Journal Issue: University of Massachusetts Undergraduate History Journal: Volume 7, Issue 1
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Violent Reflections: Bloody Mary in 1990s Pop Culture
Godinez, Mac
The final decade of the 20th century transformed the folk figure of Bloody Mary into a recognizable character on television screens through media like the 1992 film Candyman and the X-Files episode “Syzygy.” This paper explores the extent to which the Bloody Mary character provided a narrative tool to discuss U.S. state violence and brutality. The first section summarizes early academic writing on Bloody Mary to understand how this legend took hold in the United States. The second section traces the contours of the Bloody Mary figure to understand her narrative utility, as well as consider the history and anxieties around children’s divination games in the age of Satanic Panic. The third section looks at the dual nature of 1990s state violence through an increase in militarized police forces alongside disinvestment in social support systems. In the conclusion, this paper analyzes Candyman alongside “Syzygy” to understand how the two approach a fear of vengeance from different ideological attachments to police authority. Throughout the course of this paper, these sections demonstrate how mainstream anxieties about police violence and potentially violent retribution are presented through the familiar and fantastical folk figure of Bloody Mary.
The Blurriness of Speech at “The Schoolhouse Gate”
Hastry, Brianna
The landmark 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, stated that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gate,” so long as the speech does not “materially or substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.”36 However, unlike many precedents set in landmark cases, this ruling has been unclear and contested in ensuing decades. Minors’ free speech rights must be understood in the context of a long, complex, and at times contradictory history of conflicting interpretations, such that, even now, more legal challenges are required to produce a clear set of rules. Through an analysis of a variety of contradicting court cases regarding free speech in schools, the rights of minors more broadly, and “right to know” issues in students’ education, the highly contested nature of minors’ free speech rights, historically and contemporarily, becomes apparent.
Jews in Romania Before, During, and After the Holocaust
Pastorello, Michael
An examination of Romania’s past reveals a historical pattern of anti-Semitic behavior which tragically culminated in the killing of close to 300,000 Jews during World World II. Under the fascist rule of Ion Antonescu (1940-1944), Romania actively participated in the persecution and extermination of the Jewish population. Initially, discriminatory laws were enacted, but that soon escalated to mass deportations and killings of Romanian Jews. Following the ousting of the fascist regime, a communist government gained control of Romania and ushered the country into a post-war era. This period predominantly focused on distancing the country from their anti-Semitic past using censorship and distorted history. Even today, despite irrefutable evidence, the Romanian public continues to deny the nation’s involvement, often blaming Hitler for the Romanian Holocaust. Although Hitler and the Nazis played a role, Romania’s long-standing anti-Semitic tendencies facilitated collaboration efforts, and resulted in crimes which were independent atrocities perpetrated by leaders and citizens alike. In spite of efforts by later governments to attribute fault solely to the Nazis, Romania must take accountability for its participation in the Holocaust.
Sacred Symbioses and Feminine Succubi: Humoral Theory and Sexual Intercourse in Early Modern Europe
Silverman, Naomi
Socio-medical tools for making sense of gender and sex in Early Modern Europe were grounded in humoralistic concepts traceable from classical medicine. Some modern scholars have analyzed the implications of the sexual dimorphism of humoral properties in terms of women’s status or men’s status. Still, little has focused on the actual interaction between the sexes. I use multiple mid-seventeenth-century treatises on women’s health and a contemporary love poem, as well as earlier humoral musings and recent scholarly works, to explore the role of sexual intercourse in Early Modern women’s humoral health.
The Invisible Amendment: The Evolution of the Right to Privacy
Spevack, Jeremy
Citing six landmark Supreme Court cases, this piece argues that the meaning of America’s unwritten right to privacy has changed over time. It follows the right to privacy from its original appearance in an 1891 case between private actors to its application, beginning in the 1960s, against government regulation of intimate activities and bodily autonomy. It concludes with the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which may mark the beginning of a new chapter for the right to privacy in American law.