Daily Archives: February 7, 2022

In 2004, a surfing accident left Josh Basile with a severe spinal cord injury and permanent paralysis at age 18. Though his life was forever changed, Basile continued to chase his dreams and graduated magna cum laude from law school.

Basile, now a lawyer, philanthropist, disability rights advocate, and community relations manager for web accessibility company accessiBe, has worked tirelessly to promote web accessibility and be a leader in the disability community. From fighting for the catastrophically injured in court, to inventing an inclusive sport called Slingshot Golf, to founding a nonprofit for others with spinal cord injuries, Basile has seen immense success throughout his career.

CNBC Make It spoke with Josh Basile to discuss three tips for others with disabilities trying to achieve career success:

"Find somebody that is doing something well and learn from their experiences," says Basile.

Gaining insight from others who share similar circumstances can be useful for those unsure of their future potential after a traumatic injury. "Follow in someone's tracks because so much in the working world is figuring out what not to do," he told CNBC Make It. "Analyze what mistakes to avoid and let that guide you in the right direction."

Basile credits mentorship for providing him with motivation early on in his paralysis journey.

"My mentors taught me that life goes on in beautiful ways and that I could still wheel after my goals and dreams with purpose. They showed me what was possible and gave me the confidence to fight and advocate for a better future."

Mentorship has been proven to be beneficial in the workplace, according to a 2020 study from Guider, a career development company. According to the study, 87% of mentees feel like their mentoring relationships gave them a sense of empowerment and boosted their self-confidence. People with mentors are also promoted 5 times more than those without them.

According to Basile, your personal and professional success will largely be influenced by recognizing the worth of your contributions.

"Too often persons with disabilities are thought of as charity. And that is so far from the truth." Basile says. "There's such great value in your unique voice, skills, and talents. Businesses need you."

Being able to articulate your strengths and fully contribute at work takes confidence. Believing in yourself not only helps you rise to the occasion but also shows others what you're capable of despite having a disability.Basile is proud to share that his self-confidence has not only given him career success, but he's also expecting a baby boy in March.

There's a popular saying that goes "life begins at the end of your comfort zone." Being adventurous as someone with a disability can be extremely nerve-wracking, especially when there's still so much room for improvement in accessibility and inclusivity. However, Basile reassures that there are so many opportunities open to you if you just have the willingness to try.

"I have proactively stepped out of my comfort zone by partnering with accessiBe to help raise awareness, both online and through the media, about the importance of web accessibility, and what it truly means for people with disabilities and businesses of all sizes," he says. "I'm a big believer in living with adventurous wheels. The outside world can be very scary, but you're going to end up finding out that there is so much life to be lived."

Basile also says that putting yourself out there is also beneficial to the disability community as a whole.

"Once you're out there, not only are you improving your quality of life, but you're also starting to change the narrative of the world around you. You start teaching people around you about the value and importance of having workers with disabilities at all levels of business, not just at the entry-level. You're helping create a better world."

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A quadriplegic lawyer's 3 best tips for career success for others with disabilities: 'I'm a big believer in living with adventurous wheels' - CNBC

Last year, Aimy Steele discovered something she had never seen before in the world of personal finance advice: lessons that felt culturally relevant to her, and inclusive of her experiences.

Steele is no stranger to that world, and shes extremely familiar with the financial gurus who have become the faces of paying down debt, budgeting and saving. She met Dave Ramsey after completing one of his programs and has avidly followed the teachings of David Bach and Suze Orman. But as a Black woman, Steele found that the advice from the traditional personal finance industry never felt truly relatable.

We can't compare our stories and our oppressive experiences with that of our white counterparts, and then still say, But I'm supposed to be doing the exact same thing they're doing, Steele says. If I don't see someone who looks like me, then I don't explicitly link my fate to them.

So Steele, 42, took matters into her own hands. She signed up for dfree, a faith-based personal finance program specifically designed for the Black community. Created in 2005 by DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. a retired pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in New Jersey dfree walks participants through training courses and connects them with financial professionals. For three months, Steele logged into the program weekly from her dining room table, listening to facilitators discuss homeownership and debt elimination in the face of oppression. She felt much less alone.

And she isnt alone. Many people of color have long felt left out of the traditional personal finance space. Experts say that much of the industry approaches advice as though all people are on equal footing. But systemic barriers have led the median wealth of white families to rise to about $184,000 while that number remains much lower for families of other or multiple races at just around $23,000 for Black families and $38,000 for Hispanic families, the communities facing the biggest wealth gaps.

For years, dfree participants have been meeting up weekly in Black churches, sororities and community organizations across the country to learn about paying off debt, insurance and more, all while blending in conversations around racial inequality. Steele recently brought the program to her own church and became certified to facilitate the course. She says her dfree experience wasnt only transformative because of the financial advice she took away, but also because the program acknowledged the discrimination Black Americans have faced for years.

Hearing people talk about the fact that there is oppression validates what we have been feeling, thinking and knowing but could not articulate, Steele says.

So do we throw all traditional personal finance advice out the window? Of course not. Countless people have changed their lives thanks to mainstream money tips. But making room for new faces, new products and new ideas in a world that has been so white-dominated for years is a necessary step and its happening. There's a movement growing outside mainstream finance narratives that highlights control and empowerment, and it's being led by people of color, willing to reach an audience in whatever way they can. Getting there is the tricky part.

Money; Courtesy of Rahkim Sabree

Rahkim Sabree distinctly remembers rushing home ahead of his siblings to tear an eviction notice off the front door before it was seen. There were times he couldnt afford laundry, and food stamps didnt always cover the groceries he loaded onto the conveyor belt.

Situations like that are traumatic, says the 31-year-old financial coach. I never wanted to be poor again.

As he grew up, he sought out as many sources as he could on building wealth, including Robert Kiyosakis well-known book Rich Dad Poor Dad. But he found that many of the financial texts he read didnt acknowledge the financial trauma Black people have experienced in this country. That trauma, like the loss of $3 million after a bank created for emancipated slaves collapsed in the 1870s, reverberates throughout the community today, he says.

When you work so hard to build up capital just to have it taken from you, that creates a trauma and that trauma can last generations, Sabree says. Grandma says dont put your money into banks because theyre crooks, dad says dont put your money in the banks because theyre crooks and so you never put your money in the bank.

Financial education for the Black community has to be unique to the Black community, says Sabree, who helps people work through their own financial trauma, which he says can range from an eviction or bankruptcy to having someone tell you credit cards will ruin your life. Part of the solution, he says, is to point Black people to Black-owned businesses and banks they can trust, like Greenwood, a mobile banking platform designed for Black and Latino customers that was co-founded by rapper Killer Mike. Greenwood provides monthly grants to Black and Latino-owned businesses and produces personal finance educational content targeted at these communities.

Distrust goes beyond banks and touches investing, insurance, credit cards and more, Sabree adds.

Racial inequality has seeped into nearly every aspect of our financial lives. At work, claims of racial discrimination are often the most filed claims but have the lowest percentage of success, and the wage gap shows no signs of shrinking. Meanwhile, Black borrowers are far more likely to be saddled with student loans than their white counterparts. One report found that 20 years after graduation, a typical white borrower has paid off 94% of their balance on average, while the typical Black borrower had paid off just 5%. When it comes to housing, our culture of homeownership was constructed on policies that led to discriminatory practices that still exist today, says Jacob Faber, an associate professor at New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.

Were told almost from birth that the best way to build wealth is home ownership, Faber says. However, the opportunities to not only buy homes but also accumulate wealth through home ownership is deeply unequal.

Real estate agents, for example, may steer home seekers to particular areas based on their race, and theres a major racial gap in home appraisals. Last year, a white man and a Black woman shared that after replacing their photos with pictures of only white family members and removing books by Black authors their home appraisal jumped more than 40%.

The reality of the lingering effects of discrimination and racism and their economic impacts are irrefutable, says Soaries, the creator of dfree as well as New Jerseys first male African-American Secretary of State. The question now isnt how this was formed, but what kind of strategies can be effective in helping people close the gap.

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Money; Courtesy of Giovanna Gonzalez

The world of personal finance advice has always felt not for me, says Noemi Ibarra, a 24-year-old Latina woman based in Chicago.

Ibarra is a first-generation American, and her family has struggled with poverty ever since her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico nearly 30 years ago. So when Ibarra graduated college and landed a full-time job, she was scared to invest her money.

I didnt know who to turn to, Ibarra says. But then she found someone she could relate to: Giovanna Gonzalez, another first-generation Latina woman who has garnered more than 180,000 followers on TikTok with the account name thefirstgenmentor. Finding online mentors of color like Gonzalez has made Ibarra say she feels more confident that she, too, can build wealth.

Financial advice on social media has exploded over the last several years, for better or worse. The internet is especially popular for young people to get money advice, with 41% of Gen Z respondents to a 2021 Fidelity survey saying that they turn to social media influencers to educate themselves on investing.

Money experts of color are breaking into the online financial scene. The Budgetnista Tiffany Aliche runs a Facebook group of more than 480,000 members who are mostly Black women, which provides a natural starting place for members to relate to each other. Kiersten and Julien Saunders tackle the deeply personal side of money through the lens of the Black American experience via their Rich and Regular blog, podcast and YouTube series.

Delyanne Barros has more than 320,000 followers between Instagram and TikTok. The attorney launched her money coaching business just before the pandemic to share what she had learned about investing with everyone, especially other Latinos, she says.

These newcomers are much needed in the finance world. Gonzalez says she read over 50 personal finance books, but didnt find that they address issues that hit close to her home, like planning for parents retirement and setting financial boundaries with families concerns she says are specifically pervasive in Latinx communities, but families rarely talk about.

Money is very taboo in our community, Gonzalez says.

So she decided to do her part to help others, sharing videos with captions like Struggling to set financial boundaries with your Latinx family? Try saying this with advice from a licensed therapist. That particular video is a favorite of Anna Gamezs, who says she struggles with this exact issue.

Now I feel really comfortable going into conversations with family and friends, Gamez, a 31-year-old job recruiter, says.

But not everyone does, or should, get their personal finance advice from social media. The financial advisor landscape needs to change as well, says Vaneesha Boney Dutra, an associate professor of finance at the University of Denver. Eighty-two percent of personal financial advisors are white, according to 2021 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because advisors looking for clients tend to start looking within their own circles, many of their clients also tend to be white, Dutra says.

The industry is ignoring a very large piece of the population, she adds.

The Onyx Advisor Network is trying to change that. Created by two financial advisors, Onyx is a network that focuses on helping historically underrepresented advisors start, scale and sustain their businesses by giving them tools, coaching and a network of advisors.

We want to make sure that the industry looks a lot more like our country, says Dasarte Yarnway, co-founder of Onyx, which announced its launch plans in December.

Yarnway didnt even know financial advising was a career he could pursue until he landed his first job at a financial firm. Hes hoping that with platforms like Onyx, more financial advisors of color will see success, and in turn, help those who come after them to do the same.

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Money; Courtesy of Jean Smart

Yemi Rose says he has always felt that traditional personal finance content does not speak to him.

So many things default to white, Rose says.

With his company OfColor a financial wellness software platform that partners with employers and focuses specifically on helping employees of color he hopes to help fill the gap. The platform connects employees with budgeting and savings tools, financial coaches of color and educational content geared towards non-white communities.

People of color are not a monolith and theres so much variation and nuance there, Rose says. But at the very least we try to attack what has been the traditional invisibility of people of color in personal finance.

Beyond representation, theres been a boom in financial tools and products specifically designed to help people of color better their finances. Its an important change: the one-two punch of diverse racial representation in the personal finance space, as well as tools and products built specifically with these communities in mind.

Jean Smart cant pinpoint exactly when she knew she had to leave her stable job at financial services giant UBS to start Penelope, which brings 401(k)s to small businesses, a majority of which are minority-owned.

It was 1,000 cuts, Smart says. They included seeing the disparities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd. Then, anti-Asian racist events came to light, and Smart says for the first time ever, she asked her mother not to leave her house for fear of her safety.

During that chaos, Smart, a Korean-American woman, found that clients she had helped during her 20-year career in the financial industry didnt seem to need her help as much as other communities of color who were hurting. She quit her job and turned to those people instead, wanting to help them in the best way she knew how with a new team full of people of color and first- and second-generation immigrants.

So many retirement savings tools are difficult to understand especially for a small business owner who is juggling tons of tasks at once. Penelope aims to bring them a more streamlined approach to saving for retirement with a 401(k) subscription model that cuts through the jargon, Smart says.

Smart is hopeful about the future. She named her company after someone who embodies why its so important to her to help make the financial industry more inclusive: her 10-year-old daughter Penelope.

I think its going to get better, Smart says. I have to.

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To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we've combed through decades of our print magazines to find hidden gems, fascinating stories and vintage personal finance tips that have withstood the test of time. Dive into the archives with us.

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Cara Pritchettlights up when she talks about family memberswho have helped hernavigatelife withcerebral palsy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The oldest of four siblings, Pritchett, 25, of Upper Arlington, said she was diagnosed with a mild form of cerebral palsy shortly after she beingborn. The congenital disordercausedherto losefunction ofthe right side of her body and ledto other developmental and medical issues later in life.

Despite beingmore likely to be infected by COVID-19 andcontract severe illnesses from the virus, many people with disabilities and their advocates say they feel likethe community has been overlooked and pushed aside during the pandemic.

"The pandemic has not been very good to me," she said.

Without family, Pritchett said she doesn't know how she would have made it through the past two year being in and out of the hospital withulcerative colitis, having difficulties finding a job willing toaccommodateher conditions, and losingher best friend in a hit-and-run crash.

"They've been through it all with me," Pritchettsaid of her family.

Disabilities:Dublin woman, a self-advocate, named to county board of developmental disabilities

There are about 2.6 millionadults like Pritchett in Ohiowho have a disabilityand are more likely to develop other chronic conditions and lack access to health care, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last month, some 150 disability advocacy groups spoke out after CDC director Rochelle Walensky sharedin an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" what she called the "encouraging news"thatmost COVID-19 deaths among vaccinated individuals in a small studyhadother health problemsand were "unwell to begin with."

Afterward, disability rights activistImani Barbarin started the viral "#MyDisabledLifeIsWorthy" to call out Walensky's remarks,and she's been joined bypeople fromacross the world.

The CDC director apologized andmet with a group of disability activists after what she acknowledged was ahurtful, yet unintentional, statement, according to a CDC press release.Walenskyalsocommitted the CDC to regular engagements with the disability community.

The disability community is often overlooked ormade to feel devalued and dehumanized, saidSue Hetrick, executive director of theCenter for Disability Empowerment, aColumbus nonprofit that helps connect people with disabilities to housing, jobs, transportation and other service in Franklin, Licking, Delaware and Union counties.

"A lot of time policies or decisions are made without the input of people with disabilities," Hetrick said. "There isn't the awareness of the non-disabled community about who they are as people, not just what their needs are."

Opinion:People with disabilities are struggling to survive the pandemic

People like Hetrick andKerstinSjoberg, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy organizationDisability Rights Ohio,have fought discrimination and a lack of awareness throughout the pandemic.

As hospitals decide how to ration ventilators, medication and beds during a crisis, people with disabilitiescould be given lower priority based on stereotypes about their quality of life and how effective treatment might be,Sjoberg said.

Disability Rights Ohio worked with the Ohio Department of Health to create crisis standards of care for hospitals and doctors that are inclusive of the disabled community, but they're only recommendations, shesaid.

Sjobergadded thatthe new state budget gives the health department more influence in hospital policy, and she hopesdisability-inclusiverecommendations will be incorporated into hospital care guidelines.

The discrimination already exists in our system, and its not just doctors. Its part of our society, Sjoberg said.

'We made it through today': Coronavirus adds to issues for those with developmental disabilities

Some people with disabilities require aides and other workers who help them at home or in facilities to navigate daily life. This presented a problem during the pandemic, Hetrick said, becausesocial distancing and slowing the spread of the virus became next to impossible, making it harder to protect vulnerable populations.

The pandemic also mayhave isolated people with disabilities or prevented loved ones from visiting or keeping in touch, Sjoberg said. Without these natural support systems, it also became harder for people in institutionsor congregate settings to report neglect and abuse.

So Disability Rights Ohiocreated a virtual abuse and neglect reporting system and Q &A section where people canget information on personal protective equipment, safe housing, accurate information about COVID-19 vaccinations and more.

It's, of course, better to have it face-to-face, Sjoberg said. "We've been able to keep that core function operating very effectively during this process."

People with disabilities also often face the most barriers trying to getvaccinations, Hetrick said.Accessibility issues, concerns about reactions with existingmedications or conditions or fear about poor treatment can get in the way, she said.

"Information is not always accessible to people with disabilities, whether that's written information that's given to them, the kind of language that's used to inform them," Hetrick said. "Transportation is a huge barrier."

To help with these issues, theCenter for Disability Empowerment (CDE) and the Ohio Department of Health willhost pop-up vaccinationclinicsin late-February or March and provide scheduling assistance and transportation for those who need it, she said.

Other news:Some Ohioans will move on from COVID, but those most impacted may never be able to forget

Pritchett struggled to find a job in child careas the pandemic shrank opportunities and shut down schools and day cares.

She turned to the CDE for help last year, and even though she found a job she loves at Riverside Methodist Childcare Center in Upper Arlington,the group still checks in with her today.

"I've always said that people with disabilities are some of the strongest people I've ever met, because of the barriers that we're always facing," said Shari Veleba, a CDEinformation and referral coordinator.

Pritchett's parents and younger siblings also helped her deal with the boredom of having to isolate at home andthe challenges of having to deal with new health issues.

Even now, her parents continue to support herby doing such things as sending her TikToks showingdisability activists, she said.

And Pritchett said heryounger siblings Jake, John, Madison and Taylorare some of her biggest supporters in life, with Jake being especially encouraging as Pritchett dealt with the grief over the death of her friend.

She said he took her to the cemetery and wrote anessay about how strong she's been this past yearas his college applicationessay.

"He wrote the paper without me or anyone knowing what it was about, so when I read it, I was shocked and emotional,"Pritchett said. "Knowing that those were his words makes it really special."

AWright1@gannett.com

@aubreymwright

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'The pandemic has not been very good to me': People with disabilities feel forgotten - The Columbus Dispatch

The Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF) has held its stakeholders meeting to review the implementation of the GOAL project in the benefiting schools in Lagos State for last year and also outline, improve strategies for the programmes in 2022.

The foundation also set a target to empower about 12,000 girls through different life skills this year across Nigeria.

Among those that attended were representatives, principals, teachers from secondary schools in Lagos, Lagos State Ministry of Youth and social development, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Education district IV, Yaba, Lagos Sport Commission, Surulere Local Government Area.

At the stakeholder meeting, Oluwaseunfunmi Arasi, monitoring and evaluation manager of the foundation, gave a score card of the foundations activities for last year, she equally advocated for more synergy between the foundation and the stakeholders for the success of the GOAL project in the benefiting schools across the state, adding that thousands of youths had benefited from the GOAL programmes in recent years.

Speaking on the essence of the meeting and future plans especially for 2022, Iwalola Akin-Jimoh, executive secretary of the foundation, , said the meeting which is yearly was necessary to seek the stakeholders input and contribution to make the project more robust for the year.

Read also:10,000 women, youths benefit from NDDC palliatives in Cross River

Iwalola Akin-Jimoh, stated that the key project for the foundation this year was to initiate start literacy classes particularly for the junior secondary school class 3, while adding that the foundations target is to directly target 12, 000 girls for the year across the country.

According to her, So what we want them to know is that this year, this is our target which is to empower 12,000 girls with information on health, being empowered, financially literate and also being a leader, the main reason is for us to come together and make the project more robust, because when you bring your stakeholders together they have one or two things to contribute.

And some of the challenges we are sharing with them we want to share with them so that they can make the training more successful. And one of the new things we want to do this year is to start literacy classes particularly for the girls who are in junior secondary class 3.

We want a situation where we can help them perform better in their final examination. So, if they decide that they want to go to a tertiary institution they can go. If they decide it is a business they want to do, we can help support them.

Tony Eleme, media officer, of the foundation stated that the gathering had become crucial because to enhance relationships and consolidate cooperation from the stakeholders.

One of the key essences of the meeting was to enhance relationships and consolidate the cooperation from the stakeholders, he said.

Ajayi Adebimpe Folashade, teacher at New Era Girls Senior Secondary School in Surulere, said the programs has helped shape the benefiting students morally, health wise, especially those from difficult backgrounds, turning them into good people for their environment and the country.

Because some of the girls are from Badia, Orele, and the other challenging environment influencing them negatively, the GOAL program is trying to shape their lives to make them a good person to themselves, to the environment, to the school and the country, she said.

(YEF) is a non-profit (NGO) in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank, working to improve knowledge, behaviours and skills for young people in: sexual reproductive health, HIV awareness and prevention, personal and team leadership. They also work with young people in reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, leadership and life-skills in Nigeria.

See the rest here:

Foundation to empower 12,000 girls in Nigeria - Businessday

By the 1920s, ice skating had taken North China by storm. A trendy new form of exercise associated with Western values and lifestyles, it was well-suited to the regions long, cold winters. Although nationalist proponents of skating called on men to take to the ice and battle Western colonizers, skating arguably had the greatest impact on women, as ice-rinks became a stage for Chinas emerging new woman to demonstrate her modernity.

The concept of the new woman was born out of the clashes between Chinese and Western cultures during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It was, in essence, a canvas onto which reformers most of them men could project their imaginations of Chinas future.

Progressives of the time advocated for Chinese women to model themselves after their Western counterparts, from the French revolutionary Jean-Marie Roland de La Platire to Alexandre Dumas fictional La Dame aux Camlias. These women, fictional and otherwise, were held up as symbols of modern civilization, and Chinese women were divided into two categories according to how well they performed idealized Western femininity. Of the two categories, traditional women i.e., those that upheld traditional Chinese values were dismissed as being at odds with the values of modern society. Societys new women, on the other hand, were championed as icons of female emancipation who would help bring China out of the feudal era and set it on course to become a modern nation.

For women, modernity was less of a choice than an obligation. In the late Qing and early Republican eras, Chinese women were saddled with heavy responsibilities. To be deemed fit as mothers of the Republic, they had to both convey a positive image of China to the international community and nurture a new generation of strong, modern men and women capable of revitalizing Chinas national bloodlines.

Left: Winners of a skating masquerade event photographed for the magazine The Young Companion, Issue 55, 1931. Right: Winners of a skating masquerade event photographed for The Pictorial Supplement of The Peiping Morning Post, Vol. 31, Issue 1520, 1937. Courtesy of Yang Yufei

Urban women of the time largely accepted the responsibilities that came with the new woman label. They rejected traditional practices such as foot-binding and enrolled in the nations new schools, where they took part in sports, another new concept closely tied in reformers minds to strengthening the nation and preserving its people. Delicacy fell out of style in favor of healthy beauty, while sexual equality and free love were discussed and even pursued.

It was precisely in this context that the rising trend of ice skating found favor with modern women as a healthy, Western-approved sport in which both sexes could take part on an equal basis.

For Chinese women of the 1920s, the feeling of gliding on the ice must have resembled the feeling of heading full speed toward a revolution. In a sense, their experiences werent all that different from those of the new men of the time: Both sexes perceived a widening chasm between Chinas old and new societies, between China and the world, between weak and strong.

1/5 Xiao Shufang takes part in a figure skating competition in 1935. Courtesy of Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts, Xiao Shufang Archives

2/5 Xiao Shufang paints on an ice sled in 1935. Courtesy of Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts, Xiao Shufang Archives

3/5 A 1935 oil painting by Xiao Shufang. Courtesy of Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts, Xiao Shufang Archives

4/5 Xiao Shufang paints on an ice sled in 1935. Courtesy of Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts, Xiao Shufang Archives

5/5 An oil painting by Xiao Shufang shows Beihai Park in the 1950s. Courtesy of Wu Zuoren International Foundation of Fine Arts, Xiao Shufang Archives

To some, skating was truly liberatory. Xiao Shufang, the niece of famous musician Xiao Youmei, would later become better known as a painter, but throughout the 1920s and 30s she was a famous ice-skater at rinks across Beiping, as Beijing was then known. Forty years later, recalling her memories of skating on the citys North Sea, Xiao linked this joyful experience with the tide of social change brought about by the Xinhai Revolution that finally toppled the Qing. In her paintings of ice skating scenes, Xiao evoked the atmosphere of excitement and new possibilities that came with being young at this crucial juncture in Chinas history.

However, more often than not, Chinas new women found themselves unable to completely cast off the shackles of traditional femininity. In particular, one of the most pressing dilemmas facing women who wanted to leave the home and take on more public roles in society was how to redefine their interactions with the opposite sex. And ice skating rinks provided them with an important venue in which they could seek and test out potential solutions to this dilemma.

At skating masquerades briefly in vogue during the Republican period that followed the Qing it was extremely common for female performers to dress as men, and vice versa. Whats interesting is that the male characters portrayed by women typically included high-ranking figures such as nobles and judges, while the female characters portrayed by men were usually elderly aunties and matchmakers from the countryside. Female skaters choice to dress as men recalls one of Chinas most well-known revolutionaries, Qiu Jin, who also frequently dressed in mens clothes. I want to first dress up as a man until my spirit, too, is male, Qiu once said.

On one level, this reversal of gender roles reflected the ongoing destabilization of patriarchal values and helped validate the new woman. On another, it suggests that, although womens status was on the rise, their self-affirmation nonetheless still depended on the appropriation of male symbols.

Other skaters, both at masquerade events and in their everyday lives, looked not to men, but to Western women as models for liberation. Young students in particular were a highly noticeable presence on ice rinks with their short hair, high-collared sweaters, knee-length skirts, and meticulously practiced Western figure-skating techniques. Their graceful execution of popular moves like waltzes inspired many women to follow in their footsteps.

An archival photo entitled Who is the Younger Sister? shows a woman (center) dressed in mens clothing during a masquerade event in Beijing, 1933. Courtesy of Yang Yufei

In their interactions at ice rinks, young men and women often consciously played the part of Western gentlemen and ladies, demonstrating their reverence for Western social etiquette. By collaborating and performing together, men and women produced new scenes of modernity and gender relations.

Though ice skating seemed to represent a plausible route to emancipation and equality, many female skaters nonetheless continued to view themselves through their male partners eyes, rather than see themselves as truly independent. Under the appearance of gender equality lurked the specter of misogyny.

In articles and literature about skating from the 1920s and 1930s, there is no lack of anecdotes denigrating women for their participation in on-ice performances. For example, the 1930 novella To Moscow by Hu Yepin highlights the ways in which both men and women were seen as using skating masquerades to advance their personal aims. In Hus story, Xu Daqi is an eloquent politician who realizes that skating masquerades are an infinitely more effective means of attracting the attention of reporters and the public than dispatches from government conferences and tries to convince his partner, Su Chang, to take part in one of these events with him. But Su rejects the idea due to her perception that female skaters were merely making bizarre poses for the pleasure of men. In Sus view, skaters were simply molding themselves according to the tastes and demands of men as a means of gaining social capital.

All this is to say that, at least in their interactions with men, new women faced many of the same barriers as their traditional counterparts. They had gained the semblance of equality through Westernized forms of empowerment, but not the substance.

As with so many of the modern activities Chinese women participated in during the early post-imperial era, skating was a kind of controlled experiment part of the Chinese nations urgent pursuit of Western-style modernity rather than a genuinely free form of expression. Women who were involved in winter sports still behaved according to their own cultural schema and constantly faced conflicts with men, with tradition, and with their own internal values as they struggled to redefine their identities on the ice.

Chinas women have come a long way since the 1920s. Gu Ailing, an 18-year-old woman of Chinese and American descent and one of the best skiers in the world, is probably the biggest star representing China at this years Winter Olympics, though she is far from the only one. As we marvel at Gus athleticism, lets not forget the Chinese women who braved the snow and ice before her. No revolution can be perfect, and true emancipation cannot be achieved overnight. But their courage, their contradictions, and their quiet revolutions helped lay the groundwork for everything that has come since.

Translator: Lewis Wright; editors: Wu Haiyun and Kilian ODonnell; visuals: Ding Yining.

(Header image: From left to right, skaters Gao Shuzhen, Xiong Minzhen, and Lin Xiulian in the 1930s. Photos taken by Li Yaosheng, Song Xindeng, and An Guolin, respectively. Courtesy of Yang Yufei)

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Skating Toward a Revolution - Sixth Tone

More than 100 countries across the world have criminalized marital rape; India stands in the dubious company of the likes of Saudi Arabia and central African countries in this regard.

For the past several weeks, Delhi High Court is finally grappling to arrive at a conclusion in the matter of Writ Petition 284 of 2015: the Public Interest Litigation filed by a batch of petitioners against the Union of India, challenging the exception provided in the Indian Penal Code, Section 375, exempting forced sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife from the offence of rape, the wife not being less than 15 years of age. In an earlier separate case, the Supreme Court has read down the age limit to 18 years of age but surprisingly left the larger issue of marital rape untouched.But legalistic quibbles appear to dominate the current battle rather than simple factual recognition of the unexceptional fundamental right of the woman to her bodily integrity and dignity, whatever her age or marital status. This case is one of an assertion of sexual autonomy that demands protection of bodily integrity, that is freedom from force and oppression and not that of sexual autonomy per se or freedom to licentiously do with the body whatever the individual pleases. Two very different concepts of sexual autonomyfreedom from and freedom tothat must be clearly differentiated and should elicit different attitudes.Can 21st century Independent India possibly allow continuation of an exception based on archaic colonial laws encoding the concept of the wife as the property of her husband? Recent decadeswhich have seen the most horrific explosion of both sexual and domestic violence in this countryhave also seen considerable enlightened change in laws governing sexual violence and crime, notwithstanding the huge gaps remaining in their interpretation and implementation. Yet, marital rape of an adult woman by her husband still remains on the States statutes. Is not this a surprisingly chauvinistic privileging of male sexual desire and rights that is sadly enabling of an overall environment of male impunity, totally reprehensible in the contested marital context and not without much wider impact? Equally, violative of the basic constitutional right of equality of all citizens?Rapeto take by force, to sexually violateis listed by the Geneva Convention as an outrage upon personal dignity, an extreme of humiliating and degrading treatment on par with torture and threat to life, a crime against humanity when perpetrated on scale in war or in peace. Eminent jurisprudence emanating from the International Criminal Tribunals constituted for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda has ruled: Sexual violence strikes at the very core of human dignity and physical integrity. It underscores that rape inflicts the severe physical and psychological pain and suffering that characterizes torture. Can we be serious in considering that this can be accepted as a natural happening in ANY circumstance whatsoever?But the Solicitor General of India, instead of moving forthwith to condemn the offending exemption and support its removal on behalf of a government repeatedly committing itself to womens empowerment, is procrastinating. He argues that India must not blindly follow the West by criminalizing marital rape and has quoted unique problems due to various factors like lack of literacy, lack of financial empowerment of a majority of females, mindset of society, vast diversity, poverty etc. He calls it a question of womens dignity and family values since Indian society regards marriage as a sacred sacrament and criminalizing marital rape would destabilize the institution that is a basic building block of the society. He further buttresses arguments by citing misuse of Section 498A on account of dowry harassment and fears corroborative medical evidence of bodily injury may be rendered useless circumstantial and corroborative evidence will become futile in case of marital rape making it difficult to determine when consent was withdrawn.Really? In the first instance, more than 100 countries across the worldnot just the liberal Westhave criminalized marital rape; India stands in the dubious company of the likes of Saudi Arabia and central African countries in this regard. Then, the very factors quoted as our unique problems actually make it imperative for the state to protect the interest of the vulnerable and change the societal mindset that accords subservient situation to the large mass of women. As for the misuse of another section of the law by some womenand the possibility that this could happen with the elimination of this exemptioncan this ever be an argument to retain a law that is oppressive of all married women and makes a mockery of a womans bodily integrity that is at the core of her dignity? The SGs perception of womens dignity beats comprehension.However, not to be dismissed is the contention that Indian society overwhelmingly considers the institution of marriage as a sacred sacrament and a valuable building block of society that must not be destabilized. This is a sterling attribute in the flummox of our turbulent modern times. But isnt it precisely because Indian society still overwhelmingly considers marriage as a sacrament that ideally alone should bring about the union of a man and a woman that it is important to ensure the institution is nurtured and safeguarded from oppressions that hollow it? Equally, imperative to make it in full consonance with the guarantees of gender equality enshrined in our Constitution?Fortunately, diverse enlightened religious perspectives recognizing core human intimacy to be inextricably interwoven within the institution of marriage also proclaim the same as a web of mutual rights, duties and obligations discharged with mutual respect, love and honour. What place can force possibly have in such thinking but one to be shunned? Leave aside feminist assertions for consent, religious thinking that accords the physical sexual act as a sacred aspect in the union of two persons, thus squarely invests the most intimate of intimacies within mutual understanding and consentgained by love and respect. Marriage ceremonies of almost all hues enjoin upon both the man and woman to work towards creating conditions that bring about desired core intimacy, not its gratification by brutal force. In case of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage that prevents such happening, the recourse for the man should be through the civil remedy of divorce not rape.Those of us who have worked a lifetime with women out in the field know only too well how often and how many wives are daily stripped of their dignity and bodily integrity at the hands of husbands returning home drunk, on drugs, or just in a misguided effort to regain self-esteem trampled upon in their own outer spheres and who have the mindset that sex with their wives is a birth right, to be taken any which way. Worth recalling is that well-known axiom: That some men can rape is the intimidation that keeps all women in fear.Bodily integrity is not a Western fad, but the most basic human right of every woman and an idea whose time is now long past due. The right course ahead would be for the government/Supreme Court to speedily move Suo Moto to set right this anomaly of marital rape.

Rami Chhabra is a media veteran, who pioneered the first feminist columns in the national press. She has served the country in various capacities, including in GoI and as Member, National Population Commission.

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The anomaly of marital rape - The Sunday Guardian