Broadly: No One Knows Why These Medieval Statues Are Pulling Their Vaginas Open

"Odd" is an understatement. Sheela-na-Gigs are medieval stone figures—often found on the walls of churches or castles—of women caught mid-squat, thighs spread, using their hands to yank open their vulva and display their vaginas. Some of them have cheeky grins; others are wizened hags; one is depicted wiggling out of a demon's mouth. What they all have in common is the fact that they are proudly exposing their chiseled vags to anyone walking past.

The Church Stretton carving is one of hundreds of Sheela-na-Gigs found in England, Ireland, France, and Spain. Some anonymous prude had attempted to censor the image, obscuring her open genitalia with a stone, but Harding could still tell perfectly it was covering up. "I got fascinated, basically. I started recording them, because there are quite a few in the area."[...]

But the Sheela-na-Gigs aren't giving up their secrets so easily. Nobody can conclusively say where they came from, or what they mean. There are a few competing schools of thought; Harding is part of a broad consensus that believes that they are an example of Romanesque architecture brought over with the Norman invasion of England and Ireland in the 11th and 12th century. As for what they symbolize, he thinks that they are meant to depict the sin of lust—a warning to medieval Christians to keep their thoughts pure. [...]

The lack of context also makes it difficult to decide what they were built for. Some Sheelas—like the one getting devoured by a monster—might be seen as a hellish warning to the church congregation. Others appear to have been placed above doorways as a token of luck, or a talisman against evil. There are Sheelas in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland whose vulvas have been worn to a nub from medieval churchgoers rubbing them as part of a religious ceremony.

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Politico: Facing trade war with Trump, Europe rediscovers its swagger

rump could hardly have chosen a worse moment to threaten to slap tariffs on the European steel industry. The EU trade officials staring him down on the other side of the Atlantic are more confident and assertive than they have been in years. Catalyzed by securing political agreement on a huge trade pact with Japan, they are now relishing the prospect of a tit-for-tat trade war they think they cannot lose. [...]

When former U.S. President George W. Bush announced “temporary safeguards” against steel imports from the EU and other countries in 2002, the Commission struck back on exactly the same sort of farm goods that are back on its list now. [...]

The EU’s rediscovery of its mojo in one of its few hard-power competences is now palpable in the way that Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is projecting Brussels on the international stage. Whether pushing China to back off from buying out prized EU technology companies or firing warning shots at Trump, there’s a newfound sense of resolve in the way the Commission carries itself. Britain’s muddled attempt to negotiate Brexit also helps make Brussels look like a steady hand. [...]

Only this week, Brussels fired a shot across America’s bows to warn that it would retaliate if Washington’s latest round of sanctions against Russia impacted European companies and energy projects. Juncker insisted he was ready to hit back within days. “America First cannot mean that Europe’s interests come last,” he stressed. [...]

The election of President Emmanuel Macron in France is also pushing the block to bolster its trade defenses against China. Macron is a leading proponent of a “Buy European” strategy and the Commission is working on legislation to help stop Chinese takeovers of the EU’s top infrastructure and energy companies. One Commission official described it as “amazing” that these sort of measures were now being discussed among the traditionally liberal free-traders of the Trade department.

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America Magazine: Hidden in a New York choir loft, an early AIDS memorial faces an uncertain future

But three decades later, with the AIDS crisis under control and changes in attitudes toward religious practice, about 200 people gathered inside that building on July 23 to bid farewell to the Church of Saint Veronica. Even as the church prepares to shutter for good, questions remain about what will happen to its many artifacts, including a humble AIDS memorial that historians say is one of the first public memorials to victims of the plague years in New York. [...]

The church opened in 1890 and its own history mirrors that of changes in the West Village. It first served Irish dockworkers and their families and later on, as members of the parish headed off to two world wars, a plaque was installed near the church’s entrance to honor those men who gave their lives fighting for their country. But it was the AIDS crisis that most dramatically shaped the St. Veronica’s community.

“St. Veronica’s is located on Christopher Street, which historically has been the center of the L.G.B.T. community in New York,” Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, said. “Like all of Greenwich Village, it was impacted quite heavily by the AIDS crisis.” [...]

“St. Veronica’s is located on Christopher Street, which historically has been the center of the L.G.B.T. community in New York,” Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, said. “Like all of Greenwich Village, it was impacted quite heavily by the AIDS crisis.”

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FiveThirtyEight: American Muslims Are A Diverse Group With Changing Views

American Muslims are also ideologically diverse. A plurality identify as moderate, with around 30 percent identifying as liberal and about 20 percent identifying as conservative. However, a large majority of Muslims in the U.S. prefer the Democratic Party, and that hasn’t changed since the 2007 Pew survey of Muslim Americans, the first in this series. In the 2016 presidential election, 78 percent of Muslim American voters said they voted for Hillary Clinton, which is a much lower share than the 92 percent who said they voted for Barack Obama in 2008.4

The Republican Party’s reputation among American Muslims seems to have deteriorated in recent years. According to the Pew survey, 59 percent of American Muslims believe the GOP is unfriendly toward Muslims; that’s an increase of more than 10 percentage points since 2011 — when Pew’s second survey in this series was done.5 Nearly three-quarters perceive President Trump to be unfriendly toward Muslim Americans, and 68 percent said he makes them feel worried. [...]

Another notable shift that the 2017 survey found was an increase in the share of American Muslims who say that homosexuality should be accepted by society, reflecting broader trends in the U.S. population as a whole. This change in attitude was present in almost every subgroup of American Muslims, not just the younger generation. [...]

Media coverage might contribute to the perception problem. A recent study by Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy found that in reports with Muslim protagonists on three major national TV news networks, Muslim voices were rarely heard. It also found that news coverage about Muslims is often about terrorism and war. According to the Pew survey, 60 percent of American Muslims and 53 percent of the public agree that the media covers Islam and Muslims unfairly. Rayyan Najeeb, 26, who attended the Islamic Society of North America convention, said the media frequently failed to distinguish between the views of Muslims who live elsewhere in the world and the views of American Muslims. Najeeb said he appreciated that surveys like Pew’s give American Muslims the opportunity to speak for themselves: “It really counteracts a lot of the terrorist-next-door type of thinking … and a lot of the fear-mongering that has been happening in the news.”

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Al Jazeera: The energy factor in the GCC crisis

As several experts have previously noted, the tension arose briefly after the Riyadh Summit, when US President Donald Trump assured Saudi Arabia of his commitment to the region in the face of the "Iranian threat". The US' hope of forging an impenetrable GCC shield against Iran fails to appreciate the centrality of the energy question and exhibits a narrow sightedness based on the pursuit of self-interest. It is, therefore, predestined to fail.

Similarly, the ensuing Saudi-led blockade against Qatar is destined to eventually subside and give way to normalised relations in spite of the current tension. As a sign, perhaps, that energy trumps political antagonism, it is noteworthy that shortly after the rift, Qatar announced it would not disrupt liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which runs through the Dolphin pipeline. [...]

On the Qatari side of the field, its discovery in 1971, which coincided with the state's year of independence, has been crucial for state building and sovereignty recognition. It is no wonder, then, that in addition to being the single most important contributor to the country's GDP, natural gas has also indirectly driven many foreign policy choices for the small state even where monetary returns are not directly involved. This includes foreign aid, mediation and education initiatives, to name but a few. [...]

In 1996, Qatar sought to export its natural gas to neighbouring GCC countries. However, the project faced numerous obstacles pertaining to pricing, transit rights and border disputes. This cemented the view that Qatar should look beyond its neighbourhood for export markets, especially as prices were more lucrative on the international market. As a result, the sale of natural gas to key international players such as the UK, China, India and Japan has inexorably linked customers' energy security to the stability of Qatar.

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The New York Review of Books: Why Autocrats Fear LGBT Rights

With few exceptions, countries that have grown less democratic in recent years have drawn a battle line on the issue of LGBT rights. Moscow has banned Pride parades and the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations,” while Chechnya—technically a region of Russia—has undertaken a campaign to purge itself of queers. In Budapest, the Pride march has become an annual opposition parade: many, if not most, participants are straight people who use the day to come out against the Orbán government. In Recep Erdoğan’s Turkey, water cannons were used to disperse an Istanbul Pride parade. Narendra Modi’s India has re-criminalized homosexuality (though transgender rights have been preserved). In Egypt, where gays experienced new freedoms in the brief interlude of democracy after the 2011 revolution, they are now, under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s dictatorship, subjected to constant harassment and surveillance and hundreds have been arrested. [...]

One can laugh at the premise of the Russian ban on “homosexual propaganda”—as though the sight of queerdom openly displayed, or even the likeness of a rainbow (this claim has been made) can turn a straight person queer. At the same time, in Russia queer people make an ideal target for government propaganda because the very idea of them serves as a convenient stand-in for an entire era of liberalization that is now shunned. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, queerdom was unthinkable. Afterward, it became possible along with so many other things: the world became complicated, full of possibility and uncertainty. It also grew frightening—precisely because nothing was certain any longer. [...]

Looking at a person who embodies choice—the possibility of being or becoming different—can be like staring into the abyss of uncertainty. In this sense, seeing a Pride march or a trans person can make a straight person feel very queer: it demonstrates possibility, making the world frightening. It speaks to the modern predicament the social psychologist Erich Fromm wrote about in his book about the rise of Nazism, Escape from Freedom: the ability to invent oneself. One is no longer born a tradesman or a peasant, or the lifelong resident of a particular quarter, or a man or a woman. This freedom can feel like an unbearable burden. No wonder the most notorious piece of American anti-transgender legislation—the North Carolina bathroom bill—focused on the birth certificate as the most important document. In mandating that people use public bathrooms in accordance with the sex assigned at birth, the law created a situation where some people who looked, acted, smelled like—who identified and lived as—women were required to use the men’s bathroom, and vice versa—but it established that one’s position in the world was set from birth.

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Katoikos: Children should not be used as an argument for or against gay marriages

As things stand, Europe is split in half, with the western part having embraced full equality for LGBT individuals, and the eastern and southern regions dragging their feet.

Currently the debate is ongoing in Malta, which is expected to follow Germany in near future, and Northern Ireland, which is the only region in Western Europe still reluctant to pass similar legislation. [...]

Instead of focusing on allowing two people to be treated as equals in the society in which they live, comparing homosexual couples to traditional, established heterosexual families is simply a way to erect obstacles to their happiness.

This is a mistake and both sides—those who campaign against gay marriage as well as the LGBT equality groups—are wrong. They are missing the whole point. [...]

I am not against gay adoption and if the law allows it for straight couples, then yes it must allow it for gay couples too. But this issue should not define the debate on the real issue—same sex marriage—or its outcome.

The cases that surely require special legislation and attention are those in which one of the partners in the same sex marriage already has a child from a previous relationship or is a lone parent.

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Al Jazeera: The crisis of regional order in the Gulf

At a time when the Middle East is in dire need of a positive agenda and a plan to overcome division, ominous new developments are dominating the scene and the forces of disintegration appear to have been unleashed.

The current "Gulf" crisis is just the latest manifestation of this trend. Before considering the way out of this crisis, it is important to accurately depict it, its root causes, and its regional implications. [...]

This crisis is neither a bilateral crisis between Qatar and its Gulf Arab neighbours, nor a geographically isolated dispute confined to the Gulf region.

Instead it is a regional crisis - the direct outcome of the lack of a sustainable regional order in the Middle East. [...]

Such a crisis of legitimacy at the level of political elites and the stark contrast between the aspirations of the people and the projections of the political class forms the backbone of all major crises in the region. This in return inhibits any fruitful engagement among states and societies at regional level. [...]

The fact that the region lacks institutions or frameworks that can govern these grievances or serve to channel feuds into diplomatic and political processes should also be an issue of major concern.

But this deficiency is not surprising. As discussed above, institutions are the product of intentions, and intentions are mostly shaped by actors' perceptions, and hence their political psychologies, which are in turn formed mainly by their level of socio-political legitimacy.

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Politico: Berlusconi battles to lead the Italian right

The four-time Italian prime minister, who turns 81 in September, may be marred by sex scandals and barred from holding public office after a tax fraud conviction. But that hasn’t stopped him from emerging as a potent political force ahead of a parliamentary election early next year. [...]

Rejuvenated by a surprise success in June’s local elections, Forza Italia is neck-and-neck with the far-right Northern League led by Matteo Salvini. According to a recent survey by the Italian polling firm IPSOS, both parties are polling at just over 15 percent. [...]

“Berlusconi is playing his new game smartly, in a subtle way,” he added. “He knows he’s not the center of Italian politics anymore, but he still can be one of the few kingmakers.” [...]

But he has recently softened his once strident Europhobia in public appearances, focusing instead on an electoral program that includes a flat tax at 15 percent and a pledge to reform the European Union by rewriting all its main treaties, including the Maastricht Treaty that created the euro and introduced fiscal limitations on national governments.

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