Latest news with #JonathanKatz
CNN
17-06-2025
- General
- CNN
A new art exhibition says we've gotten sexual identity all wrong
When did homosexuality become a fixed identity? At the Wrightwood 659 gallery in Chicago, an expansive, century-spanning exhibition charts the period when 'homosexuality' and 'heterosexuality' were new concepts, by looking at the queer subjects and artists of the period and how they depicted love, sex and gender. Set in the contemplative brick and stone space designed by architect Tadao Ando, 'The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939' features 300 works assembled from the collections of more than 100 museums to better understand how restrictive ideas on sexuality and gender became culturally ingrained in society and the labels they came to be known by. Included are Alice Austen's sapphic-coded Victorian-era photographs; Gerda Wegener's 1929 painting of her trans partner, Lili Elbe (the subject of the 2015 film 'The Danish Girl'); portraits of influential LGBTQ+ writers Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin and Oscar Wilde; and figure studies by the painter John Singer Sargent. The exhibition — and forthcoming book of the same name — emphasize a pivotal moment, when the West's notions around sexuality began with a misapplied label, which was then spread around the world as a strict binary. 'There is something specific about the West that sought to police the boundary between the two (homosexuality and heterosexuality), and so I wanted to do a show that looked at how that boundary emerged,' said curator Jonathan D. Katz, a founding educator in several pioneering queer studies programs in the US, who now teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. 'We came to realize that, of course, the clean line we wanted to draw between the West and the rest of the world was smudged by virtue of colonialism — and so that then became a big part of the exhibition as well.' The first published instance of the words 'homosexual' and 'heterosexual' appeared in an 1868 letter between journalists Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and Karl Maria Kertbeny, two pivotal figures who defined modern ideas around sexuality. Kertbeny officially coined the two terms and advocated for the sexual and political freedom of homosexuals, refuting that it was a fringe identity. In the 1880s and '90s, German psychiatrists co-opted the word 'homosexual' but largely viewed it as a treatable sexual deviation, against Kertbeny's beliefs. Before the late 19th-century, one's sexual proclivities were 'something you did, not necessarily something you were,' the show notes. The earliest works included in a section called 'Before the Binary' shows a number of late 18th-century neoclassical works that used classical themes to portray same-sex desire; artworks made in Peru, Japan and Burma (now Myanmar) that don't conform to modern ideas of sex and gender; racist depictions misunderstanding Native American Two-Spirit people; and a portrait of the the Chevalier d'Eon, who was officially recognized as a woman by King Louis XVI. (While she wasn't the first transgender person in Europe, few achieved her status or fame.) 'From the very get-go… queer and trans have been joined at the hip,' Katz said. 'This idea that we're now experiencing trans as if it's something novel is a complete, complete misunderstanding of history. In many other cultures, questions of sexuality and questions of gender were widely discussed and completely natural.' As the idea of a sexual binary grew in the West it was transported to its colonies, fundamentally re-shaping many parts of the world, as explorers and settlers recasted divergence from heterosexuality as immoral. When Katz began the project, he knew that colonialism transported the concept of homosexuality globally. 'What I didn't realize is how many pockets of the resistance there were to that understanding, and also how profoundly it changed Indigenous cultures,' Katz explained. In the Pacific Islands, for example, which were largely claimed by Britain and France, colonists established strict laws around same-sex acts — which continue to impact LGBTQ+ rights in the region today — while fetishizing and sexually exploiting Indigenous communities there. In artworks from the era, that exoticizing eye can be seen in nearly any major institution of modern art through the Tahitian-era works of Paul Gauguin, who painted idyllic views of the island and its inhabitants while taking multiple child brides. At Wrightwood 659, the show hangs a 1935 work by David Paynter, a Sinhalese-British artist, of two young nude men on the beach, redolent of Gauguin's works but seen as a 'sardonic' take on the artist, according to the show. Among the other featured artists who rebelled against the colonial gaze is the painter Saturnino Herrán, who imagined sensual figures of Mesoamerican cultures in heroic forms, with full lips and outfitted in loosely draped and knotted fabrics. Other photographs and paintings illustrate the erotic Orientalist tropes that both tempted Europeans and reinforced their desire to enforce Western values far and wide. Katz considers art history to be a largely untapped archive of how we might understand sexuality — and one problem is that 'queer art history' continues to be considered niche, when in fact many major classical and modern artists expressed same-sex desire through their work. Many artists are deeply misunderstood to ironic effect — classical art is often upheld by the right wing to support their nationalistic beliefs (from Nazi Germany to thinly veiled X accounts today), though works from antiquity and the Renaissance are often blatant in their depictions of same-sex erotic desire. 'We have so naturalized a heteronormative perspective on art that we regularly turn queer art into straight art, and don't even notice it,' Katz said. 'It's a very weird thing as a professor of queer art history to be saying, 'I pray for the day when my field disappears,' but I do.' The art world maintains this status quo, he added. Museums, beholden to boards, donors and corporate sponsors, often rotate the same artists — and water down the more complex parts of their lives — instead of deepening our collective understanding with new perspectives, he said. Many artists in 'The First Homosexuals' have only just begun to be revisited in recent decades, including the Pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon, whose career ended in a sodomy scandal, and Marie Laurencin, an important French avant-garde painter of her time who created sapphic worlds without men. 'There are vast sums of money riding on what we do. And I think there's a mistaken understanding that talking about sexuality will diminish the value of work of art,' Katz said. Despite a decade of increased representation in the arts, Katz warns that the contentious political climate and rollback of LGBTQ+ rights in the US threatens scholarship around queer history and art. The US has a long history of censored LGBTQ+ art, his own shows included: In 2010, he co-curated a landmark show on same-sex desire in American portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery; an exhibited video by David Wojnarowicz, featuring ants crawling on a crucifix, was removed after it was criticized by the Catholic League and Republicans, who deemed it offensive to Christians. 'We keep seeing cyclically that as queer history begins to assert itself, something comes along and, frankly, kills it,' he said. Through 'The First Homosexuals,' Katz hopes to narrow the 'profound and absolute gulf' that has been created to distinguish heterosexual and queer identities, he said. After all, in the context of all of human civilization, it's a modern idea, and one that can be shifted again. 'There's nothing natural about sexuality,' he said. 'It has always been structured by history.'
Yomiuri Shimbun
17-06-2025
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Israeli Markets Rally as Investors Sketch Post-Iran Conflict Landscape
Reuters Part of an electronic board displaying market data is seen at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, in Tel Aviv, Israel November 4, 2020. Picture taken November 4, 2020. JERUSALEM/LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) – Israel's shekel jumped sharply and stocks and bonds gained on Monday as investors began to look beyond the escalating conflict with Iran and shape a more favorable long-term risk assessment for the country's assets. The shekel ILS= traded at 3.50 to the dollar by 1642 GMT, 3.6% stronger on the day and scoring its best performance since October 9, 2023, when the central bank heavily intervened to shore up the currency following the outbreak of the Gaza war. The Israeli currency had rallied as much as 4.6% earlier in the session, snapping a four-day losing streak and clawing back hefty losses suffered last week when rumors of an Israeli attack on Iran intensified. Israel launched its biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy early on Friday. The main Israeli share indices also gained, with the broad Tel Aviv 125 index .TA125 closing 2.6% higher and extending Sunday's gains of some 0.5%. The rise followed a weekend of punishing Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders, which were met with retaliatory Iranian strikes against Israel. 'The reaction of the local markets … perhaps reflects the assessment that in certain scenarios this war may be a catalyst for a new status quo in the region,' said Bank Hapoalim chief economist Victor Bahar. Israeli officials have said the conflict will take time and will not end until the Iranian nuclear threat is removed. Tehran denies it wants to build nuclear weapons. Middle East tensions have been rising since the war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led and Iranian-backed militants stormed into southern Israel and took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Israel's military campaign since has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to health authorities in Gaza. Fighting between Israel and Tehran's proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen has also intensified. 'Most of these (proxies) have been destroyed or weakened, but Iran's nuclear weapon program has remained a long-term existential threat for Israel,' said Leader Capital Markets chief economist Jonathan Katz. 'Delaying this program significantly – and maybe a credible commitment from Iran to forgo high-level nuclear enrichment – will reduce Israel's geopolitical risk premium markedly.' Israel's international bonds as well as its credit default swaps – a proxy for insurance against risk of default – both regained ground on Monday. The 2120 maturity added more than 1.5 cents to bid at 67.07 cents on the dollar, Tradeweb data showed, around 1 cent below levels seen last Wednesday when reports of a potential imminent attack emerged. Israel's five-year credit default swap also dropped sharply to 108 basis points from Friday's close of 122 bps. At a domestic bond auction on Monday, Israel sold 2.75 billion shekel ($785 million) of various debt maturities in a sale that was multiple times oversubscribed. Israel's economic performance and the macroeconomic pressures it faces have been choppy in recent years. Data on Sunday showed the inflation rate eased more than expected to 3.1%, though the central bank is expected to remain cautious. The derivatives market is pricing in an interest rate cut in mid-2026. Earlier on Monday, first-quarter economic growth was revised up to an annualized 3.7% from 3.4%.
Business Standard
16-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Israeli markets rally as investors sketch post-Iran conflict landscape
Israel's shekel jumped sharply and stocks and bonds gained on Monday as investors began to shape a more favourable risk assessment for country's assets in the face of an escalating conflict with Iran. The shekel strengthened more than 4.5per cent against the dollar in its biggest daily gain since at least 2008, snapping a four day losing streak and clawing back hefty losses suffered last week since rumours of an Israeli attack on Iran intensified. Israel launched its operation early on Friday. The main Israeli share indices also gained, with the broad Tel Aviv 125 index up 1.9per cent in afternoon trade, extending Sunday's gains of some 0.5per cent following a weekend of punishing Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders that were met with Iranian strikes against Israel. "The reaction of the local markets ... perhaps reflects the assessment that in certain scenarios this war may be a catalyst for a new status quo in the region," said Bank Hapoalim Chief Economist Victor Bahar. Israeli officials have said the conflict will take time and won't end until the Iranian nuclear threat is removed after launching its biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy on Friday. Tehran denies it wants to build nuclear weapons. But tensions in the region have been on the rise since the war in Gaza erupted 20 months ago after Hamas-led and Iranian backed militants stormed into southern Israel. Fighting with Tehran's proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen has intensified. "Most of these (proxies) have been destroyed or weakened, but Iran's nuclear weapon program has remained a long-term existential threat for Israel," said Leader Capital Markets Chief Economist Jonathan Katz. "Delaying this program significantly - and maybe a credible commitment from Iran to forgo high level nuclear enrichment - will reduce Israel's geopolitical risk premium markedly." Israel's international bonds as well as its credit default swaps - a proxy for insurance against risk of default - also saw gains on Monday but have yet to offset recent losses. The 2120 maturity added more than 1.3 cents to bid at 66.88 cents on the dollar, Tradeweb data showed - still more than 1 cents below levels seen last Wednesday when reports of a potential imminent attack emerged. Israel's economic performance and the macroeconomic pressures it faces have been choppy in recent years. Data on Sunday showed the inflation rate eased more than expected to 3.1per cent. Though the central bank is expected to remain cautious and hold interest rates - possibly until early 2026. Derivatives market is now pricing in a rate cut in mid-2026. Earlier on Monday, first-quarter economic growth was revised up to an annualised 3.7per cent from 3.4per cent.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hegseth brings warfighter mentality to media relations
The Defense Department's relationship with reporters has gone from bad to worse following a string of missives from Secretary Pete Hegseth and his office aimed at controlling the Pentagon press corps. Hegseth's war on the media includes taking desks away from legacy outlets, locking the doors to one of the few places reporters have access to the internet in the Pentagon, and restricting their movement within the building. Compounding the breakdown in media relations is a staffing shortage in the Pentagon's public affairs shop, with at least 12 officials in the office reportedly leaving in recent weeks. The office officially held 32 people at the start of the year. That has left one of the government's largest agencies often unresponsive amid a steady stream of scandals and public relations snafus, though it maintains an active 'DOD Rapid Response' account on the social platform X, which posted on Saturday, 'we will always deliver on our promise of transparency.' The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on this article. Hegseth often talks about bringing a warfighting mentality to the Pentagon. His hostile approach to the media comes at the detriment of the American public, said Jonathan Katz, senior director for the Anti-Corruption, Democracy and Security Project at the Brookings Institution. 'Americans need to understand what's happening in the Department of Defense because it's critical to U.S. national security and to their everyday lives,' Katz told The Hill. 'Right now it looks like the Pentagon, led by Mr. Hegseth, is doing everything it can do to not share critical information with the public. That is problematic.' Since the start of President Trump's second term, the Defense Department has transformed how it typically engages with the press, largely shunning traditional media. Chief Pentagon spokesperson and senior adviser Sean Parnell has briefed the press on camera once since taking on the role in February, and Hegseth has yet to address reporters in the department's briefing room. When Hegseth does address the media, it's mostly from the White House alongside President Trump or while he is traveling. But he has shaped how he is covered on those trips by limiting the number of reporters that come with him — on some trips handpicking those from more right-leaning outlets that skew toward favorable coverage of the department. When Hegseth traveled to Guantánamo Bay in late February, he took just one reporter, his former colleague, Fox News host Laura Ingraham. Hegseth and Parnell have instead put out near-weekly 'situation reports,' video updates from the Pentagon that espouse positive headlines and commitments to 'transparency.' The DOD Rapid Response X account both plays up positive news about Hegseth and denigrates news stories and reporters that show him in a negative light. Alex Wagner, a former Pentagon official-turned-public affairs professor at Syracuse University, said the channeling of all communication into 'easily retweeted videos that are highly scripted without any chance for questions' undermines service members and confidence that defense leaders have their best interests at heart. 'It's absolutely critical that the people who are serving and sacrificing and their families understand not only what is happening to service members and their dependents, but also why it's happening,' Wagner told The Hill. 'I'm just surprised President Trump and his team are allowing it, given their repeated affirmations that they are running the most transparent administration in history,' he added, pointing to the contrast with the White House and State Department, where officials regularly brief the media. Things are only getting worse for the Pentagon press corps. Just working in the building has become arduous for many outlets after Hegseth's office in early February took away the desks of eight legacy media outlets: NBC News, The New York Times, NPR, Politico, CNN, The Washington Post, The Hill and The War Zone. The reporters had to vacate their spaces for outlets more sympathetic to the Trump administration, including One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News, Newsmax, the Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller and The Free Press. The department called the shifts a 'media rotation program,' but the move was bashed by the Pentagon Press Association, which called it 'unreasonable.' Later that same month, the Pentagon banned reporters from the press briefing room unless officials were holding a briefing — which has only happened once in more than five months. This barred media from one of the few places in the building that had access to Wi-Fi to file stories. And last month, after a string of embarrassing headlines for Hegseth, including that he mishandled sensitive information in March when he relayed over Signal detailed plans to strike Houthi militants in Yemen — to a group chat that included a journalist — the Pentagon barred reporters from freely walking in certain areas of the building. Areas that are off limits now include Hegseth's office spaces and the Joint Chiefs of Staff office spaces 'without an official approval and escort from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs,' according to a May 23 memo signed by the Pentagon chief. The decision limits press access to hallways reporters have historically had access to under past Republican and Democratic presidential administrations, with Parnell on X calling the restrictions 'pragmatic changes to protect operational security.' It also eliminates 'the media's freedom to freely access press officers for the military services who are specifically hired to respond to press queries,' the Pentagon Press Association said in a statement. The group further called the restrictions 'a direct attack on the freedom of the press and America's right to know what its military is doing.' The National Press Club urged the department to reverse course, as 'restricting access doesn't protect national security. It undermines public trust,' the organization's President Mike Balsamo said in a statement. And a third press group, Military Reporters & Editors, said it was 'deeply troubled' by the restrictions, the likes of which hadn't been seen before at the Pentagon. 'This isn't meant to protect the republic, it is designed to impose a chill,' the organization said in a statement. 'It is a disservice to the American public, troops, veterans and families who rely on a dedicated free press to shine the light on matters of vital interest.' Further limitations are likely coming, with Hegseth's memo alluding to reporters having to soon sign a pledge to protect sensitive military information or risk losing their press badge. 'It's as if there's a separate standard for transparency and accountability that the Pentagon is not upholding under Secretary Hegseth that they're asking others to uphold,' said Katz. 'This is disconcerting for the American public that relies on the media to understand in a transparent, accountable way what the Pentagon is doing. And right now, Americans are losing faith that one of the most important national security institutions is not being truthful,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Telegraph
10-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Oxford backtracks on non-binary graduation ceremony terms
Oxford University has backtracked on making its 800-year-old Latin graduation ceremonies fully gender-neutral. In March, the university voted to remove grammatically masculine or feminine Latin words from some ceremonies, to appease non-binary students. In an amendment to those changes, the university has said some gendered words will be retained. It argued that, even though they were masculine, they were 'statuses' and could be treated as being without gender. The original proposals involved dropping masculine words including 'magistri' (masters) and 'doctores' (doctors) and replacing them with 'vos', which is a neutral pronoun meaning 'you'. But Dr Jonathan Katz, the university's public orator, and Dr Tristan Franklinos, a classicist, said that the words 'magistri' and 'doctores' would still be included in the ceremony as salutations. The university said the decision to maintain the gendered words came because 'they form part of the tradition handed down to us and they connote the respect shown by University Officers to graduands in the ceremony'. 'Warmth and humanity' The university added that the changes had been made to restore warmth and humanity to a traditional proposal that was felt to lack feeling. It argued that the original intention was to create a single Latin text for the ceremonies, which has been done. The partial U-turn followed criticism from academics that tradition was being lost in removing the words from the Latin address. David Butterfield, a professor of Latin at Ralston College in Georgia, previously told The Telegraph: 'I regret that striking and beautiful phrases, such as 'domini doctores' are being replaced with the empty, and rather abrupt, ' vos'.' He said: 'It is heartening to see 'doctor' and 'magister' restored to the Latin ... on the grounds that we don't speak of a woman as a 'doctrix', or having a 'Mistress of Arts' degree.' But Prof Butterfield said he saw it only as a partial victory, because some gendered words have been removed. The historic 'dominus' or 'domina', meaning sir or madam, has been replaced with the word 'sodalis', meaning comrade or fellow. 'It remains a fudge that sodalis, the form of both the masculine and the feminine, can allegedly be interpreted by the non-binary listener as neither in one gender or the other,' he said. 'While deliberately ambiguous Latin can be deployed, it is literally impossible for Latin to be used without any gender at all. Ceremonial Latin, centuries old, should not be make-believe.' The amendment was added following a vote attended by 28 academics, who agreed to introduce the new Latin into graduation ceremonies from October to cater to those 'who identify as non-binary'. Two votes took place – one for the gender-neutral Latin changes, and one for their amendment. Twenty-four academics voted for the changes to be made, and 22 for the amendment to be introduced. An Oxford University spokesman said: 'Congregation has voted to accept the proposed changes to the text for graduation ceremonies with an amendment that restores salutations to the start of some of the phrases used. 'The changes will come into effect from October, and will create a single simplified text for each ceremony as intended in the original proposal.'
