, Writers Congress,
University of California, Los Angeles (October 1943).
Feuchtwanger, Lion. World Unity Plea by Feuchtwanger, Chicago Daily News (3
December 1947).
Feuchtwanger, Lion et al. German-American Peace Manifesto (Los Angeles, 1943).
REFERENCES
24
1
Lion Feuchtwanger, The Reasons that Made me Write Historical Novels (Los Angeles:
Brush, KMPC, 17 December 1941).
2
Adrian Feuchtwanger, Between Fascism and Stalinism: Lion Feuchtwangers Political
Engagement from the 1930s to the 1950s (PhD diss., University of Southern California, 1991).
3
Lion Feuchtwanger, ed. League of Writers (New York, 17 October 1940).
4
Lion Feuchtwanger, Hitlers War on Culture, New York Herald Tribune Magazine (19
March 1933), 1, 16.

5
Lion Feuchtwanger, I Warn the Jew-Baiters, The Evening Standard (22 March 1933), 7.
6
Ibid.
7
Lion Feuchtwanger, France After the Fall, Common Sense (January 1941), 1215.

8
Lion Feuchtwanger, On the Character of the Germans and the Nazis, Writers Congress,
University of California, Los Angeles. For The Nature of the Enemy Panel, (1943).
9
Lion Feuchtwanger et al, German-American Peace Manifesto (Los Angeles, 1943).
10
Lion Feuchtwanger, On Sense and Nonsense of Nationalism (London, 1927).
11
Lion Feuchtwanger, World Unity Plea by Feuchtwanger, Chicago Daily News (3
December 1947).
12
Lion Feuchtwanger, The Working Problems of the Writer in Exile, Writers Congress,
University of California, Los Angeles, (October 1943).
13
Ibid.
14
Lion Feuchtwanger, Paris Gazette (London: Hutchinson and Co., Ltd., 1940).
ENDNOTES
25
Heaven In Harlem: Art and Education as Saving
Graces in Sapphires PUSH
SONYA EGOIAN
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Departments of Political Science and Narrative Studies
STEPHEN PASQUALINA, Faculty Advisor
27
Illiterate, obese, and pregnant for the second time, sixteen-year-old Claireece
Precious Jones in Sapphires gritty novel Push embodies the shortcomings of
her Harlem community. Precious lives in utter poverty, receives no support from
her school or her home, and suers harrowing sexual and psychological abuse at
the hands of her parents, all of which have made her daily survival both a priority
and a struggle. Perhaps most disheartening to Precious is that those around her
see her as incapable and averse to learning. As a result, resignation and apathy
saturate her classroom experience. Although Precious virtual invisibility presents
a major obstacle, it does not ultimately imprison her. Precious pursuit of art and
education serve as avenues of freedom. Push follows Precious as she enrolls in an
alternative school, and her boundless creativity and gradually improving literacy
release her from the constrictive cycle of poverty and violence. Somewhat
unexpectedly, Precious experience exemplies the Hegelian interpretation
that art and education are the saving graces from existence. Though far from
the conventional Enlightenment subject, Precious undergoes a journey that
explores her imagination and education, eventually liberating her from her
reality. A paradigm of the Hegelian ideal of art and knowledge as vehicles of
enlightenment, the power of literature that Precious uncovers frees her from
her oppressive social conditions. Even though the conclusion of Push reveals
that Precious will forever be grappling with the traumas of her childhood, at its
core, Push contemporizes the classic philosophy of art as transcendence that
empowers its young protagonist.
Contextually, however, identifying a link between G.W.F. Hegel and Push raises
valid concerns. Foremost, as an African-American female, Precious is hardly
Hegels envisioned philosophical subject. Hegels conviction of African inferiority
28
is quite explicit in The Philosophy of History, as Hegel writes that the Negro [...]
exhibits man in his completely wild and untamed state and his characterization
of Africa as the Unhistorical, Undeveloped Spirit is cringe-worthy at best (111,
117). Hegel viewed enlightenment as accessible exclusively to white, land-owning,
and auent malesthose with the means and resources to cultivate an upper-
class education. Not only is Precious exempt from all the above criteria, but also
implicit in a Hegelian interpretation of Push is the notion that liberation from
social oppression is contingent upon a cultured education and appreciation for
art. Naturally, those on the periphery of society often face insurmountable odds
preventing them from an adequate education. This is cyclically problematic, as
the abject poor and uneducated require an education to escape from poverty,
and yet their poverty is an obstacle to that objective. This depiction of liberation,
then, appears elitist. Since Hegels spiritual transcendence is open only to
those with the perceived capacity to achieve it, Precious should be barred from
liberation given her race, class, and educational background.
Racial politics aside, Hegels views on art and education oer a unique insight
into Push. By the novels conclusion, Precious newfound ability to read broadens
her horizons and potential, bringing her out of her past and current existence. No
longer barred from art by illiteracy, Precious can identify with literature and strive
for the higher ideals they represent, an experience that Hegel would call the key
to liberation from reality. After Precious is exposed to the works of Alice Walker
and Langston Hughes, Precious recognizes art as transcendent to reality; she
begins to model her own aspirations after the ideals that surface in her readings.
Precious writes that The Color Purple gives [her] so much strength and the
fairy-tale ending of the novel gives her the tools to envision a life outside of
29
her own (Sapphire 82). Precious recognizes abstract ideals and values, whereas
previously she was buried in the material elements of reality. Icons like Hughes
and Walker oer Precious a palpable sense of identity, as book reviewer Gayle
Pemberton notes in her critique of Push (3). Pemberton explains that literacy
grants Precious access to authors who understand and empower her. Precious
empowerment is further emphasized in a moment of epiphany when she attaches
meaning to her daily life: I was born for a purpose [...] I know I got a purpose, a
reason (Sapphire 75). Here, the reader sees Precious parting from her previous
toughened, cold view that she exists only to serve her mother or feed her child,
both which are grounded in concrete acts. Instead, the education that Precious
absorbs teaches her to value her life in a new, enlightened way. This aligns with
Hegels description of the role of art and education in his lectures on aesthetics:
Art by means of its representations, while remaining within the sensuous
sphere, liberates man at the same time from the power of sensuousness
(49). Hegel articulates that a true understanding of art frees the viewer or
reader from physicality, composed of corporal desires and necessities. Despite
Hegels deplorable racial politics, Precious spiritually embodies his sentiment,
as even her brief introduction to narrative art functions as an opportunity for
conscious reection. Unfortunately, Precious contraction of HIV at the end
of Push prevents her from a wholly Hegelian liberation from reality. Her dire
medical and economic conditions pose serious limitations on a full, unbridled
freedom. Yet, art does prompt her to elevate herself, which is manifest in her
determination to pursue higher education. Precious views art as the key to
escaping poverty, akin to Hegels description of art as the savior of man: Art
lifts him with gentle hands out of and above imprisonment in nature (Hegel
49). With her ongoing poetry and journal entries, Precious, too, creates art
30
that both belongs to her world and lifts her out of it. She develops an inner,
reective life that frees her from her external reality.
Precious escape into enlightenment is mirrored in the transition of her thought
content from the material to the abstract. Despite the heavy presence of
necessity in her life, Precious concerns at the end of the novel are no longer
grounded in materiality. During Precious rst days at her alternative school, she
has diculty accepting her instructors more philosophical, moralistic lessons
because her thoughts are preoccupied by physical needs: Miz Rain say values
determine how we live much as money do. I say Miz Rain stupid there [. . .] Wait
for check, check; cry when check late. Check important [. . .] Dont tell me bout
check not important (Sapphire 64). Finances are integral to Precious life, and
her emphasis of the welfare check overshadows Ms. Rains attempts to impress
a system of values and ethics upon her. Moreover, Precious is apathetic, even
reluctant, to engage Ms. Rain in a dialogue about values and ideas. She fails
to understand the relevance of values in her life. Toward the end of the novel,
however, there is marked change in Precious thoughts, which turn primarily to
love and the future: Maybe I never nd love [. . .] Wat it be like to bee in luv. I
wondr (Sapphire 95, 102). Words like maybe and wonder show that Precious
begins to engage her curiosity and ask reexive questions about her future.
Perhaps more importantly, she explores her identity and societys perception of
her: I always thought I was someone dierent on the inside. I always thought I
was just fat and black and ugly to people on the OUTSIDE. And if they could see
inside me they would see something lovely (Sapphire 125). Her later thoughts
are deeper and multidimensional. Her new thoughts distinguish her internal
identity from the image she projects to others as she examines her relationship
31
with society at large, evidenced through her pronounced use of inside and
outside. Furthermore, she expresses distinct self-worth, a sentiment entirely
absent from the rst half of the novel. Precious heightened awareness again nds
parallel with Hegel, as he believes man capable of lift[ing] himself to eternal
ideas, to a realm of thought and freedom [. . .] he strips the world of its enlivened
and owering reality and dissolves it into abstractions (54). Here, Hegel
clearly equates thought to freedom, treating the two ideals as owing freely
into one another. Hegel describes reality as owering and overclouded with
superuities, preventing man from truly understanding ideas and expression. A
contemporary of Hegel, Friedrich Schiller more specically addresses the issue
of aesthetic education as revelatory: Man, when he reects, can conceive of
Virtue, Truth, Happiness [. . .] those abstractions [. . .] that is the business of
physical and moral education (113). Schiller posits virtue, truth, and happiness
as inaccessible to man without the aid of education, and in the rest of his letters
on aesthetics he ascribes a uniting quality to education. Like Hegel, Schiller sees
man as strapped to sensuality in spite of his eorts, and the purpose of education
is to marry mans sensuous and ideal-driven spheres: When both these aptitudes
are conjoined, man will combine the greatest fullness of existence with the
highest autonomy and freedom (Schiller 88). Schillers freedom is the harmony
of physical learning and intense concentration on abstractions and feeling.
The union of the individual with his state gives rise to freedom. This is uniquely
manifest in Push, as Precious education liberates her from what Hegel calls the
bad, transitory world while simultaneously creating a space for her in society
(9). Pemberton concisely synthesizes this creation of Precious personal and
societal identity: Precious seeks to nd herself through reading, and then she
creates herself through language (Pemberton 3). Pemberton aligns with Schiller,
32
seeing knowledge as harmonizing an individuals spirit with his role in society.
Amidst the turmoil of her external reality, Precious nds an inner balance that
helps her to emerge from her social conditions.
The transition in the fabric of Precious thoughts is also paired with a progression
in her narrative structure that exhibits a nuanced understanding of literature
and the discovery of liberation through art. In Precious early journal entries,
her writing is fragmented and minimal, understandably so because writing is
unfamiliar and somewhat demoralizing for her. Moreover, the quality of her
earliest entries is limited in scope to factual and supercial elements: I gt babe
agn Babe bi my favr (I got baby again Babe by my father) (Sapphire 69). Her
writing reects her existence: restricted and anchored to reality. However, as
Push nears its conclusion, Precious develops her own narrative style and a
penchant for poetry. Furthermore, her poems probe deeply into her emotional and
psychological condition and they become more philosophical in nature. The rst
stanza of the poem that Precious writes after learning she has contracted HIV from
her father is particularly emblematic of the artistic expression she has cultivated:
For
A monf it bin like this. I feel daze.
Ms Rain see it
say you not same girl I know.
is tru. I am a difrent
persn
anybuddy wood be dont u think?
dont
u
think.
(Sapphire 99)
33
Precious harnesses poetry to grapple with her life-altering diagnosis, as her
poems allow her to articulate her thoughts and vent her emotions. Her unusual
poetic structure exhibits a condence and trust in her writing that was absent in
her prior entries. Although her tone seems sad and confused in the rst half of
the stanza, it becomes accusatory toward the end as she nearly challenges the
audience to disagree that anyone would be irrevocably changed in her situation.
As vulnerability gradually replaces her hardened exterior, the artistic expression
that emerges in Precious later writings aords her a near therapeutic freedom to
articulate and cope with her emotions through poetry.
The vulnerability gives way to condence as Precious becomes self-empowered
through literacy. She reinvents her identity, represented by her critical decision
to steal and read her administrative le. As Precious seizes control over her
literacy, she can read her le with minimal assistance, yet she is dismayed to
nd that her history of abuse has been included and that her counselor suggests
she become a home attendant. These facts, and the le in general, symbolize
the way that others in society have viewed Precious throughout her life, and
she describes her le as a dark, enigmatic presence that administrators spoke
of but that she had never understood. Quite literally, Precious decision to read
her le is akin to Precious reading herself for the rst time. Precious ability not
only to read the whole thing by [her] self but also to critique it demonstrates
the agency and enfranchisement she discovers (Sapphire 123). She rejects the
identity that her turbulent past has sculpted, as well as the various labels society
has conned her to in her le, like disappointing and abused (Sapphire 118,
120). While Precious is upset at the les categorization of her past, she displays
an unparalleled anger at its seeming predetermination of her future, further
34
demonstrating her growing condence. The le states that Precious seems to
envision social services, AFDC, as taking care of her forever, and yet Precious
screams back at the inanimate le No way! . . . Im getting my G.E.D., a job, a
place for me and Abdul, then I go to college (Sapphire 120). Clearly, education
has allowed Precious to aspire for goals beyond those listed in her le, and she
desires to free herself from living with the bare minimum. The author herself
states during an interview that, while Precious was enslaved by her ignorance,
she nds a way out through the acquisition of literacy (Hoover 1). Sapphire
comments that, while she could have written a sudden windfall of money or
an upper-class romance into the story line that would also have functioned as
escapes from Precious reality, reading and writing . . . put her in control of her
own life, as opposed to looking outside of herself to heal her, transform her,
accept her, or to love her (Hoover 1). The authors statements suggest that it was
imperative for Precious to muster an internal strength, independently of other
forces. Precious choice to read her le, coupled with Sapphires interview, reveal
that education organically allowed Precious to re-create herself.
Precious improving literacy certainly helps her to redene her identity and her
future, but the condence that accompanies it lters into other, more tangible
areas of her life. The barriers against vulnerability and dependency begin to
crumble. At rst reluctant to even pen her feelings in her journal, Precious
gradually learns the advantages of seeking support and guidance. Eventually, the
journal as an emotional vent escalates to her attendance at an incest support
group and her move into a halfway house. These decisions illustrate Precious
desire to minimize the presence of material dependency in her life, as she is no
longer preoccupied with nding food and shelter for her and child.
35
This graduates to a crowning realization of inner freedom:
Everything is oating around me now. Like geese from the lake.
I see the wings beating beating hear geeses. Its more birds
than geeses. Where so many birds come from. I see ying. Feel
ying. Am ying. Far up, but my body down in circle. Precious is
bird. (Sapphire 129)
Precious articulates this feeling while hearing another incest victim share
her story at the support meeting. She experiences a spiritual liberation, via a
revelation of the collective bonds that unfortunately linked her with a large group
of women. This is arguably the culminating moment in the novel, as she truly
experiences a transcendent moment through her identication with the soaring
birds in the sky, an image that captures the essence of freedom.
Precious determination to conquer her illiteracy causes social and psychological
breakthroughs in her life. She no longer feels chained to her poverty and her
personal growth is exponential as she ghts back against her oppressors.
Certainly, literacy opens a world of knowledge to Precious, but it also allows her
to understand self-love, a previously foreign concept to her. Her freedom is a
release from material existence, but also the establishment of a connection to
the spirituality within herself. Precious undeniable realization of the value of art
and education, despite the barriers constructed by modern poverty and Hegels
own biases, lends even more credence to the universal power of education,
a power that spans history and culture. In twentieth-century urban Harlem,
Precious unearths the seeds of Hegelian thought to achieve the liberation that
neither she, nor Hegel, thought possible.
36
REFERENCES
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. The Philosophy of History (Ontario: Batoche Books, 2001).
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998).
Hoover, Elizabeth. Sapphire on Precious Emancipation, Sampsonia Way (2010),
retrieved from www.sampsoniaway.org/literary-voices/2010/10/04/sapphire-on-
precious-emancipation.

Pemberton, Gayle. A Hunger for Language: Push by Sapphire, The Womens Review of Books,
vol. 14, no. 2. (1996): 13.
Sapphire. Push: A Novel. (New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1997).
Schiller, Friedrich. On the Aesthetic Education of Man. (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982).
37
Ends and Meanings: SI GUARDA AL FINE
and Machiavellian Virtue
AMANDA GRIFFITHS
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Department of Political Science
39
INTRODUCTION
The artful rhetoric of the English Protestant Reformation was not without its
intellectual casualties. Niccol Machiavelli, marred by fortune in legacy as much
as in life, was one of the movements most infamous scapegoats.

Prior to any
direct introduction to Machiavellis literaturethe rst English translation of
Il Principe did not appear until the early seventeenth centuryEnglish
Protestants rst encountered the Italian statesman through the Huguenot
Innocent Gentillet, who, within the pages of his Contre-Machiavel, constructed
and refuted such apocryphal Machiavellian maxims as the world . . . judgeth of
al[l] actions not by the causes, but by the issue and end
1
and crueltie which
tendeth to a good end is not to be reprehended.
2
At a time when Europeans were
attempting to wrest themselves from Papal dominion in political authority as well
as doctrine, the most ready representation of Catholicisms sins was Machiavelli,
whom Gentillet denounced as an atheist who teacheth the Prince to be a
true contemner of God and of Religion.
3
Were it not for Machiavellis Il Principe,
Papal monarchs would have been mere individuals, and the deeds of ruthless
condottieri isolated occasions, not held together by any narrative of advocacy
or approbation. One would have been hard-pressed to nd a text so explicitly
condoning the actions of these leaders and charging the princes of Catholic
Italy to imitate their practices: to calculate, manipulate, betray, and deceive for
what appeared to be their own tyrannical gain. Catholicisms enemies required
a concrete, cohesive narrative of Catholic vice. The fact that they were able to
produce one, written by a Catholic, who condoned these ostensibly hedonistic
vices, provided too perfect an opportunity to ignore. Il Principe, by the very
virtue of its pragmatism, could be made to look quite wicked indeed. Machiavelli
became a prophet of evil, and Il Principe his gospel. The now notorious maxim,
40
the ends justify the meanswherein the ends are taken to mean the
eects of a political enterpriseis only one of many inventive perversions of
Machiavellian philosophy. It is, in fact, a corruption of a rather cryptic quote
found in chapter 18 of Il Principesi guarda al ne.
4

Curiously, however, the vast majority of modern translators seems to have ignored
entirely the enigma of si guarda al ne, which most have interpreted to mean
something along the lines of one looks to the outcome. Rebhorn writes this
precisely;
5
Marriott has one judges by the result;
6
Manseld admits a more
nuanced one looks to the end in his translation of the text,
7
but claries in his
introduction, the end is the outcome.
8
More infrequently, less literal translators
have taken even more jarring liberties with si guarda al ne, writing one must
consider the nal result
9
or the result is what matters.
10
In all instances,
regardless of how precise or distorted the wording, ne has been taken to signify
the nal product of an action, and this translation has long since become tradition.
In reality, the denition of ne is not nearly so plain. It bears a dual meaning,
identical to the dual meaning of end in English. The Italian ne can indeed mean
outcome, and when it does, it generally takes the feminine article la; ne can
also, however, signify the intent or aim of an action, in which case ne adopts
the masculine article il. Alla ne, then, means at [or to] the outcome; al
ne, often, at [or to] the intention. The phrase in question therefore uses the
masculine nethat used to discuss intentions or aims. It is possible, then, that
Machiavellis si guarda al nethe cornerstone of so much controversy and the
quote that was once thought to epitomize what it meant to be Machiavellian
actually means, in part, one looks at the intention.
41
In part is written because one looks at the intention is by no means a complete
articulation of si guarda al ne. Nor is one looks to the outcome. Had Machiavelli
wished to emphasize that the common man looked only to the intention of an actor,
rather than to the outcome of an actionan unlikely thing to believe, anyhowhe
could easily have provided his readers with a much more denitive si guarda allo
scopo, or si guarda allintenzione. Similarly, had he desired to indicate that the
outcome was the only thing of any real signicancean equally illogical assertion,
and counter to much of what Machiavelli writes elsewhere in Il Principesi guarda
alla ne might have been used, as well as si guarda al risultato. For Machiavelli,
the concept of ne as intention is just as important as the notion of ne as
outcome, and both are central to one of Machiavellis greatest contributions to
political thought: his perennially enigmatic virt.
11
The scope of this paper is twofold: rst, it presents an assessment of the
arguments for Machiavellis multivalent use of ne, taking into account the
linguistic structure of the phrase, oering a critical interpretation of chapter
18, and examining Machiavellis attitudes toward both intentions and outcomes
throughout Il Principe. Textual evidence will demonstrate that Machiavellis
si guarda al ne means to allude to both intentions and outcomes, and that
Machiavelli deliberately selected ne, with its double meaning, to indicate that
both are equally relevant to eective rule. In its second part, the paper analyzes
the implications of a dual rendering of si guarda al neparticularly with regard
to its concern over intentions, neglected in prior translationson Machiavellian
virtue. We come to understand that for Machiavelli, virtue can be summarized as
a collaboration between both private goodness and public greatness: the former
of which demands noble intentions, the latter of which requires eective results.
42
For a prince
12
to be truly virtuous, he must temper one with the other, checking,
as always, his mode of proceeding with the qualities of the times.
13
This paper distinguishes between Machiavellis Il Principe and English
interpretations of The Prince, referring to the former when Machiavelli is being
quoted directly and to the latter regarding any indirect English translations.
The purpose of this device is to highlight that though an individual may see
words on a page and understand them, however comprehensively, in their own
tongue, it is impossible to grasp the full meaning of a text independent of the
language in which it was rst written, with all its colloquial nuances and native
idiosyncrasies. Too, as this paper has already demonstrated, the true nature of
a text may become obscured through far more sinister means. Either deliberate
distortion or strategic simplication of key quotes and ideas can yield an
understanding quite counter to an authors original meaning. For these reasons,
this paper relies on literal translations as far as academically possible, oering
alternative interpretations and clarifying idiomatic obscurities with footnotes
when necessary. Any deviation from the literal meaning of a word or phrase will
be indicated immediately. At times, the original Italian will be given along with
its translation, in order to provide greater clarity to readers who wish to explore
other patterns and possibilities not discussed in this paper. Above all, the goal of
this project is not to tell readers what to believe, but to give them the necessary
tools so that they are informed as to how they might reason (for as Machiavelli
himself suggests, it is good to reason about everything). It was, after all,
Machiavellis desire
14
that he write something useful to whoever understands
it.
15
If nothing else, this paper should introduce individuals to new ways of
understanding Machiavelli.
16
43
THE LINGUISTIC ARGUMENT
As has already been iterated, it is best to conceive of the Italian ne as the twin
of the English end, insofar as both are indicative either of intentions or outcomes
and at times, this distinction is dicult to determine. As one might expect,
however, this argument, while a necessary point of departure, is hardly enough
to challenge ve hundred years of convention. The most obvious objection comes
from the hypothesis that the denition of il ne as the intention is somehow a
more recent construct, or that alla ne, for whatever idiomatic reason, could not
have been used to signify the outcome. This supposition, that Machiavelli might
only have used the masculine ne throughout the text, is entirely unfounded.
Both alla ne, as at the outcome (or at the conclusion) and al ne as to the
intention, (or to the aim) along with simply il ne as the intention, occur
multiple times in Il Principe. Alla ne is written three times in Il Principe: once in
book 16sar necessitato alla ne (it will be necessitated at the end);
17
once in
book 18 itselfalla ne hanno superato quelli che si sono fondati in su la realt
(indicating princes who at the end overcame those [other princes] who founded
themselves on reality);
18
and once in book 24se alla ne perd el dominio di
qualche citt (if in the end he lost the dominion of any cities ).
19
Similarly,
Machiavelli uses the masculine (il) ne to mean the aim or the intention
twice in Il Principe, not including the disputed passage in book 18. In book nine,
Machiavelli notes, quello del populo pi onesto ne (that of the populace is
the most honest aim);
20
in book 25 he writes luno si conduce al suo ne e laltro
no the one guides himself to his aim and the other does not, referring to
men who employ the same methods under dierent circumstances; while one
prospers (i.e., achieves what he intends), the other meets his ruin.
21

44
There are, however, other occasions in which ne is used in Il Principe, devoid of
an article, but alongside a masculine adjective. In these cases, ne does, indeed,
seem to mean outcome. This implies that in some cases, the meaning of il
ne is open to interpretation. It is, therefore, understandable that a translator,
schooled in the tradition of Machiavelli as amoral counselor, would neglect the
interpretation of ne as intention for that of ne as outcome. The adaptable
nature of the masculine ne also suggests that it would be inadequate and
irresponsible for our discussion of si guarda al ne to rely wholly on literal
meanings, as even these are subject to opinion. We must go further, paying
particular attention to Machiavellis views on both intentions and outcomes
throughout Il Principe, as well as within book 18 itself.
THE CONTEXTUAL ARGUMENT
Moving to the overall framework of Il Principe, we nd several instances in which
Machiavelli refers, either directly or indirectly, to intentions and outcomes. One could
conceivably argue that the entire treatise is a discussion of the relationship between
intentions and outcomes; yet, while this is certainly a theme, it is hardly the whole
point of Il Principe, and any attempt to prove otherwise would prove nothing apart
from the exceptional perils of conrmation bias. The recurring interplay between
intentions and outcomes in Il Principe is neither to be neglected nor exaggerated. It is
one of many critical threads to be found in the vast tapestry of Machiavellian thought,
interwoven throughout several designs of equal import and intricacy. What follows,
then, is hardly an exhaustive discussion of all of Machiavellis allusions to intentions
and outcomes, or to the signicance of both in eective rule. It is, however, an
analysis of some of his more appreciable references, all of which demonstrate that
outcomes are scarcely the only markers by which leaders are judged.
45
OF PRINCES AND POPES
In chapter 7, Machiavelli discusses Cesare Borgias undertakings as a prince,
which, Machiavelli concedes, suered a tragic conclusion (mainly because
Cesares life suered a tragic conclusion; while he lived, he was spectacularly
successful). Gathering together, therefore, all the actions of the duke, I would
not know how to rebuke him, Machiavelli writes; [b]ecause he, having a great
spirit and high intention, could not have governed himself
22
otherwise;
23
and
only the brevity of Alexanders life
24
and [Cesares] own sickness opposed his
designs.
25
Lauding Cesare Borgia as an ideal prince, even while acknowledging
his eventual downfall, Machiavelli indicates that excellent leadership demands
a certain harmonization of multiple qualitiesamong them, high intentions
and great designsand that taken together, these qualities and intentions
supersede mere outcomes.
26
(Considering the Borgias, an additional point is
worth noting: that within the catalogue of calumnies that typically constructs
the Borgia narrative, both Cesare and Pope Alexander VI areand were
blamed not for the outcomes of their failures, but for the intentions behind
their successes.) Following his extensive praise for Cesare Borgia, Machiavelli
enters into a partial condemnation against Agathocles of Sicily, which, as
others have explained elsewhere,
27
is marvelously equivocal and, on the
surface, quite contradictory. After multiple references to Agathocless virtue,
28

both of spirit and of body
29
and of action, Machiavelli seems to shift his
opinion of the Sicilian tyrant, writing:
One cannot yet call virtue
30
murdering ones citizens, betraying
ones friends, being without faith, without compassion, without
religion; these modes can acquire empire, but not glory . . .
[O]ne does not see why [Agathocles] has to be judged inferior
46
to any most excellent leader.
31
Nonetheless, his heinous cruelty
and inhumanity, with [his] innite villainy, do not permit that he
will be
32
celebrated
33
among the most excellent men.
34

Seldom does one nd so many supercially incongruous statements explicitly
articulated, then subtly reconciled, in so few words. First of all, the qualities
that Machiavelli censures Agathocles for failing to possess are the same as
those listed in chapter 18 of Il Principe, those things for which men are held
good.
35
The things for which men are held good are independent of the things
for which leaders are deemed great, and on several occasions, these two sets
of qualities conict with one another. Machiavelli spends a good portion of
Il Principe examining the dangers of this contradiction. His distinction here
between most excellent leaders and most excellent men is telling. It is
the distinction that dierentiates great leadersthose capable of securing
eective outcomesfrom good menthose who hold benevolent intentions.
Agathocles, Machiavelli brazenly admits, was a man whose deeds yielded
exceptional outcomes: he occupied and maintained the principality of
[Carthage] without any civil controversy, was able to defend his city and in
short time liberated Syracuse from the siege and brought Carthage to extreme
necessity.
36
Yet, Machiavelli says, Agathocles will not be celebrated among
the most excellent men.
As ever, it is important to note the precise wording of Machiavellis argument: he
tells us, not that Agathocles should not be celebrated among the most excellent
men, nor that it is wrong for Agathocles to be celebrated among the most
excellent men, but that he will not be. Onehere the universal one,
the same pronoun used in si guarda al necan not yet call Agathocless
47
myriad barbarities virtue, because, even granting Agathocles the triumphs of
his successes, it is impossible for one to ignore his lack of humane intentions.
Agathocles possesses only the virtue of great leaders, not of good men. Were
one only to be interested in the outcome of a leaders actions, one would not
concern oneself with evaluating that leaders humanity. Clearly, however, one
does consider the humanity and noble intentions of a leader, and for this reason,
one cannot call Agathocless atrocities virtue. This, says Machiavelli, is why
Agathocles will not be celebrated among the most excellent men.
Held among the more excellent men, at least in Machiavellis time, was
Pope Julius II, of whom Machiavelli writes: all [his] enterprises succeeded
for him, and with so much more praise [than was given to Pope Alexander
VI], inasmuch as [Julius] did everything for increasing the Church and not
any private person.
37
For the moment, this paper will overlook the fact that
Pope Alexander VIwhose intent,
38
Machiavelli says, was not
39
to make the
Church great,
40
desired very much to increase the temporal power of the
Church, whereas all of Juliuss actions were immensely (and perhaps solely)
self-aggrandizing. Machiavellis point is that while Pope Alexander VI enjoyed
a great deal of success in his endeavors, he was praised less because of
the remarkable myths perpetuated regarding his allegedly iniquitous aims.
Julius, on the other hand, whose outcomes were no more protable than his
predecessors, was praised more highly only because people believed his
intentions to have been more righteous.
48
CHAPTER 18 AND THE VIRTUES OF INTENTION
More will be mentioned regarding the disparity between intentions and outcomes
throughout Il Principe, which parallels the often-volatile relationship between
goodness and greatness, further on in this paper. For now, we approach the
crux of our argument: a critical interpretation of chapter 18, and of the passage
surrounding si guarda al ne. Rendered in literal English, the passage reads:
And men are so simple, and so obedient to present necessities,
that whoever deceives will always nd [someone] who will
let himself be deceived. . . . To a prince, therefore, it is not
necessary to in fact have all the aforementioned qualities,
41
but
it is very well necessary to seem to have them. In fact I will dare
to say this: that, having them and always observing them, they
are detrimental, and seeming to have them, they are useful.
. . . A prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe
42

all of these things for which men are held good. . . . And so
it is necessary that he has a spirit disposed to turn himself
43

according to the winds and variations of fortune . . . [and] not
depart from the good, when he is able, but to know how to
enter into the evil, when necessary.

It is necessary, therefore, for a prince to have great care
that nothing ever leaves his mouth that is not full of the
aforementioned ve qualities. . . . And men universally judge
more by the eyes than by the hands; because it touches
everyone to see, to feel, few. Everyone sees that which you
seem, few feel that which you are; and those few do not dare
oppose themselves to the opinion of the many that have the
majesty of the state that defends them:
44
and in the actions of
all men, and especially of princes, where there is no judgment
to appeal to,
45
one looks
46
at the intention.
47

49
Of initial signicance is Machiavellis reference to men as obedient to present
necessities. He suggests that men, whose loyalties are ckle, are hardly the
sorts of creatures who will wait until a ruler has reached the end of his tenure
to determine whether he should be praised or blamed. Of course, the inevitable
objection arises that since Machiavellis universal man is often so petty in his
faith and so careless with his judgment, he is blind to the true intentions of his
leader and focuses solely on the outcomes of that leaders actions. The second
half of this premise would be valid were it not for the references explored above
(those to Agathocles, Julius, and Pope Alexander VI),
48
all of which indicate
that the actual achievements of a prince matter less to his people than do his
apparent ambitions. The rst half, however that a great leader might well be
able to conceal his true intentions from his subjectsis eminently probable,
so much so that Machiavelli advises rulers to take for granted the myopic
nature of man. It is not necessary to act from compassion, delity, humanity,
wholesomeness, or adherence to religious doctrine in reality; what is more
important is that a prince seem to possess these inclinations, these things
for which men are held good. These are the virtues of men, not of princes; of
goodness, and not of greatness. They are virtues of intention, not of outcome.
The virtues of men, the things that make men good,
49
are here classied as
virtues of intention for three reasons: rst, as Machiavelli explains above,
these virtues need not be fullled by a leader, merely intended (in appearance).
Second, these virtues are revealed, not through actions, but through words:
Machiavelli advises a prince to take great care that nothing ever leaves his
mouth that is not replete with these virtues.

Were these virtues outcomes, and
not intentions, they would not need to be communicated, merely performed.
50
Finally, these virtues are causes and not eects: in everything a prince does, he
must seem to have acted out of compassion, out of delity, out of humanity, out
of wholesomeness, and out of religious morality, making any one of these things
an actions impetus, but not its result. To illustrate this point, we may recall the
example of Julius, who did everything for increasing the Church, and not any
private person: although the eects of his actions were the same as, or perhaps
even lesser than those of Pope Alexander VI, his cause seemed to be religion, and
for this reason, he was lauded as a better man.
These considerations are often neglected in translating si guarda al ne, owing
in large part to the passage that follows it. Its rst clausefacci dunque uno
principe di vincere e mantenere lo statohas been interpreted a number of
ways: Marriott writes let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his
state;
50
Manseld, so let a prince win and maintain his state;
51
Rebhorn,
a prince should, therefore, conquer and maintain his state;
52
Ricci, let a
prince therefore aim at conquering and maintaining his state.
53
Taken literally,
the second part of the passage reads: the means will always be judged
honorable and lauded by everyone; because the common people are only taken
with that which seems [to be] and with the event of the thing. The word for
event is evento, which Marriott replaces with what comes of it,
54
and which
Manseld substitutes for outcome twice, in both chapters 18 and 21.
55
It is
unclear why Manseld elects to deviate, in this case, from the strictly literal.
The word event may denote an outcome in some instances; however, should
a reader wish to interpret event as outcome, the reader may do so even if
evento is left in its literal form. There is no need to replace a word with a broad
meaning by one of its much narrower denitions, particularly when translating
51
the work of a man who was so artful in his expression. (This is what historically
has been done in the case of si guarda al ne, and is what this paper seeks
to avoid through oering a dialectical re-interpretation, and not a total
retranslation, of the phrase.)
Furthermore, just as evento can indicate the outcome of an action, it can
also allude to appearances and to spectacle. It is just as much a word of
performances as it is of outcomes. Given the nature of chapter 18 as a whole,
it feels innitely more likely that Machiavelli was referring to the theatrical
aspect of the word evento, to a things pomp and ostentation. Although various
editions of The Prince may suggest otherwise, however, it is unnecessary to
replace lo evento della cosa with anything other than its direct translation.
Lo evento should retain its literal form: the event.
It should be recognized, then, that in a chapter dealing primarily with
appearances and the immediacies of public opinion, a phrase such as one
looks to the outcome is glaringly out of place, and, moreover, reects neither
the habits of the common man nor of Machiavelli himself. Intentions, and not
outcomes, are the subject of chapter 18, along with a leaders abilityand
occasional necessityto conceal his true aims, so that his intentions may appear
to be good before his actions can be known to be great.
THE SUBTEXTUAL ARGUMENT
At this point, we must move beyond appearances entirely and venture into the
subtext of chapter 18, approaching, in the process, a deeper understanding of
what Machiavelli meansand not simply what he saysin si guarda al ne.
52
We begin by acknowledging the recurrent interplay between the concepts of
seeing and feeling, strikingly present in chapter 18 yet dicult to grasp fully
in translation. Men universally judge more by the eyes than by the hands,
Machiavelli writes, because it touches everyone to see, to feel, few.
47
The verb
for touch is toccare, which is generally translated as is given to or belongs
to. This change claries the supercial meaning of the passage at the expense
of obscuring the subtleties beneath it, and Manseld, for his part, very dutifully
refers to the literal meaning in his own translation.
48
Everyone sees that which you
seem, Machiavelli writes; few feel that which you are. Seeming and appearing
are actions judged by the eyes, which are used to determine the qualities that
Machiavelli spends chapter 18 arguing that a prince should at all times appear
to possess: compassion, delity, wholesomeness, humanity, and religiousness.
These, as the contextual argument explains, are intentions, which are commonly
judged by appearances, and can rarely be gauged by results. They indicate why an
action is performed, not whether the action itself is great. They are the things for
which men are held good.
56

We can be sure that Machiavelli means that intent may be judged by
appearance, as, when he recites his inventory of noble intentions earlier in
chapter 18, he notes: To a prince, therefore, it is not necessary to in fact have
all the aforementioned qualities,
57
but it is very well necessary to seem to
have them.
58
More to the point is Machiavellis use of the verb guardare in si
guarda al ne. Guardare means to look or to watch. It describes the type
of judgment done by the common man (si), the type of judgment performed by
the eyes. One does not feel the true intentions of his leader; one merely looks
at them, and for this reason, one only observes the purported intentions of the
53
prince. The common people, then, do not judge with their hands, but with their
eyes: they see that which a prince seems to be, and they look at, but do not
feel, his intentions. Insofar as they are subject to present necessities, they are
insensitive to their leaders true aims, just as they are less concerned with the
tangible, long-term outcomes of his actions.
However, for Machiavelli, as well as for the common man, outcomes are still
signicant. This much is evident through Machiavellis choice of ne, a word
that means both intention and outcome, but a word whose meaning is,
here, left vague by design. As previously discussed, had Machiavelli wished
to be clearer, he could have stated unequivocally whether men only looked to
the intentions of their princes, in which case si guarda allo scopo would have
suced. Alternatively, to argue that men were concerned merely with outcomes,
Machiavelli might have written si guarda alla ne. That he did not was no
accident. Machiavelli was neither careless with his thoughts nor cursory with his
words. It was not incidental that he chose ne, with its dual meaning, able to
allude to both intentions and outcomes, when one of the most prevalent themes
of Il Principe is the precarious relationship between these two concepts. The
point is not that si guarda al ne means either one looks at the intention or
one looks to the outcome. The point is that it means both. Machiavelli meant
to imply the importance of intentions as well as outcomes, because a virtuous
princeand a most excellent manmust consider the two alongside one
another. It is here that Machiavellis notion of virtue takes center stage.
54
GOODNESS OF MAN, GREATNESS OF ACTION: INTENTIONS, OUTCOMES, AND VIRTUE
The qualities of Machiavellis time made it very dicult for any leader
ecclesiastical or temporalto consider Christian virtue a particularly critical
tool in the art of ruling. One need only study the strategy of a Sforza, Ferrante,
or Bentivogli to understand that Renaissance politics demanded a ruthless sort
of cunning, and that such cunning often gave way to outright cruelty. It was
against this senseless cruelty that Machiavelli sought to defend himself and
his state, realizing that a rulers gluttony for power amid his moral famine was
scarcely conducive to the united, republican Italy that Machiavelli desired.
However, any sort of undue faith in the goodness of humanity could hardly
maintain such a republic. Machiavelli was a student of his age, and, indeed, of
every age: he saw the wickedness in the world, understood its intractability,
and sought to reconcile it with mans tendency to prosper in liberty. A republic
demanded the sort of legislator willing to allow for this liberty among his
people, but able to defend this liberty against the venality of others. The former
willingness is a matter of intention, and, accordingly, requires the virtues of
good men; the latter ability deals with the skills necessary to aect desirable
outcomes. These are the virtues of a great leader.

THE SINS OF PRINCES
It was Thomas Fuller, who, in his Gnomologia, wrote that great and good are
seldom the same man.
59
Though Machiavelli had been dead more than two
hundred years by the time Fuller published his book of adages, he doubtless
would have agreed with the English preacher, who, likely without knowing it, had
summarized so much of what Machiavelli spends Il Principe trying to convey. For
Machiavelli, there is a fundamental dichotomy between the virtues of men and
55
the virtues of leaders: the rst are dened by their goodness; the second, their
greatness. The pragmatic balancing-act of both these classes of virtue in a leader
is what produces that singular, all-encompassing virtue that Machiavelli believes
distinguishes the most excellent men. Its impact can be felt quite plainly in
Machiavellis reference, in chapter 12, to the sins of princes.
This phrase appears amid a wholesale denunciation of mercenary and auxiliary
arms, and it is meant as a retort against Savonarolas accusation that God chose
to punish the sins of the Italiansspecically the Florentinesby permitting the
1494 French invasion. [W]ho said that the cause of [the invasion] was our sins,
spoke the truth, Machiavelli writes, referring to Savonarola, but they were not
those [sins] that he believed,
60
but those that I have recounted:
61
and because
these were the sins of princes, [the princes] have suered the pain
62
of them.
63


Here, Machiavelli very clearly separates the sins of princes from the sins of
private men. The sins of princes are not the sins of men; therefore, the princes,
and not their people, have borne the brunt of their pain. While the subjects
of Italy suered some displacement upon Charles VIIIs invasion, the worst of
the invasion fell to their rulers, who, in allowing Charles to usurp their land,
had failed both themselves and the states they had been charged to defend.
As their kingdoms lost their power, the princes lost their reputations. Their
sins, therefore, were not violations against goodness, but greatness, and their
punishment was the loss of what would have earned them their empire. The
sins of princes, as Machiavelli writes in chapter 15, are those vices that would
take [the princes] state from him.
64
They are, therefore, questions of outcomes,
and can only be measured by results. They are markedly dierent from the sins
56
of men, andquite profoundlymay even be committed as a consequence of
trying to adhere too tightly to the virtues of men.
In chapter 17, Machiavelli recalls the folly of prior Florentine leaders who, to
escape a name of cruelty, left Pistoia to be destroyed.
65
To Machiavelli, the
province of Pistoia, struggling as it was under the precarious weight of internal
factions and civil strife, would have benetted from Florentine intervention,
66

even if it meant Florences temporary cruelty. Instead, the Florentines sacriced
great outcomes for the sake of good intentions, and Pistoia was left to its own
destruction. For this reason, Machiavelli calls the Florentines crueler than
Cesare Borgia,
67
and sardonically reminds his readers that though Cesare was
held cruel, that cruelty of his had restored the Romagna,
68
united it, forced it
into peace and to faith.
69
Here again, one may reect upon the notion that men
hardly judge actions only by their outcomes; if they did so, Cesare Borgia would
be more likely lauded as a liberator of the Romagna, and less likely condemned
as a scheming tyrant.
Florences non-intervention in Pistoia is one of several occasions in which
intentions and outcomes overlap in such a way that Machiavelli is able to reveal
his own prescriptions for princes. Although the passage si guarda al ne is
predominately descriptiveits literal meaning does not reveal Machiavellis
methods of judging the actions of men, merely the ways in which the common
men judge their princesa decidedly advisory element emerges upon the
recognition that si guarda al ne means one looks to the outcome as well as
one looks at the intention. Machiavelli, able to understand the nature of men as
well as the nature of princes,
70
is capable of judging both the virtues of men and
57
the virtues of princes at the same timeand, likely, within the same individual.
Because a virtuous prince knows well the nature of his people,
71
he, too, must
concern himself with what his intentions appear to be, understanding that men
are occupied by them. He must also, however, consider the outcomes of his
actions, as these outcomes are what will determine his greatness andif his
actions are truly motivated by the proper intentionshis excellence.
72


MACHIAVELLIS ADVICE FOR PRINCES AND AIMS FOR ITALY
Machiavelli does take exceptional care to note the necessity of good
intentions, as well as great outcomes, among the most virtuous princes. Each
provision of potentially nefarious advice is immediately qualied by some
sort of caveat: princes should not depart from the good, when [they are]
able;
73
they should strive
74
to be both loved and feared;
75
and, though they
should learn to be able to be not good, they should useand not use this
skill according to necessity. It should be reiterated that it would have done
Machiavelli no good to advise a prince to hold self-aggrandizement his highest
ideal, to seek power above all else, and to abuse his subjects according to
whim, when Machiavelli himself was a republican, and ultimately sought a
united Italythe sort of state that Cesare Borgia had very nearly created
before he was struck down by the device of Julius II.
In order to unite the states of Italy and establish among them a new tradition of
republican rule, a Machiavellian prince would need to be far-seeing, but not blind
to the immediacies of mens desires. He would have to exercise the necessary
measures to fashion this new Italy and to safeguard it from both internal and
external enemies, but not allow his strength in battle to overpower his will
58
toward the welfare of his people. He would need to check his actions against his
intentions, so that the outcomes he achieved accorded themselves with the aims
he desired. This, to Machiavelli, was virtue. And if Machiavellis words were to
take root only among the power-hungry, he would need to nd a way to ensure
that his own intentions appealed to the power-hungry: by couching his reason
in a rhetoric of ambition, and by aligning the prudent use of goodness with the
princely aim of greatness.
Si guarda al ne is not merely a description of the judgments of men; it is a
prescription for the behavior of leaders. Through deliberately selecting ne, a
word in which both goodness and greatness are implicit, Machiavelli provides
a distilled denition for a critical component of his virtue: the eectual
harmonization between the goodness of a man, seen through his appearances,
and judged by his intentions; and the greatness of a leader, felt through his
actions, and determined by their outcomes.
59
Peter E. Bondanella and Mark Musa. The Portable Machiavelli. New York: Penguin Books,
1979. Google Books edition. Accessed November 27, 2012.

Thomas Fuller. Gnomologia, Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings,
Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British (1732), Google Books edition. Accessed
November 27, 2012.

Terence Irwin, trans. Nicomachean Ethics. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999.

Anthony Lejeune. The Concise Dictionary of Foreign Quotations. Chicago: Fitzroy
Dearborn, 2001.

Niccol Machiavelli. Il Principe. Germany: Reclams Universal-Bibliothek, 1986.

Harvey Manseld. Machiavellis Virtue. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Harvey Manseld. trans. The Prince. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Christopher Marlowe and H.S. Bennett. The Jew of Malta and the Massacre at Paris.
New York: Gordian, 1966.

W.K. Marriott, trans. The Prince. Accessed November 12, 2012,
http://www.gutenberg.org/les/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm

Simon Patericke, trans. Discourse Upon the Means of Wel Governing and Maintaining
in Good Peace, a Kingdome, or Other Principalitie. Divided into three
parts, namely The Counsell, the Religion, and the Policie, which a Prince ought
to hold and follow. Against Nicholas Machiavell the Florentine. London: Adam
Filip, 1602.

Wayne Rebhorn, trans. The Prince and Other Writings. New York: Barnes and Noble
Books, 2003.

Luigi Ricci, trans. The Prince. London: Grant Richards, 1903. Google Books edition.
Accessed November 27, 2012.

Leo Strauss. Thoughts on Machiavelli. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.

REFERENCES
60
1
Simon Patericke, trans. Discourse Upon the Means of Wel Governing and Maintaining
in Good Peace, a Kingdome, or Other Principalitie. Divided into three parts, namely The
Counsell, the Religion, and the Policie, which a Prince ought to hold and follow. Against
Nicholas Machiavell the Florentine (London: Adam Filip, 1602): 92.
2
Ibid., 227.
3
Ibid., 92.
4
Ibid., 140.
5
Wayne Rebhorn, trans. The Prince and Other Writings. (New York: Barnes and Noble
Books, 2003). 77.
6
W.K. Marriott, The Prince, Book XVIII, accessed November 12, 2012, http://www.
gutenberg.org/les/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm
7
Harvey Manseld, The Prince. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 71.
8
Ibid., xviii.
9
Peter E. Bondanella and Mark Musa. The Portable Machiavelli (New York: Penguin Books,
1979). Google Books edition, accessed November 27, 2012.
10
Anthony Lejeune, The Concise Dictionary of Foreign Quotations. (Chicago: Fitzroy
Dearborn, 2001), 213.
11
Rebhorns The Prince prefers to leave virt in its original Italian, emphasizing the contrast
between Machiavellis idea of virtue and our contemporary understanding of the term
(Rebhorn xxix.). For precisely the same reason, Manseld adopts the reverse strategy, and
makes no linguistic distinction between virt and virtue (Manseld xxv.). From this point
onward, this paper will follow Manselds example, acknowledging that there are certain
benets and disadvantages to either method. Whether the reader believes one to be more
eective than the other is merely a matter of preference.
12
As Strauss points out, Machiavellis use of the term prince is uid and applies to all
sovereigns of all states; therefore, citizens of republics and democracies are also princes
in the Machiavellian sense. Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1978), 47.
13
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 194.
14
Intento.
15
For understands it, Machiavelli uses the verb intendere, which also means to
intendso that in the Italian text, there is a melliuous sort of play on the words intento
and intendere. The quote reads sendo lintento mio scrivere cosa utile a chi la intende.
16
Ibid., 118.
17
Ibid., 122. In reference to a liberal princes need to place an enormous scal burden on
his subjects in order to maintain his state.
18
Ibid., 134. Manseld has on their word; in this case, on being genuine or on being
truthful might be a better substitute. (Manseld, The Prince, 69.)
19
Ibid., 190.
ENDNOTES
61
20
Ibid., 76. Or the aim of the people is the most honest [in contrast to the aim of the
powerful]. Here the article il is absent, but Machiavellis use of quello indicates the
masculine gender.
21
Ibid., 194. This is part of the argument used to illustrate one of Machiavellis more
famous lessons, that he is happy that checks his mode of proceeding with the qualities of
the times.
22
Intenzione
23
Manseld has conducted himself. (Manseld, The Prince, 32.)
24
Pope Alexander VI, Cesares father.
25
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 6062.
26
Considering the Borgias, an additional point is worth noting: that within the catalogue of
calumnies that typically constructs the Borgia narrative, both Cesare and Pope Alexander
VI are (and were) blamed not for the outcomes of their failures, but for the intentions
behind their successes.
27
In particular, Strauss (47), and Harvey Manseld, Machiavellis Virtue (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press), 184.
28
The reader may nd it interesting to note that the Italian virt has no plural form
apart from the plural article. La virt refers to one virtue; le virt, multiple virtues. It is,
therefore, unclear at those times when an article is absent whether Machiavelli is referring
to one virtuethe virtue of the most excellent princeor to many, more specic
virtues, each suited toward particular occasions.
29
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 66.
30
Or virtues.
31
Lit. capitano; Manseld and others have captain. (Manseld, The Prince, 35; Rebhorn,
The Prince, 37.)
32
Or, do not permit that he is. Manseld writes do not permit him to be. (Manseld,
The Prince, 35.)
33
It is possible to consider two interpretations of among the most excellent men: either
that Agathocles will not, himself, be celebrated as one of the most excellent men, or that
the most excellent men will not celebrate Agathocles. Both are suitable for the purposes
of this analysis, though this paper considers the rst interpretation more probable.
34
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 6668.
35
Ibid., 138.
36
Ibid., 66.
37
Ibid., 9092.
38
Intento
39
Manseld writes may not have been (Manseld, The Prince, 47).
40
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 90.
41
Compassion, delity, humanity (or sympathy), wholesomeness, and religiousness.
62
42
Or abide by.
43
Or itself.
44
Manseld writes to defend them. (Manseld, The Prince, 71.)
45
This phrase could also read where there is no opinion to complain, or where there
is no judgment to complain. The reader is invited to explore what these dierent
translations might indicate.
46
As the linguistic argument explains, intention is indeed a literal translation.
47
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 13640.
48
Cesare Borgia is omitted here, as Machiavellis thoughts on Cesare are more a reection
of Machiavellis own philosophy and not what he considers the common mans.
49
Here we assume Machiavellis familiarity with Aristotles denition of virtue as that
which makes an object a good version of itself; that enables it to fulll its aim (Terence
Irwin, trans. Nicomachean Ethics (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999, 35253).
A key dierence between Machiavelli and Aristotle is that Machiavelli, as this paper
demonstrates, distinguishes between virtues of goodness and virtues of greatness, while
Aristotle assumes that every man should possess the same virtues, albeit within dierent
means.
50
Marriott, The Prince, Book XVIII.
51
Manseld, The Prince, 71.
52
Rebhorn, The Prince, 77.
53
Luigi Ricci, trans. The Prince (London: Grant Richards, 1950), Google Books edition,
accessed November 27, 2012.
54
Marriott, The Prince, Book XVIII.
55
Manseld, The Prince. 88. The quote here, literally, reads: he has always done and
plotted great things, which have always kept the spirits of [his] subjects in suspense and
admiration, and occupied in the event of them. (Machiavelli, Il Principe, 174.) Manseld
writes occupied with their outcome. (Manseld, The Prince, 88.)
56
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 138.
57
Ibid., 138.
58
Just because it is not necessary to be good, however, does not mean that genuine
goodness is not benecial at times. As Machiavelli says, it is important not to deviate
from the good, when possible.
59
Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings,
Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British (1732), Google Books edition, 67. Accessed
November 27, 2012.
60
The Italian peoples descent into license and wickedness.
61
The Italian princes use of mercenaries and auxiliaries.
62
Manseld writes punishment (Manseld, The Prince, 49).
63
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 94.
63
64
This is Manselds translation (Manseld, The Prince, 62).
65
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 128.
66
Pistoia, at this time, being under Florentine rule.
67
Cases such as these, in which Machiavelli compares Cesare Borgia favorably to former
Florentine leaders, are often thought to have been meant as an aront to the ruling Medici
family, and are typically cited by pro-satirists as proof that Machiavelli wrote Il Principe
as a farce. In reality, these references are less controversial than they appear, as the
government Machiavelli censures here was one hostile to the Medici, who would have very
much enjoyed hearing of their enemies political failures.
68
Manseld, educed it to peace and to faith. (Manseld, The Prince, 65.)
69
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 126.
70
Ibid., 6.
71
Ibid., 6: To understand well the nature of the people, one needs to be prince.
72
For a more cogent argument regarding a princes need to weigh his reputation for
goodness against the ultimate welfare of his state, the reader may also refer to the nal
passage of book 15: one should not concern himself with incurring the infamy of these
vices without which it is dicult to save the state (Machiavelli, Il Principe, 120.)
73
Machiavelli, Il Principe, 138.
74
The remainder of this passage is generally translated, it is better to be feared than
loved. Literally, however, it reads, it is much safer to be feared than loved. Better
ascribes a moral value to the notion of making oneself feared, which is not present in
Il Principe.
75
Ibid., 128.
JESSICA LEUNG
School of Architecture
LEE OLVERA, Faculty Advisor
Appropriated Space:
Spatial Ambiguity in Hong Kong
65
INTRODUCTION
In a city where space is considered a luxury and the idea of permanence does not
exist, every foot and every inch must be used, and only in the most cost-eective
way. With the highest urban density in the world, reaching almost 70,000 people
per square mile,
1
Hong Kong is an immensely interesting subject in the study of
urbanism. It is a popular notion that density has an inverse relationship to the
standard of comfort, often accompanied by social pathologies and issues such as
crime, noise, pollution, and privacy. As a result of the exorbitant property prices,
space is sacriced and often competitively sought. Contrasting to the Western
idea of personal space, which emphasizes boundaries, territorial claims, and
distances,
2
neither the notion nor demand for individual space exists in Chinese
culture. In Hong Kong, the presence of (many) others is simply a way of life.
3

Having said that, while these citizens are being whisked into everyday life, owing
from one destination to another, the tug-of-war for space has constituted a
common occurrence of spatial appropriation in Hong Kong, ranging anywhere
from streets, plazas, and even aerial space. Cultural anthropologist Edward Hall
associates territorial claims with self-assurance, condence, and status, basing
on ornithologist H. E. Howards denition of territoriality as behavior by
which an organism characteristically lays claim to an area and defends it against
members of its own species.
4

Freezing Hong Kongs nonstop big
city movement
66
In the case of Hong Kong, however, spatial appropriation is a phenomenon
independent of territoriality associated with the notion of defense. This thesis
intends to justify that spatial appropriation is an extension of territoriality and of
living, acting as a catalyst between buildings and their context. In the following
sections, spatial appropriation manifestations unique to Hong Kong will be
identied, analyzed and dispatched as a refusal of closure, also resulting in
dematerializing the boundary between the visibility and invisibility, private and
the public, global and local.
LIMINAL SPACES
Situated next to spaces with xed and delimited function,
5
an unassigned
public space is often next to buildings and justied as transitional space.
Unsurprisingly, such delineated territory becomes subjected to the
interpretation of its users, who become the creators and attribute activities
that inhabit this space, either temporarily or for a prolonged period of time.
It becomes subjected to appropriation.

A SPACE
Before diving into the discussion of ownership, one must rst understand the
qualities that constitute a space. Within the threefold categorized dimensions
of space, Henri Lefebvre practiced, conceived, and lived
6
lived is
contrasted against the materialistic and functional concerns of the practiced,
and intellectual codications and systems of planning of the conceived. Lived
is the sensual world of everyday life,
7
and in Lefebvres own words, the space
which the imagination seeks to change and appropriate. It overlays physical
space, making symbolic use of its objects.
8
As put forth by French philosopher
Michel de Certeau, Space occurs as the eect produced by the operations that
67
orient it, situate it, temporalize it, and make it function in a polyvalent unity of
conictual programs or contractual proximities.
9

The eectual sense of space is further discussed by French philosopher Maurice
Merleau-Ponty
10
with an emphasis to disassociating space from being a geometric
container and identies it as the means by which events are connected.
Connection is understood as the process of transition, the focus of which is
placed on the indenite. This takes us further into the discussion of betwixt
and between,
11
and not so much of its reversethe container, or the perceived
architecture. Thus, a space can be understood as the facilitator, the contained,
while the ambiguous relational aspect of space shall be identied as liminality.
LIMINALITY
Liminality is a concept that must be understood and analyzed from its root
liminal. Originated from the Latin word limens, it simply means threshold.
The idea of liminality was introduced in the context of rituals and rites by
anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep, who not only regarded threshold as the
location for transition rites, but stressed that these are not union ceremonies
but only preparations. While in the liminal stage, the initiate is stripped of pre-
The betwixt and between
68
existing statuses and power, and like rebirth, leaves one world behind him and
enters a new one.
12
Focusing on Van Genneps idea of liminality as a transition
and applying it to societal structures, Victor Turner places liminality on the
opposite end of the spectrum as of the latter, and interestingly regards it as
the Nay to all positive structural assertions, but as in some sense the source
of them all, and, more than that, as a realm of pure possibility whence novel
congurations of ideas and relations may arise.
13


In his exchange with Dr. Mary Douglas, Turner expands upon her concept of
pollution, suggesting that liminal spaces in society are defectively defined or
ordered. He compares these spaces to dirt, not in a negative sense, but due
to its nature of transgression. The unstructuredness of the space thus puts it
at an unfamiliar breadth, the androgynous middle ground and the secluded
in-betweens.
14
In his application of liminality in social life, he considers its
confrontation between activity which has no structure, and its structured
results produces in men their highest pitch of self-consciousness.
15
As
such, a liminal stage is a stage of mega-awareness, presenting a limitless
range of possibilities.
The unstructuredness of the space and the secluded
in-betweens
69
Subsequently, the notion of liminality in an architectural context is to be
discussed with much attention to rst, its temporal nature, and second, its
spatial relationship. The unstructured temporary nature of liminal space gives it
ground for extensive creativity and imagination, suggesting a refusal of closure;
and the proximity to any prescribed functions and usages qualies this space for
boundless spatial appropriation that is unique to each and every circumstance.
HONG KONG
One must have an idea of the classic and characteristic panorama of Hong Kong,
taken from the Peak swooping down to a glamorous urban fabric of skyscrapers,
encapsulating the essence of the city: her wealth, stability, structure, and
progression. Yet, such convention does not do the city justice. The true marvel of
Hong Kong lies within a translucent layer that interlaces and creeps through the
liminal space that cross-examines thresholds and boundaries.
View of Hong Kong at night
70
A GAME OF GO
In Space Reader: Heterogeneous Space in Architecture, the authors discuss chess
and Go in understanding heterogeneous space, building on top of the concepts
of smooth and striated space with the same examples rst presented by Deleuze
and Felix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus. Unlike chess pieces bounded by
gridded enclosed territories and conforming to the task-based directional
movement, Go discs sit on the intersections of a much denser grid eld, and
once placed (anywhere on the board), they remain in the same place unless
surrounded by pieces of the opposite colors. As explained in the book, the
[Go] pieces are not so much objects occupying territories within an otherwise
homogenous space as charges within a uctuating eld-space out of which
territorial boundaries emerge or are held open across distances [] whose
importance is determined purely by their relation to the space around them
and is dynamic.
16
The analogy suggested by the temporal identity of a Go piece, which toggles
between black and white, references the immediate dierentiation between a
place with a prescribed function and an appropriated space that is more exible
in purpose. This metaphor also evokes spatial appropriation as charged action
The concept of smooth and striated space
71
that operates upon the dynamic grid overlaying the accentuated fabric of Hong
Kong. Interests in such appropriation of space lie not in the action of placing the
piece, but the relational quality and eect the piece has over its surrounding Go
pieces of another color. The delicacy of the grid lines is an exact representation of
humble liminal spaces, but also plays with the paradox of being black lines on a
white background.
UP IN THE AIR: LAUNDRY
Arch your back and look towards the sky, or rather, the square patch bounded by
exterior walls of buildings that shoot up to the sky. No, it is anything but the hazy
blue. Your vision is obstructed by the colorful clothes arranged on bamboo poles
that stick out horizontally from the side of the residential complex. They are so
well behaved, even equally spaced.
In response to the lack of space in tiny ats (usually owned or rented by the
less auent), or sometimes, just a partitioned room barely spacious enough
for a bed within an already compact at, where balconies are a luxury,
17
the
practice of drying laundry in public has been fashioned and improved over
time. It was not until the 1960s that a system was established:
18
three holes,
perfectly sized after the standardized bamboo poles intended for laundry,
Up in the air
72
were added to the sides of residential buildings, methodically placed a few
inches below each window.
This kind of spectacle was very familiar in Hong Kong until the 1990s, when
lawmakers acknowledged the problems brought about by the horizontal bamboo
sticks falling to the streets and hurting pedestrians or damaging property
and casualties from leaning too far out from the windows, especially for the
elderly and the handicapped. The Hong Kong Housing Authority began installing
retractable metal clothing racks,
19
which remain on the outside of public housing
complexes. Today, safer and more developed clothing racks can be seen on the
outside of public residences.
Wet laundry hung on the outside of ats might have originated as a logical solution
to the problem of space and humidity, and the government had encouraged it, but
it also created an interactive culture. Whether it is between closely-spaced, facing
windows of dierent families, or windows facing further out to the public streets,
the liminal condition is converted into an extended platform for social exchange. For
the amount of time spent standing by the window, repeatedly twisting the water out
of a T-shirt, placing it over a bamboo pole, and securing it with a few laundry clips,
neighbors exchange greetings and share problems. Unsecured laundry that is blown
onto someone elses pole below often sparks conversations and often begins a tight-
knitted communal culture among neighbors.
Building barriers fade away as rows and rows of ag-like laundry jut out from ats
when the sun is out, transforming the Hong Kong streets into a Chinese laundry.
The display of private garments in the eyes of the public was not an issue, for it
73
enhances the visible culture of the city. The canopies of laundry resting in the air
create a sense of kinship for even those walking on the streets below; the notion
of privacy bound by the physical boundaries of walls does not exist.
DAILY CONSTRUCTION, DESIGN, DEMOLITION: STALLS
You walk through one of the busiest streets in Mongkokand by walking, it is
more like squeezing through. These streets are beyond narrow. They are choked
by temporary retail stalls packed with displays of everything from clothing
to accessories, to fake designer bags, going from eye level up to the second
oor. It is so hard to imagine they simply ourish every morning at sunrise, and
dematerialize completely by nightfall
Many of the streets of Hong Kong are lined with stores, and whether they are
permanent stores tucked under residential ats, or shops in the form of stalls set
up along street sides, they possess a common adeptness at spreading outboth
horizontally and vertically.
Known as the Social Welfare Godfather, Professor Nelson Chow of the University
of Hong Kong attributes the establishment of early temporary hawker culture as a
Squeezing through
74
measure to rebuild the economy after the War in the 1950s.
20
The portable nature
of such businesses was a tting solution to the immature public transportation
system. Alongside the Hong Kong economic boom in the 1980s, portable
pushcarts sprouted into metal framework that began to assemble into more
rooted stores that agglomerated on the sidewalks. While they remain true to their
eeting transient and temporary nature with repeated cycles of assembling and
disassembling, these stalls gradually sprawled from the sidewalks onto streets
intended for vehicles.
To regulate while not deterring these mushrooming activities, the government
assigned twenty authorized hawkering zones in 1975.
21
One such street that
is extremely popular among both residents and tourists is Tung Choi Street,
also nicknamed Ladies Market or Ladies Street. Since then, it has been used
as an open-air market and by the end of the 1970s, accommodated more than
one thousand hawker places.
22
As the market blossomed, it grew in popularity
and inuence on daily lives. In December 2000, after a successful test run of a
pedestrian only zone at the location, the Ladies Market is clear of vehicles at
assigned hours daily.
Systemization, however, has not removed the impermanent spirit of the Ladies
Market, which was derived from the street being an appropriated space. A
YouTube video shows a time lapse of the Ladies Market between 8:30 a.m. and
9:15 a.m.: stacks of metal poles await on the street as vendors come in with their
merchandise, eciently stacked and bundled onto carts. First come the frames,
then the canvases. Soon, the empty street is outlined into individual spaces that
sit comfortably next to one another. Last are simple shelves and tables to be
75
set up within the frames, and voil, there you have the Ladies Market, just like
yesterday, months and decades before, only within an hour.
23
The narrow corridors of sidewalks and streets, between these originally eeting,
transient, and temporary businesses, the permanent stores in the background
and even within tables and shelves of a stall, became known as the activity
shopping, as plainly explained by National Geographic Traveler on Hong
Kong, a contact sport.
24
Here, elbowing and toe-stepping are accepted as
unintentional, not necessarily because people are particularly forgiving, but
because there is just not enough space.
Essentially, this is not only a street intended for vehicles that is exceedingly
narrow to begin with (as is with most streets in Hong Kong). Then, it is partitioned
into shops that coexist with xed stores behind and residences above, people of
all walks and purposes of life, and somehow, they found harmony.
Massive crowds in small
clusters
76
HOME AWAY FROM HOME: FOREIGN DOMESTIC HELPERS
It is the same spectacular sight every Sunday, where you see massive crowds
in small clusters of Filipino and Indonesian domestic helpers taking over every
corner in Central. In an instant, the celebrated nancial district of Hong Kong is
transformed into a day camping site. These women gather here on their weekly
day o, hang out with friends and enjoy a little picnic.
Filipina domestic helpers make up more than fty percent of the population
of minorities in Hong Kong, topping Indonesians and Thais.
25
Nicole Constable
stated in her book Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Migrant Workers, that
in 2006, there were about 125,000 Filipinas and 100,000 Indonesians hired
as domestic workers, and adding to that, a few thousand from elsewhere such
as Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka.
26
The number does not come as a surprise,
however, since it is more common for a Hong Kong family to hire a domestic
helper, who by law is required to live with the employer rather than commuting to
the employers home each day.

Most of these domestic helpers have their day o on Sunday. These domestic
helpers are women who have left their families and friends in their home
country, and came to Hong Kong to earn money by performing domestic
chores. Most families in Hong Kong have two working parents; therefore, it is
often easier to hire someone to take care of their young children and household
chores. As discussed in the Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee
Cultures Around the World, these foreign domestic helpers came in the early
1970s as a replacement as the previous generations of Chinese maids and
amahs began to retire.
27
77
It is a mix of dierentiation of ethnicity, economic status, language, and
occupation status that set an unspoken barrier between the foreign domestic
helpers and the locals, which in turn strengthens the bond among these
minorities. On their regular day o, Hong Kong locals learn to avert the areas
where gatherings occur. These foreigners entertain each other on sidewalks
and yovers, picnic in parks and parking lots, and nestle in the shade of the
Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (HSBC), a well-established icon of Hong Kongs
prominent nancial status. In her book in describing this commotion, Constable
quoted Percy Flage, the vibrant colours of their plumage . . . as striking to the
eye as their incessant chatter is to the ear.
28
They have indeed lived up to the
expectation of Sir Norman Foster, who had intended for the Hong Kong Shanghai
Bank building concourse to be a public space.
29
This phenomenon is thoroughly analyzed in a city-planning thesis by Jasmine
Susanna Tillu, who has specically focused on the appropriation of space by
Filipina domestic helpers in Hong Kong. She identies the common objects
obtained from home such as shower curtains, shipping wraps, batik textile,
and plastic table cloths as space claiming materials, with which these women
methodically arrange themselves in accordance with their home regions,
30

a pattern also noted by Constable in her observation of the appropriation
of specic locations by domestic helper clusters of dierent nationalities.
31
The space then manifests itself into a public exhibition of manicure services,
card games, national news from their native countries, crafts, and regional
food picnics, so that the space is Little Manila for a day,
32
a self-sucient
programmed space. Home, studying the very concept, calls this home beyond
the nation and the house.
33
78
But more compelling is the act of applying home to a space idled within a
commercial building in the beating heart of the Hong Kong economy, snoozing
on a public holiday. The concourse of Hong Kong Shanghai Bank is in a liminal
state between its usual hustle and bustle of deadlines and complete deadness.
The exertion of home or Philippine-ness further adds to the complication in
the categorization of this space, placing it neither in the real Manila, nor so much
accepted as Hong Kong on this particular day. Often more dressed up than on
other days, this alternative identity felt by these Filipina extends beyond the role
of a domestic helper, (who by law is prohibited from being granted a citizenship
in the city) but rather, the comfort of being a member of a community that
constitutes a home away from home.
Resulting from this appropriation is not only a juxtaposition of societal
stratication within economic glamor, but also a rebuttal to urbanism that
contrasts collages of public and private, visibility and invisibility, global and local.

Continual dynamic transitions
79
THRESHOLD
A symbol of transition and transcendence. In architectural symbolism,
the threshold is always given a special signicance by the elaboration and
enrichment of its structure by means of porches, perrons, porticoes, triumphal
arches, battlements, etc.A Dictionary of Symbols
34
REFUSAL OF CLOSURE
If liminality is the in-between, transitory space, then its appropriation
substantiates the notion of refusal of closure. Such an act has no denitive
answer to society, therefore no arming detachment from its host. The gesture
is static in the midst of continual dynamic transitions. While resolving nothing, it
oers no limits to exploration and creativity. In a city so densely dened like Hong
Kong, such hopeful space is indeed a much-needed cushion. As in a story, these
liminal spaces will always oer a to be continued to the tales of the city.
Hong Kong escalators
80
DEMATERIALIZATION OF BOUNDARY
Like a mirror placed against an opaque wall in architecture to dissolve the
building edges, spatial appropriation does a similar thing to the city; and rather
dierent from a clear glass, what it aims to do is not to expose either side,
which emphasizes dierences. Instead, it appears as a ghost of the existing that
extends beyond the boundary, thus oering to the original asymmetry a middle
ground for sympathy.
Liminal spaces oer an unbiased position from which a new understanding of
the dierent constituents, now rid of their structural, functional and emotional
baggage, can reconcile. Carried within the unstructured and non-prescribed
nature of spatial appropriation is the most honest opinion, which articulates the
most appropriate explanation to each and every spatial-temporal compound.
81
Blunt, Alison. Home (Key Ideas in Geography), New York: Routledge, 2006.
Chow, N. Hong Kong Economic Journal (December 15, 2011).
Cirlot, J. E. A Dictionary of Symbols, Dover Publications, 2002.
Constable, N. Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Migrant Workers, Second Edition.
Cornell Univ. Press, 2007.
De Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2002.
Demographia World Urban Areas, (2012), 8th ed., vers. 2, retrieved from
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Dovey, K. Framing Places: Mediating Power in Built Form. New York: Routledge, 1999.
Elden, S. Understanding Henri Lefebvre. Continuum, 2004.
Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World.
Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities.
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Franck, K. A. Loose Space: Possibility and Diversity in Urban Life. New York:
Routledge, 2006.
Gennep, A. V. The Rites of Passage. New York: Routledge, 2010.
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Hong Kong Observatory. Climate of Hong Kong. October 9, 2012. Retrieved from www.hko.
gov.hk/cis/climahk_e.htm.
Howes, D. Architecture of the Senses. Sense of the City, exhibition catalogue (Montreal:
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Lefebvre, H. Dialectical Materialism. Univ. Of Minnesota Press, 2009.

Macdonald, P. National Geographic Traveler: Hong Kong. National
Geographic, 2009.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Signs. Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1964.
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action?section=1954A.
REFERENCES
82
Salvan, G. S. Architectural Theories of Design. Quezon City: JMC Press, 1986.
South China Morning Post (April 21, 2004), retrieved from beta.scmp.com/article/
727421/brief.
Space Reader: Heterogeneous Space in Architecture. London: Wiley, 2009.
Stanelle, Robert aka Lao Luo. China: In My Eyes. AuthorHouse, 2012.
Tillu, J. S. Spatial Empowerment: The Appropriation of Public Spaces by Filipina Domestic
Workers in Hong Kong. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. May 19, 2011.
Turner, V. Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage. In The Forest of
Symbols. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1967.
Turner, V. Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society. Ithaca:
Cornell Univ. Press, 1975.
Turner, V. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca: Cornell Univ.
Press, 1970.
Westerlund-Shands, K. Embracing Space: Spatial Metaphors in Feminist Discourse
(Contributions in Womens Studies). Praeger, 1999.
WL Media. Ladies Market History. Retrieved from www.ladies-market.hk/history-of-
ladies-market.htm.
Wong, S. L. Mong Kok Ladies Market Setup. YouTube video. Retrieved from
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Zimmerman, P. Government doing developers bidding over Ladies Market Friday,
South China Morning Post (February 1, 2008).
83
1
Demographia World Urban Areas 2012.
2
Salvan 1986.
3
Stanelle 2012.
4
Westlund-Shands 1999.
5
Franck 2006.
6
Elden 2004.
7
Dovey 1999.
8
Lefebvre 2009.
9
De Certeau 2002.
10
Merleau-Ponty 1964.
11
Turner 1967.
12
Gennep 2010.
13
Turner 1970.
14
Ibid.
15
Turner 1975.
16
Space Reader 2009.
17
Hong Kong Observatory 2012.
18
Ming Pao Weekly 1954.
19
Hong Kong Legislative Council 2004.
20
Chow 2011.
21
WL Media.
22
Zimmerman 2008.
23
Wong, S. L.
24
Macdonald 2009.
25
Encyclopedia of Diasporas 2004.
26
Constable 2007.
27
See note 25.
28
See note 26.
29
Hong Kong Architecture 1993.
30
Tillu 2011.
31
See note 26.
32
Howes 2005.
33
Blunt 2006.
34
Cirlot 2002.
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4. Hong Kong Night View by AGFA ULTRA 100. Camera: Minolta X-500. (2005, March 8).
Online Image. http://mike7.net/images/20070614141825_23550031.jpg
ENDNOTES
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5. Pope, A. Ladders, 1996. In Space Reader: Heterogeneous Space in Architecture
(AD Reader). Wiley, 2009.
6. Lang-8.com. Online Image. http://image.lang-8.com/w0_h0/32695bd391cd9f5b1f74ea
46535d4223ae8ac2e.jpg
7. Hong Kong Tourism Board. Ladies Market. Online Image. Retrieved November 18, 2012.
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/see-do/highlight-attractions/top-10/ladies-
market.jsp
8. (2011, October 18). Online Image. Hong Kong Economic Journal. http://www.hkej.com/
template/dailynews/jsp/detail.jsp?dnews_id=3228&cat_id=9&title_id=464692
9. See note 1.
10. Anderson, S. N. (2011, Febuary 5). Lights and Lines Reected. Online Image. http://
viewthrumygloballens.blogspot.com/2011/02/lights-and-lines-reected.html
85
Dude, Wheres My Gender Fluidity?
On Hegemonic Masculinity, Cultural
Resistance, and Brands
SNIR LEVI
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
SHILARNA STOKES, Faculty Advisor
87
It is a widely accepted notion in the social sciences that humans construct
gender by performing culturally established gendered behaviors drawn from
an existing repertoire, which either conform to, or resist conceptions of
masculinity and femininity. When carried out by a large number of individuals,
these performances make up a social gender display that can reinforce
and potentially alter prevailing hegemonic gender denitions. Brands, as
common social institutions, are often drawn from this repertoire; they embody
widespread rhetorical forms and commodities that can function as symbolic
gender identity markers for individuals in performance (Avery 5). Indeed,
research into consumer behavior repeatedly nds that consumers associate
gender with brands and commodities because they relate to brands like they
would to a partner or friend. Alternatively, brands are also seen as extensions
of themselves (Grohmann 106). They are said to adorn... gender displays with
these brands as tangible markers that materialize gender, enlivening who [they]
are as men or women (Avery 5). Conversely, brands act consciously according
to gender norms to sell to these needs, and a brand-consumer negotiation of
gender is formed. Examples of this negotiation in performance might be a
Jack who wears Ed Hardy and rides a Harley Davidson, and a Gucci-obsessed
Jill, whose choice of brands directly correlates to their gendered identities.
Indeed, gender often takes center stage in many brand narratives, as the words
and symbols that will identify brand personalities are strategically borrowed
from the dominant stereotype of todays woman or man (Alreck 2). By reecting
stereotypes rather than promoting variation, brand-consumer relations have a
stake in perpetuating a hegemonic denition of masculinity, and become relevant
in thinking about whether or not the brand-consumer arena is an opportunistic
88
space in altering oppressive denitions of maleness, especially in light of recent
trends in cultural resistance through consumption (commodity activism).
Presuming that mass-mediated brand content trickles down to consumers and
directly establishes their hegemonic conceptions and dominant ideologies, I
will argue that although individual agents are free to culturally resist hegemonic
ideals of masculinity via commodity activism through consuming or identifying
with brands that counter themsuch actions do not have the capacity to
alter existing hegemonic denitions. A discussion on possible ways to counter
hegemonic denitions of masculinity will also be oered.
HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY, COMMODITY ACTIVISM, AND THE INCREASINGLY
TOLERANT SOCIETY
As established in existing scholarship, the hegemonic denition of masculinity
is a societal ill, as it places countless numbers of men in psychological
distress for [not lling] the hegemonic mold. Despite a growing depiction
of other masculinities in the media and in popular culture, men who do not
t the hegemonic conception of their gender are enduring at least some form
of psychological strain. Although recent years have brought with them an
arguable improvement in the hegemonic denition of the homosexual male,
with a growing variation of his portrayal in popular culture, the heterosexual
male who dances ballet, writes prose, and is openly sensitive has yet to nd
redemption. His hegemonic ideal still discourages him from engaging in
feminine activities, being outwardly romantic or sentimental, or being more
interested in the arts than in sports (Alreck 5). He is generally unaware of why
he feels compelled to fake a hypermasculinity among his fellow peers. While
some might point to the metrosexual and other forms of uidity in male
89
expression, present-day Western societys dominating standard of the male
still discourages traits of femininity (emotion, sensitivity, and expression)
in a mans interests, activities, and mannerisms. To paraphrase scholars on
gender politics and hegemonic masculinity, our times have yielded a new form
of cultural resistance through consumption, coined commodity activism.
This form presupposes that consumption practices hold political power, that
a brands communication is not strictly commercial, but can in fact signify
a political cause or stance, and that a consumer can either support a cause
or eectively counter it by choosing to consume or identify with a brand.
Based on this model, an individual who wears a Legalize Gay T-shirt, for
example, is eectively contributing to the cause of gay marriage by way of mere
consumption and performance. This invites an examination of whether or not
these practices can lead to signicant changes in the hegemonic denition of
masculinity as a pervasive societal ill.
Before tackling these questions, it is important to consider the current political
landscape with regard to non-hegemonic denitions. Recent years have
brought with them an increasingly tolerant popular discourse surrounding
individuality and dierences in the United States. This discourse includes the
notion of being ones self (as symbolized by Lady Gaga and her Born This
Way discourse, Glee and other subjects in popular culture), a growing public
endorsement of gay marriage that has reached the presidential level, and the
likely subsequent coming out of major brands as gay-friendly (brands such
as Ray Ban, Gap, Google, and Target have been running high-prole campaigns
with themes of gay pride). In a similar vein, consumer researchers note that we
are currently in a post-gender period in which the stark lines that historically
90
have divided men and womens consumption are blurring, and that masculine
and feminine identity markers become more valuable to consumers when
gender roles are permeable, making gendered consumption a powerful force
in the postmodern era (Avery 34). Such a promising landscape with regards to
both contemporary notions of cultural resistance as well as a growing tolerance
of the non-hegemonic provides hope for an increasingly uid societal
denition of maleness. Presuming a top-down model of dominant ideologies
in brand communication, assuming that mass-mediated brand content trickles
down to consumers and directly establishes their hegemonic conceptions
and dominant ideologies, the following question becomes relevant: If brands
were to increasingly encompass other portrayals of masculinities, as they
have begun doing with sexualities, would societys hegemonic denition of
masculinity in turn become more exible?
RESEARCH REVEALS COMMODITY ACTIVISM AS INOPPORTUNE IN REDEFINING
MASCULINITIES
Contemporary research on gendered brands suggests what Fischer and Gainer
hypothesized in 1994: gendered consumption is ubiquitous and enduring as long
as it is rooted in stereotypes (Avery 3). Consumption practices are shaped by and
support other mutually reinforcing social practices that contribute to or reect
the current gender order, and do not have the power to alter it (Avery 3). All
evidence points to mass resistance to bent or altered denitions of masculinity
communicated by brandsto a [general failure] to accept an extension [deviation,
or androgyny] . . . of the traditionally masculine brand (Kwong 68). Thus, changes
in masculine brands or consumer practices that run counter to the hegemonic
denition do not have the potential to yield any substantial change.
91
In her recent study of the masculine-gendered Porsche brands deviation from
its masculine personality via the introduction of its rst feminine-gendered
SUV (the Cayenne), Avery nds that the emergence of non-hegemonic
masculinities in a brands communication results in immediate resistance
by the brands core gender consumers: those brand loyalists who directly
associate with the brands hegemonic masculine denition (Avery 23). In
her netnographic analysis of the Porsche online communitys reactions to
the Cayenne, Avery nds that those core consumers respond to the gender-
bending of the brand. By ghting for its traditional masculinity markers through
collective identity work, they strengthen the brands gendered meanings,
paradoxically increasing its potency by ghting against the encroachment of
inferior masculinities (Avery 4, 22). Specically, Avery describes the following
observations as the overarching reaction to the bending of hegemonic
masculinities in the brand:
When men refuse to share their masculine identity markers
with [conceptions of] men whom they deem inferior, they
reinforce their power advantage and buttress hegemonic
masculinity as the prevailing cultural standard in their brand
community. However, at the same time, through gender
stereotyping that elicits and reinforces recognizable pejorative
subcategories within the gender spectrum, existing [core
gender consumers] contribute to the creation of a complex
gender status hierarchy where more nuanced gender identities,
beyond the [masculine/feminine] dichotomy, such as the
poseur, are dened and strategized. By defending their
masculine identity markers, they defend their position at the
top of the gender order and suppress alternative denitions of
gender that are emerging for men. (Avery 36)
92
Essentially, what Avery discovers is that when other masculinities are
incorporated into the personality of a brand that traditionally stands for
a hegemonic masculinity, its core consumers will partake in derogatory
gender stereotyping, forming an outgroup as they maintain themselves
and their fetishism of hegemonic gender symbols as the ingroup. The
consumers perceive the move toward non-hegemonic masculinities as gender
contamination (Avery 22). Specically, the core consumers constructed an
outgroup especially for the proponents of the SUV, coined the poseurs,
those males of no balls depicted as deviant from traditional denitions of
masculinity and emasculated by their consumption of the slightly feminine
Cayenne (Avery 23). Online discussion of this ingroup revealed the core
consumers as accusing those supporting the SUV as bitches and fags, not
understanding the technical working of real Porsche cars, and lacking an
appreciation of the brands illustrious racing heritage.
As Avery suggests, the stereotypes of poseurs indicates that to truly grab
the phallus, one must embody the masculine ideals of the brand. Thus, the
Cayenne SUV and its poseur consumers become ostracized from the brand,
along with the threat of a new, non-hegemonic masculine characterization
(Avery 25). She further argues, this separation allows [the hegemonic
denitions supporters] to psychologically renew their commitment to the
Porsche brand as a traditionally masculine identity marker without accepting
its dilution (Avery 28). By way of her research, non-hegemonic masculinities
are found to completely be denied access to brand meanings, and any hope
to alter the existing hegemonic masculinity through branding and consumption
is eliminated.
93
While some might argue that brand extensions are a viable means for expanding
a brands personality (which might include sociopolitical nuances), further
research in consumer behavior and gendered brands deems this option as
equally ineective as the former. Interested in nding out whether extended
brand personalities portraying non-hegemonic masculinities would successfully
penetrate into the marketplace, Kwong hypothesized that using an extension
strategy would allow the company to leverage on the current brand associations
as well as build new gendered brand strategy. Alas, the study conclusively
showed that any brand extension that does not adhere to its original image fails.
The same resistance described by Avery in her example with Porsches core
consumers takes place, thus keeping the hegemonically masculine brand in
place. Furthermore, Kwong nds that in such an instance, men will grow more
wary and skeptical of the original brand (Kwong 7273). This suggests that mens
strong association with their hegemonic denition not only ostracizes those who
do not adhere to it, but could in fact be a hindrance for brands trying to extend
beyond their traditional market segment (Kwong 74).
Complementing the aforementioned evidence, authors Kimmel and Tissier-
Desbordes (1999) analyze mens resistance of varied masculinities in brands.
They explain this coined gender trouble as a perpetuation of social fears
in accepting other types of consumption (Otnes 322) as a response to
societys increasing tolerance of homosexual men, metrosexuality, and other
masculinities. The male consumer experiences two tensions in particular
when they are introduced to bent or extended brands as examined in the
aforementioned experiments. The rst is a fear of appearing homosexual, and
the second is individuality versus conformity to gender norms (Otnes 323). To
94
combat these tensions, men diligently monitor their boundaries of acceptable
heterosexual, masculine behavior and engage in masking, dened as actions
that consumers take to hide the consumption or participation in
non-hegemonic masculine ideals in the marketplace (Otnes 323).
Studies in gender stereotyping suggest that this reality is deeply embedded in
society and patriarchies. Masculine traits almost always tend to be regarded
more highly than feminine traits (Kwong 68). Since a brand is used as an
expression of ones personality, the greater social desirability for masculine
traits would be manifested in consumers choice of products and brands.
Specically, it is the men themselves who are preventing the expansion of their
own gender denition. Men are found not only to reject varying notions of
masculinity in the brand arena, but they also tend to exaggerate the dierence
in brands more markedly than women [do] (Kwong 68). They tend to perceive
a masculine brand or commodity to be more masculine and a feminine brand
or commodity to be more feminine (Kwong 68). Furthermore, they nd their
sexual identity in material goods and brands more than women, and will likely
be hyper-vigilant to any notion of masculinity that deviates from the hegemony.
Based on the aforementioned points, it is safe to conclude that despite a
seemingly more tolerant society, an oppressive hegemonic denition of
masculinity not only prevails, but also is so rooted in society and in mens own
perceptions, that it directly trickles down to the marketplace. Consumers
are more inclined to mimic traditional roles, and to protect these rules when
bent. Thus, any hypothetical use of commodity activism in the brand-
consumer arena to alter masculinitys hegemonic denition fails. Furthermore,
95
such measures risk any traditionally masculine brand that might bend its
standard of masculinity (via its own discourse or a brand extension strategy)
as inconsistent. This might break trust in consumers and reduce sales, and
possibly even become detrimental to the marketplace. Therefore, consumer
resistance of hegemonic masculinity is not a viable means for countering the
natural resistance to non-hegemonic masculinities.
BETTER NICHE THAN SORRY: OPPORTUNITY LIES MOSTLY IN THE EMERGENCE OF
NEW BRAND
Despite all of the above, notions of political action through consumerism remain
very plausible. Brand personalities still promote political issues, and these
measures manage to trickle down to public discussion (for example, American
Apparels Legalize Gay campaign has successfully penetrated public awareness
on gay rights). Thus, in a society that is well on its way toward broadening
conceptions of gender and sexuality, brands and their promotional material still
hold the potential to yield change vis--vis the issue of hegemonic masculinity.
Although a brand that sells to traditional masculinities (like Porsche) has
no room to incorporate, expand, or rebrand its own hegemonic masculine
denition, the introduction of new brands that stand for other masculinities
may have a signicant impact on reshaping the current hegemonic denition.
Such a scenario would likely create a strong ingroup of core gender
consumers that identify with the brands non-hegemonic masculine denition.
This scenario would pose a viable solution to the current nonexistence of
non-hegemonic masculine brands in the marketplace, due to the
aforementioned resistance (Porsches failed attempt to feminize itself; the
96
conclusive failure of non-hegemonic extensions of masculine brands). It is
conceivable that the creation of new masculine brands geared toward a target
audience of men who prefer art over sport will not only oer these men
brands to which they can relate, but possibly normalize their denition as
men in society, and thus loosen the currently oppressive standard of what
is expected of men. Based on a top-down model, just as the recent increase
in discourse on homosexuality and the growing presence of gay public gures
in the media is slowly working toward normalizing homosexuality and
broadening its stereotypical/hegemonic denition, the birth of new masculine
brands that communicate other masculinities might yield similar results.
In fact, Kwongs nding that less resistance toward non-hegemonic masculinities
exists in the area of functional tool sales (versus symbolic tools directly tied
to gender), which suggests that any brand that sells functional commodities
has room for the incorporation of non-hegemonic masculine identity. An
example of this might be a food industry brand incorporating a wider variety of
masculine representation in its ads. In this same vein, there is hope for housing
non-hegemonic masculinities in the marketplace of androgynous brands,
or brands whose personality and gender are not explicitly male or female. In
discussing her conclusions from her research on gender dimensions of brand
personality, Grohmann herself holds an optimistic outlook on the androgynous
brand as yielding less resistance when she states, a societal shift toward
more androgynous gender roles might positively aect consumer responses to
androgynous brands over time (Grohmann 114). Similarly, Grohmanns discovery,
that the t between gender dimensions of parent brand personality and
gender perceptions associated with the extension category enhances extension
97
evaluations and purchase intentions (Grohmann 116), suggests that androgynous
brands might be able to extend themselves to appeal to non-hegemonic
masculine markets while avoiding the type of resistance that took place in Averys
Porsche study (since the parent brand is genderless).
As it stands today, the many colors of male gender expression are not
adequately reected in the marketplace. There are many more men who fall
into in-between denitions than one might realize. Brands generally depict
masculinity as traditionally straight or stereotypically gay, thus sustaining
an oppressive hegemonic denition of masculinity. A reality in which oppressive
denitions of maleness in the marketplace cannot be altered urges us to think
about measures to counter them.
Even though functional and androgynous brands might be able to avoid
resistance, perhaps the best solution is the emergence of new companies
that have openly political aims to expand notions of gender. Since consumers
associate gender with brands and commodities because they relate to brands
as they would to partners, friends, or extensions of themselves, such brands
might attract those individuals who see their gender denition as broader than
the hegemonic ideal. If enough brands are created, a niche market that stands
for a broader conception of masculinities might form and set the stage for a
continuum of masculine brand personalities. As opposed to the status quo
brands that fall into the narrow feminine versus masculine or gay versus
straight dichotomies, this would be a powerful rst step in incorporating a
more expansive conception of what it means to be male in the marketplace,
and countering the detrimental eects of the current hegemonic denition.
98
Alreck, Pamela L. Commentary: A New Formula for Gendering Products and Brands,
The Journal of Product and Brand Management, 6th ser. 3.1 (1994).
Alreck, Pamela L., Robert B. Settle, and Michael A. Belch. Who Responds to Gendered
Ads, and How? Masculine Brands versus Feminine Brands, Journal of
Advertising Research 22.2 (1982): 2532.
Avery, Jill J. Defending the Markers of Masculinity: Consumer Resistance to Brand
Gender-Bending. International Journal of Research in Marketing (2012).
Grohmann, Bianca. Gender Dimensions of Brand Personality, Journal of Marketing
Research, XLVI (2009): 105519.
Jung, Kwong and Winston Lee. Cross-Gender Brand Extensions: Eects of Gender of the
Brand, Gender of Consumer, and Product Type on Evaluation of Cross-Gender
Extensions, Advances in Consumer Research 33 (2006): 6772.
Kimmel, Michael. Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (New York:
Harper, 2008).
MacKinnon, Kenneth. Representing Men Maleness and Masculinity in the Media (London:
Arnold, 2003).
Mukherjee, Roopali, and Sarah Banet-Weiser. Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in
Neoliberal Times (New York: New York Univ. Press, 2012).
Otnes, Cele, and Linda Tuncay-Zayer. Gender, Culture, and Consumer Behavior (New
York: Routledge, 2012).
REFERENCES
99
JORDAN NOWASKIE
Roski School of Art and Design
CHARLIE WHITE, Faculty Advisor
Post-Porn Culture:
The Effects of Sexual Media on Social
Relationships, Identities, and Desire
101
A mind originally designed to cope with little more sexually tempting than the
occasional sight of a tribeswoman across the savannah is rendered helpless
when bombarded by continual invitations to participate in erotic scenarios far
exceeding any dreamt up by the diseased mind of the Marquis de Sade. There
is nothing robust enough in our psychological make-up to compensate for
developments in our technological capacities, nothing to arrest our passionate
desire to renounce all other priorities for the sake of a few more minutes (which
might turn out to be four hours) in the darker recesses of the web. Porn is so
immediate and intense, it destroys our capacity to engage in the far more
human and low-key business of actual sex. [Porn is] nice for some, but in a way
that destroys things that are more than simply nice; that are essential to life.
Alain de Botton
More than any other form of media, pornography has paradoxically augmented
the way in which men and women perceive their bodies, their identities, and the
role of sexuality in a society addicted to sexual media. Porn has pervaded nearly
all forms of media and is often found in places that are not immediately obvious.
Pornography, as a medium, informs and adapts to a feedback loop that denes
social standards, relationships, behaviors, and aesthetics. Porn has become so
ubiquitous and powerfulby way of consumer capitalism and the Internet
that sexual media, popular media, and social and sexual identity have become
irreversibly intertwined, incessantly informing and building on one another.
Consequently, sexual aesthetic, often informed by pornographic convention, can
be found in nearly every form of media. Pornography has become so dominating
and all-encompassing in modern culture that it has begun to consume the
very identities that it originally created. As new forms of pornographic media
emerge, new incarnations of sexuality and identity likewise emerge. Thus, porns
stimulating rhetoric is vastly altering the social, psychological, and even the
physiological landscape of what is considered the real world. This shift is not
merely a cinematic or Internet-based phenomenon. Rather, as maintained by one
102
source, there is a psycho-cultural impact that has essentially transformed the
very ideologies and aesthetic standards that dene everyday social experiences
(Levande 2007). From a contemporary standpoint, this impact is most apparent
in how sexual media has destroyed and re-fabricated general and romantic
interpersonal relationships, reduced and rewired libidinal drive and neurological
associations, and established unhealthy identity formation in adolescents,
particularly within the gay youth population.
Likewise, porn has fundamentally calcied many misogynistic, patriarchal
cultural conventions (e.g., dominant male, submissive female, etc.). These
persuasive and dominant puritanical ideologies that generally govern national
identityas they converge with emerging diverse subcultures of individual
identity and sexualityare engendering expansively novel cultural and sexual
aesthetics. With the inception of pornography into the highly accessible space
of the Internet, these conventions have become ever more incorporated into
everyday life, especially within youth culture and media. The dramatic inception
of pornographic tropes into mainstream cultureas correlated with the rise and
immediacy of the Internetcan be visualized in the aesthetic changes of female
pop musicians from the late 90s to the early 2000s. As one source highlights,
the shift is witnessed in the prescribed aesthetic transition from Sarah McLachlan
to Sporty Spice to Britney Spears. As porn has become a more marketable norm,
its conventions have prompted many subcultures to adopt them as their own.
This phenomenon is especially apparent in the contemporary aesthetics of
the hip-hop community (Levande 2007). The porn industry and its canon have
inserted seditious sexual identities to which women are expected to live up and
that men have, more or less, come to expect. These conventions not only possess
103
a mastery of social and sexual identity, but also have come to dene the way in
which these particular subcultures are regarded from a global lens. Although
sexual media has oered a means for diverse groups to express themselves
sexually, porn consistently promotes Anglo-patriarchal tendencies, thereby
marginalizing these diverse groups into a particular facet of material production
by subconsciously prescribing identities that underscore race, gender, and class
distinctions (Miller-Young 2007).
Furthermore, sexual media and its political and cultural retaliation has developed
a hyper-sexual population of youthnot limited to the United Statesthat
denes its sexual identity almost entirely through pornographic tropes.
Adolescents are highly impressionable and much more attuned to the social
aordances of technology. Between the ages of 12 and 20a time of critical
development for sexual identitythe brain is considered highly neuroplastic
and therefore highly impressionable; thus pornographic conventions coupled with
the mediums overstimulating eects on sexual desire are wired into the brains
reward system (Katehakis 2011). Therefore, youth have become a signicant
contender in the sexual marketplace. With the power of consumer capitalism at
its back, this phenomenon has thereby engendered an entirely uncanny sexual
aesthetic that unites pornographic conventions with the prepubescent body,
often resulting in a post-porn, post-body form that is strikingly both bizarre
and hyper-ideal yet somehow highly appealing to a young audience (e.g., Nikki
Minaj). Porn is encouraging a fantasy relationship with hyper-sexualized, ideal
bodies that are attractive, thin, voluptuous, perfect, yet realistically non-
existent (Stewart and Szymanski 2012). Due to the accessibility of this aesthetic
and their malleable ages, children are internalizing these distorted and enhanced
104
images to be ultimate truths, resulting in remarkably distorted ideas of beauty,
body image, and what others nd desirable. These unattainable notions of
sexuality, coupled with patriarchal pornographic conventions, can thereby have a
signicant impact on interpersonal relationships, sexual desire (libido), and even
sexual identity formation. As the cyberporn generation comes of age, the eects
of this phenomenon are drastically altering the psychological, cultural, and
sexual landscapes of a porn-ridden, media-driven, hyperreal world.
Prior to the cultural explosion of pornographic media, pornographic discourse
was historically dened by the notions of harm, violence, and attitudes as
internalized by pornographic representation while failing to recognize the
diversity of sexual identities. The debates often failed to see beyond any moral
repercussions whether for or against pornography. Legal debates were especially
plagued with this dilemma. Andrea Dworkin (1989), for example, contended that
porn represented nothing more than the objectication of women, to the point
that men would treat women in the real world as porn stars are often treated
in sexual media. She believed this would result in a drastic increase in rape
and other forms of sexual debasement. Post-Internet, Dworkins predictions
were accurate in that porn would become highly compulsive and addictive;
however, she failed at recognizing the sheer diversity of sexual liberation that
ensued. Additionally, her fears regarding mens behavior towards women never
materialized. Instead, porns immediacy and ubiquity has strikingly created a
whole generation of men who are less able to connect erotically to women
(Wolf ). Furthermore, attributions outlined by historic legal cases established
what Jonathan Elmer (1987) calls pseudo-philosophical categories, which,
in their omnipresent vagueness only serve to further exclude, or rather
105
marginalize certain citizens. These include terms such as average person
and community standards that, by their inception into the pornographic
discourse, marginalize porn users by foreclosing on the possibility of multiple
and diverse sexual identities.
INTERPERSONAL SOCIAL AND SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS
The Internet and its pornographic counterpart are currently distinguished by a
fragmented, immediate, and overindulgent amount of visual stimulation. The
vast accumulations of information and frequent changes in sexual media are so
far-reaching that scientic research and even consumers are scrambling to keep
up. Likewise, overstimulation of media, especially through social media and
pornography, is drastically altering the social landscape by disrupting natural
face-to-face social relationships (Dreyfus 2001). Through long-term exposure,
users have seemingly projected and materialized these less realistic and
durable online interactions into the real world. This phenomenon is particularly
discernible in the ever-changing sexual and social relationships exterior to the
online framework, which must be understood through the social context in
which pornography is viewed. Men are generally more apt to seek pornography
in solitary and group (among friends) environments for masturbation, whereas
females are more likely to seek porn for sexual socialization and to complement
sexual relationships (Bridges and Moroko 2011; Wallmyr and Welin 2006). When
men view short-form, explicit cyberporn among friends, the likelihood that they
will internalize pornographic conventions is high. This creates an ego-generated
social space among men thatthrough feedback, encouragement, and
competitionhas detrimentally redened mens social and sexual relationships
with other men and in particular, with women:
106
Sexually focused competition within male homosocial
relationships strengthens hypermasculinity, notions of women
as being sex objects, and recreational attitudes toward sex
(Bryant 2009).
Furthermore, recent studies consistently nd that men are much more likely
to view online forms of pornography, which tend to be more explicit, and more
degrading toward women, whereas women generally seek out sexual media more
in the form of erotica, which generally focuses on equality and mutual sexual
pleasure (Bridges 2008; Buzzell 2005; Flood and Hamilton 2003). Within dyadic
relationships, it has also been found that a higher frequency of sexual media
use among men is signicantly correlated with lower relationship satisfaction,
while a higher frequency of female pornography use is correlated with positive
relationship satisfaction on behalf of male partners (Bridges and Moroko
2011). This suggests that male users experience decreased intimacy and a loss
of interest in sexual partners due to internalized representations of restrictive
gender roles. Arthors Bridges and Moroko also note that dissatisfaction
and inter-relational sexual problems primarily arise when the male partner
consumes pornography in secrecy and outside of the dyadic relationship. After
the female user discovers her partners usage of pornography, dissatisfaction
ensues when the female partner feels that her counterpart has internalized
and projected these pornographic tendencies onto their relationship. However,
when pornography is incorporated mutually within the relationship, satisfaction
rises signicantly through high levels of trust, high self-esteem, and high
sexual interest (Bridges and Moroko 2011). Depending on context of use,
these ndings explicitly reveal the true inuential power of pornographic
representation on gender roles within a socio-sexual framework.
107
As solitary porn use rises among men, so too does the projection of pornographic
sensualities into the real social environment. Consequently, men have
come to expect certain things of women, and women, in turn, have adopted
these expectations into their psychological framework. This contemporary
phenomenon has yielded a dramatic rise in lower self-esteem and distorted
notions of body image among women:
Theoretically, exposure to pornography results in reduced
self-esteem and body image satisfaction, increased sense
of vulnerability to violence, and an increased sense of
defenselessness in women, and in men a reward for displays of
hypermasculinity and trivializing or excusing violence against
women (Bridges 2008).
Unrealistic portrayals of cultural beauty standards have thereby found their
way into the mainstream by way of sexual media, particularly cyberporn. As
these conventions inltrate the mainstream male psyche, women are having
a very dicult time fullling these emerging aesthetic standards. One study
asked male participants to rate images of average women after viewing violent
or degrading online pornography. Researchers found that men were more likely
to rate these women as less attractive than men who viewed neutral porn or
erotica (Kenrick, Gutierres, and Goldberg 1989). When women become aware of
their partners porn use, they feel pressured by porns aesthetic standards. One
study found that womenwho continued to be sexual after discovering their
partners porn usefelt that their male counterpart was merely using them as
a warm body. These women also reported feeling that their partner visualized
porn stars during intercourse, resulting in a dramatic decrease in sexual pleasure
in the relationship (Bergner and Bridges 2002). Susan Shaw (1999) conducted
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interviews of women in this situation, which notably revealed the detrimental
eects of pornography on interpersonal relationships:
These men look at these pictures and say, Look at her. Shes just beautiful. Why
cant you be like that? (Shaw 1999, 206).
I feel like Im in competition with skinnier, prettier girls, you
know that are on the Internet or in movies or whatever. Just
how the world and Hollywood portrays women and makes me
feel like, well, if I was prettier, if I was sexier, or this or that,
then he wouldnt have this problem. Thats been hard for me
(Shaw 1999, 38).
I started doubting myself. I started doubting my worth.
I started doubting the things that made me feel special and
meaningful. Because if I was so special and meaningful, why
was he going to that? (Shaw 1999, 39).
One thing I hate about it . . . say my husband had a long day at
work . . . hell tell me hell look at Playboy . . . and if he wants
to have sexual relations with me it turns me o completely. I
hate it. I dont know why . . . psychologically. If you have to be
turned on by somebody else besides me, I dont like it at all
(Shaw 1999, 207).
These personal accounts reveal that some men, as a result of watching
pornography regularly, regard women merely in terms of sexual potential who are
not worthy of any hint of mutual respect (Zillman 2000). To that end, intimacy
has been strikingly removed from social and sexual situations among all sexual
identities. In many ways, pornalong with a vast number of other social forces
has eliminated the love and human connection that once made sexual and
interpersonal relations so powerful.
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NEUROLOGICAL NOVELTY AND LIBIDO
In a discourse on contemporary pornography and its social eects there must be
an understanding of the Internets overall social aordances and ultimately the
cyberporn that it has yielded. The Internet has strikingly aorded excessive and
immediate access to information to the degree that users are often overloaded
and overstimulated. This overexposure to informationoften irrelevant,
unclear, and fragmentedis forging harmful neural connections resulting in
anxiety, poor decision-making, memorization problems, and reduced attention
spans (Edmunds and Morris 2000). Cognitive development is clearly at stake
when competing forms of hypermedia are perpetually seeking user attention.
Accordingly, knowledge is no longer discursive but rather associational, creating
a copy-paste mentality with next to no attention span and resulting in zap
culture (Dreyfus 1999).
These overarching eects are clearly present in the immediacy, ubiquity,
and short-form nature of typical cyberporn, and this presence is especially
problematic considering that a vast majority of adolescents are exposed to
these forms of media from a young age. The conjoined forces of popular media,
pornography, and peer pressure often compound to create more liberal sexual
attitudes, greater acceptance and participation in more uncommon sexual
deviancies, and recreational sexual tendencies, further leading to increased
likelihood of exposure to more deviant forms of sexual media among adolescents
(Ward and Rivadeneyra 1999). Through repeated exposure, malleable minds are
more likely to associate the novelty of specialty sex with actual sexual desire.
Therefore representations of anal sex, double penetration, and gangbangs, for
example, are eventually perceived as dull (Bridges 2008). Naomi Wolf (2003)
110
notes that the psychological eects of novelty have created an addictive
pornography that continually requires the user to seek more unusual or endless
amounts of pornographic representation for stimulation:
By the new millennium, a vaginawhich, by the way, used to
have a pretty high exchange value, as Marxist economists
would saywasnt enough; it barely registered on the thrill
scale. All mainstream pornand certainly the Internet
made routine use of all available female orices . . . For the
rst time in human history, the images power and allure
have supplanted that of real naked women. Today, real naked
women are just bad porn.
Whether they deliberately seek it or not, adolescents are being inundated with
sexual stimuli well before they have the psychological capacity to integrate
it into healthy sexual identity formations (Benedek and Brown 1999). Studies
consistently reveal that the more adolescents view cyberporn, the more
dicult it has become for them to appropriately or intimately experience sex
with actual human beings. Many cases report that some men are beginning to
prefer pornography for sexual pleasure as opposed to actually having sex (Balan
2010). Donald Hilton (2009) also notes that the neurological changes aorded
by Internet pornography are physically altering the makeup of the brain and
prompting the decline of the human species by chemically discouraging the
tendency toward monogamy. What cyberporn therefore is revealing is that sexual
media has the unthinkable power to completely alter the sexual landscape, down
to the base neural connections that fuel human desire:
First, an ancient biological program in the brain overrides
natural desire when there are lots of mates begging to be
sexed. Your brain perceives each new individual on your
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screen as a valuable genetic opportunity. Second, too much
stimulation can numb the pleasure response of the brain for a
time, pumping up cravings for more novel stimuli. Therefore,
a familiar mate appears less enticing. And nally, too much
stimulation of the brains sex and mating circuitry obstructs the
instinct toward monogamy (Wilson and Robinson 2011).
Accordingly, several sources note that the excessive use of and exposure
to cyberporn has created a generation of addicts who oftentimes do not
have physical sexual relations until around ten years after initial exposure to
pornography (see Rothbart 2011). Much like a drug addiction, hyper-stimulating
porn drastically increases dopamine production in the brain, which is linked
to pleasure and arousal. By releasing a new rush of dopamine, each novel
pornographic visual only further solidies the link between the image and
arousal, and because cyberporn is immediate and incredibly stimulating, mens
brains, especially teenagers, are associating novelty and the hyperreality of porn
with immense pleasure. In the long run, an increased sensitivity in dopamine
signaling results in a number of psychological problems, ultimately leading to
the inability of nding any pleasure in real sex (Wilson 2012b)a phenomenon
known as the Coolidge Eect.
To show the nature of this eect, researchers conducted a study in which they put
a male rat in a cage with a receptive female rat. At rst, there was a sexual frenzy,
but after about six consecutive copulations, the male rat grew disinterested in
the female. However, when researchers dropped a new female into the cage, the
male rats boredom miraculously faded and he was right back at it. The process
could be repeated until the rat nearly died of exhaustion. The rat, when exposed
to a new mate, experienced dopamine surges in the brain similar to how novel
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porn aects the human brain, uprooting a tendency toward monogamy in the
process (Wilson and Robinson 2011).
This sexual bond with porn has desensitized the brain to normal pleasure and
hyper-sensitized it to Internet porn. This had led to signicant neurological
and libidinal eects whereby male users experience normal erections when
masturbating to porn yet erectile dysfunction when engaging in sexual
intercourse with partners (Rothbart 2011; Wilson 2012a; Wilson and Robinson
2011). Accordingly, psychologists have noted a signicant growing number
of younger men who are experiencing performance problems during sex,
particularly in their early teens and into their late twenties (Wilson 2012b).
Personal accounts reveal how this phenomenon is drastically aecting sexual
performance and thus interpersonal relationships:
The dried-out condom had a full-bodied choke hold on me, but
Id already stopped twice to put on a fresh one, and I knew, as I
kept earnestly pumping away, that one more condom wouldnt
make the necessary dierence. Had I just given up, things
might have played out the way they often did, with shades of
confused disappointment and inadequacy on the part of the
woman and mumbled apologies and awkward shame from me.
But that night, ingenuity struckunable to actually get o, I
found myself ying a fresh route: I faked it (Rothbart 2011).
Lack of desire was a factor in the failure of my marriage, and
the failure of a relationship subsequent to that. I am in my late
30s, have used porn heavily since my teens, and have blamed
my problems on partners (Im just not attracted to you, I
wish you were more responsive), the newness of partners (I
need to give my body time to catch up to my brain, I need to
get over my ex), tness levels, diet, age, stress, performance
anxiety (Wilson and Robinson 2011).
113
Ive always loved sex, and Ive always had a lot of it, so I really
had to stop and think about it when she asked me recently why
she always has to be the one to initiate things. And she was
right; I guess Ive been fading from her. Its like all that time
with these porn stars was subduing any physical desire for my
girlfriend. And, in some weird way, my emotional need for her,
too (Rothbart 2011).
These accounts highlight a signicant problem for interpersonal relationships and
issues of womens self-esteem and subsequent behavior. Because men secretly
hunger for the variety that porn oers, women are beginning to take on pornographic
tropes and incorporate them into their sex lives with their addicted partners:
A lot of guys have come to expect P.S.E. [the Porn-Star
Experience] as a common thingsnatches waxed bald, access
to every holeand plenty of women are more than happy
to provide. A few might enjoy it, but for most its harrowing.
I think theres a fear that if they cant make it happen, their
boyfriend will retreat online (Rothbart 2011).
In order to keep their men interested, these women are essentially reenacting
what their partners are getting o to at their computers. Consequently,
this unusual behavior on behalf of the woman is disturbing to their male
counterparts, for they dont want their real women and their fantasy women to
inhabit the same body (Rothbart 2011). In the end, a conundrum emerges with
women nding it impossible to compete with simulations of sexual perfection and
men still resorting to porn for a licentious x.
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SEXUAL MEDIA & IDENTITY FORMATION
The Internet and pornography are also markedly aecting sexual and social
identity formation. The anonymous consumption of pornography online has
been shown to have a detrimental repercussion on user personalities and can
lead to addiction (Young 2004). The immediacy and innite amount of sexual
representation onlinewhen consumed endlessly and anonymously from a
malleable young ageis eacing any clear distinction between reality and this
unrealistic sexual imagery. These hyperreal and glamorized representations
lack any substantial content; nevertheless, they are detrimentally being taken
to be intimate reections of reality, especially among malleable adolescents.
In Simulacra and Simulation, Baudrillard (1995) notes that the media-
saturated culture is in a period of endless simulation whereby self-image is
being consistently replaced by popular media. Like the hyperreal Disneyland
environment, Baudrillard asserts that self-identity is now conned to a constant
feedback loop that keeps the true human experience abhorrently removed from
the reality of individuality and its actual place in ano longer existentreal
world. Despite cultural dierences, it must also be noted that males do the
majority of consumption, and the taboo nature of the medium is only fueling its
consumption; therefore, exposure is often deliberate.
Throughout its inuential history, porn has unquestionably informed, established,
and challenged a variety of sexual identities. A signicant percentage of popular
sexual media has adopted the misogynistic trope of a hypermasculine dominant
male and submissive objectied female, nding its way even into the most
unusual sexual subcultures. With the aid of a male-domainted entertainment
industry across the globe, hypermasculinity has undoubtedly shaped all
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forms of media with porn being no exception. In the United States especially,
hypermasculity has become a dominant form of national identity, which is often
referred to as the sense of belonging an individual shares with other members
of his or her country of residence. National identity, however, is only a very
insignicant fraction of ones self-identity of which sexual desire plays the
most important role. A healthy sexual identity is consistently formed by a self-
recognition and understanding of ones own physical and sexual inclinations
apart from external inuences. An unhealthy sexual identity, on the other hand,
forms when one adopts or internalizes the dominant national identity or the
sexual identities of his or her family members or peers. In many patriarchal
societies, unhealthy identities form more frequently as national identity absorbs
and informs individual identity through its inltration of the very forms of culture
that people often turn to for sexual identity formation.
Due to the profound connection between sexual identity and morality and with
puritanical morality at the very backbone of the national identity in the United
States, patriarchal conventions have had a relatively easy time perpetuating an
idealist moral utopia by creeping into individual identity formation through
popular media and especially pornography. Consequentlyunder the charming
spell of national identitys most useful tool, capitalismdiverse individual and
subcultural identities have had an extremely dicult time nding a socially
acceptable place within a national framework. Attempts to reconcile the
important interplay between natural self-identity formation and the persuasive,
puritanical, and patriarchal national identity have exceedingly jeopardized
healthy self-perceptions and psychological well-being. According to Bryant
(2009), this struggle of identity has therefore resulted in misconstrued ideas of
116
body image, feelings of shame, poor social bonds, social anxiety, confusion, and
even addiction.
SEXUAL MEDIA & GAY IDENTITY
An emerging area of study pertaining to sexual medias eects on gay male
identity presents a signicant account of the incredible inuence that
pornography has had on culture, especially within the framework of sexual
identity formation. Historically, the gay community has been socially outcast as
challenging the patriarchal agenda. With nowhere to turn due to social alienation
when coming of age, homosexual youth generally have very few resources to aid
in the process of sexual identity formation and community building. Many have
sought pornographyoften without choiceto fulll these social necessities.
Accordingly, several sources on the subject have noted that sexual media has
played a very important role in gay sexual identity formation (see Fejes 2002;
Kendall 2004; Subero 2010). In Gay Male Pornography, Christopher Kendall
(2004) cites that:
sexually explicit lesbian, gay, and bisexual materials challenge
the dominant cultural discourse. They resist the enforced
invisibility of our marginalized communities and thereby
reassure us that we are not alone in the world, despite the
apparent hegemony of heterosexuality. They reduce our sense
of isolation. They provide armation and validation of our
sexual identities by normalizing and celebrating homo and bi-
sexual practices, which mainstream culture either ignores or
condemns. In short, they help us feel good about ourselves in
an otherwise hostile society (Kendall 2004, 48).
Therefore, gay adolescents nd self-worth and belonging in their struggle for self-
identity through forms of sexual media that:
117
make a valuable contribution to the historical and
contemporary documentation of lesbian, gay, and bisexual
existence and experience. In that respect, they are critical
to the formation, evolution, and continued vitality of our
communities . . . They thereby operate as a socializing force,
provoking informed discussion among lesbians, gays, and
bisexuals, through which we create networks, forge social and
political ties, and develop vibrant communities (Kendall
2004, 48).
As liberating as this may seem, however, a great deal of gay pornographic
material has adopted the same patriarchal, masculine-worshipping tendencies
of heteroporn. In many cases, gay porn oppressively employs the sensualities
of masculinity, domination and power, objectication, and desires that plague
some forms of heterosexual pornography. Feminist writers have argued that
the gay male depicted in gay porn is just a variation in an overall phallic based
heterosexual masculine identity (Fejes 2002).
Gustavo Subero highlights in his research that the Latino male homosexual has
also been eroticized within the same tropes that underscore traditional Western
pornography as they are depicted as hypermasculine gures whose raw sexuality
functions as an unquestionable sign of their inner primal machismo. This
tendency yields a representation of neo-colonialism in which the superior white
still regards the inferior mixed-race or black Other (though excessively muscular,
hunky, and well-endowed) as an object of forbidden desire and sexual curiosity
(2010). Concurrently, Kendall (2004) notes similar tendencies of sexualized
racism in the magazine Oriental Guys:
118
. . . in accounts of older white men cruising Asian boys and
male prostitutes, the magazine does focus on and sexualize the
youth and race of those featured on its pages. In this context,
young Asian men are described as pearls of the orient, easy
to nd, accessible, and available. Often, the photo spreads
of young Asian men, shown face down with buttocks elevated,
are accompanied by news articles that tell the reader how,
for example, to recruit young Balinese men. These, in turn, are
accompanied by letters to the editor detailing the success
of the magazines readers overseas conquests of young Asian
men (Kendall 2004, 60)
By extrapolation, patriarchal tendencies have undeniably found their way into the
very porn that homosexuals seek to establish their sexual identities. Historically,
sexual media and even cyberporn supposedly liberated diverse sexualities and
served as a rebellion against patriarchal sexual repression. Under the guise of
true liberation, however, much of the representations that speak to specic
sexual diversities utilize the same conventions that perpetuate dominating
patriarchal tendencies. Kendall (2004) notes that the gay liberation movement
detrimentally failed to adhere to the radical feminist ideologies that aimed to
overthrow the phallocracy. Instead, the dominant gay culture rejected these
necessary tenets that could have easily aorded true liberation. This rejection is
clearly evident in a mainstream gay culture that is characterized by:
a sexualized identity politic that relies on the inequality found
between those with power and those without it; between those
who are dominant and those who are submissive; between
those who are top and those who are bottom; between straight
men and gay men; between men and women. From these and
other materials, we are told to glorify masculinity and men who
meet a hyper-masculine, muscular ideal. The result is such
that men who are more feminine are degraded as queer and
faggots and are subjected to degrading and dehumanizing
119
epithets usually used against women, such as bitch, cunt,
and whore. These men are in turn presented as enjoying
this degradation. In sum, they reinforce a system in which,
as MacKinnon explains, a victim, usually female, always
feminized is actualized (Kendall 2004, 59).
These tendencies thereby perpetuate the same gendered power inequalities
that gay culture must shy away from in order to form a healthy identity apart
from patriarchy and misogyny. Furthermore, the current economic orderby
incessantly capitalizing on niche marketsonly immortalizes the problem.
Therefore, when malleable adolescents of varying diversities experience this
media, they are internalizing these fallacious and detrimental representations
as elements of their own sexual identities and body image. This phenomenon
therefore creates unconscious bonds with the exact misrepresentations these
adolescents are trying to ignore (Haney 2004). Gay men, for example, often
inform their self-image from the hierarchical organisation of masculinities
and sexuality in modern social life that positions the muscular male body as
a progenitor of social status and self-esteem. Additionally, this hegemonic
conformity is often viewed as triumph of capitalism over the politics of
the radical gay movement (Duncan 2010). Unfortunately, these harmful
internalizations promote self-hate and internalized homophobia solidifying
the existence of homophobia and sexism (Kendall 2004, xv). Together with
cyberporn as an emerging cultural force and confused parents, a vast majority
of adolescents are adopting these very tendencies and conventions into their
sexuality and identity formation. It is no surprise that the diversity of the world is
beginning to mirror its online counterpart.
120
FOR A BETTER POST-PORN WORLD
Given all the evidence, it is quite clear that pornography and other forms of
sexual media have had a dramatic impact on various facets of society, culture,
and especially identity, and until only recentlyconcurrent with the coming-
of-age of the cyberporn generationhas there been a more adequate and
comprehensive understanding of sexual medias eects on its viewers and
culture as a whole. As pornography has fully realized its staying power with
the aid of capitalism and the Internet, new studies have begun to outline the
detrimental eects surrounding the immediacy, ubiquity, and conventions of the
medium. While porn, within two decades, has irrefutably destroyed a number
of social taboos that have repressed centuries of sexual expression, it has
seemingly overcompensated for specic sexual taboos and rearmed restrictive
gender roles. Within a contemporary discourse, notable eects of cyberporn
are plaguing the contemporary socio-sexual landscape by destroying and re-
fabricating general and romantic interpersonal relationships, reducing and
rewiring libidinal drive and neurological associations, and establishing unhealthy
identity formation in adolescents, particularly within the gay youth population.
However, new problems are also arising daily as the medium evolves. With its
inception into the ever-shifting landscape of the Internet, sexual media is in a
rapid state of ux, and research, society, culture, and other forms of popular
media struggle to keep up.
It is apparent that current research does not provide all of the answers; therefore,
specic cultures must develop their own proper understandings and recognitions
of pornographys eects on their own cultural and individual identities.
Concurrent with the emerging evidence that porn can be highly detrimental to
121
psychological development, practitioners and even parents must begin to treat
the medium as if it were a drug to better facilitate and educate healthy identity
formation and proper neurological development in adolescents. To expedite such
change, Ana Bridges (2008) asks that we continue to research how, for whom,
and why, so that we can help those who have been hurt and prevent future harm.
Furthermore, role models and proper education should discourage restrictive
gender roles and encourage the sacredness of sexuality to restore the mutual
appreciation, intensity, authenticity, and even clumsiness of real sex. In this
sacredness lies the aordance of compassion, intimacy, sensuality, tenderness,
companionship, and trust that have the power to transform the world for the
better, once and for all.
122
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Helping the Helper: Predicting Therapist
Resilience to Vicarious Trauma
ODETTE OVERTON
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Departments of Psychology and Biological Sciences
WILLIAM BRELAND, Faculty Advisor
127
INTRODUCTION
Therapists that work with sex oenders play an important role in maintaining
community safety by rehabilitating sex oenders in order to prevent further
crimes from occurring. While treatment may help the client, therapists of sex
oenders are at risk for mental health problems of their own. Because such
therapists experience increased exposure to traumatic events, they may begin to
develop symptoms commonly expressed by victims with post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD), which may decrease their ability to provide eective treatment.
In an eort to support therapist resilience, research into protective factors
against secondary trauma is necessary.
VICARIOUS TRAUMA (VT)
Originally used to describe the eects that counselors experienced from treating
trauma survivors, vicarious trauma (VT) has also been seen in those treating
sexual oenders. There are three primary characteristics of VT: it aects many
aspects of the therapists life, it is cumulative, and the eects are potentially
permanent (McCann and Pearlmann 1990). Pearlman and Saakvitne (1995)
dened vicarious trauma as being an aggregate process through which the
therapists inner experience is negatively transformed through empathic
engagement with the clients trauma material discussed during sessions with
the therapist. Vicarious trauma is also known as secondary trauma, counter-
transference, compassion fatigue, and burnout (Vreklevski and Franklin 2008).
VT can lead to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) such as
anxiety, startle responses, fatigue, sleep disturbance, intrusive thoughts,
diculty concentrating, and problems controlling anger (American Psychiatric
128
Association 2000). Other negative eects of vicarious trauma on the therapist
include changes in trust, self-esteem, and intimacy, which can become
intrusive and distracting in other aspects of life (Saakvitne and Pearlman 1996).
Additionally, VT can pose threats to personal relationships and career stability
(Pearlman and Saakvitne 1995). Because empathetic engagement is crucial for
eective therapy, the threat of VT and its subsequent symptoms are imminent
and put treatment eectiveness at risk (Sexton 1999). The current study aims to
determine which protective factors are correlated with high symptoms of VT, and
thus promote resilience in therapists.
THE CLIENTS: DEFINING SEX OFFENDER
The denition of a sex oense is not universally agreed upon. For instance, an
adult who commits an act of rape against another adult may receive up to 8
years in prison in California but only 4 years in New York (Penal Code 130.25).
According to the state of New York, sex oenses are broadly dened as those
involving any unwanted sexual contact between an actor and a victim, including
sexual intercourse, oral intercourse, anal sexual conduct, and/or sexual contact
without consent (Penal Code 130.00). Most state penal codes implement all-
encompassing statutes that act as a catch-all for unwanted sexually motivated
behaviors. Sex crimes are generally categorized by the type of behavior exhibited
and the severity of the punishment that the oender will receive. Some general
categories of sex oenses include, but are not limited to, child pornography,
forced prostitution, incest, rape, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment.
Although not all sex oenders are diagnosed with a psychological disorder,
there are several disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
129
Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, TR) that are predominantly sexual in nature. In the
DSM- IV, these disorders are classied as paraphilias, such as pedophilia and
sexual masochism/sadism. In the case of a diagnosed paraphilia, the oender is
alternatively committed to a hospital treatment program instead of incarceration,
given that the disorder was involved in the motivation for the oense.
Those who are convicted of sexual crimes, but not mentally disordered,
generally have two separate fates depending on the crime: either prison or
probation. The decision to send an oender to prison or put them on probation
depends on numerous variables such as deviant sexual preferences, history of
sexual oenses, psychopathy, risk of sexual recidivism, change in risk of sexual
recidivism, and cognitive distortions (Stalans 2004). In addition to clinical
interviews, numerous dierent risk assessment methods may be utilized to
determine placement such as volumetric phallometry (Quinsey and Lalumiere
1996), the Clarke Sex History Questionnaire (Langevin, Paitich, Handy, and
Langevin 1990), and the popular Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Oender
Recidivism (RRASOR) (Hanson and Thornton 2000). Oenders that show high
risk of recidivism or that appear to be a Sexually Violent Predator are sentenced
to incarceration whereas those who show promise for rehabilitation have the
opportunity for probation. The present study includes therapists treating sex
oenders in hospitals, in prison, and on probation.
Treatment centers often utilize the Risk, Needs, and Responsivity (RNR)
perspective, which posits that dierent oenders receive dierent frequencies,
durations, and intensities of sex oender treatment, depending on the
characteristics of the oender (Andrews and Bonta 2007). Although RNR
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has proven eective for the sex oenders receiving services, the therapists
administering services may be adversely aected (Hanson, Bourgon, Helmus, and
Hodgson 2009). As previously mentioned, engagement with their clients makes
therapists vulnerable to traumatic eects, which may be moderated by several
factors of which this study aims to determine. For example, those treating high-
risk sex oenders could experience more VT symptoms because of exposure to
more heinous and violent crimes.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Limited research regarding triggers of VT in therapists treating sex oenders has
left a gap in eorts to protect mental health providers. However, some factors in
poor mental health of mental health providers have been studied, one of which is
time spent working with sexual oenders. In a study by Ennis and Home (2003),
analyses failed to show a positive correlation between number of hours spent
treating sex oenders and therapist distress, as predicted. The study proposed
that one explanation for this may be that therapists that dedicate a signicant
amount of time to treating sex oenders may also develop coping strategies to
deal with the psychological impact of hearing traumatic stories; however, few
researchers have investigated such coping strategies. Farrenkopfs (1992) phases
of impact theory suggests that progression through to the adaptation phase
allows the therapist to become more detached from the trauma and withstand
more exposure to trauma, thus showing more therapist resilience. Conversely,
studies such as one by Steed & Bicknell (2001) have shown that more time spent
treating this population is a risk factor for VT symptoms. In a review of descriptive
and empirical literature on VT in therapists treating sex oenders, Moulden and
Firestone (2007) found mixed ndings regarding the relationship between years
131
of experience and VT symptoms, yet concluded that those with the least and
most amounts of experience were most at risk for symptoms. In turn, ndings
regarding length of time are ambiguous and warrant further research.
In addition to length of time administering sex oender-specic therapy, research
has also explored the relationship between amount of clinical supervision
and VT. According to Ellerby (1998), limited clinical supervision is related to
higher levels of stress and burnout (one of the alternative terms for vicarious
trauma). Furthermore, more supervision creates a greater sense of personal
accomplishment, provides opportunity to vent, and establishes an arena for
conrmation and validation by superiors. Research also shows that supervision-
related activities such as forums help to address the negative aspects of work
(Kadambi and Truscott 2003). Organizations that promote collegial connections
have shown that regular sta meetings, oender-specic supervision, and
consultation with professionals can help buer the trauma experienced when
treating sexual oenders. The amount of supervision could inuence job
satisfaction, which will be measured as its own construct in the present study.
The setting in which the therapist works is also an important factor to consider
when looking at the emergence of VT in therapists treating sex oenders. Rural
work settings, such as those in a study by Sprang, Clark, and Whitt-Woosley
(2007), have been found to increase levels of burnout, in part because of the
isolation associated with working in a rural area. In a recent study by Moulden
& Firestone (2007), a greater number of vicarious trauma symptoms were
seen in therapists working in a prison setting as compared to those working
in community outpatient clinics. Furthermore, secure work settings such as
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prisons and hospital units predicted greater vicarious trauma than did community
settings. Again, this is explained by the increased isolation and emotionally
hardened atmosphere of prison. In another study, therapists working in a prison
setting reported more emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lower feelings
of personal accomplishment than those in community settings (Shelby et al 2001).
Additionally, inpatient vs. outpatient facility was the only signicant predictor of
burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Surprisingly, these therapists also
had fewer years of experience working with sex oenders. Moulden and Firestone
suggested that perhaps this was because the oenders in secured facilities were
more dicult and dangerous than those in the community. However, Edmunds
(1997) found that sexual oender therapists felt unsafe because of work without
regard to facility type, which could increase the risk of VT.

The factor that has been most related to therapist resilience is peer support. The
previously mentioned study by Ennis and Home indicates that greater amounts
of peer support are signicantly predictive of lower levels of distress. Peer
support can come in many dierent forms, such as that from family as opposed
to from colleagues or friends in the community. Previous research indicates
that supportive peers and coworkers are more valued than formal supervision
(Kadambi and Truscott 2001). Kearns (1995) explains that peer support allows the
therapist to process negative reactions to clients; those with less peer support
have fewer chances to process these feelings and so are at higher risk for VT.
Moreover, therapists who work full-time typically have smaller circles of friends
because of the reduced amount of available leisure time (Evans and Villavisanis
1997). It is also recommended that therapists working with sexual oenders have
contact with other professionals working with victims in order to take advantage
133
of professional, intellectual, and emotional support (McCann and Pearlman
1990). McCann and Pearlman suggest that therapists get involved in support
groups for trauma counselors so that they can normalize reactions, understand
specic reactions, and have a safe environment where they feel at ease to share
thoughts and concerns. Even though the importance of having supportive peers
is agreed upon, another concern surfaces in regards to nding peers with whom
to create emotional ties. Because therapists experiencing VT may become more
fearful and distrustful, building close bonds may become dicult for these
individuals as well, thus making it dicult to cultivate supportive networks
(Herman 1992).

Self-care of the therapist has also proven to be an important contributor to
presenting vicarious trauma symptoms. Self-care encompasses several dierent
subtopics, including exercise, nutrition, sleep, mental health, and general
maintenance. Although coping in general is an important aspect of self-care,
the benets of specic kinds of coping are not agreed upon. For instance, the
therapist can cope negatively, such as with drugs or alcohol, or positively, such
as through spiritual practices. While most studies conclude that positive coping
strategies are the most eective, some do not see a dierence. Moulden and
Firestone (2003) suggested that therapists may use both strategies eectively;
for example, someone may use alcohol in order to negatively cope with work
stress, but may simultaneously attempt to maintain good self-care, which is an
example of positive coping.
Regardless of coping styles, many other types of self-care must be taken into
account, such as exercise. To combat the numbness that may accompany VT,
134
researchers suggest taking part in activities that reconnect them with their bodies
and engage their senses such as aerobic exercise, stretching, dancing, listening
to music, smelling owers, eating, and making art. Such activities are methods
that therapists can utilize to ground themselves (Neumann and Gamble 1995).
Moreover, therapist mental health also plays an important role in therapist self-
care. A study on psychotherapist self-care patterns by Mahoney (1997) found that
ninety percent of therapists had personal therapists of their own, most of who
contended it was valuable. Self-care strategies can include having good nutrition,
practicing spirituality, and getting enough sleep as well.
Because of their increased exposure to traumatic experiences, therapists treating
sex oenders are at risk for developing symptoms of vicarious trauma. While
vicarious trauma may decrease the eectiveness of treatment, development of
various protective factors can combat these negative eects. As each therapist
is unique, some will depend more on certain protective factors than others in
order to facilitate therapist resilience. For instance, an experienced therapist may
realize that good mental health stems not only from having strong peer support,
but from also having great self-care, whereas an inexperienced therapist may
only focus on peer support. Based on the literature, the following hypotheses
have been formulated in response to vicarious trauma:
1. Negative correlation with length in career
2. Negative correlation with amount of sex oender-specic supervision
3. Positive correlation with isolated clinical setting
4. Negative correlation with job satisfaction
5. Negative correlation with amount of perceived peer support
6. Negative correlation with amount of therapist self care
135
METHODS
PARTICIPANTS
An online questionnaire was sent to sex oender treatment agencies from
across the United States as referred by the Criminal Justice Departments lists
of approved adult sexual oender treatment programs. Of those agencies
contacted, 42 therapists submitted responses. Agencies were from various states
across the country including California, Virginia, Texas, Ohio, and Nebraska. Only
respondents with a license to practice psychology were invited to respond to the
questionnaire; those who are therapists and not psychologists were included in
the recruitment process. All participants were treating sex oenders at the time
of survey completion.
Respondents consisted of 10 males and 31 females with 35 identifying themselves
as Caucasian, 4 identifying as Hispanic/Latino, 1 identifying as more than one
race, and 1 declining to answer. Of those who responded, most participants
fell into the 4049 age range (n=12), with both 60 years and older and 3039
years old coming in second (n=8). A large portion (n=25) are married and
most lived in a household of two people. (n=15). Most participants clients
consisted predominantly of sex oenders, with the mode being 90-100%
of clients committing sex crimes (n=22), of which most comprised of sexual
crimes involving a child (non-violent) (n=19). Additionally, a greater portion of
participants stated that they worked full-time (n=36).
136
INSTRUMENTS
The researcher developed a questionnaire in order to measure vicarious trauma
and its related factors as well as to create a more valid measurement of VT (See
Appendix A). An experimental crosswalk was conducted to identify existing
instruments that have already been validated in previous literature and were
either used directly or adapted to form the current questionnaire (Chrestman
1995). The nal questionnaire included information on demographics, work
supervision, job satisfaction, social support, work support, exercise, personal
maintenance, and nutrition. In terms of VT characteristics, the questionnaire
addressed seven areas of VT: anxiety, internalizing behavior, dissociation, sexual
challenges, sleep challenges, avoidance behavior, and intimacy challenges.
The following are the instruments borrowed from existing literature to form the
current questionnaire:
JOB SATISFACTION SURVEY (JSS)
The Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) was created by Dr. Paul E. Spector with the
aim of measuring employee attitudes about their job. It consists of 36 Likert
scaled items ranging from 1 (Disagree very much) to 6 (Agree very much). Its
nine sub-scales were tested on a sample of 2,870 for internal consistency
reliabilities, concluding in the following alpha coecients: Pay (.75), Promotion
(.73), Supervision (.82), Fringe benets (.73), Contingent rewards (.76), Operating
procedures (.62), Coworkers (.60), Nature of work (.78), and Communication
(.71). A total score is attained by summing the scores from each sub scale, of
which the same sample produced an alpha coecient of .91 (Spector 1997).
Although not all items were used, some were taken directly from the measure
to create the present questionnaire, such as I feel my job is meaningful and I
137
have too much to do at work. The present questionnaire created two sub-scales
to measure job satisfaction based o of the JSS: Intrinsic reward and Work-load.
COPING RESOURCES INVENTORY (CRI)
The Coping Resources Inventory (CRI), developed by Marting and Hammer
(1988), measures how people manage stress using ve sub scales: Cognitive,
Social, Emotional, Spiritual/Philosophical, and Physical. The measure is Likert
scaled using Never or rarely; Sometimes; Often; and Always or almost always
as response options. The CRI brings awareness to coping resources and
demonstrate alternative ways to deal with stress (Hammer and Marting 1988).
Selected items from the CRI were included in this study to create the peer
support construct, such as I feel as worthwhile as anyone else and I am part of
a group other than my family that cares about me. However, dierent sub-scales
were used to measure peer support as a whole (Community, Work support,
Family support, and Social support).
THE EXERCISE OF SELF-CARE AGENCY (ESCA)
Items from the Exercise of Self-Care Agency (ESCA), developed by Kearney
and Fleischer (1979) to measure the extent to which individuals take action
toward their health care, were used to help determine self-care of therapists
treating sexual oenders. Items were chosen on the basis that they were also
applicable to vicarious trauma and not solely to medical complications, for
which it was originally designed. Examples of transportable items are I rarely
neglect my personal needs and I am a good friend to myself. A French study
by Robichaud-Ekstrand and Loiselle (1998) validated the internal consistency of
the ESCA sub scales with the following Cronbachs alphas: Self-concept (0.69),
138
Initiative/responsibility (0.80), Knowledge/information seeking (0.79), and
Taking actions (0.62). Sub-scales were adapted for the present study as Exercise,
Mental Health, Maintenance and hygiene, Nutrition, and Sleep.
PROFESSIONAL QUALITY OF LIFE III: COMPASSION FATIGUE AND SATISFACTION
SUBSCALES-R III (PROQOL)
Two sub-scales of the Professional Quality of Life III (ProQOL), Compassion
Fatigue and Compassion Satisfaction, were used to measure the eects of
providing sex oender treatment on empathic exhaustion. The scale generally
measures the professional quality that one feels in relation to their career, but the
Compassion Fatigue/ Satisfaction sub-scales specically measure the negative
and positive aspects of work. Compassion Fatigue can be further broken down
into Burnout, exhibited by feelings of exhaustion, frustration, and depression, and
Secondary Traumatic Stress, which is due to work-related trauma and fear. The
ProQOL has shown good construct validity as seen in its utilization in over 100
published papers (Stamm 2010). Although there are some dierences between
vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue, they both apply to the negative
impact of clinical work dealing with traumatic material (Bride, Radey, and Figley
2007). Consequently, items taken from these sub scales were used to create the
Compassion Fatigue sub-scale of vicarious trauma, which was broken up into
sub-scales of Avoidance, Intrusions, Hyperarousal, Intimacy, and Cognition.
TRAUMA SYMPTOM CHECKLIST 40 (TSC-40)
The Trauma Symptom Checklist 40 (TSC-40) was adapted from the TSC-33,
created by Briere and Runtz to evaluate symptomatology correlated with both
childhood and adult traumatic experiences. While it addresses posttraumatic
139
stress, it does not measure all 17 criteria that warrant a diagnosis of PTSD.
Because the present study does not aim to measure PTSD directly, items from the
TSC-40 are still relevant to the present study and were used verbatim. Reliability
alphas for sub scales range from .66 to .77 while alphas for the entire scale are
between .89 and .91. In addition to a wide variety of trauma related experiences,
the TSC-40 has also been used to specically assess vicarious trauma in
psychotherapists (Chrestman 1995). Items from this checklist were used in the
present study to comprise the construct of Trauma Symptoms.
PROCEDURE
Following the experimental crosswalk, an initial exploratory factor analysis
was conducted to determine the number of factors in the current survey data.
An inter-item reliability analysis was executed to determine the reliability
of the salient items for each factor. Items that reduced the reliability were
eliminated and a structural equation model (SEM) conrmatory factor analysis
was run on the retained items to ensure minimal overlap between factors.
An additional reliability analysis was executed to conrm that the items were
accurate in measuring the various factors. Finally, a correlation analysis of all
the retained items was executed to predict relationships between VT and its
various hypothesized factors. Once the questionnaire was completed, it was
sent out electronically using the data collecting system Qualtrics. Once the data
was received, 8 multiple regressions were run, each testing a VT characteristic
against the 7 protective factors and the eighth regression testing VT as a whole
against the 7 protective factors. All statistical analyses were run using the
software program Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, better known as
IBM SPSS Statistics.
140
RESULTS
The SEM conrmatory factor analyses resulted in clean loadings for each VT
factor ranging from 0.400 for Nutrition to 1.00 seen in all factors. All factor
loadings from the conrmatory factor analysis can be seen in Tables 1-4. The Root
Mean Square Error Approximation (RMSEA), which estimates how dierent the
model covariant structure is from the real covariant structure, had a condence
interval of 90% from .00 to .12. The nal reliability analysis on the retained items
as seen in Table 5, which includes all protective factors and VT characteristics,
displays reliabilities ranging from 0.616 for Work Support to 0.862 for Sleep
Challenges. The correlation matrix, seen in Table 6, depicts estimations based
on the SEM conrmatory factor analysis. Factors showed 100% correlation with
themselves as predicted, although there were some overlap between factors;
Supervision and Job Satisfaction as well as Dissociation and Internalizing had
correlations of 1.00 with each other.
The regression run for VT as a whole indicated that Social Support predicts the
emergence of VT (Sig=. 031, B= -.716, R square= .554) (Table 7). Avoidance was
strongly predicted by Maintenance (Sig.= .008, B= -.603, R square= .782) (Table
8). Internalizing was predicted by Social Support (Sig.= .020, B= -.688, R square=
.660) (Table 9). Dissociation had two predictors: Social Support (Sig.= .021,B=
-.823, R square= .500) and Exercise (Sig.= .088, B= -.451, R square= .500) (Table
10). Sexual Challenges were predicted by Job Satisfaction (Sig.= .064, B= .784,
R square= .334) (Table 11). None of the protective factors predicts Anxiety (Sig.=
.781, R square= .243) (Table 12), Intimacy (Sig.= .502, R square= .358) (Table 13),
or Sleep Challenges (Sig.= .784, R square= .242) (Table 14). All aforementioned
tables can be found in Appendix B below.
141
DISCUSSION
Results indicate that preventative measures can be taken by therapists at risk for
VT in order to promote resilience and career longevity, such as creating a strong
support group or getting sucient exercise. The improvement in VT assessment is
two-fold in that it improves the quality of life for both the therapist and the sexual
oender. Good mental health in therapists will reect positively by allowing
more eective sex oender treatment and essentially increasing community
safety by rehabilitating more oenders. Furthermore, eective assessment of VT
will decrease job turnover, thus improving economic standing. Although results
support the idea that there are ways to prevent VT emergence, VT cannot be
clearly dened as of yet regarding its dierent characteristics. In turn, more
research is necessary to comprehensively understand VT, propose protective
factors, and thus rene the current questionnaire.
Surprisingly, analyses showed a positive correlation between Sexual Challenges
and Job Satisfaction in that more satisfaction at work predicts more sexual
challenges, such as having sexual thoughts at inappropriate times and not being
satised with his/her sex life. A plausible explanation for this could be that
successful therapists empathetically engage with clients in order to provide
eective therapy and thus have a high success rate, which could foster feelings of
accomplishment and increase job satisfaction. However, that same engagement
heightens susceptibility to the eects of traumatic material in which this sample
may be expressing through sexual challenges. The next necessary step would
be to look deeper into possible reasons why this correlation would be positive
in order to better understand this relationship and control for it in future
replications of this study.
142
Although social support was the only signicant predictor of VT, beta values for
all other protective factors were negative, indicating that they all have an inverse
relationship with VT as stated in the hypotheses. In turn, further testing needs to
be conducted in order to obtain signicance for all other factors and condently
suggest that these are indeed protective factors against the emergence of VT.
Additionally, VT characteristics that did not have any signicant predictors,
Anxiety, Intimacy, and Sleep Challenges, should have items adjusted on the
questionnaire in attempt to better assess these characteristics, thus warranting
further reliability testing as well. One respondent gave feedback that several of
the VT symptoms included in the questionnaire were common in the area where
she worked in Texas due to environmental factors, which must be considered in
the next version of the questionnaire. In general, the questionnaire requires more
time to improve validity and reliability for future implementation.
Because this study is still in the beginning phases of an ongoing attempt
to understand VT, there are many aspects of the questionnaire that need
adjustments. Inclusion criteria was very broad since previous literature did
not indicate signicant dierences between various demographic groups;
future replications should be more selective in hopes of identifying specic
characteristics that inuence the development of VT. However, exclusion criteria
should have taken into account that some therapists may have shown symptoms
of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prior to becoming a sex oender
therapist. This undoubtedly would skew results leading to either exclusion of
these individuals from the study or at minimum controlling for PTSD symptoms.
Moreover, there are other signicant coping mechanisms that therapists may
employ that were not addressed, such as drug use and spiritual practices, of
143
which should be included in the future. Most importantly, the subject pool should
be increased in order to generalize results. Although there is ample work to be
done, the present study builds a strong foundation for what can only become
groundbreaking strides in attempting to help the helpers.

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traumatic material, Traumatology 14(1) (2008): 106118.
147
QUESTIONNAIRE:
The present study aims to look at the relationship between psychologist lifestyle practices
and resilience in therapists working with sexual oenders. Your time and eort is greatly
appreciated and is critical to the development of protective factors for those exposed to
high volumes of trauma. The results of this study will become available to anyone that is
interested upon completion of the study. If you have questions or concerns, please contact
Odette at [email protected]. Again, thank you for your time.
For the following questions, please select the response that best describes you:
What is your gender?
o Male (1)
o Female (2)
o Prefer Not to Say (-99)
Which age group best describes you?
o 20-29 years old (1)
o 30-39 years old (2)
o 40-49 years old (3)
o 50-59 years old (4)
o 60 years old or higher (5)
With which race do you identify most closely?
o Asian (1)
o African American (2)
o Caucasian (3)
o Hispanic/ Latino (4)
o More than one race (5)
o Decline to Answer (6)
Marital status:
o Never been married (1)
o Married (2)
o Separated (3)
o Divorced (4)
Number of people living in household, including yourself:
o 1 (1)
o 2 (2)
o 3 (3)
o 4 (4)
o 5+ (5)
APPENDIX A
148
Proportion of my clients that are sexual oenders:
o Less than 10% (1)
o 10-20% (2)
o 20-30% (3)
o 30-40% (4)
o 40-50% (5)
o 50-60% (6)
o 60-70% (7)
o 70-80% (8)
o 80-90% (9)
o 90-100% (10)
Level of Typical Client Oense (pertaining to sex oender clients only):
o Misdemeanor crime [ie: sexual misconduct, forcible touching, 2nd or 3rd degree
sexual abuse, etc.] (1)
o DSM- IV disorder crime sans pedophilia [ie: exhibitionism, fetishism, sexual
sadism/ masochism, paraphilia NOS, etc.] (2)
o Sexual crime involving a child (non-violent) [ie: luring a child, sodomy,
predatory sexual assault, incest, child pornography, etc.] (3)
o Sexual crime involving an assault charge [2nd or 3rd degree] (4)
o Sexual crime involving an aggravated assault charge (5)
o Sexual crime involving assault of any degree against a child (6)
o Sexual crime terminating in murder (7)
Work Status:
o Part Time (2)
o Full Time (3)
o Contract/Per Diem (1)
I work in the following setting:
o Rural (2)
o Urban (1)
I work in the following setting:
o Prison (3)
o Hospital (2)
o Outpatient (1)
The facility I work in is:
o Private Practice (1)
o Public Agency (2)
I am the sole provider of sex oender-specic treatment at my work facility:
o True (2)
o False (1)
149
To the best of your ability, please choose the answer that best describes you:
How many years have you been delivering psychological services of any kind?
o Less than one year (5)
o 1-5 years (4)
o 5-10 years (3)
o 10-15 years (2)
o Over 15 years (1)
How many years have you been delivering psychological services to sex oenders?
o Less than one year (5)
o 1-5 years (4)
o 5-10 years (3)
o 10-15 years (2)
o Over 15 years (1)
How many hours do you currently spend administering sex oender-specic treatment per
week?
o 10 hours or less per week (5)
o 11- 19 hours per week (4)
o 20-29 hours per week (3)
o 30-39 hours or less per week (2)
o 40 hours or more per week (1)
How many hours do you currently spend administering other psychological treatment per
week?
o 10 hours or less per week (5)
o 11-19 hours per week (4)
o 20-29 hours per week (3)
o 30-39 hours per week (2)
o 40 hours or more per week (1)
How many hours of sex oender-specic supervision do you receive per week?
o I do not receive any sex specic supervision (5)
o 1 hour a week (4)
o 2 hours a week (3)
o 3 hours a week (2)
o More than 3 hours a week (1)
How many hours of mental health counseling/ therapy do you receive a week?
o I do not receive counseling/ therapy (-99)
o 1 hour a week (4)
o 2 hours a week (3)
o 3 hours a week (2)
o More than 3 hours a week (1)
150
I feel that the work I do is appreciated.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel emotionally drained from my work.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
Getting enough sleep is a priority of mine.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I love myself.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I do a variety of activities to keep my body healthy.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
My family supports the career choice I have made.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
My clinical career has spanned a fairly short amount of time.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
151
I feel there is always someone I can talk to who will listen.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel as worthwhile as anyone else.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I eat healthy most of the time.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel that my community understands the importance of my work.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I understand my needs and how to meet them.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
Colleagues at work genuinely care about my well-being.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel overwhelmed because my case-load at work seems endless.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
152
I feel my job is meaningful.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I talk to my collegues about my work.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I have a planned program for rest and exercise.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I participate in formal and/or informal case conferences at work.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I seek help when unable to care for myself.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
There is always someone I can count on to help me when I feel overwhelmed.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
My loved ones make me feel secure in the life decisions I make.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
153
I feel comfortable expressing my feelings to others.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I receive enough one-on-one supervision.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
There are people that I can do enjoyable activities with that are not work- related
activities.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
Sometimes I put o writing all of the details in a case report until later if it involves
particularly traumatic material.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
I am comfortable sharing personal problems with others.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I believe that my number of years providing counseling services is large compared to
others.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
154
I take pride in doing things I need to do in order to remain mentally healthy.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I exercise vigorously 3-4 times a week.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel connected to my community.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel on edge about various things.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
I feel that the counseling/ therapy I receive is helpful.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree or Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
o Not Applicable (-99)
I value the importance of the counseling I receive.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
o Not Applicable (-99)
I am preoccupied with one or more clients that I treat.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
155
I feel loved by someone.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I take pride in doing things I need to do in order to stay grounded.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I am a good friend to myself.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I take preventative measures to keep from getting sick.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I am part of a group other than my family that cares about me (e.g. sports team, church
group, etc.)
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I have too much to do at work.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
I eat a balanced diet.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
156
I feel comfortable talking to my family about feelings I have about work.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
Typical amount of sleep I get per night:
o Less than 3 hours (6)
o 3-4 hours (5)
o 5-6 hours (4)
o 6-7 hours (3)
o 7-8 hours (2)
o More than 8 hours (1)
My job is enjoyable.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I avoid initiating conversations about work with family and friends.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
I usually drink at least 8 cups of water a day.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I rarely neglect my personal needs.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel like I have adequate energy to take care of all of my health needs.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
157
I am losing sleep over traumatic experiences I hear about at work.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
I am happy that I chose to do this work.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
At times, I lose my train of thought because I have too many work-related thoughts on my
mind.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
I always receive help from coworkers when I need it.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel that I receive enough sex oender-specic supervision.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel that I am making progress at work.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
Sometimes I feel life is moving too fast.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
158
I feel connected to others.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I am comfortable being romantically involved.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I dont like talking about work with my family and friends.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
Sometimes I cant recall important parts of my work with violent oenders.
o Strongly Disagree (1)
o Disagree (2)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (4)
o Strongly Agree (5)
I feel that I am capable of loving someone.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I will nd time to take a nap during the day if I didnt get enough sleep the night before.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I am involved in community activities (e.g. part of a committee or non-prot organization, etc.)
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
159
I am the person I always wanted to be.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I eat the right amount of food for a person my size.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
I feel invigorated after working with those I help.
o Strongly Disagree (5)
o Disagree (4)
o Neither Agree nor Disagree (3)
o Agree (2)
o Strongly Agree (1)
For the following questions, please choose the response that most closely represents how
often you have experienced the following behaviors in the last TWO MONTHS:
Having sexual feelings when you shouldnt have them
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Having trouble breathing
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Feelings that you are not always in your body
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
160
Feelings of guilt
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Desire to physically hurt others
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Being confused about your sexual feelings
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Feeling tense all the time
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Feelings of inferiority
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Unnecessary or over-frequent washing
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Feeling that things are unreal
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
161
Passing out
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Stomach problems
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Sexual problems
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Feeling isolated from others
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Flashbacks (sudden, vivid, distracting, memories)
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Restless sleep
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Low sex drive
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
162
Anxiety attacks
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Sexual overactivity
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Loneliness
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
NIghtmares
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Spacing out (going away in your mind)
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Sadness
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Dizziness
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
163
Not feeling satised with your sex life
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Trouble controlling your temper
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Waking up early in the morning and cant get back to sleep
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Uncontrollable crying
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Fear of men
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Not feeling rested in the morning
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Having sex that you didnt enjoy
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
164
Trouble getting along with others
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Memory problems
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Desire to physically hurt yourself
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Fear of women
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Waking up in the middle of the night
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Bad thoughts or feelings during sex
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Weight loss without dieting
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
165
Insomnia
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
Headaches
o Never (1)
o Rarely (2)
o Sometimes (3)
o Often (4)
o All of the Time (5)
166
Table 1
Factor loadings for a simple structure of the measurement model
(factors 1 through 6).
APPENDIX B
Variable
SEM FIT INDICES: RMSEA 90%CI FROM .00 TO .12
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6
SU1
SU2
SU3
SU4
WL1
WL2
SE1
SE2
SE3
SS1
SS2
WS1
WS2
EX1
EX2
.777
1.000
.936
.615
1.000
.887
.955
1.000
.859
.774
1.000
.454
1.000
.750
1.000
167
Table 2
Factor loadings for a simple structure of the measurement model
(factors 7 through 10).

Variable
SEM FIT INDICES: RMSEA 90%CI FROM .00 TO .12
F7 F8 F9 F10
MH1
MH2
MH3
NU1
NU2
NU3
AN1
AN2
AN3
DE1
DE2
DE3
DE4
.676
1.000
.789
.943
.893
.591
1.000
1.000
.400
1.000
.837
.732
.515
168
Table 3
Factor loadings for a simple structure of the measurement model
(factors 11 through 13).
Variable
SEM FIT INDICES: RMSEA 90%CI FROM .00 TO .12
F11 F12 F13
IN1
IN2
IN3
IN4
IN5
IN6
DI1
DI2
DI3
DI4
SC1
SC2
SC3
.533
.487
.510
1.000
1.000
.649
.842
.593
.328
1.000
.428
.888
.540
169
Table 4
Factor loadings for a simple structure of the measurement model
(factors 14 through 16).

Variable
SEM FIT INDICES: RMSEA 90%CI FROM .00 TO .12
F14 F15 F16
SL1
SL2
SL3
SL4
SL5
SL6
SL7
AV1
AV2
AV3
IY1
IY2
IY3
.974
.995
.660
1.000
1.000
.809
.842
.931
.473
.540
.610
1.000
.750
170
Table 5
Final reliability outcomes with retained questionnaire items per protective factor
and VT characteristic.
Factor/Characteristic
SEM FIT INDICES: RMSEA 90%CI FROM .00 TO .12
Reliability
Supervision (Su) 0.679
Job Satisfaction (JS)
Social Support (SS)
Work Support (WS)
Exercise (Ex)
Maintenance (Ma)
Nutrition (Nu)
Anxiety (An)
Internalizing (In)
Dissociation (Di)
Sexual Challenges (SC)
Sleep (SI)
Avoidance (Av)
Intimacy (Iy)
0.838
0.838
0.616
0.684
0.788
0.749
0.873
0.746
0.65
0.862
0.748
0.751
0.845
171
Table 6
Estimated correlations among the factors for the lower-order factor
measurement model.
SEM FIT INDICES: RMSEA 90%CI FROM .00 TO .12
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
F8
F9
F10
F11
F12
F13
F14
F15
F16
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 F13 F14 F15 F16
1.00
.53
.71
.25
.27
.29
.86
.25
-.56
-.71
-.66
-.64
-.25
-.17
-.71
-.50
1.00
.48
.10
.44
.43
.14
1.00
.54
.18
.09
.55
.00
-.60
-.92
-.83
-.64
-.31
-.68
-.59
-.36
-.43
-.82
-.68
-.76
-.32
-.38
-.59
-.28
-.23
-.60
-.46
-.45
-.51
-.34
-.73
-.01
1.00
.25
-.23
.55
.32
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
-.20
-.12
-.15
.10
.02
.12
-.14
-.11
-.45
-.23
.12
.40
.35
-.43
-.45
-.50
-.41
-.29
-.50
-.15
-.45
.14
-.55
-.65
-.69
-.43
-.50
-.27
-.89
-.60
-.21
-.33
-.13
-.30
-.18
-.34
-.05
-.04
.58
.64
.72
.31
.39
.34
.71
1.00
.83
.62
.74
.64
.47
.66
.52
.66
.52
.46
.43
.45
.33
.60
.49
.28
.38
.14
.14 .29
172
Table 7
Regression output for VT as a whole factor.
Model
COEFFICIENTS
Unstandardized
Coecients
t Sig.
(Constant)
3.169
SucSup
JobSat
SocSup
WorkSup
Exercise
Maintenance
Nutrition
Standardized
Coecients
Std. Error B
.028
Beta
.115
-.266
-.037
-.066
-.122
-.024
1.092
.305
.292
.154
.126
.083
.222
.099
-.652
-.107
-.223
-.181
-.058
.928
.704
.119
.778
.083
.594
.814
.018 2.902
.093
-1.724
-.553
-.242
.055
.158
-.791
-.290
.393
173
Table 8
Regression output for Avoidance.

Model
COEFFICIENTS
Unstandardized
Coecients
t Sig.
(Constant)
8.674
SucSup
JobSat
SocSup
WorkSup
Exercise
Maintenance
Nutrition
Standardized
Coecients
Std. Error B
.475
Beta
.053
-.071
-.000
-.224
.131
1.574
.440
.421
.223
.182
.120
.319
.143
-.074
-.323
-.633
.134
.308
.902
.757
.999
.095
.012
.383
.000 5.511
-1.080
-1.865
-3.144
-.319
-.001
-.126
.917
.000
-.031
-.392
-1.004
174
Table 9
Regression output for Internalizing.
Model
COEFFICIENTS
Unstandardized
Coecients
t Sig.
(Constant)
3.165
SucSup
JobSat
SocSup
WorkSup
Exercise
Maintenance
Nutrition
Standardized
Coecients
Std. Error B
.067
Beta
.069
-.338
-.035
-.020
-.197
.012
1.014
.283
.271
.143
.117
.077
.206
.092
-.733
-.091
-.060
-.258
.025
.819
.804
.043
.769
.802
.363
.902
.012 3.122
.235
-2.360
-.959
.127
.114
.084
-.258
-.302
.255
175
Table 10
Regression output for Dissociation.

Model
COEFFICIENTS
Unstandardized
Coecients
t Sig.
(Constant)
2.472
SucSup
JobSat
SocSup
WorkSup
Exercise
Maintenance
Nutrition
Standardized
Coecients
Std. Error B
.055
Beta
-.089
-.285
-.034
-.080
-.005
.238
.228
.121
.099
.065
.173
.078
-.851
-.328
.236
-.015
.822
.705
.042
.739
.253
.468
.948
.018 2.900
.231
-1.222
.757
-2.362
-.344
-.390
- .067
-.120
-.149
.130
.131
.852
176
Table 11
Regression output for Sexual Challenges.
Model
COEFFICIENTS
Unstandardized
Coecients
t Sig.
(Constant)
.760
SucSup
JobSat
SocSup
WorkSup
Exercise
Maintenance
Nutrition
Standardized
Coecients
Std. Error B
-.619
Beta
1.228
-.486
-.004
-.016
.130
-.040
2.797
.782
.749
.396
.324
.214
.567
.254
-.580
-.005
-.026
.094
-.047
.449
.135
.251
.991
.942
.824
.879
.792 .272
-.791
-1.228
.229
-.157
-.584
.821
-.075
-.012
1.640
177
Table 12
Regression output for Anxiety.

Model
COEFFICIENTS
Unstandardized
Coecients
(Constant)
2.582
SucSup
JobSat
SocSup
WorkSup
Exercise
Maintenance
Nutrition
Standardized
Coecients
Std. Error B
.219
Beta
-.144
-.320
.076
-.065
-.127
.699
.670
.354
.290
.191
.508
.228
-.453
-.128
.050
-.175
.128
-.114
.244
.058
2.503
.762
.835
.389
.798
.740
.911
.592
.329 1.031
.313
-.342
.115
-.905
.263
-.214
-.556
t Sig.
178
Table 13
Regression output for Intimacy.
Model
COEFFICIENTS
Unstandardized
Coecients
t Sig.
(Constant)
1.714
SucSup
JobSat
SocSup
WorkSup
Exercise
Maintenance
Nutrition
Standardized
Coecients
Std. Error B
-.132
Beta
-.230
.106
.217
-.064
.009
-.103
.916
.256
.245
.130
.106
.070
.186
.083
.338
.824
-.285
.017
-.321
.618
.372
.436
.071
.382
.963
.249
.094 1.871
-.517
.814
.048
-1.231
-.335
-.413
-.919
2.043
-.939
179
Table 14
Regression output for Sleep Challenges.

Model
COEFFICIENTS
Unstandardized
Coecients
(Constant)
3.124
SucSup
JobSat
SocSup
WorkSup
Exercise
Maintenance
Nutrition
Standardized
Coecients
Std. Error B
.439
Beta
.149
-.279
-.226
-.078
-.068
.714
.684
.362
.296
.195
.519
.233
-.371
-.144
.020
-.088
-.358
.111
.462
-.025
2.557
t Sig.
.554
.832
.461
.463
.698
.963
.777
.253 1.222
.614
-.771
-.766
.218
-.292
-.401
-.048
BAOTRAN VO
Kech School of Medicine
Department of Biochemistry
WANGE LU, Faculty Advisor
PITX2 Transcription Factor Inhibits
Reprogramming of Human Dermal
Fibroblast Cells
181
INTRODUCTION
Embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from the inner cell mass of embryos,
and they have the capacity to grow indenitely (self-renewal) while
maintaining pluripotency. Pluripotency is the ability of cells from embryos
to generate into all types of tissues in the organism (Park et al 2008). Stem
cell research provides promising treatments for patients with diabetes,
heart failure, Parkinsons disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Previous studies have demonstrated successful reprogramming of somatic
cells into a pluripotent embryonic stem cell-like state via transduction or
direct transfection. Reprogramming somatic cells into pluripotent cells
overcomes challenges faced with ES cells such as the ethical issue of using
part of the embryo for research and the problem of tissue rejection in organ
transplantation (Takahashi 2010).
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be generated by forced expression
of four dierent transcription factors, Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (OSKM)
(Stadeld and Hochedlinger 2010; Takahashi and Yamanaka 2006). These
famous Yamanaka factors were the rst combination reported to successfully
reprogram somatic cells into a pluripotent state (Gonzalez et al 2011).
More studies have been performed on mouse models rather than human
subjects, due to safety concerns and limited knowledge on the eect of
these transcription factors on cell fate. It has been shown that iPSCs can be
generated from mouse embryonic broblasts (MEF) and adult mouse tail-tip
broblasts by retrovirus-mediated transfection of the four OSKM transcription
factors (Park et al 2008). As expected, the mouse iPSCs are identical to ES cells
in morphology, gene expression, teratoma formation and growth (Takahashi et
182
al 2007). Bringing their research to the next step, Takahashi and his colleagues
were able to generate iPSCs from adult human dermal broblasts (HDFs) and
other human somatic cells (which are indistinguishable from human ES cells)
by applying the method of retroviral transduction and following strict culture
conditioning (Takahashi et al 2007).
BACKGROUND ON OSKM TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS
The transcription factor Oct4 belongs to the POU family of transcriptional
regulators. It is also called POU5FI, which stands for POU domain, class 5 and
factor 1 (Homan 2005). Oct4 acts as an anchor point for the assembly and
maintenance of the multi-protein complexes on the DNA (Ng et al. 2011). Oct4
has a crucial role in early embryonic development and is necessary in order to
maintain ES cells pluripotency (Gonzalez et al 2011).
Sox2 is the transcription factor of the SRY-related HMG-box family involved
in the regulation of embryonic development and in the determination of cell
fate. Sox2 is required to maintain self-renewal of undierentiated embryonic
and neural stem cells (Gonzalez et al 2011). Sox2 is active in the embryonic
nervous system from the earliest stages of development, predominantly
in the proliferating, undierentiated precursors (Pevny et al 2010). It has
been demonstrated that Sox2 marks long-lived adult stem cells to ensure
homeostasis in a broad range of adult tissues (Driessens et al 2011). Because its
deletion in ES cells results in trophectoderm dierentiation, Sox2, like Oc4, is
essential for the maintenance of pluripotency (Yamanaka 2007).
Klf4 is a member of the Kruppel-like family of zinc transcription factors that
is involved in cell proliferation, dierentiation and survival. Klf4 has both
transcriptional activator and repression domains (Gonzalez et al 2011)
183
c-Myc (also known as MYC) controls the expression of hundreds of target genes,
many of which are also oncogenes or tumour suppressors, and inuence cell
proliferation and cell cycle (Gonzalez et al 2007).
PITX2 TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR
Transcription factor Pitx2 is found to inuence gonad shape and size, and,
ultimately, organ function and morphogenesis, by controlling somatic cell
morphology, extracellular matrix composition, spindle orientation, and cell
proliferation (Rodrguez-Len et al 2008). Chromatin immunoprecipitation
(ChIP) has veried the binding of Pitx2 to the promoters of the pluripotency and
self-renewal related genes (Boyer et al 2005). Pitx2 antibody was used to pull
down Pitx2 transcription factors in human broblast cells since Pitx2 was only
highly expressing in dierentiated cells.
Although reprogramming has been more successful in mice, the current
eciency of iPS cell induction is low for human cells. Expression proling
during ES cell dierentiation suggests that the gene, Pitx2, is highly expressed
in dierentiating cells, which are no longer in an ES-like state. Because Pitx2 is a
homeodomain transcription factor known to hold crucial roles in determination
of left-right organ asymmetry during early vertebrate development, we
hypothesized that Pitx2 is a candidate gene that may inhibit pluripotency gene
expression and Pitx2 knockdown might enhance reprogramming in broblast
cells. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) verify the binding of Pitx2 to
the promoters of the pluripotency and self-renewal related genes (Boyer et
al 2005). Pitx2 antibody was used to pull down Pitx2 transcription factors in
human broblast cells since Pitx2 was only highly expressing in dierentiated
184
cells. Transcription factor Pitx2 is found to inuence gonad shape and size,
and, ultimately, organ function and morphogenesis, by controlling somatic cell
morphology, extracellular matrix composition, spindle orientation, and cell
proliferation (Rodrguez-Len et al 2008). Because this transcription factor
is shown to hold crucial roles in embryonic development, their inuence in
pluripotency is signicant.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
PACKING RETROVIRUS
cDNAs for Oct4, Sox2, c-Myc, Nanog, Klf4 and RFP were cloned into the
retroviral pMX vector and separately transfected into Phoenix Ampho
(Phoenix-A) Cells. Retroviral vectors containing Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, c-Myc, RFP,
miRNA Control and miRNA Pitx2 knockdown were transfected, separately
following the jetPRIMETM (Polyplus) DNA transfection protocol. Virus was
added to the Phoenix-A cells, which were at about 80-90% conuent. After
24 hours, medium was changed to a mixture of DMEM (1X) with 10% PBS and
Penicillin/streptomycin. On day 2, retrovirus-containing medium was collected
and the medium was changed. On day 3, medium was collected, pooled
together and ltered.
Reprogramming
The procedure for reprogramming HDF cells (Human Dermal Fibroblasts-
fetal #2300 from ScienCellTM) took place over three days. Once the cells had
reached optimal conucency for transduction, the rst day consisted of adding
5 mg/ml of protamine sulfate. The next day (day 1), cells were transduced with
the four transcription factors, OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, c-MYC, red uorescent protein
185
(RFP), miRNA Control and miRNA Pitx2 knockdown viruses were added to
each well accordingly. Mixtures were centrifuged at 3,000 rpm for 45 minutes
and incubated at 37C overnight. On day 2, cells were washed with 1XPBS and
submerged in fresh 293T medium. On day 3, the second transduction was
performed, repeating the procedure of day 1 (follow protocol for cell culture
in Lowry et al. 2008). On day 4, cells were washed three times with PBS and
submerged in fresh medium. On day 6, half of the infected cells were passaged
onto MEF cells. The remaining cells were passaged onto a gelatin-coated plate
with 293T medium. On day 7, the medium of all cell plate was changed to hES
medium with 10ng/ml basic broblast growth factor (bFGF). Medium was
changed every day in all cell plates. The medium was supplemented with 1uM
VPA for two weeks to increase the reprogramming eciency and was switched
to conditioned medium (CM) starting from day 21 (protocol for CM can be found
in Braam et al 2008).
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
4F-Ctrl (1 ml): Infected with the OSKM factors on day 1 and 1ml of virus
containing mirRNA Control on day 3
4F-Pitx2 (1 ml): Infected with the OSKM factors on day 1 and 1ml of virus
containing mirRNA Pitx2 knockdown on day 3
Pitx2 (2 ml)-4F: Infected 2ml of virus containing mirRNA Pitx2 knockdown on
day 1 and the OSKM factors on day 3
Ctrl (2 ml)-4F: Infected 2ml of virus containing mirRNA Control on day 1 and the
OSKM factors on day 3
Ctrl (1 ml)-5F: Infected 1ml of virus containing mirRNA Control on day 1 and
both the OSKM factors and 1ml of mirRNA Control on day 3
Pitx2 (1 ml)-5F: Infected 1ml of virus containing mirRNA Pitx2 knockdown on day
1 and both the OSKM factors and 1ml of mirRNA Pitx2 knockdown on day 3
MEF-passage onto irradiated MEF cells on day 6
186
ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE (AP) STAINING
Cells were rinsed with autoclaved 1X PBS. Cells were xed with 4% para-
formaldehyde in PBS for 30 minutes at room temperature. Plates were washed
with PBS three times and rinse with Tris-HCl Buter (100 ml Tris-HCl with pH
8.2). AP staining solution was added to the plates following the procedure of
Vector Blue Alkaline Phosphatase Substrate kit (Cat SK-5300). The plates
were incubated in the dark for 30 minutes. The cells were rinsed with PBS three
times and pictures were taken using a 8.0 megapixel camera.

187
RESULTS
FIGURE 1.
Cells infected with red uorescent protein (RFP) virus under
uorescent microscope. Retrovirus carrying red uorescent protein (RFP)
infected broblast cells and the infected HDF cells glowed red under
uorescent microscope. The infected eciency was estimated to be 30-40%.
The cells were infected twice on day 1 and day 3 (Figs. 1AF). The plates
infected with virus contained the miRNAs rst had more red uorescent cells
(Figs. 1CF) than the plates infected with the OSKM factors rst (Figs. 1AB).
FIGURE 2.
A. 4F-Ctrl (1 ml)
B. 4F-Pitx2 (1 ml)
C. Pitx2 (2 ml)-4F
D. Ctrl (1 ml)-5F
E. Ctrl (2 ml)-4F
F. Pitx2 (1 ml)-5F
188
Reprogrammed broblast cells 8 days after transduction. Long and thin HDF cells
are transformed into round ES cell-like colonies. The circular cell morphology
is more transparent 8 days after reprogramming. However, there are still more
broblast cells compared to reprogrammed iPSC colonies.


A. 4F-Ctrl-MEF
B.4F-Pitx2
C. 4F-Pitx2-MEF
D.5F-5FCtrl-MEF
E.5F-5FPitx2
F.5F-5FPitx2-MEF
189
FIGURE 3.
Reprogrammed broblast cells 15 days after transduction. More iPSC colonies
have established along with a few remaining broblast cells. Overpopulation of
cells are more transparent in plate 5F-5FPitx2 and 5F-5FPitx2-MEF (Fig.3 E & F).
A. 4F-Ctrl-MEF
B.4F-Pitx2
C. 4F-Pitx2-MEF
D.5F-5FCtrl-MEF
E.5F-5FPitx2
F.5F-5FPitx2-MEF
A. 4F-Ctrl-MEF
B.4F-Pitx2
C. 4F-Pitx2-MEF
D.5F-5FCtrl-MEF
E.5F-5FPitx2
F.5F-5FPitx2-MEF
190
FIGURE 4.
Reprogrammed human broblast cells after alkaline phosphatase (AP) staining.
AP staining conrmed the appearance of ES cells-like colonies by staining them
in circular dark blue dots on the plate. Reprogrammed iPSC colonies were found
in plates 4F-Pitx2, 5F-5F Ctrl (on mouse embryonic feeder (MEF), 5F-5F Pitx2
(on MEF) (Fig. 3 B, D & F). There were circular empty spaces on all of the plates
where colonies of reprogrammed cells used to be. The border of the plates had
fragmented proteins that reacted with alkaline phosphatase compound. Although
stained blue, they were not cell colonies.

A. 4F-Ctrl-MEF
B.4F-Pitx2
C. 4F-Pitx2-MEF
D.5F-5FCtrl-MEF
E.5F-5FPitx2
F.5F-5FPitx2-MEF
191
FIGURE 5.
Distribution of hES cells in each plate after alkaline phosphatase staining.
Plate with the four OSKM factors (4F) and Pitx2 knockdown gene yielded the
highest colonies number of ES cell-like colonies. The plate transducted with
control miRNA and OSKM factors both time and passaged onto MEF yielded the
second highest number of colonies. Similarly, the plate transducted with Pitx2
knockdown, miRNA, and OSKM factors both time and passaged onto MEF yielded
the lowest number of AP stained colonies. The rest of the reprogrammed plates
did not yield any ES cell-like colonies, as indicated by AP staining.
N
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192
DISCUSSION
The rst studies on iPSCs used constitutively active retroviral vectors that
stably integrated into the host cell genome to introduce OSKM factors
(Stadtfeld et al 2010). Retroviral silencing has the advantage of a hallmark of
a pluripotent state, used as a surrogate for global epigenetic reprogramming
(Stadteld et al 2010). Our experiment has been successful in demonstrating
that, with the presence of the four OSKM factors, the reprogrammed plate
with Pitx2 knockdown shmiRNA yield iPSC colonies. The plate with the most
number of colonies contained the four factors (OSKM) and Pitx2 knockdown
gene, demonstrating that Pitx2 knockdown enhances reprogramming. Our
results show that it is possible to reprogram human dermal broblast cells to
pluripotency state by using retroviruses to insert the OSKM factors and Pitx2
knockdown micro-RNAs into human dermal broblast cells.
MiRNAs were used in this experiment to silence the Pitx2 gene. It has been
showed that the introduction of miRNAs specic to embryonic stem cells
enhances the production of mouse iPS cells (Judson et al 2009). MicroRNAs
bind on target messenger RNA after the transcription process and result in
translational repression and gene silencing. The mechanism of gene silencing
involves shRNA which are short hairpin RNAs that were used to knockdown
target gene expression. We used two types of miRNAs: control miRNAs, which
have no eect on the cellular genome, and Pitx2 knockdown shorthair pin
miRNA (shmiRNA), which stop the expression of Pitx2 gene in infected cells.
The red uorescence observed in broblast cells indicates successful
transduction eciency of the virus. The infection eciency of 30-40%
193
was quite low compared to previous reported infection result of 90-100%
(Takahashi et al 2006). The lower infection eciency display by the RFP
virus might be an indication of the low reprogramming yield at the beginning
of the experiment. There are more red uorescent infected cells on plates
transducted with four OSKM factors rst (Fig. 1 A-B vs. E-F) because only
miRNA-contained virus have the RFP inserts. On day 1 of transduction, none of
the cells infected with OSKM factors viruses glowed red. Only in day 3, when
cells were infected with miRNA-containing virus, the cells possessed the
RFP genes and glowed red under uorescent light. The two day gap between
two transduction process provides enough time cells to multiply so that the
number of RFP-infected cells is lower than the total number of cells. As a
result, there are fewer red uorescent cells overall in comparison with plates
that have miRNA viruses on day 1.
Observation of these cells several days post-infection shows the formation
of colonies with ES cell morphology suggesting reprogramming. AP staining
demonstrates the number of reprogrammed colonies. Long and thin HDF
cells transformed into round ES cell-like colonies, which indicates the
success of reprogramming. Plates with Pitx2 knockdown yield more colonies
than the plate with just regular control microRNA. However, there are some
limitations in this experiment such as the lower infection eciency display
by the red uorescent virus. There are a very low number of colonies also in
the control plate, so it is not quite accurate enough to be compared with the
Pitx2 knockdown plates. The experiment could be performed with dierent
combination of pluripotency factors. Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc are not the
only factor combination that can generate iPSCs. Human iPSCs have been
194
produced by forces expression of Oct4, Sox2, Nanog and Lin28 (Yu et al 2007)
This suggests that dierent routes may lead to a common pluripotent ground
state, or, alternatively, that dierent transcription factors activate the same
program by reinforcing each others synthesis (Stadtfeld et al 2010).
The disadvantage of using retroviruses is that they require delivery of factors by
retroviral vectors, increasing the chances of randomly alternating the cellular
genome (Stadtfeld et al 2010). Although they are ecient and reproducible,
reprogramming using viruses entails the production of potentially harmful
viral particles that express potent oncogenes. Even if properly silenced, viral
transgenes can eventually be reactivated during dierentiation or during the
life of iPSCs or transplanted models, leading to the formation of tumors in
cells (Gonzalez et al 2011). Retroviral transgenes are usually silenced toward
the end of reprogramming; this process is often incomplete, resulting in
partially reprogrammed cell lines that continue to depend on exogenous factor
expression and fail to activate the corresponding endogenous genes (Takahashi
and Yamanaka 2006; Mikkelsen et al 2008; Sridharan et al 2009). Lentiviral
vectors are more ecient than retroviral vectors at infecting dierent somatic
cell types and increasing reprogramming eciency. The use of inducible
lentiviral vectors, whose expression can be controlled by the drug doxycycline,
diminishes the risk of continued transgene expression and allows the selection
of fully reprogrammed iPSCs. (Stadtfeld et al 2010)
There are other alternate methods of reprogramming such as using lentiviral
transduction and direction transfection of microRNA (Miyoshi et al 2011).
More studies need to be done to conrm the hypothesis and to expand our
195
understanding of how transcription factors function in the pluripotency
network to regulate gene expression. Direct reprogramming of somatic cells
into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has emerged as an important method
for generating patient-specic stem cells of any lineage without the use of
embryonic materials. The usage for patient-specic and disease-specic iPSCs
is tremendous especially in cell replacement therapy, tissue transplantation
and cancer treatment. IPSCs can also help patients with disorders that arise
from cellular loss-of-function. Stem cell research enlightens us a little bit
about the magic of life and paves a new and promising path for drug discovery
and treatment in regenerative medicine.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For their comments and assistance the author would like to thank Dr. Richard
Andalon, Dr. Aaron Walker, Letisha Wyatt, and the USC McNair Scholars Program,
Dr. Wange Lu, the USC Keck School of Medicine, and Wen-Hsuan Chang.

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CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY Thailand
CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG Hong Kong
FENG CHIA UNIVERSITY Taiwan
UNIVERSITY OF MACAU Macau
NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY Singapore
NATIONAL UNITED UNIVERSITY Taiwan
SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Korea
SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY China
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA United States
TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY China
WASEDA UNIVERSITY Japan
XIAMEN UNIVERSITY China
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