History of Anabolic Steroids Misuse and Drug Testing

History of Anabolic Steroids Misuse and Drug Testing Introduction: History of drug abuse Drug abuse in sport is not a recent issue. In Ancient Greece, the Olympic athletes used special diets (herbs,mushrooms and sesame seeds) to improve their physical performance. The gladiators in the Roman times, consumed stimulants to reduce fatigue.(1,2) South American Indians used coca leaves to enhance stamina.(2) During the nineteenth century, drug abuse became a great problem. Caffeine, strychnine, alcohol, cocaine, opium, and oxygen were used by swimmers, runners and cyclists to increase performance.(1,2) In 1896, the cyclist Arthur Linton was the first reported fatality case in sport from strychnine intake which was administered by his coach.(1) Later on, in 1904, the runner Thomas Hicks, was near to death in Olympic Marathon in St Louis USA, from use of strychnine and brandy.(1) During the Second World War, amphetamine consumption started by the troops to reduce their fatigue. In 1940s and 1950s, amphetamines substitute other drugs in its use in sport.( became the choice over other drugs). (1) Reported deaths from amphetamine abuse was in 1964, the Danish cyclist knut Jensen at Rome Olympics died on the opening day of the games. In 1967, the British cyclist Tommy Simpson, at Tour de France, died from amphetamine abuse. After Simpson’s death, the International Olympic Committee took an action and the first list of banned substances was published in 1968.(1,3) In 1950s, a new class was misused by athletes and weightlifters to increase muscle size and strength and this class named anabolic steroids;(1) in 1964, there was suspect for use of anabolic steroid in Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to the increase in muscle mass of the athletes.(3) Top scandals in drug abuse 1. East German athletes(4,5,6) From 1972 to 1988, the East German which was a country of 17 million populations, won 20 to 40 gold medals in 4 years and became a country competing the United States and Soviet Union. Manfred Ewald who was the head of Olympic sport committee in East Germany, and Dr. Manfred Hoeppner who was the sports doctor at that time, were responsible about giving the athletes banned substances intentionally without their knowledge. This results in severe complications in the athlete’s health such as liver dysfunction, cancer, hormonal changes and infertility. From 1966 and on, many doctors and coaches in East German follow a plan which was sponsored by the government known as â€Å"systematic and overall doping in competitive sports†. After the collapse of East German and Berlin Wall fall in 1989, many athletes confessed about the pills and injections that were given to them. Kornelia Ender, Barbara Krause and Carola Nitschke were three of the thousands of East German athletes who had provided with steroids. Heidi Kreiger was also one of the athletes that was provided with steroids heavily and this was the main reason that force her to make sex-alteration operation. 2. Pan American Games in 1983 IOC included testosterone in the banned list in 1983 and it was the first endogenous substance to be tested at that time. The test was based on measuring the testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E) ratio. (1) The first drug testing for steroids was at the Pan America Games in Caracas and Venezuela in 1983. Around 15 athletes were caught at these games. Jeff Michaels, the American weightlifter, and Guy Greavette, the Canadian weightlifter, were tested positive for steroids. They returned their medals and being suspended for 2 years. (5,7) Many athletes of the U.S track-and-field team withdrew from the game rather than being captured. (7) 3. Ben Johnson’s scandal In 1988, the Canadian Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal at 100 meters after he has been tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol at Seoul Olympics. Johnson has been banned from competition for 2 years.(7) 4. Michelle Smith: the Irish swimmer(5,7) In 1998, the Olympic champion swimmer Michelle Smith was tested positive for banned substance at her home through out-of-competition testing. The test was positive for alcohol in an amount that would be fatal if taken by an athlete. So FINA, the international governing body for swimming, concluded that the urine sample was treated with alcohol as a masking agent and Smith has been suspended for four years. 5. Chinese swim team(5,7) The Chinese national swim team has been used anabolic steroids, erythropoietin and human growth hormone in the last 15 years. In 1992 Barcelona Olympics and 1994 world championships, china won a high number of gold medals. In world swimming championships, a world records was set by women swimmers, and this causes suspect that they were using drugs. In 1994 at Asian Games, eleven athletes were caught as drug abusers for dihydrotestosterone. Since 1990,over 40 Chinese swimmers were tested positive for abused drugs and at that time china reached the peak for drug abuse over the swimming countries. 6. Tour de France(5) Doping by cyclists arises since 1967 after Simpson death at Tour de France due to amphetamine misuse. Drug abuse by cyclists continues and in summer 1998, the Festina cycling team was pushed out from the competition at Tour de France after the French Officials found EPO in their masseur’s car. After investigations, six of Festina’s nine riders confessed that they had taken abused drugs. Later on, the leader also has failed drug tests for anabolic steroids. Also in 2002, Stefano Garzelli, the leader of the Vini Caldirola team, has failed drug test for probenecid, a diuretic which is used as a masking agent. Also in the same year at Tour de France, the Spanish cyclist Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, was tested positive for anti-asthmatic drug. In January 2004, two cyclists in the Cofidis team, which is one of the top teams in france, were caught as drug abusers for EPO and amphetamines. 7. Steroids in baseball (5) In 2002, a report was published by the Sports Illustrated and the National League MVP Ken Caminiti stated that â€Å"at least half the guys are using steroids.† In 2003, the Major League Baseball revealed that around 7% of 1438 tests on all players were positive for steroids. 8. Doping in skiing(5) Drug abuse in cross-country skiing has been spread for years especially with EPO. In 2001 world championships in Finland, six finish skiers have failed drug test for HES which is a plasma volume expander. Three skiers at the Salt Lake Games were tested positive for the drug Darbepoetin which is a synthetic compound of the natural hormone EPO. Two of these athletes Olga Danilova and Larissa Lazutina were Russian medalists but later on, they were stripped of their medals and the gold medal was awarded to the Canadian Beckie Scott who ended third. 9. BALCO scandal BALCO is Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative which is a company that provides nutritional supplements. Victor Conte built BALCO in 1984 and he followed a system for analyzing urine and blood in order to prescribe supplements that replace vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Tetrahydrogestrinone is one of banned substances that was used by BALCO and was undetected by drug testing. THG or â€Å"The Clear† is an anabolic steroid that can reduce fatigue during training and can increase the muscle mass. In 2003, the USADA, United States Anti-Doping Agency, developed a test for THG after receiving a syringe from anonymous (US track coach Trever Graham) containing THG and claiming that most athletes are using this drug. Don Catlin, succeeded in developing the test and he tested the urine samples that were taken from athletes at the US championships and numerous tests came back positive for THG(8,9). Athletes that were involved in BALCO scandal were Kelli White, Marion Jones, C.J.Hunter, Tim Montgomery, baseball star Barry bonds, and NFL’s Bill Romanowski, and Dwain Chambers. In 2004, Dwain Chambers who was the European 100m championship at that time was banned from competition for 2 years. 100m and 200m Champion kelli white was banned for 2 years as well. USADA convicted BALCO, for the distribution of THG. In 2005, Victor Conte was jailed for four months. Greg Anderson (Barry Bond’s trainer) was jailed for three months.(9,10,11,12) 10. Ma’s runners Ma Junren was the coach for the world female championships runners(13). In 1993, Ma’s Chinese female runners won three gold medals at the World Track and Field championships in Stuttgart and also in 1997 they set world records. From that time there was suspicion that the runners were using banned substances(13,15). A doping scandal for Ma’s runners arose before the 2000 summer Sydney Olympic(14,15). Top runners like Liquing Song and Lili Yin had failed drug test for testosterone during an out-of competition testing in 2000 and the Ma’s Chinese runners were evicted from the Olympic team(13,15). History of drug testing: Doping was also done for race horses not and only for humans. The first drug test was done for alkaloids on the saliva of horses in 1910 by a Russian Chemist in Vienna.(1,2) Drug testing on human urine started in 1950s after the wide spread abuse of amphetamines. (7) After British Tommy Simpson death from amphetamine abuse at Tour de France in 1967, IOC established the Medical Commission and a list of banned substances was established by the IOC. Professor Beckett was a member in the Medical Commission at that time and he developed methods for detection of stimulants ,i.e. drugs that were used† in competition†. (3,7) Methods of Beckett for drug testing were first used in 1968 at Mexico City Olympic competition and these tests were for non-steroidal drugs (narcotic analgesics and stimulants) and there was no tests for anabolic steroids.(7)(3). The first formal drug testing programmes for narcotics and stimulants was in 1972 at Munich Olympics. These tests were done at the competition periods. The abuse of Anabolic steroids became prevalent in 1970s and its use was banned in 1974 by the IOC and added to the list in 1975(1) p313. The first formal steroid testing program occurred in 1976 at Montreal Olympics using radioimmunoassay screening for detection its presence and GCMS for confirmation. (7,19) In and out of competition testing: At first testing programmes were based on tests during the competition periods. But later on it was recognized that these tests were of limited value to catch up the cheats. Athletes learn how to defeat the testing programmes by calculating the clearance time of the drug in the body so they could avoid its use before the competition periods. Form here came the â€Å"out -of -competition† testing programmes to catch the cheats for drug abuse. â€Å"Out of competition testing† started in late 1970s. The first out of competition testing was conducted in 1977 by Norway and in UK, it started in early 1980s. However, the â€Å"out- of -competition† testing did not expand globally until the establishment of WADA in 2000. WADA established out-of-competition testing programmes and it was followed globally from that time.(1) p314-315 Classification of Abused Drugs Doping classes and methods examples Anabolic steroids Testosterone, nandrolone (discussed later Blood Doping blood transfusion(discussed later) Stimulants Amphetamine, ephedrine, cocaine, caffeine Narcotics Morphine, Methadone, Codeine Peptide and glycoprotein hormones Human growth hormone, corticotrophin, human chorionic gonadotrophin, erythro poietin Diuretics and masking agents Acetazolamide, Furesamide, Probencid Beta- blockers Atenolol, Propanolol, Metoprolol Atenolol, Propanolol, Metoprolol Anabolic steroids (discussed later) Blood Dopping (Blood Transfusions) ( discussed later) Central Nervous System Stimulants Athletes often use stimulants to enhance alertness and reduce fatigue i.e. increase physical and mental performance.1p41. These are more used on the day of competition to reduce the sensitivity to pain of athletes if they got injured; however, nowadays they are used during training to increase training time. Amphetamines Amphetamine is a synthetic compound (1920), it was developed as an appetite suppressant and for treatment of narcolepsy, to fight fatigue and to enhance alertness, but later it was withdrawn from clinical use due to the development of tolerance. P42 Methamphetamine is very addictive stimulant, related to amphetamine with more longer lasting and toxic effects on the CNS. Mechanism of action: These are indirectly acting sympathomimetic amine. They enter neurons and act presynaptically to release stores of noradrenaline, and dopamine from nerve endings; they also block noradrenaline and dopamine transporter reuptake and inhibit MAO. They include Dexamphetamine, Methamphetamine, Phenmetrazine, and methylphenidate. Routes of administration: Amphetamine can be administered orally, nasally, and intravenously. Amphetamine itself is not very effective if smoked. Methamphetamine is smokable form and it is becoming increasingly popular as a drug of abuse. Effects of Amphetamines in Sport: Athletes often use amphetamine to reduce fatigue, increase alertness and concentration, increase euphoria and to tolerate painful injuries.p42. p72 Side Effects: The most important side effect is heart stroke.p72. Amphetamines cause peripheral vasoconstriction and thus increase blood pressure. The body overheats and cannot regain its temperature resulting in dehydration.1.p42 The second side effect is that the euphoric action may affect the awareness of athletes and thus they fall in misjudgements. Cases of amphetamine abuse: Amphetamine use was spread around the time of the Second World War, to decrease fatigue of the troops. Later, its use was spread among athletes in 1940s and 1950s. 1.p30. its use atarted to be controlled under the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. In 1960, the cyclist, Knud Jenson, died due to amphetamine abuse in the intense summer heat of Rome Olympics.1p72-30 In 1967 Tour de France, the British cyclist, Tommy Simpson, died as a result of amphetamine abuse while climbing the infamous Mont Ventoux. His death was due to cardiac arrest.1p72 In 1997,American Footballers, (Clarkson and Thompson), withdrew from play due to amphetamine abuse which was taken to tolerate injuries.1p72 Effect on behaviour Mandell (1979), Golding(1981) In 2002, the British skier Alain Baxter, had lost his Olympic bronze medal and he was banned from skiing from March until June, due to positive test of Methamphetamine( l-form which is found in OTC vicks inhaler. IOC test do not distinguish between l- and d- form. D-form is used as performance –enhancing drug. Later on, Baxter’s name was cleared as being a drug cheater and it was approved that the drug was l- form.(16,17,18) Ecstasy It is a synthetic amphetamine derivative. It was synthesized in 1914 as an appetite suppressant. It has stimulant amphetamine like properties, now commonly used in dance clubs but it may be misused by athletes. In UK, it was classified as an illegal substance since 1977, and in USA its use was under control since 1985. Since 1990, there were no reports for ecstasy misuse by athletes.p73 Ephedrine and related compounds Ephedrine is a natural product occurring in the plant genus Ephedra. Phyenylpropanolamine and pseudoephedrine are synthetics. These are used to treat cold symptoms as bronchodilators.1.p73.p42. Mechanism of action It has sympathomimetic action. These deplete noradrenalin from neuronal storage sites resulting in indirect effect on sympathetic neurons and CNS.1.p73 Routes of administration Ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine are found in cold medications (in UK and USA) which are taken orally. Phenylpropanolamine is now prohibited by US authorities. 1.p74 Effect of Ephedrine in Sport Ephedrine is misused by athletes for its euphoric action.1p42. Athletes try to misuse ephedrine because its use could be negotiated due to its presence in the over-the-counter medication.1p42 Side effects The main side effect is the cardiac arrthythmias. Cases of Ephedrine abuse Pseudoephedrine, phenylpropanolamine, and phenylephrine were removed from WADA list for banned substances in 2004, but they are still controlled by WADA for athlete’s misuse. Ephedrine is still on the banned list.1p76 In 1972 Olympics, the US swimmer, De Mont, was banned due to urinary ephedrine positive test in which he declared that its presence due to a medicine.1p76 In 1988, Linford Christie, at Seoul, was tested positive for cold cure substance, and he was nearly to lose his silver medal. Cocaine Cocaine was a component of Coca-Cola until it was classified as an illegal drug and it was removed in 1903.(1)The main therapeutic effect is its use as a local anaesthetic. Mechanism of action Cocaine exerts its sympathomimetic central effects by inhibiting the reuptake of noradrenaline, dopamine, and 5-HT into presynaptic terminals of the mesolimbic reward/pleasure pathway. Routes of administration â€Å"Snorting† is the most common route of administration of cocaine. The powder is drawn up to the noise, and is absorbed through the nasal epithelium into the blood. It reaches the brain within about three minutes. It can also administered by intravenous injection, reaching the brain in 15 seconds and the effects last for 15 minutes. Crack cocaine is smoked in a pipe, absorbed rapidly in the lungs and reaching the brain in about 5 seconds. Effects of cocaine is sport It was misused in sport due to its euphoric effect and due to reduction of fatigue. Side effects Its side effects are: tachycardia, hypertension and at high dosage, tremors and seizures may occur. Cardiotoxic metabolite may result due to concomitant use of cocaine with alcohol and anabolic steroids. Reported cases of cocaine misuse Len Bias, the US basketball player, and Don Rogers, the American footballer died from cocaine abuse.(1) Caffeine Caffeine is the most popular used drug which is found in many beverages like coffee, tea and soft drinks. Caffeine was banned by IOC but then it was withdrawn from the list by WADA in January 2004. However, its use is still monitored by WADA. Quantitative measurement for caffeine in the urine was established in 1984 at the Olympic Games in Sarajevo and Los Angeles. IOC set the level in the urine at 15 micrograms per millilitre and then in 1988, it was decreased to 12micrograms per millilitre. Studies showed that 1000mg doses of caffeine are required to excrete caffeine in the urine at levels more than 12 micrograms per millilitre. Routes of administration It is taken as tablets or injections(1) Effects of caffeine in sport High doses are required in sport to decrease fatigue and increase concentration.(1) Side effects tremors Narcotic analgesics These are called opiates. Raw opium contains morphine and codeine which have strong analgesic properties. Drugs that are usually misused are: Morphine, heroin, and methadone. All opiates were banned by IOC except dextromethorphan, pholcodeine, and diphenoxylate. Codeine was first banned but because many sports federation had refused that so it was then removed from the list due to its presence in many over-the-counter medications. Mechanism of action: Opiates bind to specific opiate receptors in the brain and spinal cord, and also interact with endogenous opiate peptides, enkephalins and endorphins, in mediating emotional highs and in the process of addiction.p(1)-23 Routes of administration Opiates are taken orally, by injection or by inhalation. Effects of narcotic analgesics in sport These are used for their euphoric and analgesic actions. They are used to mimic the injury during training or competition. Side effects These include vomiting, diarrhea, dry mouth, skin itching, loss of concentration, drowsiness, comas, and addiction. At high doses it may cause respiratory depression.(1) p24,,BBC Diuretics and other masking agents Diuretics are drugs that are used by people to remove fluid in order to decrease blood pressure. Examples are: furesamide, acetazolamide and chlorthalidone. Effects of diuretics in sport Diuretics are misused in sport to overcome the side effect fluid retention that is cause by athletes misusing anabolic steroids. They are also used to lower the athlete’s weight in sports that competition occurs in weight groups. P46red and BBC. Also diuretics are used to increase the flow of urine and hence increase the rate of excretion of abused drug or its metabolite in the urine so the abused drug could not be detected. Side effects These include: muscle cramps, dehydration, headache, nausea and kidney damage. Probenecid is used as making agent to disguise the presence of banned drugs and their metabolites by inhibiting the excretion of these through the kidney.p47 red. Probenecid is no more used because the use of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry can detect its presence and catch up the cheats. Beta blockers These were added to the list of doping classes in 1985. But because of its therapeutic use, the IOC in 1993 added them in the â€Å"classes of drugs subject to certain restrictions â€Å"part . They were used by athletes to increase their performance by increasing the cardiac output increasing blood flow to muscles.p-48-49 red Peptide and glycoprotein hormones These are natural substance that are produced by the body.BBC –doping I sport Effects in sport Corticotrophin: it induces the release of the adrenal corticosteroids thus mimic the pain after injury. (1)p47 Human Growth hormone(HGH) and chorionic gonadotrophin( HCG) : it has anabolic effect, so it increases size and strength of muscles. BBc Erythropoietin: it is a peptide hormonep48(1). It increases red blood cell production thus increasing the oxygen transfer by blood ,ie. Increase in the performance .BBC. Side effects HGH has main side effect that is, it may cause acromegaly.BBC EPO has main side effect that is, it may thicken the blood, resulting in heart attacks.BBC Chemical and physical manipulation It is the changing of urine sample by using substances or procedures in order to conceal the detection of a banned substance. Examples of manipulation are: the use of other’s urine, use of vinegar to affect the urine, epitestosterone to alter the ratio. BBC news,doping Anabolic Steroids What are Anabolic steroids? Testosterone was isolated in 1935.(2)p52. It is an endogenous steroidal hormone male hormone produced by testes in men. steroid 7. It is synthesized from cholesterol like all other steroidal hormones. Steroid 7. Epitestosterone is a testosterone isomer and found in a small ratio with respect to testosterone. Steroid7. Testosterone is responsible for the androgenic and anabolic effects.steroid7. The androgenic functions of testosterone are responsible for the modifications in the primary sexual male features. Steroid7. , while the anabolic effects are responsible for enhancing muscle growth, protein synthesis and erythrocytes. steroid 7. Anabolic steroids are group of synthetic modified derivatives of testosterone. steoid 10. When administered, they bind to the androgen receptors which are found in the prostate, skeletal muscle and central nervous system to give their mechanism of action. Their structure is developed and modified to improve the anabolic effects with decreased androgenic effects. steroid 10 Routes of administration Anabolic steroids are administered orally or intramuscularly. Nowadays, athletes are using transdermal patches, sublingual tablets, nasal sprays, and dermatological gels of testosterone to escape positive tests(2). P 3 Why do athletes misuse anabolic steroids Athletes use anabolic steroids due to their anabolic effects, so they are used due to its positive effect on the skeletal muscle tissues. They are used to increase strength and muscle size. They are also used to increase body weight, protein metabolism and collagen synthesis. Steoird 6 and 35 . Some athletes use anabolic steroids because they â€Å"want to be big†. steroid 7. Side effects Cardiovascular effects: Anabolic steroids ingestion results in severe coronary heart disease. They reduce high density lipoprotein (HDL) and increase low density lipoprotein (LDL). Steroid 25- steroid 7. resulting in atherosclerosis. Increase heart stroke Anabolic steroids increase blood clotting and thus favouring thrombosis resulting in heart attacks. steroid 26 Liver problems Oral anabolic steroids results in cholestatic hepatitis and jaundice. steorid 7,26 Also increase in the liver enzymes( aspartate amino transferase, alanine amino transferase and lactate dehydrogenase) is encountered with the use of steroids. steroid 37 Sexual side effects High doses of anabolics in a study by Holma, shows that the sperm counts decreased by 73% and azoospermia occurred for 3 individuals i.e affecting fertility. Steroid 7 They affect secretion of the reproductive hormones like testosterone and thus reducing libido due to decrease level of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone(FSH).sterodi 37. Anabolic steroids abuse may result in prostate cancer. Steroid 37 Gynaecomastia It is the enlargement of the mammary tissues in men due to transfer of androgens to estradiol and estrone. steroid 7,37 Psychological effects A study in USA showed that anabolic steroids revealed changes in mood such as mania and depression. steorid7 Other side effects include: hyperinsulinemia, hypertension, tendon damage, steroid 26. edema, muscle spasm, acne hirsutism, and deepening of voice. Steroid 35 History of anabolic steroids misuse and drug testing The use of banned substances such as caffeine, cocaine and strychnine started during the 19th century in most of the sport events like cycling, swimming, and distance running. steroid 26. The abuse of steroids in sport started in 1950s by the soviet weightlifting teams.p54 green,steroid26. In 1960 Olympic Games, anabolic steroids use was restricted to Soviet weightlifting, but by 1964, their use is increased in all strength sports. p45 green. 7. Anabolics use became more common in most sports in 1972 Olympic Games. Steroid 26 Anabolic steroids use has been banned by medical commission of IOC in 1974 and has been added to the list of banned substances of IOC in 1975.steroid 10, 7 Although the first formal testing was introduced in 1972 Munich Olympics, there was no testing for anabolic steroids (7). P4. The first formal test for anabolic steroid was in 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics(7). First positive tests for steroids were in 1976 Montreal Olympics, in which 8 athletes, seven weightlifters and one female athlete in a field event were caught for steroid abuse(7).p75., while no positive tests were reported in 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Anabolic androgenic steroids are one of the most widely used drugs by athletes to enhance their performance and physical appearance. Steroid 6. Their use extends to be not among professional athletes but also among high school male and female students. Steroid 26 WADA accredited laboratories published statistics form 1993 till 2003 and this showed that anabolic steroids are the most widely used banned substances.p32.red. 1993 1994 2001 2002 2003 stimulants 22.8% 24% 15.4% 14.9% 19% Anabolic steroids 59.9% 50.5% 40.1% 36.8% 32.1% Unlike amphetamines and other stimulants which were taken on the day of competition ( which causes sudden death due to cardiac arrest), anabolic steroids are administered during the training exercise and not before the competition periods. P31 red. they are taken in cycles with duration of six- twelve weeks, and usually 2-3 cycles are taken in a year. Steroid7. The introduction of the â€Å"out of competition† testing programmes limited the use of the anabolic steroids. P46 red Systematic doping: biggest scandal One of the biggest scandals for steroid abuse was in the German Democratic Republic, they were used from 1965 to 1989 and this allows the East German to win many medals. Coaches and doctors in East Germany follow a programme for systematic doping with steroids. In 1965, a pharmaceutical company had developed chlor-substituted derivative of methandrostenolone (Oral-Turbinabol R), and from 1968 GRD started to introduce it to female athletes in the Olympic Games. Steroid 40 Detection of anabolic steroids: Detection of urinary anabolic steroid by radioimmunoassay Drug testing was based on radioimmunoassay screening of urine samples from athletes for detection of banned substances and then gas chromatography/mass spectrometry for confirmation the positive tests (7). Testing at that time was insensitive and not selective due to the fact that testing was done during competition periods and anabolic steroids were usually taken for long periods, so athletes used to quit these drugs at competition periods so their level will decrease in the urine and could not be detected and the tests would give false negative (19). Detection of urinary anabolic steroids by GC/MS, measuring testosterone to epitestosterone (T/E ratio) Drug testing at that time could not differentiate between endogenous testosterone and synthetic anabolics.steroid7. Testosterone was introduced in the banned list of IOC in 1983, it was the first endogenous substance to be banned, after the discovery of the detection method in 1982. p35red. In 1984 Olympic Games, all urine samples from athletes were screened by GC/MS for detection and identification. The T/E ra

An Analysis of Walt Disney’s Cinderella

Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 DOI 10. 1007/s11199-007-9236-y ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Production of Meaning through Peer Interaction: Children and Walt Disney’s Cinderella Lori Baker-Sperry Published online: 5 June 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007 Abstract For many years researchers have understood that gender roles in children’s literature have the capacity to create and reinforce â€Å"meanings† of femininity and masculinity (Currie, Gend. Soc. , 11: 453–477, 1997; Gledhill, Genre and gender: The case of soap opera. In S. Hall (Ed. ), Representation (pp. 339–383). London: Sage, 1985; Tatar, Off with their heads! Fairy tales and the culture of childhood. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993; Zipes, Happily ever after. New York: Routledge, 1997). The purpose of this study was to investigate children’s interpretation of a popular gendered fairy tale at the level of peer interaction. Walt Disney’s Cinderella was used in elementary school reading groups to investigate the ways that children understand messages regarding gender and the influence of peer culture on the production of meaning. The findings indicate that gender and gendered expectations were essential to the process of interpretation and the construction of eaning for the children. Gender unified the boys and girls into two distinct groups, particularly around the â€Å"girls’ book,† Cinderella. Gender was reinforced along traditional lines in the peer group, serving as a deterrent to the production of alternate interpretations to traditional messages in the text. Keywords Gender . Peer interaction . Children . Agency . Cinderella Introduction Children’s literature has long been cited as a vehicle for the transmission of gendered values and messages (Weitzman et L. Baker-Sperry (*) Department of Women’s Studies, Western Illinois University, 500 Currens Hall, Macomb, IL 61455, USA -mail: [email  protected] edu al. 1972; Agee 1993; Zipes 1997). The ability of children’s literature to impart meaning and reflect social constructions of masculinity and femininity to its readers has also been documented (Currie 1997; Gledhill 1985; Zipes 1997). More recently, particular attention has been paid to the influence of peer culture in the construction of meaning derived from media sources, children’s literature included (Corsaro 1997; Currie 1997; Davies 1990; Milkie 1994; Pike and Jennings 2005). The purpose of the present study was to examine how children’s peer culture influences the interpretation of endered messages derived from children’s literature. Interpretive Reproduction and Children’s Peer Culture Children are inventive and resourceful social participants in the preservation (reproduction), interpretation, and formation of their social world as they actively interpret the social world by constructing the meaning of social messages (Corsaro 1997, 1992). Corsaro (1997) stated that children â€Å"quickly appropriate, use, and transform symbolic culture as they produce and participate in peer culture† (p. 100). This view of the child’s active interpretation of the social world, termed interpretive reproduction, conceptualizes hildren as research participants and social individuals. Children appropriate messages and meanings from the world of adults and filter them through their own understanding and experiences. Children’s responses to social messages indicate their ability to understand and make meaning of the social world. This does not occur simply as the child’s reaction to social messaging, however. The process of interpretation is most effectively negotiated at the level of interaction where understanding is conceptualized, organized, and reaffirmed through peer identity (Corsaro 1997; Currie 1997; Davies 1990; Miller et al. 990). Through interaction that occurs within everyday routines (Corsaro 1997), Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 718 children are able to learn the rules of the social group in which they are a part. Interaction in the peer group also solidifies gendered perspectives (Hibbard and Buhrmester 1998; Thorne 1997). Acting out gender, as well as sometimes pushing its boundaries, is often manifested in the peer group. Children discursively position themselves as boys or girls in their play, thus reifying the dichotomous nature of the construction of gender through peer interaction (Davies 2003; Hibbard and Buhrmester 1998).Children also rely heavily on traditional normative structures to make sense of the world, and they often accept gendered expectations as truth. The process of internalization and negotiation of messages becomes unique in relation to gender when one considers the primacy of gendered norms and expectations. Do children have the social freedom to explore and possibly deconstruct gendered messages within the peer group, or are gendered roles and expectations simply too rigid to allow that? Gendered Messages and the Peer Group: Prescription or Negotiation?Scholars have identified fairy tales as vehicles of gendered messages and forms of prescriptive literature for children (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz 2003; Bettelheim 1976; Tatar 1993; Zipes 1997), and others have argued that such gendered messages are interpreted and reinforced through peer interaction (Corsaro 1997; Milkie 1994). Corsaro (1997, p. 4) identified children’s literature, particularly fairy tales, as important sources that are â€Å"primarily mediated by adults in cultural routines in the family and other settings. † The intent of the present study was not to document which essages are gendered, but how gendered messages are understood and internalized by children and, further, the ways that such tales are interpreted through peer interaction.The static, gendered messages and the highly structured form of the fairy tale provide a vehicle for children to interpret gendered norms and expectations more clearly. The well-known tale Cinderella was chosen for its clear, traditional depiction of gendered expectations, fantasy, and romantic love as well as for its current status as a feminine text limited to the world of girls in its recent production and advertisement (e. g. a story central to the â€Å"Disney Princesses†) (Shumway 2003; Zipes 1997). Cinderella is a tale that focuses on girls and women, with predominantly female characters. Boys are not likely to embrace a female main character (Hibbard and Buhrmester 1998; Pike and Jennings 2005). Girls, however, are often willing to embrace a male main character such the popular children’s character, Harry Potter, for example. Choosing Cinderella for the present study was an intentional way to clarify the reactions to a book clearly identified as targeting one sex and not the other.The choice of a à ¢â‚¬Å"feminine† text that lluminates this relationship between boys, girls, and gendered text was deliberate. Fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes (1997) has argued that, currently, children’s understanding and image associations of the fairy tale Cinderella are so closely linked with the animated film Cinderella (Disney 1950) that they are inseparable. Based on the expectation that the children may describe Disney’s animated images even when not referenced, and that this might lead to the incorrect assumption that the children were exploring alternate ways of telling the story when in fact they were reproducing the opular Disney image, a textual version of Walt Disney’s Cinderella that contained many of the well-known images from the animated film was selected for use in the present study. An analysis of Walt Disney’s Cinderella, in preparation for data collection, produced several themes. These assertions are supported by Shumway’s (2003) assertio ns concerning traditional feminine text and in Grauerholz and Baker-Sperry’s (2007) findings on pervasive themes within popular Grimms’ tales. These themes guided, but did not limit, the discussion and influenced the questions asked of students during the reading groups.Romantic Love The text is a romantic tale in that love and/or marriage are driving forces and the text â€Å"deals with love that leads to marriage or love outside of marriage, but not love in marriage† (Shumway 2003, p. 3). The story’s inevitable culmination in marriage, coupled with elements of love at first sight and the concurrent competition among women for the prince, is pivotal to the overall action of the story Cinderella. The search for a suitable marriage partner for the prince is the reason for the ball. Gendered Role Expectations in Disney’s Cinderella Although the stepmother and stepsisters do not engage in raditional domestic work, Cinderella is required to do so. All women in the text are concerned with physical appearance of self or other and clearly understand this to have direct impact on the ability to procure a suitable mate. Men in the tale fill traditionally masculine status roles: king, prince, and ambassador. The men have obvious social power; the women struggle to attain or maintain status on their own. Transformation Cinderella is transformed from a dutiful and submissive girl imprisoned in a domestic world to a beautiful and enviable young woman thrust into the public and both desired and sought by the prince.Transformation may be highly Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 attractive to young girls, given the tendency to link femininity with beauty, desirability, and marriage suitability. Boys may or may not be used to experiencing the progression of a male character or the development of masculinity in such a way. Rescuer and Rescued Although the man’s role is de-emphasized in this tale, the â€Å"Cinderella story† is o ne of trial, rescue, and redemption (return to rightful place). The prince, who offers Cinderella an escape from her dire circumstances, is the true rescuer. This construct serves to support traditional notions about asculinity and femininity. Importance of Physical Beauty Cinderella is identified as good and industrious, but she is also very beautiful. It is her beauty that first attracts the prince, as well as her mystery, and it is her beauty (symbolic in the form of a small foot encased in glass) that confirms her place as rightful bride. Domestic slavery also hid her physical beauty.The Lack of a Pivotal Male Role This is really a story about girls and women, and the young prince does not play a central action role. The king and his advisor, although both male and powerful by their status, re relatively asexual and are juvenilized in the portrayal of their antics. The protagonist is female (Cinderella), and the key supporting characters are also female: the wicked stepmother, u nattractive stepsisters, and the fairy godmother. The decentralization of male character further instantiates this tale as a feminine love story (Shumway 2003). These themes situate the text, Cinderella, as a highly gendered and traditionally normative story through which an analysis of interpretations as negotiated in peer groups may occur.In the present study I explored the following research questions about the ways that gendered messages re understood, appropriated, or reinvented through interaction: How does the peer group influence the production of meaning concerning gendered messages? Do boys and girls contribute to the production of meaning in the peer groups in similar ways? To what extent do boys and girls reject or accept the tale as about them? To what extent do the children accept the traditional gender representations without question? Do they produce interpretations that displace traditional stereotypes and gendered expectations? Analysis of these questions, through the lens of symbolic interaction and the sociology of childhood, serves to lluminate the relationship between gendered text and the everyday world of the child. 719 Method Setting and Participants To collect the data for this project, I participated in informal, intensive, preliminary observation of 148 students in eight first-grade classrooms. In six of the eight classrooms, a total of 50 students participated in reading groups. Each reading group contained between nine and nine children, except for one group of 11 participants. Walt Disney’s version of Cinderella (Disney 1986) was the subject matter for each reading group. All students involved were either 6 or 7 years old and were in the first grade.All data were collected in a public elementary school serving a midwestern rural area (population 21,659). The children’s socioeconomic backgrounds ranged from uppermiddle class (parents often university employed with high educational attainment) to children with unemplo yed heads of households (the area experienced two factory closings immediately prior to data collection). The participants were otherwise relatively homogenous. The majority of children had working parents and either single, two-parent, or blended families. Eighty-nine percent of the children in the study were European American, 8% were AfricanAmerican, and 3% were Asian American. These numbers are representative of the larger population for the area (U. S. Bureau of the Census 2000). At all possible times, reading groups were conducted when Children of Color were present (e. g. , scheduling around sick days). The reading groups were formed by classroom, and consisted only of children who met the criteria: first-grade status, a willingness to participate, and a consent form signed by a parent or guardian. As a member of the university community, I was granted admission in the classroom by the principal and then by each individual teacher.The local university houses a successful elem entary education program, and the number of university associates at the school at any given time is quite large. Student teachers, researchers, facilitators, and assessors are present throughout the regular school year. The students and teachers were very friendly and quickly became accustomed to my presence. Procedure Preliminary Observation The use of interpretive ethnographic methods (Corsaro 1997; Eder and Corsaro 1999) has become more prominent since researchers began to explore â€Å"the meaning of social processes from the perspective of those studied† (Corsaro 997, p. 75). To become familiar with how children actively engaged in group work, as opposed to working Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 720 singly or as a larger class, I engaged in preliminary observation of eight first-grade classrooms over a 3 month period for approximately 4 h/week.Observation occurred during the children’s classroom reading time, scheduled time to work in groups, and/or time usua lly scheduled for â€Å"extra activities,† such as movies. This time spent in the elementary school was an introduction to the nature of these everyday routines and to the research participants. I then ngaged in the primary data collection by conducting reading groups with the children. Reading Groups Data collection occurred in structured reading groups to explore the ways that children negotiate peer relationships in a small group around the highly traditional and gendered fairy tale, Cinderella. The reading groups were chosen as the primary method of data collection because they were naturally occurring and provided a flexible, yet constant routine in the children’s school day, one where intentional learning was conducted while children were encouraged to think and work in groups.The style and format of the reading groups closely resembled the usual in-class format. For this study, I invited the children to come sit on the floor and hear me read the tale Cinderella (Disney 1986) as was their usual way. All children chose to participate, although they were given the option to decline. I allowed the children to discuss the illustrations and make interjections throughout the tale, though they were accustomed to a pattern of listening while the story was read and of asking any questions afterward. Overall, the atmosphere of the reading group was very relaxed. Control over the attention of the group was fairly asy to maintain, due in large part to the children’s familiarity with the reading group structure and with being read to by adults other than the teacher (e. g. , parents often did this). Each reading group was recorded using a video camera on a tripod in a corner of the classroom. As the classrooms were small, I was able to capture the reading group interaction, albeit from only one angle. The students did not to respond to the camera as I had anticipated. After the initial set-up occurred, they ignored the camera. I later transcribed all tapes and typed my observation notes myself. I am identified in the transcripts as LBS.All students’ names were changed. Results To become familiar with the environment, I often asked the children questions, engaged in their play, and physically joined them as they learned (e. g. , I sometimes sat with the group on the floor). Initially, the students questioned my role in their classrooms and wondered why I did not actively participate in the regular work in a normative adult way as a student teacher or librarian might. Quickly, the children became accustomed to my presence, and I was soon the object of friendly and playful competition. Students would often ask to sit by me during an activity r ask me to â€Å"come out and play tag with us† while lining up for recess. In conjunction with what Davies (2003) found, by not behaving in an authoritative way, I was quickly welcomed into the children’s activities.The children did not forget that I was an adult, as evidenced in the following excerpt from field notes, but often used my age to situational advantage: The children played â€Å"knock from the chair† today during free time. I was invited to play and agreed to sit on the chair while one team of children tried to knock me off. Soon there were cries of â€Å"no fair, she is too hard to knock off! immediately followed by a discussion about how to reconfigure the teams so that I was on theirs! Before we determined membership, the game was halted by the teaching assistant for roughness (observation notes, October 1999). There were also times when my adult status was obvious and irrevocable. For example, one day a boy fell backwards in his chair and hit his head on the floor.Immediately, I stepped outside of my role of observer and confidante and assumed adult status. There were times when the children became rather more formal in their interactions with me, such as when I became a reader, a role often filled by eacher, parent, or other adult. I also believe that the reading groups, although they occurred only once with each group of children, underscored my adult status. This meant that, at times, the children and I interacted more formally, whereas at other times I was easily invited into the game or activity. The interactions below are representative of what occurred during the reading groups, and are infused with a familiarity between myself and the children, but are also reflective of the structured routine of the reading group and therefore are more reserved in nature than other forms of interaction that occurred.Gendered Role Expectations The children were very familiar with the Disney version of the fairy tale, Cinderella. They knew the story well enough to finish my sentences as I read. When I read â€Å"On Cinderella ’s feet were tiny†¦. , † many immediately responded with â€Å"glass slippers. † Similarly, many of the students joined in at the end of the tale with â€Å" †¦ happily every after! † In fact, the students knew the story so well (particularly demonstrated by the girls), and were at times Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 so caught up in the tale, that they jumped ahead in their excitement, finishing the story long before the end.Many students also knew the names of Cinderella’s animal friends, an element unique to the Disney version. In the reading groups, stereotypical views of traditional gender expectations were reproduced in the children’s accounts of the tale. When asked about Cinderella’s physical appearance prior to the reading of the tale, the children responded with a characterization of Cinderella that is consistent of Disney’s well-known image. The children’s description of Cinderella’s personality was also static and highly traditional, in keeping with the text. Cinderella was identified as beautiful, nice, deserving of riends, and as skilled in domestic tasks. These are h ighly emphasized elements within the tale and were consistently linked to one another by the children in the reading groups. The students did not problematize this imagery. The students characterized the stepsisters as ugly, mean, and inept in feminine skills.Therefore, they identified them in ways that were, for the most part, consistent with the text. The stepmother was described in ways that reflect her characterization in the story, both in text and in pictures. For example, Cinderella’s father, at the beginning of the tale, is shown as a young man, possibly in his late 20s, ppropriate for the father of a young girl. Concurrently, the stepmother is illustrated as gray, older, and very matronly. The students indicated that they noticed some of the inconsistency. Linda: Her hair is gray. Carol: She is old. LBS: Right, she is older. Ben: She is 100 years old. Those are her grandchildren. LBS: She is 100 years old? But those are her daughters. [Laughter and exclamations of â €Å"No! † from the students. ] The students, particularly the girls, were aware of the stepmother ’s lack of beauty. Her appearance, age, and the fact that she is â€Å"mean† were often discussed.She was not defended as a mother or as a person. No child made a positive statement about the stepmother or her behavior. The prince was characterized positively by the girls, who saw him as a romantic character. The girls described the prince as handsome, although the text did not. There is no mention of handsomeness in the tale Cinderella (BakerSperry and Grauerholz 2003). LBS: What does the prince look like? Brooke: Handsome! Jill: Charming. Gary: What’s that mean? Marge: That is his name. LBS: What does charming mean? Marge: That’s his name Jill: He is beautiful, handsome. Brooke: He is dreamy. 721Although the text does not identify the Prince as handsome, charming, or dreamy, these names were often linked to this character by the girls, particularly w hen asked (specifically and repeatedly) about his appearance. The students did not once, however, reply that they did not know what the prince looks like or that the book does not provide that information textually, nor did they make reference to the images offered in the book’s illustrations. Nor did they indicate that he was not attractive or balk at the question. The text does offer much insight as to the prince’s personality, and the students did not elaborate.In the previous excerpt, the prince was also identified as charming, a commonly used designation for many fairy tale princes, but Marge could not define charming except to say â€Å"that is his name. † Davies (2003), in her work with children and feminist fairy tales, found that the belief that the primary male or female character will be attractive supersedes textual portrayals. This is the case here, possibly because attractiveness is more in keeping with the romantic nature of the tale. The children did not question the basic gendered assumptions embodied in many images and characterizations in the text, nor did they explore alternatives.For example, no child commented that the stepmother is not motherly toward Cinderella, that she does not look motherly, or that her personality does not fit with what one might associate with mothering, although her physical appearance is inconsistent with popular images of mothers, which was mentioned (see above). No child questioned Cinderella’s desire to marry the prince. Such consistency across responses indicates that this group of children accepts many of the normative gendered images within the text without overtly questioning them, yet questioned those that do not fit expectations (as the stepmother ’s ppearance). Corsaro (1997, p. 20) argued that â€Å"confusions are addressed but not resolved in routines,† but these reading groups served as routines where basic gendered assumptions were negotiated and interpreted , but not necessarily problematized or resisted. The Girls in the Group: Cinderella as a Site of Femininity Retelling the Tale: A Form of Social Power The girls in the present study often found social power or acceptance in the retelling of the tale. For the girls, there was more at stake in telling the story as it was read, than in changing the story to reflect less traditional roles and behaviors.This was documented in numerous ways; for example, one girl was quickly admonished by another for suggesting that â€Å"maybe Cinderella did not like her fancy ball dress. † In keeping with West and Zimmerman’s (1987) theory of gender work and performance, the girls wanted to 722 be perceived as feminine and, therefore, to prove their femininity through sharing components of the tale within the peer group. By retelling and defending the tale as it was read, they reinforced their positions as girls and as knowledgeable of the feminine world. Assertion of femininity was most i nfluential with other girls, but the oys did not problematize the girls’ interest (as they did with other boys’). These examples lead to questions about the extent to which â€Å"doing gender† (West and Zimmerman 1987) influences the process of interpretation and the construction of meaning within the peer group. If active negotiation is about sometimes resisting dominant messages in favor of working out meaning within the peer group, but doing gender is about affirming gendered stereotypes within the same group, the two ways of understanding and making sense of the world are at odds. Girls: Filtering Fantasy through ExperienceFantasy and the dream world informed the ways the girls discussed the tale. They often combined the fantasy world with their everyday lived experience to create a space for their own storytelling and/or interaction with the text. Many of the children discussed the text in terms of how their lives did or did not parallel the fairy tale, but the girls repeatedly engaged in fantasizing about their futures as we read. Sometimes the girls would decide that the ideology of the fairy tale world and their personal expectations for the future conflicted. Bridget: I am going to get married to a prince. He is oing to meet me at the ball. [gets up and dances around in a small circle] Karen: I don’t think they have balls anymore†¦. Bridget: I am going to have one when I turn 6†¦ Kristi: 6? You are 6, dummy. Right? Lana: I wouldn’t want to go to a ball if that is what happens. [marriage] Bridget: I mean 16. Lana: I don’t want to get married [until] I am 23. Bridget: Well, I can do what I want. [sitting down] When the content of the fairy tale struck children as related to or reflective of their own lives, personal desires, or experiences, it was obvious that their interest in the tale was elevated.This process of identifying with the text seemed to blur reality with fantasy. It was when the text did not strike the children as reflective of their lives that the processes of interpretation and group interaction were most clear. At these times, the children worked to create an image that was more reflective of their lived experience. The girls connected with the story, labeled it as â€Å"about them,† and identified more with the protagonist. There were also times, however, when they acknowledged identification with the less positively identified characters (e. g. , those Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 haracterized as bad or ugly, such as the stepsisters). When they discussed the stepsisters’ behavior toward Cinderella, the children spoke in terms of their own punishment for similar misdeeds.Bridget: They are very, very, very, very selfish. Karen: They should get a swat. Kristi: [Swats her own bottom. ] I have had a swat. Bridget: On the bottom! Many of the girls discussed the tale in terms of what they had done or would like to do, who they are or would like to be. The girls sometimes seemed envious of Cinderella. For example, one girl asked, with a voice full of anxiousness, ow Cinderella got to be so beautiful, and stated that she wanted to be as beautiful as Cinderella. Even at age 6, a girl knows that beauty is rewarded in our society. LBS: What does Cinderella look like? Isabel: Very, very, very beautiful. Shelly: She probably looks very pretty with blond hair [touches her brown hair] and blue eyes. [touching near her own brown eyes] Isabel: I have blond hair [touching her hair] and blue eyes! [Shelly swats Isabel] This passage illustrates how children identify with a story, discussing it in terms of how the characters are â€Å"like them† and how the situations parallel their experiences.Furthermore, the girls were interested in what might be in store for them as adults by assuming that what happens in the tale might happen in their lives as well. Currie (1997) argued that the adolescent girls in her study gave the messages in teen magazines ontological status, that they saw them as true and reflective of their own lives. Similarly, although the participants in the present study also identified the tale as â€Å"a dream world,† the girls viewed Cinderella’s experience as one that might someday happen to them. In so doing, they embraced the ideological messages about emininity, yet, at the same time, negotiated, added to, and subtracted from the tale as they filtered the messages through their own experiences, hopes, and desires. For example, they were particularly interested in Cinderella’s new married life. Kristi: Does Cinderella have babies after she gets married? LBS: The book does not say; what do you think? Kristi: She should have babies, and she will change diapers, right? LBS: If they have babies, do you think the prince will change diapers? Chorus: No! The girls offered interpretations that existed within the traditional framework of the text.Corsaro (1997) asserted hat chil dren engage in interpretive reproduction, and, in so doing, they borrow from adult culture and renegotiate the messages in a reflexive process of defining and (re) Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 producing what is real. But that they borrow from their own lived experience is clearly evident in many of their discussions and reactions to the text. The girls’ belief that Cinderella (and they themselves) could marry and experience this traditional love story, at the same time as they realize that parts of the tale simply are not possible (such as the fairy godmother who turns a pumpkin into a coach), or re not realistic for them (marriage at a very young age), speaks to this process. They are taking the reality of their own experiences and blending it, through their discussion, with their understanding of what they are and what they might hope to experience in the future. Delight and Damage: Girls’ Peer Culture and Expectations of the Feminine During the reading groups, most girls were excited, often interjecting comments, such as â€Å"I have Cinderella Barbie,† and running ahead in the story. One girl asked to have the story read again. Many girls in the reading groups engaged in spontaneous role play.Role play does not usually happen after a story is read in the everyday classroom. As I did not discourage eager comments or the beginnings of role play when they first occurred in each group, they may well have simply taken my cue. One example of particularly exuberant role play occurred after a short debate over Cinderella’s age. Meg: She was not much older than me in the book. I think she was my age. Carla: She was old enough to get married. Meg: She grew up in the book. Like this. [stands up and twirls around] When she got her dress. Do you like my dress? I am going to the ball.Carla: No, this is how Cinderella danced. [stands and begins dancing] Rachel: I will be Cinderella when she tries on the shoe. LBS: How many Cinderellas ar e there, anyway? [laughing] Tess: We are all Cinderella! [others get up to dance] As in this example, the girls often worked to allow everyone to be involved. This is not to say that competition for the status-filled position of Cinderella did not occur. It did. But, most often, the girls worked together to make meaning of the tale. Role play did not happen routinely with the boys, and they usually stayed seated when the girls were acting out the tale.In the only example of role play in which the boys were actively involved, the prince and his friend left the group to chase dragons before the ball began, about midway through the tale. There were examples of less affiliative interaction between the girls. In one role play example, a particular girl was singled out as â€Å"not Cinderella† because of her physical appearance. It was difficult to witness the 723 interaction when a girl said â€Å"you can’t be Cinderella, but you could be the ugly stepsister. † The c ompetition inherent in the story was painful when witnessed in children in the real world.As I stood to signal the end of the reading group, another little girl said to the first: â€Å"Don’t listen to her†¦ she just doesn’t have a nice heart. † The gender work in the children’s groups was, in many ways, reflective of the expectations and pressures of the larger adult world. The Boys in the Group: Peer Culture of Resistance It should come as no surprise that the boys generally defined Cinderella as a â€Å"girls’ book,† and, although often they actively listened or commented, they made it clear from the beginning that this is not the book they would have chosen. This was an expected response based upon the hosen text. Even though there were many loud guffaws at the introduction of the text, it was fairly clear that the boys were as familiar with the tale as the girls were. The boys did answer questions and offer comments, but as often a s not it was to steer the discussion off track.This tactic was noticeably common among the boys, and they engaged in some friendly competition as to who might be the most successful, complementing each other on a job well done. The boys also rivaled one another for the attention of the group and for my attention. As we had spent time in other orms of classroom interaction, our relationships were often friendly and familiar. But, when it came to approval from the group or my approval, the boys usually sought approval from the group. This was often manifested in raucous storytelling. Their stories or comments interested the group because of their (sometimes sexually suggestive) shock value. LBS: On Cinderella’s feet were..? Mike: Shoes. Larry: Glass shoes. Chorus: Glass slippers! Larry: It looks like a glass dress!! I wish it were a glass dress! Larry: Ha! It would be funny if it was†¦ Mike: And then we could see†¦ LBS: All right.Her slippers are the only clothing ite m made of glass. One should note here that the student might not have received my approval, but the comment did receive my attention. Teachers often told me that sometimes students would seek notice regardless of the consequences. Although I actively fostered a relationship where the children were less likely to view me as an authority figure, I was, regardless, an adult. Some of the alternate responses may simply be attributed to the boy’s unwillingness to embrace the more romantic images in the tale (and their keen 724 awareness of the repercussions if they did).At one point, a boy broke out in song: Matt [singing]: â€Å"Happily Ever After and kiss my hand! † LBS: I have a couple of quick questions for you, do you mind answering? [No comment] LBS: What is the Prince like? Matt: Stupid. Ben: Dumb. Brian: A dummy. Jeremy: He got in a coach crash. LBS: Why? Matt: Because he does not even love her. LBS: Why? Matt: [in a gruff voice] Because she is rotten to the core!â⠂¬ ¦ LBS: What is Cinderella like? Chorus: Dumb. LBS: Nice or mean? Ben: She is a cleaning lady. Matt: She loves me. LBS: I did not know she had ever met you. [Boys laugh] The satirical nature of these responses is evident.Not only did the boys challenge the structure of the reading group and my authority as a researcher, but they also pushed the boundaries in terms of what is considered by adults in the school system to be an â€Å"acceptable† reference to sex and sexuality. In stopping the conversation, my status as an adult was emphasized, which hindered my inclusion to their world. The boys did not elaborate on the tale in ways that identified with the prince, the king, or with Cinderella. Furthermore, the boys did not experience any social rewards from other boys for knowing the story. In fact, ost of the boys adamantly argued that they did not care for the story at all and reacted negatively toward any boy who showed any sign of interest in the tale. The only boy who to ok an interest in the prince used a different characterization than what was offered in the tale, although his description clearly resonates with masculine culture and expectations of male sexuality. Mark: I think the prince has a lot of dances. Joe: What? Dances? Mark: He dances and dances and dances because he likes to kiss lots of girls†¦ Joe: Oh, yeah, well he does not dance if he doesn’t have to. [shrugs] Mark: He does have to so he does.Joe: Yeah, I would dance if I had to. Mark: What? This conversation illustrates the tension between the social expectations that the boys sensed from one another and the larger adult world, as well as the conflicted nature Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 of the traditional stories of heterosexual love and masculinity. Examples such as this, when juxtaposed with the preceding examples of some of the girls’ responses, demonstrate the reproduction of larger social norms concerning sexuality and desire, as well as acceptable r oles and displays for men and women. The boys were not always willing to offer a response, resumably for fear of disapproval from the other boys in the group. In one group, for example, I could not elicit a verbal response from any of the boys unless I asked them a direct question, and then I would receive a very short reply. One shrugged his shoulders at a general question aimed at the group; the others shifted sidelong glances at each other. They did not seem to feel the need to feign enthusiasm for the book.A girl in the group stated that the boys did not like it because â€Å"†¦ it is a girls’ book, even though there are men in it. † In that particular case, one girl in the group attempted to xplain the boys’ attitudes toward the tale. The anxiety that the boys’ silence produced in the girls was acute, as was evidenced by multiple responses, both apologetic comments stated to me and admonitions to the boys. The girls wanted to discuss the tale, a nd they desired my approval, in part so that I would keep reading. They were embarrassed by the boys’ lack of enthusiasm, and indicated that they were worried that it might hurt my feelings or cause me to end the reading group. The boys seemed to sense the power of their own silence, even to revel in it, but the girls did not enjoy the silence at all.In each of the groups, most of the boys began to disengage within the first 10 min. Inevitably, one or two boys began quietly to discuss something other than the story, and the other boys quickly tuned in to what it was that they were doing or saying. In fact, if a boy in the group did not become engaged in these other interests, he was often solicited by a boy sitting next to him, or the other boys would look at each other and signal about him. For example, one boy who seemed to be shunned by the group as a whole engaged neither in conversation about the text nor in the boys’ alternate conversations.Most boys ignored him, although one said â€Å"Mark likes Cinderella† in a derogatory way, to identify Mark as â€Å"not one of us. † Another boy, clearly interested in the tale, quickly realized that the other boys disapproved after he made an initial comment, and he spent the rest of the reading group attempting to regain his position as â€Å"one of us† by stating that â€Å"Cinderella stinks. † These findings illustrate how gendered behavior is expected of and by boys and girls. Whether Mark had earlier shown an interest in â€Å"girls’ stuff† or was alienated from the boys as an unpopular student, his gender was suspect and became a means of torment.The second boy is an example of the work commonly done to regulate Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 masculine behavior. Most students were very in-tune with the group’s expectations for gendered behavior and quickly accommodated. Davies (2003) argued that teasing and alienation serve to maintain the cate gorical boundaries between the constructions of femininity and masculinity. This regular, everyday maintenance work was evidenced here in the boys’ treatment of the group member who deviated from the expected response. Only one boy who spoke positively about the tale was not chastised by the other boys.This instance was also one of the rare occasions when a child offered an alternate image from a media source more reflective of lived experience or identity. Recently there have been a number of attempts to create films of fairy tales that include challenges to traditional messages, such as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (1997), starring Brandy, a young African American woman, as Cinderella. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella was also produced by Disney Studios. LBS: How many of you liked that story? Derrick: I have the movie, but Cinderella is Black. LBS: Do you have the movie with Brandy in it?Derrick: Yes. This student, an African American, referenced t he images from this alternate source. No one in his group, however, seemed to be familiar with this version, and only two other children in other reading groups mentioned the alternate Disney version of the tale. Discussion As has been previously argued, and is evidenced by the data in the present study, there are very few children who have not been exposed to Walt Disney’s Cinderella. The assertion that the media serve as vehicles of women’s subordination is a common element among theories of gender and gender socialization. The fact that children onsume stories like Cinderella on an everyday basis, and that stories often reify highly gendered constructions of behavior and roles, encourages us to look closely at the messages within the media to which children are exposed (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz 2003). It is important to explore the extent to which children take these well-known messages and filter them through their lived experiences, altering them and sometimes producing new readings of gender, but it is also necessary to note that, if the text is ‘about them,’ then the children are more likely to contribute ontological status, or truth status, to the text.This is further unified by conflict between groups, as in this case between the boys’ and girls’ responses to the text. The boys did not find themselves reflected in the text; therefore they did not elevate the text to truth status. There are other stories that resonate more soundly with the construct of masculinity. 725 The very act of defining the text as a â€Å"girls’ book† authenticates the assumptions of gender difference for the boys and girls. The children’s behavior within the reading groups was highly influenced by group interaction. This is in keeping with Corsaro’s (1992) assertion that most socialization ccurs at the level of interaction, be it in the family, among peers, or elsewhere. The nods and sounds of approval fro m group members encouraged both acceptance of the media messages and interaction and interpretation of those messages, depending upon the perspective of the group. An uncomfortable group atmosphere was often evident in conjunction with â€Å"doing gender. † The girls and boys were highly influenced by the group, and acceptance or rejection of the text was enhanced by whether or not the children identified with the story, whether they thought that it was or was not about them.This is no doubt one of the reasons that the boys in the present study did not enjoy the tale, or did not openly admit to doing so. Cinderella is a text that resonates with social messages aimed toward girls (e. g. , social rewards for goodness, kindness, and care as well as an emphasis on feminine beauty) and does not problematize a beauty ideal, romantic love, or competition among women for a the attention of men. The messages routinely found in books for boys, such as an emphasis on strength, the abili ty to protect others, and the denial of emotions (Seiter 1993), are not prevalent in Cinderella.The girls embraced the story, identified with the female characters, and actively engaged in filtering the text through their lived experience and expectations of the future. They clearly took pleasure, for the most part, in reenacting the fairy tale, taking particular delight in the transformation of a young, downtrodden girl into a beautiful princess. The tale was well known, and well loved, by most of the girls. There were instances, however, when a girl was admonished for wanting to be Cinderella because she was seen by the others as not attractive enough, when the girls discussed ways that their experiences sometimes more closely atched the stepsisters’, or occasions when the anxiety produced by the normative expectations of femininity became evident (â€Å"How does Cinderella get to be so beautiful? †). But, for the most part, the acceptance was unanimous and excited. Through the girls’ discussion of the story, traditional expectations for femininity were identified, reified, and reinforced. The strong identification with the tale, as evidenced by the girls, is an indication of the social importance of traditional expectations of femininity. In light of previous research that has identified girls as active negotiators in the construction of meaning (Corsaro 1997;Currie 1997), the unquestioning response to the traditional elements of the tale signifies the importance of gendered Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 726 expectations and the solidity of gendered boundaries. The girls responded with a clear reaction: Cinderella is about us! Such a reaction, from any single girl, evidenced and affirmed her femininity. Cinderella was not, however, about or for the boys. As a feminine tale, any association might be seen as feminizing for them. This supports a traditional ideology associated with heterosexual masculinity. Furthermore, it might be xp ected that a boy would respond differently, possibly more positively, outside of the group setting (e. g. , at home reading with a parent, or reading on his own) if the expectations to â€Å"do gender† were less (Thorne 1997; West and Zimmerman 1987). Through group displays, the boys demonstrated resistance to the messages in the tale and reinforced group acceptance of normative masculinity.The textual association with romantic love, messages traditionally directed toward women and girls (e. g. , domestic work, competition for men, emphasis on beauty), and the packaging of the text (i. e. , colors of pink and purple with cute’ animals) inherent in Cinderella simply do not mesh with boys’ experiences in learning about masculinity or the cultural expectations of them. These conflicts are reinforced through interaction in the peer group, and the peer group often regulated interpretation. The boys also actively moved the story to a place that was more about them. In this way, they de-centered the central character and instead turned to other components of popular fairy tales that are more interesting to them, such as chasing dragons and engaging in adventurous sword play. They also shifted the focus from the story in general to hallenging my authority as its reader. This is particularly interesting given the friendly and affiliative behavior I previously had experienced when interacting with the boys during in-class observation, when they were either doing assigned work or engaging in more routine (and less gendered) everyday activities.This is in keeping with their quick and decisive treatment of each other when gender boundaries were crossed. Davies (2003) identified similar responses in the preschool children she observed. Corsaro’s assertions concerning the influence of the peer group on the interpretation and production of meaning were evident in he reading groups conducted for the present study. The children actively participated in peer socialization through the use of encouragement, enticement, pleading, and, sometimes, ridicule. The children dealt with the messages and images together, often building on one another ’s sentences and nodding in agreement at the final product. At other times, their disagreement contributed to an understanding of the complexities of the questions raised. The boys and girls produced and affirmed meanings consistent with their gender, and actively worked to ensure these processes.These findings indicate that the work of â€Å"doing gender† West and Zimmerman 1987) plays an essential role in the process of interpretation for children. Aydt and Corsaro (2003) argued that this is particularly the case for middleclass, American children. The highly formalized classroom may reify the gendered categories â€Å"boys† and â€Å"girls,† thereby constraining group interaction and the ability to engage freely in the negotiation process. Further research in othe r kinds of social settings would more clearly indicate the relationship between formal structure and agency.Children are engaging in a process of resisting and conforming, of forming and producing meaning, through heir everyday reading of stories and through their interactions in peer culture. The present study serves to emphasize the power and autonomy of the child’s world, yet, also illustrates that none of us, children included, singly create and interpret gendered understandings. Such a process is necessarily a social one that is finely entrenched in the beliefs and cultural expectations of gendered difference. References Agee, J. M. (1993). Mothers and daughters: Gender-role socialization in two Newbery award books. Children’s Literature in Education, 24, 165–183. Aydt, H. , & Corsaro, W. (2003).Differences in children’s construction of gender across culture. American Behavioral Scientist, 46, 1305–1325. Baker-Sperry, L. , & Grauerholz, L. (20 03). The pervasiveness and persistence of the feminine beauty ideal in children’s fairy tales. Gender & Society, 17, 711–726. Bettelheim, B. (1976). The uses of enchantment. New York: Vintage Books. Corsaro, W. (1992). Interpretive reproduction in children’s peer cultures. Social Psychology Quarterly, 55, 160–177. Corsaro, W. (1997). The sociology of childhood. Berkeley, CA: Pine Forge Press. Currie, D. (1997). Decoding femininity: Advertisements and their teenage readers.Gender & Society, 11, 453–477. Davies, B. (1990). Agency as a form of discursive practice: A classroom scene observed. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11, 341–361. Davies, B. (2003). Frogs and snails and feminist tales: Preschool children and gender. Creskill, NJ: Hampton. Disney, W. (1950). Cinderella [Film]. Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Studios. Disney, W. (1986). Cinderella. New York, NY: Western Publishing. Eder, D. , & Corsaro, W. (1999). Ethnographic studies of children and youth. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 28, 520– 531. Sex Roles (2007) 56:717–727 Gledhill, C. (1985). Genre and gender: The case of soap opera.In S. Hall (Ed. ), Representation (pp. 339–383). London: Sage. Grauerholz, L. , & Baker-Sperry, L. (2007). Feminist research in the public domain: Risks and recommendations. Gender & Society, 21 (2),272–294. Hibbard, D. , & Buhrmester, D. (1998). The role of peers in the socialization of gender-related social interaction styles. Sex Roles, 39, 185–202. Milkie, M. (1994). Social world approach to cultural studies. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 23, 354–381. Miller, P. , Potts, R. , Fung, H. , Hoogstra, L. , & Mintz, J. (1990). Narrative practices and the social construction of self in childhood.American Ethnologist, 17, 292–311. Pike, J. , & Jennings. , N. (2005). The effects of commercials on children’s perceptions of gender appropriate toy use. Sex Roles, 52, 83 –91. Rodgers, R. , & Hammerstein, O. (Producers) (1997). Cinderella [film]. Los Angeles, CA: ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney. 727 Seiter, E. (1993). Sold separately: Parents & children in consumer culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Shumway, D. (2003). Modern love: Romance, intimacy, and the marriage crisis. New York, NY: New York University Press. Tatar, M. (1993). Off with their heads! : Fairy tales and the culture of childhood.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Thorne, B. (1997). Gender play: Girls and boys in school. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. U. S. Bureau of the Census (2000). Socioeconomic profile for the Macomb zip code area: 61455 (110th ed. ). Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office. Weitzman, L. , Eifler, D. , Hokada, E. , & Ross, C. (1972). Sex role socialization in picture books for preschool children. American Journal of Sociology, 77, 1125–1150. West, C. , & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender & Society, 1, 125–151. Zipes, J. (1997). Happily ever after. New York: Routledge.

Analysis Of Kill A Mockingbird And Still I Rise

Past and present times encounter with each other through To Kill a Mockingbird and Still I rise. Throughout the context of To Kill a Mockingbird the message of change in society occurs evidently. During the story, the African Americans had made evident progress through independence, strength and courage. Although they faced conflict, they had generous people like Dolphus Raymond, the judge and Atticus, that were willing to assist them with good will, through this they proved that not every individual was racist in southern states. Certain people like Mrs. Finch and Walter Cunningham were able to overlook their ways and treat blacks equally. As well, though their corrupted justice system Tom Robinson was only 8 people away from being verdict (proven) as innocent. The law and order in Maycomb was prejudice to the Caucasians, nevertheless, Tom Robinson was at least given a chance for freedom. Those 8 people could have changed his live that day, still, the future generation of Scout, Jem and Dill through education, were able to grasp the concept of inequality. If the future generation is able to distinguish the cruelty, consequently they can advocate change. The last major change that occurred was the reliance the slaves had on their owners. They used to have no schools and weren’t able to read, but now, have teachers and school and children learn from the Blacks’ point of view. The hands of their vicious owners used to hold their money, lives, and future. Yet now? Blacks haveShow MoreRelatedTo Kill A Mockingbird Academic Analysis Essay1404 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"The worst sin of all†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The academic analysis of the discrimination, racism, and prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird. Extra, Extra, read all about it! Negro Tom Robinson get what he deserves! Now that peoples attention has been grabbed, lets talk about To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird (or TKAM) is set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. It follows the adventures of Jean Louise ,or better known as Scout, and her older brother Jem. They encounter a boyRead MoreRacism, Sexism And Prejudice By Harper Lee1554 Words   |  7 PagesThe entire world views and is affected by many immoral and cruel behaviours. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, the citizens of Maycomb County are harmed or troubled by vices that are seen throughout the text, such as racism, sexism and prejudice. It is obvious that throughout the work of To Kill a Mockingbird, the vices of racism, sexism and prejudice harm and negatively affect the community and it’s people. Within the time period in which the novel takes place, women areRead MoreAnalysis of to Kill a Mockingbird2365 Words   |  10 PagesI’d like to analyze the extract from a book which is entitled â€Å"To kill a mockingbird†. 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These two aspects of our species collide when the terms â€Å"prejudice† and â€Å"injustice† are involvedRead MoreEnglish All Semester 26504 Words   |  27 PagesEnglish III- segment 2 Semester 2 17 Assignments Week 5 Pre-Test, 5.03, 5.04A, 5.06, 5.08 Week 6 6.02C, 6.03, 6.04A, 6.08B Week 7 7.03A, 7.03B 7.05B, 7.08 Week 8 8.01, 8.02A and B, 8.03, 8.05 (segment exam) 5.03- A rose for Emily Part I: Character Identification in A Rose for Emily In complete sentence format, identify each of the following characters. 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Gay-Lussacs Ideal Gas Law Examples

Gay-Lussacs gas law  is a special case of the  ideal gas law  where the volume of the gas is held constant. When the volume is held constant, the pressure exerted by a gas is directly proportional to the absolute temperature of the gas. In simple terms, increasing the temperature of a gas increases its pressure, while decreasing temperature decreases pressure, assuming volume does not change. The law is also known as Gay-Lussacs law of pressure temperature. Gay-Lussac formulated the law between 1800 and 1802 while building an air thermometer. These example problems use  Gay-Lussacs law to find the pressure of gas in a heated container as well as the temperature you would need to change the pressure of gas in a container. Key Takeaways: Gay-Lussac's Law Chemistry Problems Gay-Lussacs law is a form of the ideal gas law in which gas volume is kept constant.When volume is held constant, pressure of a gas is directly proportional to its temperature.The usual equations for Gay-Lussacs law are P/T constant or Pi/Ti   Pf/Tf.The reason the law works is that temperature is a measure of average kinetic energy, so as the kinetic energy increases, more particle collisions occur and pressure increases. If temperature decreases, there is less kinetic energy, fewer collisions, and lower pressure. Gay-Lussacs Law Example A 20-liter cylinder contains 6  atmospheres (atm)  of gas at 27 C. What would the pressure of the gas be if the gas was heated to 77 C? To solve the problem, just work through the following steps:The cylinders volume remains unchanged while the gas is heated so Gay-Lussacs gas law applies. Gay-Lussacs gas law can be expressed as:Pi/Ti Pf/TfwherePi and Ti are the initial pressure and absolute temperaturesPf and Tf are the final pressure and absolute temperatureFirst, convert the temperatures to absolute temperatures.Ti 27 C 27 273 K 300 KTf 77 C 77 273 K 350 KUse these values in Gay-Lussacs equation and solve for Pf.Pf PiTf/TiPf (6 atm)(350K)/(300 K)Pf 7 atmThe answer you derive would be:The pressure will increase to 7 atm after heating the gas from 27 C to 77 C. Another Example See if you understand the concept by  solving another problem: Find the temperature in Celsius needed to change the pressure of 10.0 liters of a gas that has a pressure of 97.0 kPa at 25 C to standard pressure. Standard pressure is 101.325 kPa. First, convert  25 C to  Kelvin  (298K).  Remember that the Kelvin temperature scale is an  absolute temperature  scale based on the definition that the  volume  of a  gas  at constant (low)  pressure  is directly proportional to the  temperature  and that 100 degrees separate the  freezing  and  boiling points  of water. Insert the numbers into the equation to get: 97.0 kPa / 298 K 101.325 kPa / x solving for x: x (101.325 kPa)(298 K)/(97.0 kPa) x 311.3 K Subtract 273 to get the answer in Celsius. x 38.3 C Tips and Warnings Keep these points in mind when solving a  Gay-Lussacs law problem: The volume and quantity of gas are held constant.If the temperature of the gas increases, pressure increases.If temperature decreases, pressure decreases. Temperature is a measure of the kinetic energy of gas molecules. At a low temperature, the molecules are moving more slowly and will hit the wall of a  containerless  frequently. As temperature increases so do the motion of the molecules. They strike the walls of the container more often, which is seen as an increase in pressure.   The direct relationship only applies if the temperature is given in Kelvin. The most common mistakes students make working this type of problem is forgetting to convert to Kelvin or else doing the conversion incorrectly. The other error is neglecting  significant figures  in the answer. Use the smallest number of significant figures given in the problem. Sources Barnett, Martin K. (1941). A brief history of thermometry. Journal of Chemical Education, 18 (8): 358. doi:10.1021/ed018p358Castka, Joseph F.; Metcalfe, H. Clark; Davis, Raymond E.; Williams, John E. (2002). Modern Chemistry. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-056537-3.Crosland, M. P. (1961), The Origins of Gay-Lussacs Law of Combining Volumes of Gases, Annals of Science, 17 (1): 1, doi:10.1080/00033796100202521Gay-Lussac, J. L. (1809). Mà ©moire sur la combinaison des substances gazeuses, les unes avec les autres (Memoir on the combination of gaseous substances with each other). Mà ©moires de la Socià ©tà © dArcueil 2: 207–234.  Tippens, Paul E. (2007). Physics, 7th ed. McGraw-Hill. 386–387.

Down Syndrome A Genetic Condition - 1627 Words

Down syndrome is named after Dr. J.L. Down, who first discovered and studied the condition. It is part of a large number of disabilities known as intellectual disabilities. Down syndrome is present at birth and individuals are usually diagnosed during pregnancy or shortly after birth. There are three types of Down syndrome. The most common of these involves an extra number 21 chromosome, which gives the individual 47 instead of 46 total chromosomes. A chromosome breaking and then reattaching to another chromosome characterizes translocation, which is the second type of Down syndrome. The third type, nondisjunction occurs when a pair of chromosomes fail to separate properly during nuclear division. Individuals with this disability usually†¦show more content†¦Though not all children with Down syndrome have the same features, some of the more common features are small head , short neck , flattened facial features, protruding tongue, unusually small ears, poor muscle tone, rela tively short fingers and small hands and feet and short height just to name a few. In an article by Cynthia L. Lewis, she tells the story of Jimmy. â€Å"Red faced Jimmy struggled to walk around the gym breathing heavily, he tried to complete the first lap all the while complaining and stopping to rest. But his gym teacher kept urging him to finish without, stopping, Jimmy, who has Down syndrome, finally flopped to the floor yelling, â€Å"No, I will not go! Afraid of a problem, the teacher turned to the school physical therapist, who monitored Jimmy’s heart during the exercise. The result was troubling the teenager’s heart rate was 165 because people with Down syndrome only have a maximum heart rate of 170 to 175, Jimmy was exercising at 95 percent of his maximum heart rate capacity. People with Down syndrome have unique characteristics that make one size fits all exercise regimen more harmful than good, BUT physical activity can be beneficial to individuals who have Down syndrome. While individuals with Down syndrome do generally have some physical limitations they can for the most part participate in most forms of physical activity that individuals without the disability can. The physical activity guidelines for

Chalice Chapter 1 Free Essays

To Molly, Gard, Chiron and Guenevere PART ONE Because she was Chalice she stood at the front door with the Grand Seneschal, the Overlord’s agent and the Prelate, all of whom were carefully ignoring her. But she was Chalice, and it was from her hand the Master would take the welcome cup. From the front door of the House, at the top of the magnificent curling sweep of stair, she could see over the heads of the crowd. We will write a custom essay sample on Chalice Chapter 1 or any similar topic only for you Order Now The rest of the Circle stood stiffly and formally at the foot of the stair with the first Houseman and the head gardener, but nearly the entire citizenry of the demesne seemed to have found an excuse to be somewhere in or near the House or lining the long drive from the gates today. Their new Master was coming home: the Master thought lost or irrecoverable. The Master who, as younger brother of the previous Master, had been sent off to the priests of Fire, to get rid of him. Third and fourth brothers of Masters were often similarly disposed of, but the solitary brother of an unmarried Master without other Heir should not have been dealt with so summarily. So the Master had been told. But the two brothers hated each other, and the younger one was given to the priests of Fire. That had been seven years ago. A little over six years later the Master died, still without other Heir. The Grand Seneschal had sent immediately to the priests of Fire to say that there was urgent need of the younger brother of the Master of Willowlands, for the Master had died without having produced a son. Such a request – a plea – had never been made before. Once someone has gone to the Elemental priests, they do not return. But a demesne must have its Master. And a change of family, of bloodline, in any demesne, upsets all, often for generations, till the new family has settled into its charge. The nearest other living relative of the old Master of Willowlands was a fourth cousin who had already married someone unsuitable and had three children by her. The priests of Fire said they would see what they could do, but they promised nothing. The younger brother of the old Master had just crossed into the third level, and by the third level Elemental priests can no longer live among ordinary humans. But six weeks ago the Grand Seneschal had received another message from the priests of Fire: that the Master of Willowlands was coming home. It would not be an easy Mastership, and the priests were not sure it was even possible, but the Master himself felt the responsibility to his demesne, and he was determined to try. Mirasol – straining her eyes toward the gate, partly as a way to ignore the three men who were ignoring her – remembered the younger brother: his strength of purpose, his feeling of obligation to the demesne, his feeling for the demesne. It was what the brothers had quarrelled about. The elder brother had loved the power of the Mastership, not its duties, and he was not the least willing to bear lectures on his behaviour from his younger brother. She wasn’t surprised the younger brother was coming home, even from the third level of the priesthood of Fire. She had dreamed of the message to the Grand Seneschal the night before it arrived: she had felt the fire and smelt the burning. She knew the Master would come. She knew too that the smell of burning was a warning, but she did not know of what. Might the demesne itself burn, or its new Master? She could see only a little way down the drive as it curved toward the gates half a league distant. But she could see when people better placed than she for first sight of the arrival stiffened and stared. The three men standing with her drew themselves to attention. She could hear carriage wheels now. It will be all right, she told herself. It must be all right. She settled her shoulders with a tiny, invisible shake, and fractionally raised her chin. Six horses drew the coach: four of them coal-black, clinker-black, two of them ashy grey. The coach itself was also black, but black was always fashionable among the great and grand and would draw no comment. But the curtains at these windows were drawn closed, and they too were black. A light flickered behind them, red and wavering, like firelight. Again she smelt burning, but she did not know if she imagined it. The welcoming of a new Master was a time of rejoicing. The ceremony of investiture was the official occasion, and after the rites were done there was an enormous banquet with musicians and dancing for everyone who belonged to the demesne – and for anyone else from any other demesne who wished to join in the festivities at the price of some enthusiastic contribution to toasts and cheers and acclamations. But the informal arrival of a Master should still be a happy moment. And she knew she was not the only person present who felt that the brothers had been born in the wrong order: it was the younger who would have made the better Master from the beginning. But no one clapped or called. No one smiled. It was as if everyone was holding their breath. The coach stopped in front of the House, where the gravel had been raked in a perfect circle, a symbol of good luck. Any coach wheels and any horses’ hooves would have broken the circle, splintered the careful spiral; that it should be so broken was a part of the welcome, like opening and pouring out the contents of a bottle of wine. There was no reason for her to feel uneasy, watching the horses dance as they halted, kicking pebbles every way, to feel that something fragile and vital was being destroyed. The body of the coach rocked on its wheels, and little spurts of gravel pattered out from under them. Then the door opened. Perhaps she imagined the cloud of darkness like smoke that billowed out; no one else reacted, and she bit down on her own gulp of astonishment. And of sudden fear. She remembered the younger brother. She had not known him – it was not for such a one as she had been to know the Master’s family – but she had known a good deal of him. She had known more of him than of the Master, before the Master sent him away, because he was the one who rode or walked round the demesne, seeing that the fields and woods grew and throve, and the temples and places of power were serene and well tended. He was not tall and handsome and flashing-eyed like his older brother, but there was kindness and grace in him, and intelligence in his unremarkable brown eyes. She knew little of the Elemental priests, nothing of their initiations, and only folk-tales of what the priesthoods did and were capable of. She knew that Fire frightened her worst, more than Earth or Air. And the Fire priests themselves had said that Willowlands’ new Master could no longer live among ordinary humans. As the coach door swung back, one of the House servants jumped forward as if suddenly recalling himself, and lowered the steps. Two figures climbed carefully down. They both wore black capes with hoods that hid their faces, but they carried themselves and moved and looked around as anyone might. As any ordinary human might. There was a collective letting-out of breath. Talisman, the tallest of the minor Circle, seemed suddenly shorter; Sunbrightener, who was the fattest, seemed fatter. That was until the third figure climbed down from the coach. He too wore a black cape with a hood, but the cape bulged and seethed weirdly around him, and he let himself carefully down the steps as if he did not know or could not remember how to use his feet for such an activity. The two figures who had climbed down first reached their hands to help him, holding him at the elbows and under the arms, but she felt, looking on, that their hands did not grasp quite where elbows and armpits should be. He half limped, half rolled up the steps toward the House’s front door with his helpers still on his either side. She seemed to hear a distant roar, like a fire caught in a sudden updraft. She wanted to glance at the faces of the other people, the people who had come here this morning to catch a first glimpse of their new Master, wanted to see if they looked frightened or appalled. But she couldn’t drag her own gaze away from the great roiling black loom of the third figure coming toward her. She felt the three men standing beside her struggling not to step back and away as she stepped forward. She had been clutching the welcome cup against her body so tightly that her stomach ached where the extravagantly ornamented brim had bitten into her. The roughness of the intricate overlay on the cup’s bowl gave her suddenly cold stiff fingers better purchase as she moved her hands to their proper places on its stem. She was Chalice, and hers the first greeting. The top step was a wide smooth half-moon of white stone before the door. There was plenty of space for her and him and his two aides, as well as the three men behind her, and the doorkeepers back farther yet, flanking the doorposts. She raised her cup, grateful that the weight of it prevented her hands from shaking, and looked down. Three faces turned up toward her, two of them brown and ordinary and worried-looking. The third face was black, as black as the coal-coloured horses that drew the black coach, and its – his – eyes were red, flickering like fire around the black pupils. She recognised nothing in that face from her memories of the younger brother of the dead Master. She looked at him steadily, willing herself to see something – anything – that she could welcome as Master, and in the final seconds it took him to climb the last step, she saw what she needed to see: comprehension. He knew her for Chalice and knew she was there to welcome him, because he came as Master. When he stood with her on the top step he gave a little shudder, or ripple, and his two aides dropped their hands and stepped back. As they let go of him she saw that they wore gloves. Her mouth was dry, as dry as if she had been eating ash, and she was slow to say the two important words: â€Å"Welcome, Master.† She was slow, but he was slower. He should reach immediately to take the cup from her, hold it briefly over his head for everyone to see that he accepted it, taste its contents and hand it back to her. It was possible that he would thank her, but it was not necessary. But he only stood, looking at her. The hood shadowed his shadow-dark face; she thought she was glad of it. He twitched, a tiny spasm, once, twice. Perhaps he was trying to raise his hands. The third time he succeeded, the sleeves of the cape juddering back as if blown by a wind, and she saw that he too wore gloves, long heavy ones, laced snugly to the elbows. She could not give any Chalice cup to gloved hands. She looked back into his face – into the shadows where his face was. She did not know what to do. She thought she must have imagined the comprehension she had seen there a moment earlier; she could read no expression on that black face now. Clumsily he raised his left hand and drew the fingers through the laces of the glove on his right. The cords fell away in uneven shards, as if charred. Slowly he peeled the glove away from his arm – and the heat of his flesh raged out at her. The air between them was almost too hot to breathe. Even more clumsily he raised his naked right hand, the fingertips glowing like embers, to touch the cup. She held her ground while the fingers of that fiery hand curled round the bowl of the cup inches from her face. The enamelled metal of the goblet grew uncomfortably warm against her skin and steam rose from the liquid within it. The weight of the cup did not change and she supported it as he stood with his hand around it. He looked at it and back at her. â€Å"What†¦do you give†¦me to drink?† His voice was as eerie as his appearance, but perfectly intelligible. Her answer to this question had been in no record she had consulted about the rite of welcome; but then no one had ever welcomed a third-level Elemental priest as Master either. She had held her own against the preferences of the Prelate and the Grand Seneschal only because she was, in the end, Chalice, and they could not order her to give him the earthed wine customary for a welcome cup. But she had not expected to have to announce publicly her departure from tradition: only the Master himself would taste the contents of his welcome cup. She felt as if she were being wayward, unreasonable and oblivious all over again when she had to reply, â€Å"Water – plain water from the Ladywell – and a spoonful of honey, Master.† She was sure – she was almost sure – she did not imagine it that he smiled. And it was only after her answer that she felt him begin to draw the cup toward himself. Still he did not – or could not – bear its weight, and so she carried it for him. Together they made only a faint gesture of holding it above his head, for the audience to see; and then she tipped it gently against his mouth, and saw him drink; and also saw a tiny rivulet run down by the side of his mouth and hiss off his chin, briefly leaving a fire-red tracing thread behind it. He let her draw the cup back toward her again with his hand still around it. She looked again into his face and saw, though she could not have explained how she saw, that he was tired, tired almost to death; and so she knew that it was only weariness that made him clumsier still, that when he lifted his hand away from the cup, he was not able to do it cleanly, and his hand dropped a little, and glanced – only barely, fleetingly glanced – off the back of her hand, where it seared the thin flesh to the bone. At the time it almost didn’t matter. She found that she had been half expecting something like it to happen, and did not flinch when it did. She lowered the goblet only a little bit hastily, and tucked the weight of it against her body again so that she could drop her wounded hand to her side and let the long sleeve of her robe cover the burn. This made it throb worse than if she could have held it up, but that couldn’t be helped. No one farther away than the three men behind her awaiting their turn – and possibly the Master’s two aides – would have seen anything, and she wished to keep it that way. But the three men waiting just behind her would have seen. The Grand Seneschal might have kept his mouth shut for his own good – it was he who had negotiated with the priests of Fire in the first place, and he who had received the news that the priests did not believe what he was asking could be done. She didn’t know the Prelate well enough to guess after his motives, beyond a growing suspicion he had few of his own and preferred to borrow them from some stronger character. But the Overlord’s agent would have every reason to tell the tale – and doubtless had. While it would upset the balance of the entire country if one of the demesnes were realloted, the process of the reallotment would hugely increase this Overlord’s power, and bind the new Master to the Overlord with a political gratitude it would take generations of Masters and Overlords to bring into equilibrium again. And their current Overlord was a little too fond of political power – she among others believed – without such temptations as a Master who might burn his subjects by the touch of his hand. By the end of the first day of the new Master’s return, the people she met were looking first at her right hand. Gossip travels as fast as fire. By then she had dressed and bandaged it, so there was nothing to see but the bandage; but that was enough. And there was no way to shrug off what had happened as an accident. Of course it had been an accident: no Master could remain Master who deliberately harmed any of his people. What had happened to her should be viewed as no worse or more significant than if one of his coach horses had shied and trodden on one of the onlookers: an unfortunate mishap. That’s all. But of course it was not, for it was not an accident that should have been able to happen. If the new Master were not a priest of Fire. If the new Master were still human. â€Å"It is nothing,† she said to the people she caught looking at her hand. â€Å"It is nothing.† Sometimes she tried to smile. She’d smiled at Sama, when she’d asked for lint and salve; Sama was a Housewoman with a round, happy face and three children, and she and her children were excellent customers for Mirasol’s honey. â€Å"I was clumsy. It is no more than if I brushed my hand against a dish just out of the oven.† â€Å"It don’t look like nothing,† said Sama, whose round face was not happy today. â€Å"And oven burns hurt.† â€Å"Of course they hurt,† Mirasol said briskly, trying to be competent with one hand and failing. â€Å"But we bear them because we are clumsy – and because we still like our food cooked.† Sama’s face closed a little more, but she did reach out to help Mirasol with her bandage. â€Å"It is not as though we had had a chance to practise our roles,† Mirasol said, trying to make a joke, but she realised as soon as the words were out of her mouth they were a mistake. Usually a new Master was well known to the demesne; usually the Chalice’s welcome cup to the Master entering his House as Master for the first time was a formality only. Usually a new Master was human. â€Å"But – † Sama began. â€Å"He is our Master,† said Mirasol firmly. There was an uncomfortable pause while Sama finished tying up the bandage. When she was done she raised her eyes to Mirasol’s and said, â€Å"As Chalice wills.† Mirasol almost blurted out, It’s not what I will! It is what has happened! A few months ago she would have spoken so, spoken before she thought, a few months ago when her Chalicehood was still so new that every reminder of it was like a burn. But she was Chalice now, and all things had changed, herself most of all. Before the Chalice had chosen her, Sama would have argued with her; would have held her own opinion against Mirasol’s. She would not argue with her Chalice; it was her duty to accept the Chalice’s ruling. Mirasol hoped she was right. She told herself it would have been worse if it had been an ordinary accident like a coach horse blundering into the audience, because that would so clearly have been a bad omen. The new Master was a priest of Fire, and adjustments had to be made. That’s all. That’s all. She could not help the bandage on her hand, but once she realised there was no point in trying to hide it, she used that hand freely, as if it did not hurt her. She had to hope that the fixed expression on her face that this usage provoked – because it did hurt a great deal – only looked like the Chalice’s professional mask. But if their new Master believed he could be Master, then she wanted him to have his chance. In the first place this was only her duty: the Master was the Master, but no Master could maintain his land without his Chalice. But in the second place she wanted this Master to grasp and hold because these first six months of her abrupt and lonely Chalicehood had been almost beyond her strength. She did not think she would be able to bear – to contain – the tumult if Willowlands were given a new, outblood Master; and she did not think this or any demesne could survive an outblood Master and a second disastrously new, inexperienced and untrained Chalice together. It was bad enough as it was. Willowlands was restless, hurt and unhappy: half mad with it, she sometimes thought, delirious as a child with a bad fever. Whether this was a result of being Masterless for seven months or from the seven years preceding the previous Master’s death it was impossible for her to say. But she knew it was also because she, the new Chalice, was herself rough and raw from having had no teaching. She thought of her Chalicehood in wild metaphors: like a blind woman asked to paint a portrait; like a scullery-maid dragged out of her kitchen, given a plough with no horse and told to raise six hectares of barley by sundown. And yet if she lost her fragile balance as a result of an outblood Master and the Chalice passed to someone else, there was no vanity in her bleak awareness that this would be a catastrophe. She had learnt enough to begin piecing together ways to calm a little of the appalling strain and distress the deaths of the last Master and Chalice had caused. But she had learnt by precarious methods: feverishly reading the old books, following her nose through the footnotes and annotations, leaning hardest on the advice of the oftenest-cited manuscripts, when she could find them, when the House library or the old Chalice’s rooms contained copies of them, guessing miserably from scraps and fragments when she could not find what she needed. The changeover from Master to Master and Chalice to Chalice should never happen – had never happened – as it had just happened here; most of the information and guidance she needed simply didn’t exist. And she had only barely begun. She still had far more questions than answers, far more unknowing than knowing, about everything to do with Chalice work. And yet she was all there was. The people rarely came to her with their individual problems and disturbances, but while this meant she was not yet well accepted as Chalice, which was in itself unsettling to the land and its people, she had as much and more than she could do merely responding to the most savage ruptures in the fabric of the demesne. And she felt as if she were using embroidery silks to mend plaster and lath. No, she thought, that’s not it. It’s more like putting out fires: like harvesttime after a dry summer. And they were in a drought that might destroy all. Sometimes the demesne’s disquiet manifested as literal tremors of the ground, when the trees shook as if in a high wind, plates flew off shelves, and fences didn’t merely fall down but burst apart. Usually she could hear these in her mind if they were too far away for her feet to feel them. Sometimes the Grand Seneschal sent her a message. (She tried to tell herself this was an indication of some measure of approval, but she feared it was only that as Seneschal he knew what she, who was Second of the entire Circle, second to the Master himself, ought to be capable of. The Grand Seneschal was only Third: but she never remembered this when he was glaring at her, or when another of his brusquely worded messages arrived.) The rest of the Circle were little use. The violence of the deaths seven months ago had damaged and disrupted all their abilities as it had damaged and disrupted everything to do with the demesne; only the Grand Seneschal had pulled himself together again to take the full weight of his place in the demesne framework. Once, only a few days before the homecoming of the new Master, a farmer, Faine, had come thundering up to her cottage on the back of one of his work-horses, still wearing its ordinary harness and looking as wretched and confused as its master. She’d heard the commotion and come outdoors – even her bees had scattered out of the way of these tumultuous visitors. She knew Faine; he was almost a neighbour. Possibly he had come to her because she was Chalice; much likelier he had come to her because of all the Circle she was nearest. â€Å"Can you come now?† he said breathlessly. She thought his eyes weren’t focusing on her face: perhaps seeing the thing that he had left behind him. â€Å"There’s a great cut opening in one of my fields,† he said. â€Å"I’ve left my brothers getting the beasts away – it’s big enough for one to fall in. And it’s growing.† He was speaking as if past her, as if looking at someone standing behind her. He was old enough, she thought, to remember the Chalice before the last one – she who had been Chalice to the father of the new Master and his brother. That Chalice had been much loved; Mirasol’s father had consulted her once about a stand of trees that did not thrive as they should. â€Å"There was something wrong about the air around them,† he’d said. â€Å"You could smell it as soon as you stood among ’em. I tried Oakstaff first, but he hadn’t the time for the likes of me – but Chalice herself came.† Mirasol knew of her own experience that these trees were now among the finest in what had been her father’s woodright. That Chalice would have known what to do. But that Chalice had never had to grapple with her demesne in the conditions Mirasol faced. â€Å"A moment,† she said, and flew back indoors. A tremor so ferocious it had ripped the mundane ground apart? She had no idea what she should do, but she had to try to do something. She snatched up the cup of balance, three of the Chalice stones that worked well with it, a handful of herbs, and thrust two pots of honey in the pockets of her cloak. She hesitated over her book of basic incantations; but basic incantations did not include crevasses opening in fields, and watching her fumble uselessly through a book would be good for neither Faine and his brothers nor herself. Her best hope was that the earthlines might tell her something she could use. The journey to Faine’s farm was so uncomfortable, holding on to the hip strap till her fingers were sore to keep herself from being jolted off by the big horse’s bone-breaking trot, that she managed to avoid thinking about what she could do when they arrived. She didn’t know what she could do. She might as well think about her sore fingers and bruised seatbones. It was worse than she imagined and, she thought, glancing at Faine’s face, worse than it had been when he had left to fetch help. A great ragged cleft had torn its way through the flat grassy pastureland; the red-brown gash looked eerily like a wound in flesh. Part of the awfulness of it was that the rest of the scene seemed so normal: the sun shone, the birds sang in the trees. The end near them was perhaps only two hands’-breadth across, but Mirasol could see it widened swiftly farther down the field. As she slid stiffly off the horse and her feet touched the ground, the ground shivered, like a horse’s skin shedding flies; the tuft of grass at the end of the trench rocked wildly and then parted with a sound like tearing cloth, and the trench was suddenly a hand’s-breadth longer. The birdsong faltered, and then took up again. Mirasol barely noticed; she was listening to the earthlines. Two passed through Faine’s field, and they were weeping like ch ildren. She looked around, and broke a small twig off an oak tree, thanking the tree for its help. She always preferred to find something she could use at the location itself, and she liked oak for Chalice work. She brushed her fingers over its leaves and murmured a few words of dedication. The now-familiar ritual was a little soothing – but what next? Two men and a woman had seen them coming, and met them at the edge of the injured field, but the keening of the earthlines in Mirasol’s ears was so loud it was almost impossible to hear human speech. â€Å"†¦the rest of them out,† one man was saying. â€Å"†¦Daisy’s calf ran in the wrong direction, and Daisy followed,† said the other man. â€Å"They’re†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And then, as if the moaning of the earthlines was a curtain and they had parted it for her, Mirasol could hear the frightened bellowing of the trapped cow. â€Å"Get a rope,† Mirasol heard her own voice saying. â€Å"Two ropes. You may have to drag them out. Your horse has a yokemate, I assume? Fetch him. How has this – rift – opened? Does it stretch from one end, or out from the middle?† â€Å"The far end,† quavered the woman. â€Å"It began there. Where Daisy is.† â€Å"Good,† said Mirasol’s voice again. â€Å"That makes it easier.† It does? thought Mirasol. The earthlines whimpered. â€Å"Where is your spring?† Every farm in Willowlands had a spring; she hoped this one would be a strong one, and near at hand. â€Å"Bring me a flask of the water – freshly drawn – as quick as you can.† The woman turned and ran. Mirasol walked to the edge of the field, took a deep breath, and climbed the fence. She was immediately deafened by the lament of the earthlines. It was not only the two in the field who spoke; the earthlines in the entire quadrant echoed their distress. She walked slowly along the length of the cleft; would she notice in time, she thought, if it decided to widen suddenly? She fished the cup of balance out of her pocket and rubbed her fingers over it; it was very difficult keeping her own balance between the strange space where the earthlines moved and spoke and the fact that if the crack opened under her feet in the mundane world, she’d fall into it. She tried to listen through the earthlines’ misery for any sign or guide: What was the cut doing here? Why was it here in this field rather than in some other field? Why was it here at all? Broken, wept the earthlines. Broken, broken. Some of the groaning, she thought, was the ground itself, splitting, tearing itself from itself. She was staring into the far end, where it was deepest – probably the height of two tall men, she guessed, easily enough to imprison a cow and her calf – when the woman came with a flask of icy spring water, and shortly after her one of Faine’s brothers with a pair of horses. Mirasol mixed her cup: water, the spring water this field would know, herbs for distress of mind and body and one for deep dangerous wounds that they will not fester; some of this year’s spring honey, because spring was the season of joy for the future, and some honey tasting strongly of handflowers. Handflowers were lavender-pink, and inside they were striped red in such a way that they resembled the fingers and thumbs of two hands held cupped together. It was considered lucky to drink rainwater from the cups of handflowers – and anyone who regularly did then saw all things so clearly that they could not be deceived. I will not deceive you, said Mirasol silently to the earthlines. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m here and I’m listening; and there is still joy in this world. She stirred the mixture with the oak twig. Last she dropped in the three small stones, which were for light in darkness, for compassion and for love. â€Å"Someone will have to climb down there with them, you know, to put the ropes around them,† she said. The man nodded. â€Å"I know. I’ll go.† His face was pinched with worry and fear; he met her eyes, briefly, as if forgetting himself, and immediately looked away. â€Å"Drink this first,† Mirasol said, and offered him her cup. â€Å"Just a sip – you only need a sip.† The Chalice stones clinked faintly against the side of the cup as he drank. She turned away without waiting to see if her mixture had had any effect; she didn’t have a second choice if it didn’t. She knelt, and then lay down flat, just above where the unhappy cow bawled and thrashed. It was not a graceful procedure – what might the Chalice who had cured her father’s trees have done about a trapped cow? Cows and sheep did get caught in natural cuts and hollows sometimes – but there was nothing natural about this one. She spilled several drops from her cup on the bits of cow that happened to be under them when they fell. At least once the sweet water landed on her nose – which was where she was aiming – and Mirasol saw the vast pink tongue reach up to lick it off. The calf, being smaller, and trying to hide under its mother, was harder, but she splashed it a few times. And then she stood up, as if what she wanted and hoped would happen was going to happen. The cow stopped bellowing. â€Å"Go down now,† she said. â€Å"Get ready. I’ll start at the far end: that’ll give you a few minutes.† She didn’t add, I have no idea how long the effect will last. I have no idea why it worked. If it worked. Maybe the cow just likes the taste of honey. I have no idea if anything else will work. She turned away, and began again the long walk – it felt twice as long this second time – to the far end of the grotesque crack in the ground. The high dreadful keening of the earthlines had diminished to a woebegone rumble; a rumble that seemed to be turning toward her – looking for her – looking for help, as Faine had done. She knew the usual conjurations to quiet an earth tremor – often a mere murmur of silence and peace, quiet and calm was enough, like singing a lullaby to a fretful child – but these seemed hardly appropriate for an earthquake that had torn a hole in the landscape. But she found herself humming an old lullaby her mother had sung to her: Sleep, my little love, sleep, my little one. Sleep is sweet and love is sweeter, but honey is sweetest of all. There were several ritual ways a Chalice could hold her cup; she chose the one – only practical on the slender, stemmed Chalice vessels – that allowed her to weave the fingers of her two hands together around it while her crossed thumbs held the other side: connection, joining, linkage. She tried several phrases from the incantation book she had left behind, but none of them suited her; none of them felt right, none of them settled to the work before her. She felt the earthlines listening – listening but waiting. Waiting to hear the thing that would reassure them, that would knit them together, that would call them home. She reached the end of the crack and paused. It had, she noticed with some small relief, stopped growing. But when she turned and looked back along the length of it, it seemed leagues long; the two big work-horses as small as mice in the distance; the heavy ropes hanging off their harness and disappearing into the crack were barely visible threads. â€Å"Please,† she said clearly, aloud, as if she spoke to a person. â€Å"Please be as you were. I will try to help you.† She hesitated, and pulled out the handflower honey and added a little more to the mixture in her cup. The water was faintly gold against the silver cup; the small stones in the bottom shone like gems. She did not want gold and silver and gems; she wanted ordinary things, commonplace things. Trees and birdsong and sunlight, and unfractured earth. â€Å"Let the earth knit together again, like – like darning a sock. Here are the threads to mend you with.† And she threw a few drops from her cup into the trench. She saw them twinkle in the air as if they were tiny filaments; the pit was quite shallow here, and she could see tiny spots of darkness where they landed. Her fingers were sticky with honey. Absentmindedly she put one in her mouth; the taste of the herbs was clear and sharp, but the honey’s complex sweetness seemed to carry mysteries. There was a sudden sharp new tremor under her feet. Her heart leaped into her throat and she froze. The jolt loosened the dirt on the sides of the trench, and it pattered down. Quite a lot of it pattered down, till the trench was barely a trench at all, little more than a slight hollow. â€Å"Here are the threads to mend you with,† she said again, having no better spell or command to offer, and she tossed more drops from her cup into the wound in the earth. The trench began to fill up. How to cite Chalice Chapter 1, Essay examples