Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for Shaoxing and soy braised tofu with pak choi – The Guardian
Posted: September 13, 2020 at 11:54 am
Meera Sodhas braised Shaoxing tofu. Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food assistant: Katy Gilhooly.
After considerable experimentation, Im willing to put a stake in the ground and say that Ive found a favourite way with tofu. Of course, there might soon be another new favourite way, but until then, it is this: fry it hard, then braise it. Frying it over a high heat gives the tofu a crisp exterior, while a quick soft braise makes those crisp edges delightfully chewy and allows the tofu to soak up whatever sauce its put in. This was a point of kitchen enlightenment for me, and I hope it is for you, too.
Its worth doing all the prep up front and putting things into small piles within reach of the stove, because this comes together in a few minutes. Shaoxing wine tastes much like dry sherry and many major supermarkets now stock their own brand; otherwise, youll find it in any Chinese supermarket.
Prep 15 min Cook 45 min Serves 4
8 dried shiitake mushrooms (or 10g) 1 tbsp cornflour 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine 2 tbsp light soy sauce 1 tbsp dark soy sauce 1 tsp caster sugar 450g extra-firm tofu, pressed to remove the water 2 tbsp neutral oil 3cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated 5 garlic cloves, peeled and minced 6 spring onions, trimmed and cut on a steep angle 2 birds eye chillies, finely chopped 250g pak choi, shredded Steamed rice, to serve
Put the mushrooms in a small heatproof bowl and pour over 300ml freshly boiled water. Theyll do their best to float, but immerse them by pressing them down with a spoon or gently pressing the base of another bowl on top. Leave for 10 minutes, then squeeze out the mushrooms into the bowl, and finely slice the flesh; put both the liquid and mushrooms to one side.
In a separate little bowl, mix the cornflour with two tablespoons of the mushroom stock, then add the Shaoxing wine, both soy sauces and the sugar, stir and put to one side.
Once youve pressed all the water from your tofu, cut it into 1.5cm slices. In your widest nonstick pan for which you have a lid, heat two tablespoons of oil over a medium heat and, when very hot, add the tofu slices in a single layer. Leave to fry for three to five minutes, until golden then flip over with a spatula and fry the other side. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
In the same pan, on a medium to high heat (add a little extra oil, if need be) and, when hot, add the ginger, garlic, spring onions and chillies and fry for about four minutes, until fragrant. Turn down the heat, then add the cornflour and soy sauce mixture, the sliced mushrooms and their reserved stock (save for the final teaspoon or two, which may contain some grit), and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then return the tofu slices to one side of the pan and put the shredded pak choi on the other side. Cover the pan, leave for five minutes until the tofu is hot and the greens tender, then take off the heat. Distribute across four plates and serve with freshly steamed or boiled rice.
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Meera Sodha's vegan recipe for Shaoxing and soy braised tofu with pak choi - The Guardian
Pakistan sees its face in the mirror and doesnt like what it sees – The Indian Express
Posted: at 11:54 am
Written by Khaled Ahmed | Updated: September 12, 2020 9:20:49 am Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. (Reuters Photo/File)
Pratap Bhanu Mehta recently (Simply Vishwas, IE, August 26) wrote: Politics of belief (vishwas) is different from one based on fact and interest. It has an underlying cultural nihilism. In Pakistan, it has an association with ideology serving as the foundation of the Islamic State.
The word ideologie came into use during the French Revolution and postulated a sure and encyclopaedic form of knowledge upon which social engineering could be based. Ideology came on the scene as a champion of Enlightenment and rival of religion, but it soon acquired the status of a dogma. The principal voice of the ideologues and author of Elements dIdeologie, Antoine Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836), spoke frankly of regulating society.
Most ideologues possess a kind of certitude, not just that utopia can be built but that it is destined to be built. Nothing promotes aggression more than certitude. Yet, a fatalistic trust in the tide of history and the ideological frame of mind go together. However, history cannot be left alone to unfold the passionate intensity (W B Yeats) of ideology craves movement and deeds. It has been said that ideology is the transformation of ideas into social levers. During the month of fasting this year, ideology and its certitude once again threaten Pakistan with violence. Mehtas vishwas may be linked to certitude and consequent aggression.
The founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, did use the word ideology once or twice during the Pakistan Movement, but it was in the Western liberal sense. The USSR had an ideology which was fixed. If you opposed Soviet ideology you could go to jail. In Iran, there is an ideology which no one can oppose. The only difference is that in Iran it can be done in the detail but not in principle.
In the USSR, the Communist Party looked after ideology. In Iran, the clergy appointed by the constitution does the same job. In Pakistan, ideology gained respect after 1947 and some of it, it must be confessed, came from the USSR and its great economic achievement. India was democratic. Pakistan was ideological. India was an ordinary concept as a state. Pakistan was something special. The Left thought ideological meant socialism. The Right thought it meant Islam. The utopia of the Right was falahi (welfare) state, somewhat akin to the communist utopia. Today, Imran Khan calls it the State of Madina.
Opinion | Rajmohan Gandhi writes: Amicable relations with Pakistan may seem remote but they are worth striving for
All politicians in Pakistan proudly claim to be nazriati (ideological). It can mean principled, but it also points to an Islamic utopia. Pakistan has tried to define this utopia. But under General Ziaul Haq, a committee called Ansari Commission said Islam did not allow opposition. So, the general had a non-party election and there was no opposition in parliament. It was clear that Pakistan did not equate ideology with democracy. There is a Federal Shariat Court in Islamabad to make sure everything happens in Pakistan according to Islam. That is very much like ideology.
The clerical view is that the Pakistani utopia should be recreated in the light of the sharia, which also includes the fiqh (case law) of the medieval jurists of Islam. Alas, in the eyes of the clergy, the state remains incompletely ideological and, therefore, an unhappy state. It is a small island on which the non-clerical Right and a minuscule Left are surviving in Pakistan. Needless to say, the clerics are unhappy and denounce the state.
Muslims who want to be modern-Islamic are unhappy because the state cant move quickly enough to assimilate the new universalism. Muslims who want the state to be perfectly Islamic are unhappy with it for being tardy in rejecting modernity. You have to be a good Pakistani. That means you have to love the idea of Pakistan as a state that lives separated from India.
If you imply that Pakistan is not separate from India or that it should re-join it, you go in for rigorous imprisonment. This is a special shibboleth. An American can say America should join China and still be free. But in Pakistan, you can be hauled up for implying Pakistans un-separateness.
Ideology interfaces with nationalism. Ideology remains Islam, but dont ask to go into details. Pakistan is unhappy because of the inclusive constitutional principle of nothing repugnant to Islam. Pakistan is liveable today for some because it is insufficiently ideological. For some, this incompleteness is a source of unhappiness. Its constitution seems to promise two contradictory things at the same time. No one is really reconciled to the state as it is. Those not reconciled are all good Pakistanis or Muslims, but they may not consider each other good Pakistanis or Muslims.
The acme of nationalism is fascism, which then becomes ideology. Ideology, because of its utopian control, also aspires to fascism. Stalin fought against fascism but then created an ideological state, which was not much different from Hitlers Germany. Pakistan is like Caliban. It sees its face in the mirror and doesnt like what it sees.
This article first appeared in the print edition on September 12, 2020 under the title Divided by ideology. The writer is consulting editor, Newsweek Pakistan.
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Pakistan sees its face in the mirror and doesnt like what it sees - The Indian Express
When Monuments Fall | by Kenan Malik – The New York Review of Books
Posted: at 11:54 am
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Protesters for and against the removal of the Emancipation Memorial arguing as workers install a fence to protect the monument in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., June 25, 2020
We stand today at the national center to perform something like a national actan act which is to go into history.
So said the great nineteenth-century former slave and staunch abolitionist Frederick Douglass at the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., in 1876. That we are here in peace today, Douglass told a crowd of almost 25,000, many of them African-American, is a compliment and a credit to American civilization, and a prophecy of still greater national enlightenment and progress in the future.
The idea for the memorial had come originally from former slave Charlotte Scott, of Virginia, who wanted a monument in honor of Abraham Lincoln. She gave five dollars to begin a funding drive, and the monument was eventually paid for entirely by former slaves.
Almost a hundred and fifty years later, many African Americans feel differently about the memorial. In June, Black Lives Matter protesters attempted, unsuccessfully, to topple the statue. D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton vowed to introduce legislation to have the memorial removed. The Boston Art Commission unanimously resolved to take down a copy of the statue in Boston.
Some critics of the statue view Lincoln as a false friend of African Americans. Others see the statue itself as demeaning, with Lincoln represented as standing upright, while the free black man is on his knees. For defenders of the statue, on the other hand, to remove it is to erase a memorial paid for by former slaves and anointed by Douglass. It is to besmirch black history itself.
What is striking in this contemporary debate is that there is nothing new about it. It goes back to the very creation of the monument. Douglass, even in his dedication speech, expressed his ambivalence about Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was not, he observed, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man. He continued:
To protect, defend, and perpetuate slavery in the states where it existed, Abraham Lincoln was not less ready than any other President to draw the sword of the nation. He was ready to execute all the supposed guarantees of the United States Constitution in favor of the slave system anywhere inside the slave states. He was willing to pursue, recapture, and send back the fugitive slave to his master, and to suppress a slave rising for liberty, though his guilty master were already in arms against the Government.
And yet, he acknowledged, while Abraham Lincoln saved for you a country, he delivered us from a bondage, according to Jefferson, one hour of which was worse than ages of the oppression your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose.
Todays controversies over statues of racists and slave owners have a more recent backstory, too. In March 2015, a South African activist named Chumani Maxwele smeared excrement on a statue of Cecil Rhodes at the University of Cape Town. So began the Rhodes Must Fall campaign. The following month, the university authorities removed the statue. Rhodes Must Fall became an international cause and popular Twitter hashtag. The campaign took root most notably in Oxford, Britain, where another statue of Rhodes had stood for over a century, above an entrance to Oriel College, to which he left 100,000 in his will.
A parallel campaign developed meanwhile against Confederate statues in the US. While there have long been campaigns against such memorials, the moves to take them down acquired a new intensity after the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. That year, thirty-six Confederate monuments were removed. This year, amid the rekindled Black Lives Matter protests that erupted after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota in May, another thirty at least have come down.
As the protests went global, demonstrators in Bristol, England, toppled a statue of a slave trader named Edward Colston and dumped it in the docks. That acted as a catalyst for the release of pent-up fury: the following day, in London, the statue of slave trader Robert Milligan was removed from outside the Museum of London Docklands by the public trust responsible for the site. Then protests erupted in Belgium, where statues of King Leopold II, under whose rule the Congo had been turned into a brutal slave camp in the late nineteenth century, were defaced and taken down. This wave of iconoclasm moved again back across the Atlantic, where not just Confederate memorials but statues of Columbus, Jefferson, Washington, and others were toppled.
At the heart of all this lie two fundamental questions: What do statues, and their removal, tell us about the pastand the present? And what do the campaigns against statues tell us about the struggle to confront racism?
Critics of the toppling campaigns condemn what they regard as the rewriting of history. After demands for the removal of a statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, British Prime Minister Boris Johnsonhimself a biographer of Churchilltweeted: We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history. To remove statues would be to lie about our history, and impoverish the education of generations to come, he said.
The British-based American historian Christopher Phelps rejects such claims, arguing that removing statues is little different from the normal practice of history. To reconsider, to recast, is the essence of historical practice, he wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education in January. It follows that altering how we present the past through commemorative symbols is not ahistorical. It is akin to what historians do. Removing statues does not vitiate history, he insisted; on the contrary, it represents a more thorough coming to terms with the past and its legacies, a refusal to forget.
Statues are rarely about history as such; they are about memory. That is, they are part of the process of shaping perceptions of history. That is why they have long been sites of contestation, and not just in the present.
*
The story of Edward Colstons statue in Bristol highlights the way that statues make concreteor marble or bronze, so to speakthe attempt to memorialize a particular historical narrative. Colston was a Bristol-born merchant who made his fortune in large part from the slave trade. Upon his death, he left much of his wealth to charities.
The statue of Colston was not erected, however, during his lifetime. Nor even in the aftermath of his death. It was put up almost two centuries after he had died. And that memorialization had less to do with Colston himself than with fears about growing class tensions in Bristol. In the 1890s, there was in Bristol, as elsewhere in industrial Britain, considerable working-class discontent and union agitation. More than a decade of economic recession, low wages, and poor working conditions, combined with continued disenfranchisement of large sections of the working class, led to waves of strikes and a series of bloody confrontations between workers and police.
Against this background of escalating strife, city leaders, both in politics and business, decided to erect a statue of a philanthropic businessman to act as a symbol of civic pride. Various names were proffered as suitable candidates. Bristols elite settled on Colston. His involvement in slavery was seen not as a matter of shame but almost as a badge of pride at a time that saw the emergence of a new age of high imperialism, exemplified by the Scramble for Africa in the final decades of the nineteenth century. This was a period, too, in which the notion of the racial superiority of the British people evolved from being an elite ideology to become part of patriotic popular culture, celebrated in mass circulation newspapers, penny-dreadful novels, and popular entertainment. For Bristols ruling class, Colstons statue was an attempt to use myths of Britains racial superiority to defuse disaffection at home.
Confederate statues in America served a different political purpose, but they were equally about ransacking the past to serve the needs of the present. There are, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 780 Confederate monuments or statues in the US, almost half of which are in three states: Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina. Most of these monuments were erected not in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, which ended in 1865, but between the 1890s and the 1950s, the era of Jim Crow segregation. Most were, in fact, installed in the first two decades of the twentieth century, when the Jim Crow system was still being established in the American South. There was a smaller spike in the 1950s and 1960s, as part of the backlash against the civil rights movement and desegregation.
Maryland remained in the Union during the Civil War. While it was a slave stateboth Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman were born into slavery in Marylandalmost half of African Americans in the state were free, and it boasted the largest number of free blacks in any US state. Thousands of Marylanders fought for the Confederacy, but almost three times as many took up arms for the Union. In the twentieth century, however, three Confederate statues were erected in Baltimore, the states most important city, including one honoring Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson built as late as 1948. They were not commemorating the history of Maryland, or of the Civil War, but rewriting the history of the war as a just and moral struggle, to justify the present-day denial of rights to African Americans as also just and moral.
What statues of Colston and Lincoln, of Churchill and Lee, tell us, then, is less about these figures themselves than about how later generations wanted to retell their stories in a way that buttressed the demands and desires of a particular elite. The fact that statues are not straightforward expressions of history, but ways of shaping memory, is not, though, an argument that necessarily makes their removal more valid. The arguments for taking down statues are often as ragged as those for retaining them.
Histories and biographies are both complex narratives, rarely cleaving to good and bad. On both sides of the statue debate, there is a reluctance to acknowledge that complexity, and a tendency to look only upon one aspect of a historical figure, whether good or bad, and to make that the only issue worth discussing. Figures such as Churchill or Jefferson have long been celebrated for their great deeds, while their despicable acts or immoral views were overlooked or ignored. Many in Britain have still not heard of the Bengal Famine, or of Churchills role in it, or know little of the brutal reality of the British Empire. More people in America probably know of Jeffersons slaveholding, but until recently, it has barely figured in national discussions.
National and imperial history has long been whitewashed, and the sordid, immoral aspects of the lives of revered historical figures have often been airbrushed. That does not mean, however, that critics of such history should themselves adopt a one-eyed viewthat we should damn Churchill or Jefferson for the deplorable aspects of their lives or views without also considering either the historical context or their other qualities that might make them historically significant.
Even those usually seen as progressive figures often held deeply regressive attitudes. William Wilberforce, for instance, is generally celebrated for his campaigning against slavery, yet he was also hostile to working-class suffrage and believed that trade unions should be suppressed. Leading Suffragettes such as Emmeline Pankhurst supported eugenics. Gandhi expressed racist views about black Africans during his early career in South Africa: because of this, a statue of him was removed from the University of Accra, in Ghana, in 2018, and there have been calls for another statue of him to be removed from Leicester, England, and for one not be erected in Manchester. The demand that we should only celebrate or honor those without moral stain is a demand for a fantasy world expunged of all moral complexity.
There is nothing wrong in principle in removing statues: icons are created, icons are torn downthis has happened throughout history. Moral complexity may be an argument against unthinking iconoclasm. It is not, however, an argument for never taking down statues. What we should avoid, though, is mirroring the kind of cartoonish history embodied in many of these statues by viewing them as tropes for good and bad. No human is entirely saintly; few are without redeeming qualities. There can be no hard and fast rules to justify iconoclasm, only judgments.
Some contemporary iconoclasts argue that they are not interested in parsing the character of historical figures, but simply want to redefine how we view history. The toppling of statues is a symbolic act of destruction to liberate the past from the control of the powerful, and to begin rethinking it from the point of view of the ruled and the vanquished, not through the eyes of victors.
There is, though, no single way of rethinking history from the point of view of the ruled and the vanquished. The historical significance of the American Revolution, the legacy of the American Civil War, Gandhis social attitudesall are matters of fierce debate, not just between the powerful and the masses, but among the ruled and the vanquished, too. Those debates demand a more nuanced view of history and biography; to balance, as Douglass does, Lincolns willingness to protect, defend, and perpetuate slavery in the states where it existed with his leadership in the Civil War, not to ignore Jeffersons slaveholding and attitudes to black people but equally not to forget the part he played in the Revolution, to acknowledge both Gandhis racist views of black Africans and his accomplishments in the struggle for Indian independence. Not to do soto focus solely on Jeffersons slaveholding, say, or on Gandhis racismwould be to mimic the actions of those who first erected statues as a means of imposing their stamp on historical memory.
This is not an argument for moral relativism. It is possible and necessary to distinguish between historical figures defined predominantly by their racism or their slaveholding, or those whose statues were constructed primarily as a way of intimidating certain groups, from others whose lives are more variegated, in part to be deprecated, in part to be honored. This is a way of making a distinction between the memorialization of Colston and Lee, say, and that of Jefferson and Gandhi. At the very least, this offers a way of opening up public debate on these issues rather than shutting it down by insisting on a singular view of the past.
Of course, coming to some consensus on such issues is not easy. In Bristol, for instance, there had earlier been an acceptance that the best solution to the Colston statue might be to leave it standing but replace the plaque with one that gave a fuller, more critical account of his life. There were, though, fierce disagreements over what the new plaque should say. In the end, the protesters made their own decision, foreclosing that debate.
Most statues were erected on the say-so of a particular elite to promote a self-serving historical narrative. What we should be wary of, now, is for any decision to be taken by a backroom committee, or by a government body, or even by a single group of protesters. Deciding what to do with those statues now should not be the work of any group that might represent only a small part of the community. That would merely be to replace the wishes of a historical elite with those of an equally unrepresentative contemporary group.
*
The second question at the heart of contemporary iconoclasm concerns what these campaigns tell us about the struggle to confront racism. There are two main arguments about why the removal of statues of racists or slavers may be a necessary part of the battle against racism. First, that statues of racists or enslavers or colonizers are demeaning or hurtful to black people and other marginalized groups, who cannot feel they truly belong in a society that maintains such symbols of degradation. And second, that statues express the values of a society. Any society that takes seriously its disavowal of racism must, iconoclasts argue, also remove any symbols or embodiments of such racism.
It is not difficult to see why a statue of Rhodes in South Africa might cause anger, nor why African Americans might resent Confederate statues designed to symbolize the enforcement of white supremacy. And yet, we should be careful about pushing this argument too far. There is a danger of slipping from the rightful claim that certain monuments or forms of social symbolism can create unwelcoming environments for marginalized people into an assumption that black people are psychologically fragile, replacing a language of resilience and rights with one of traumathat, as one supporter of the #Rhodesmustfall campaign claimed, seeing Rhodes so recognised is a deep wound.
Certainly, the past shapes the present and history can mold our emotions. But marginalized groups are not trapped by their history; nor is that history the cause of unending psychological trauma. It would be disastrous if anti-racists today were led to argue so, or to invest the past with too great a power over the present.
Monuments, it is true, are designed to shape memory and to use the past to engage in the struggles of the present. But this should not lead inevitably to the conclusion that statues embodying values no longer held by society should come down.
All history is a conversation between the present and the past. Over time, that conversation necessarily changes, as the figures and events that we regard as significant, and the reasons for viewing them as significant, change. And as the conversation changes, so does the meaning of statues (or any cultural artifact, whether literary, musical, or architectural). Its not just that historical research may unearth new facts about the lives of Colston or Rhodes or Jefferson; its also that the meaning we attribute to those facts shifts.
From this perspective, statues of Colston or Rhodes or Jefferson tell us not just that these men were racists or imperialists or slaveholders, but also how far we have moved from the days in which our societies celebrated racists or imperialists or slavery. The very fact that we are having this debate is a demonstration of that distance. The issue is as much about how we read statues and monuments as about what is symbolically written into them.
Traditionally, most forms of iconoclasm occur either because rulers are trying to shore up their own power by expunging rivals from the record or because the masses have moved to overthrow an old regime. The earliest recorded case of someone being physically anulled from the historical record is probably that of Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh in the fifteenth century BCE. Her successor, Thutmose III, attempted to erase her from public memory by ordering her statues to be torn down and her image to be chiseled off stone walls. In modern times, from the French Revolution to the dismantling of the Soviet empire, statues have often been toppled en masse by popular outrage upon the removal of a reviled regime.
Todays iconoclasm is different, falling into neither of these traditional categories. Rather, the taking down of statues has become a goal in itself, as an act of social transformation. The danger arises if the symbolic act comes to replace material change. The South African activist Siya Mnyanda, a former student at the University of Cape Town, wrote in 2015 wishing that the same amount of energy that has been used to campaign for #Rhodesmustfall had been expended on fighting for a more just and sound education system, better access to student funding and the building of more universities promised by the government. Dena Latif, a black student at Oxford University, has similarly argued that the campaign became a form of displacement: My problem with it lies in the use of an old statue as a symbol of Oxfords racism. Why do people have to look 150 years into the past to see the issue? The American historian Cheryl Hudson insists that Campaigners are deluding themselves if they think that removing a flag or statue will make any difference to inequalities of race, class or gender.
The debate over statuesand the wider debates around the Black Lives Matter movementhave thrust the issue of our relationship to history into public consciousness. We should seize this moment to think more deeply about the complexities of the past that have shaped the present. To recognize, for instance, that the Enlightenment was crucial to the development of progressive social ideals, laying the ground for modern ideas of equality and liberty, but also that, through slavery and colonialism, these ideals were denied to the majority of people across the globe, and their lives were often ripped apart in the most grotesque ways, and their societies degraded. To recognize, too, that the same historical figuressuch as Locke, Jefferson, Pankhurstcould stand on both sides of this equation.
Perhaps the best way to express the changing attitudes toward the past is not necessarily to tear down statues, but to put up new ones that allow us to acknowledge the complexities of history. Frederick Douglass himself was of this view. Days after he had spoken at the dedication of the Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park, he wrote a letteronly recently unearthedto the National Republican newspaper. In it, he aired his own misgivings about that statue. The negro here, though rising, is still on his knees and nude, he wrote. Douglass went on to suggest that there was room for another memorial in Lincoln Park:
What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the negro, not couchant on his knees like a four-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man.
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When Monuments Fall | by Kenan Malik - The New York Review of Books
17-year-old junior hockey player hopes his coming out will inspire others – CBC.ca
Posted: at 11:54 am
Moncton Flyers forward Yanic Duplessis celebrates a goal. Duplessis went public this week with news he is gay.
As Quebec Major Junior Hockey Leagueplayers gear up for a season they hope will change their lives, a goal-scoring 17-year-old New Brunswickerdecided not to wait for the puck to drop before changing his.
Yanic Duplessis, an elite-level playerwho was drafted by the QMJHL's Drummondville Voltigeurs in 2019, revealed he is gay earlier this week.
In the hockey world, that qualifies as significantnews. One of the reasons the native of Saint-Antoine, N.B., decided to step forward is to help make such announcements unremarkable.
"It was a struggle for me, and it shouldn't be," he said in an interview with CBC's Quebec AM, later adding "it shouldn't be a big deal."
And for Duplessis, it was. He tells of anxiety attacks at school and calling his mother to pick him up; he speaks of his fear that he would be found out in what remains, in his words, "a very macho, manly sport."
After revealing the truth to his parents last year, Duplessis decided to go public in an interview with the Atlantic Canadian FDS Podcast Network on Labour Day.
The reaction to his announcement suggests he needn't have worried. The outpouring of public support was swift and considerable.
It included social media messages from people in the hockey world, like former Montreal Canadiens player Guillaume Latendresse, and former NHL tough guy and current Quebec MNA Enrico Ciccone.
Perhaps most touching: the reaction from his peers and teammates. And one of them in particular.
"He came home and started crying because he said 'I didn't know you were going through this alone, and you should have told us'," Duplessis said.
He said though his dressing room experiences "haven't been that bad," he's heard hurtful and occasionally hateful words. But he thinks they mostly came from a place of ignorance.
"The things that were said," he said, pausing. "If they knew I was gay, I'm sure they wouldn't have said what they did."
The fact that Duplessis hasheard homophobic language, in a sport which has taken such things far more seriously in the past half-decade, nevertheless shows hockey's enlightenment when it comes to sexual orientation isn't yet complete.
Former professional player Brock McGillis knows all about that. He came out in 2016, and was the first openly-gay pro player.
He has been in contact with Duplessis and his family for some time, and offered advice and supportthrough the process.
"I'm always a little hesitant when someone chooses to come out in men's hockey culture, and sports culture in general, especially at a young age because I'm worried about how they're going to be treated in the game," McGillis said.
McGillis experienced dressing room homophobia first-hand, and half-jokes "even more so since I've become an advocate."
But he also says that each time an LGBTQ player steps forward at least five by his countthe support they receive gets incrementally bigger.
His first feeling when he saw the support for Duplessis?
"I was sohappy," he said. "The biggest takeaway is: when we humanize issues for people they will more often than not step up. As we humanize, we can educate and have an impact."
McGillis said many gay hockey players are sometimes reticent to contact him directly.
"I have kids all over North America, some come through their secret, fake Instagram accounts," he said. "There's a lot of kids out there struggling with this. And it only makes sense."
But the more role models there are, the more people reach out.
Duplessissaid he hopesto make it a little easier for others in his position to step forward.
And it's already happening. Hesaid he's received messages from several people in the hockey world saying, in effect, "Yeah, me too."
What he didn'texpect is so much public andmedia attention.
"I didn't think it was going to go this far," he said. "But I'm glad it did."
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17-year-old junior hockey player hopes his coming out will inspire others - CBC.ca
In the beginning…the important things – The Hillsdale Daily News
Posted: at 11:54 am
By Everett Henes
The opening words of the Bible set the stage for everything that follows, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." These words teach us some important things. The first is that God is. God exists. The Bible takes this for granted because it is the word of God. This is the great presupposition of every believer. Gods existence is the foundation for knowledge, science, and morality. Without Gods existence all of these things fall apart. Culture around us proves this to be true. Nothing seems to be grounded in fact. Morality is constantly changing such that what was known to be right and true twenty years ago is known to be truly wrong now. Even what we know and how has become a slippery slope. Why? Because without the rationality of Scripture we are left with our own irrationality.
Genesis declares to us that God exists and, further, that everything else that exists has been created by him. That means the world should exhibit design, and it does. Think of the way the human body works. Its so intricate that it takes a team of technicians to build a robotic replacement for any part. The irony, of course, is that it takes a team to design and build that replacement and yet so many people believe the world is a result of chance and time. Whether you believe the world is old or young, the reality is that everything around us and within us exhibits design.
At the end of the creation account we read, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) God made all things good in the beginning. The broken world we see around us and within us is the result of what we will see in Genesis 3. From the start, though, God made all things very good. Psalm 19:1 teaches, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."
The truth is that everything in creation has a purpose. One of the more humorously named parts of the body is the appendix. The word appendix is a Latin word meaning something attached. Its what you find at the end of a book but is generally unnecessary for the story. Since it is unclear what the organ does, it is referred to as something that is attached to the other digestive organs. Just because its unclear what function it has in the body doesnt mean that it has none. There are plenty of things in creation that dont have a function that we can understand, but that doesnt mean they serve no purpose. We are still growing in our knowledge. While we know more about creation than was known a thousand years ago, we dont want to make the mistake that we know it all and that anything we dont know isnt worth knowing. Creation is not inexhaustive, but it does reflect its Author who is inexhaustible.
God made all things from nothing in the space of six days and all very good. The crown of his creation is on day six. It is there that we read, "Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (Genesis 1:26) Mankind is created by God, for a purpose. The very next verse says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
These words are, quite possibly, the most offensive in the Bible in our current day. We have gone from irrationality to irrationality and embraced things that are contrary to nature. The widescale rejection of God has not led to enlightenment and pleasure, but the opposite. We are entering a new kind of dark ages that opposes free thinking and makes pleasure out of things that are debased. This is not surprising to anyone who has been watching the tides of culture these past decades. What began with simple questions of whether Gods word is true has devolved into a rejection of all truth. Well see, in the coming weeks, that this is precisely what happens in Genesis. The good news is that if the Bible diagnoses the problem, that means it will also provide the solution.
Pastor Everett Henes, the pastor of the Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, can be reached at pastorhenes@gmail.com.
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FRSC partners Health Foundation on drivers certification The Sun Nigeria – Daily Sun
Posted: at 11:54 am
Rivers Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has pledged to collaborate with Save a Life Foundation towards ensuring mental and overall wellbeing for drivers to curtail road accidents related deaths.
The state Sector Commander, Corps Commandant Salisu Galadunchi, made the pledge during a health enlightenment lecture organised by the foundation for staff of the command on Sunday in Port Harcourt.
In his lecture, Dr Richard Okoye, CEO/President of the foundation, revealed that most road accidents and related deaths were preventable as they were usually caused by reckless driving and use of intoxicant by drivers.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Based on WHO premises, we are therefore, seeking for a collaboration with the FRSC to enhance testing and certification for drivers before allowing them to drive on Nigerian roads.
This measure would indeed boost safety on our roads, Okoye said.
Galadunchi applauded the foundation for its contributions toward promoting good health, adding that the foundations message of health would be appropriately channeled to respective authorities.
He added that the massage on health as propagated by the foundation was in accordance with the Corps 2020 strategic goal initiatives.
He said that part of the 2020 initiative was to minimise the risk of death in road traffic related occurances.
This health enlightenment programme is clearly in line with guiding policy for the Corps Marshals where staff of 40 years and above are directed to undergo compulsory medical checks.
I urge us all to give more attention to matters of our health by keying into the mission and vision of the Save a life Foundation, he said.
Galadunchi also advised staff of the command to engage in regular medical checks to enhance healthy lifestyle.(NAN)
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FRSC partners Health Foundation on drivers certification The Sun Nigeria - Daily Sun
LIVING HISTORY: Keeper of the Books at library of the ages – The Courier
Posted: at 11:54 am
Its Scotlands oldest and original lending facility, created in 1680 before union with England. Andrew Welsh visits the Library of Innerpeffray.
It could so easily have been one historic Courier Country landmark in acclaimed author Germaine Greers thoughts when she wrote of libraries as reservoirs of strength, grace and wit; reminders of order, calm and continuity; lakes of mental energy neither warm nor cold, light nor dark. That description can confidently be applied to Scotlands oldest and original lending facility, the Library of Innerpeffray, which was created in 1680 at a time when Scotland was still 27 years away from forging its union with England, while in France the Sun King Louis XIV was midway through his epic 72-year reign.
Unobtrusively tucked away in leafy surrounds close to the River Earn four miles south-east of Crieff, the library started life in the attic of tiny Innerpeffrays St Marys Chapel, where it housed local laird David Drummonds precious books collection. Following his death, its running fell to the Innerpeffray Mortification charity, whose governors proudly unveiled Scotlands first public lending library in 1694, along with a new rural school. It was just as the Scottish Enlightenment was taking shape in 1739 that subsequent estate owner Revd Robert Hay Drummond a future Archbishop of York commissioned the architect Charles Freebairn to construct the Georgian reading room that still stands today, so that it could hold both the chapels contents and his own former book collection.
For more than two centuries residents of Crieff and nearby villages would walk the Strathearn countryside including a wade across the river at one of its shallowest points in order to gain knowledge about such things as theology, geography, astronomy, history and the sciences. When the number of borrowers fell away post-war, the archives trustees eventually decided to cease lending in 1968, with the holder of Innerpeffrays full-time librarian post its grandly-titled Keeper of the Books has been a permanent feature since 1696 devoting more time to the preservation of an increasingly fragile and valuable resource. Boasting such treasures as a 1476 edition of the works of theologian John Duns Scotus Innerpeffrays oldest book plus first editions by Enlightenment philosopher David Hume and literary giants Samuel Johnson and Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as lyrics handwritten by Robert Burns, the library has evolved into a fascinating visitor attraction in recent decades. It reopened with restrictions last month following four months of pandemic-enforced closure.
The 33rd incumbent in the Keeper role is Lanarkshire-raised Lara Haggerty, who first visited Innerpeffray and its 5,000 books, including a comprehensive borrowers register dating back to 1747, shortly after moving to Crieff in 2005. Missing out on both a huge chunk of this years tourist season and a regular diet of fundraising social events has created inevitable challenges for one of the nations most niche attractions, but fortunately Lara was still able to work on her marketing duties while her 15-strong team of library volunteers locked down at home. Its been very interesting for us to find out new ways of connecting with the people that know and love the library, and of finding new people, she tells me. Weve been doing that through a series of filmed tours and we put out an appeal which was very generously supported. Our trustees were concerned at the start of lockdown but theyre now feeling that the library is going to be OK.
Innerpeffray opened a new heritage trail for visitors to its tranquil grounds last year following a 100,000 fundraising campaign. Providing views of surviving Roman roads, the Earn-side walk tells the sites story from the Ice Age to the present through a series of interpretive markers thatve earned the library a nomination in this years Scottish Design Awards and further work is imminent. Most of the expense went on clearing the ground to get it ready, says Lara. That cost more than I thought wouldve been possible but of course its highly skilled work. We needed to have trees cut down and have paths that are safe, so Im sure well look back on it in years to come and think that it was a great investment. It felt like a lot of money at the time but we hope that itll be here for a very long time to come, at least 25 years if not forever. Wed just completed that big project and were settling back to business as usual when it became not as usual. Fortunately we were able to tap into the support grants that were made available to Perth and Kinross Council very early on and that bought us a lot of time. Although plans for major summer celebrations to mark Innerpeffrays 340th anniversary were axed months ago, visitors and locals still managed to enjoy spending time in its grounds while the library was being readied for reopening. Indoor tours are back up and running with capacity reduced to just two people alongside other Covid-related measures including dividing screens, hence the venues annual visitor tally is expected to be only around a tenth of its usual 2,000. The library, which closes to the public over winter, holds regular exhibitions based around its rare books and the subject matter of the latest certainly resonates in the current climate. We had a plague and pestilence exhibition a few years ago and when we were looking at reopening one of the volunteers suggested, almost as a throwaway, that we should stage it again, explains Lara. I agreed, so we looked out some of the books and I think the display is amusing people, which is always good. Weve got historical accounts of the plague happening in different cities over the world in a variety of books, magazines and journals, including the Scots Magazine. They can also see medical books with possible cures we should perhaps say, Dont try this at home and weve got a book of prayers which are said in time of plague, so there are words of comfort. It would take a medical expert to go through the books and find out whether or not there are any useful tips within them, however they can certainly give us hope. The fact is people do recover from plagues its happened before and weve come out the other side of it.
History is all around at Innerpeffray. The vast majority of the librarys titles are pre-19th Century and its clear there are plenty of relevant lessons from the past on its shelves. Lara affectionately refers to the hallowed venue as a living library and if youre lucky, you might get the chance to hold Innerpeffrays oldest book in your hands, and get a sense of the past almost coming to life. So when the Keeper declares that back in the 15th Century its Duns Scotus was really hot off the press, you could say, you can understand why. After all, his treatise on theological doctrine was printed in Venice only around 17 years after the arrival of typographic art in the former Adriatic republic, a development that firmly established the publishing industry outside Germany where its widely recognised as having its European origins. Being able to touch the librarys ancient tomes is a joy coronavirus took away, and Lara admits to feeling sad that there remains obvious need for caution. The thing thats special about Innerpeffray is that opportunity to hold the books for yourself and to feel them, she adds. You can feel the temperature of the paper and the way that the leather feels in your hand, and missing that is terrible but were doing what we can. We are able to quarantine books ourselves if somebody makes a special request. I had a seven-year-old a couple of weeks ago who was very engaged with the visit and was admiring the really big books. So we got one of them off the shelf and let him hold it to see how heavy it was, and he was really taken with the fact that it was such a big old book. All we did then was we put that book into a safe space and we left it there for three days and then it went back on the shelf. So that worked, but we cant bring lots and lots of books out in the way that we used to do.
Listening to Lara speak with such obvious passion about her callings importance to learning brings to mind Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeishs wartime observation that librarians are more than mere custodians of print and paper, they are also keepers of the records of the human spirit itself. Ask her how she feels about modern libraries storing a fraction of the number of books contained within Innerpeffrays Category A-listed walls and Lara pauses for a moment. There will always be a place for libraries, she cautiously ventures. They are purveyors of information, and although the information in Innerpeffrays time came from printed books, before that they were handwritten and today a lot of them are digital, and libraries have to respond to that. They have to be what their community needs. Im definitely not against libraries embracing different technologies but I am against closing libraries. I think theyre very important places in our communities. Ive heard some fabulous stories over the lockdown period about the ways libraries have been able to stay in contact with the people who need them as a means of communication socially and of occupying time. Librarians have been very innovative and creative in their solutions to allow the people to keep on using their libraries, which is really heartening. Its that spirit in all whove followed the path of pioneers like Innerpeffray that continues to prove so inspiring for Germaine Greer and countless others.
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LIVING HISTORY: Keeper of the Books at library of the ages - The Courier
How FISAF provides accessible resources for sports and fitness aerobics – The Bridge
Posted: at 11:52 am
Federation of Indian Sports Aerobics and Fitness (FISAF) has the aim to develop sports and fitness aerobics according to international standards. With eminent members in the organization who have been working in sports aerobics for a long time, it has sent players from India to international contests who won medals for the country.
In order to realize their vision for developing sports aerobics all across India at an international level, FISAF India released the initiative of Sports Aerobics Education Program. This provides online resources, training camps, seminars and more, for school students as well as aerobic athletes. With this vision in mind, sports aerobics and fitness will be available to everyone across the country free of cost. This will encourage more participation in sports and fitness aerobics through the younger age groups in FISAF India events. Encouraging early talent is a key to putting India on the global map of sports aerobics.
The aerobics resources consist of five online training videos which can be done any time and do not need any equipment. These videos provide total body exercises that are safe and easy to perform without any risk of injury. People of all age groups can keep fit at home through these aerobic videos which also consist of pre-choreographed routines synced to music. This makes it a fun and challenging exercise.
FISAF INDIA provides these resources for free to encourage the growth of this new era sports and fitness in India. They are encouraging the Fit India movement, which aims to improve the quality of living for many by incorporating fitness into their everyday lifestyle. The organization consists of former international athletes who have been working in sports aerobics from a very long time and have brought about significant change.
Through the availability of easy access to sports aerobics resources, FISAF India is fulfilling the mission to develop Indias sports and fitness aerobics standards to international levels.
Also read:FISAF Paving the way for Indian athletes in sports and fitness aerobics
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How FISAF provides accessible resources for sports and fitness aerobics - The Bridge
7 Pieces Of Home Gym Equipment That Are Worth Buying – E/The Environmental Magazine
Posted: at 11:52 am
According to the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines, adults are recommended to perform at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercises weekly along with at least two strength-training sessions to stay healthy and fit. Whilst exercising outdoors or signing up for a gym membership are both compelling options, setting up a home gym is the most time-efficient, cost-effective, and convenient option for people who like to exercise frequently. There are countless reasons why it might be inconvenient for you to work out in a gym or outdoors. For instance, personal reasons such as busy work schedules and external factors such as bad weather conditions or pandemic outbreaks can interfere with your fitness goals.
One of the most common misconceptions about the home gym is that it requires a lot of costly high-end equipment. However, based on your personal fitness goals and needs, you can optimize your available space with a few pieces of equipment that can benefit you the most.
This article is a guide to 7 pieces of home gym equipment that are well worth buying.
Among the most popular choices of equipment for cardio training, exercise bikes are often the first choice for home gyms as they take up less space than treadmills and are generally more affordable. Moreover, exercise bikes require a minimum amount of maintenance while still suffice your daily needs for cardiovascular training. They are ideal for people with busy schedules as they can help you squeeze in short and effective workouts before or after work without having to travel to the gym and back. Good quality exercise bikes can also track your calories burned as well as heart rates via hand sensors along with basic workout details such as distance, time, and speed.
Exercise bikes are widely available with different price ranges and specific features from simple stationary bikes to pricey folding magnetic bikes. But according to the experts at FlexMasterGeneral.com, the two most popular options are the Peloton and Nordictrack Commercial Studio Cycles for their adjustable seats as well as digital screens for tracking your workout progress. Another feature to look for when looking for one is a good quality flywheel as this will allow users to have a quiet and smooth ride.
When it comes to strength training, resistance bands are often overlooked as people tend to look for weight benches and dumbbells to purchase for their home gyms. However, resistance bands are highly versatile, easy to store, affordable, and lightweight compared to kettlebells, dumbbells, and other exercise equipment. You can use resistance bands at home for multiple workout programs such as planks, sidesteps, and squats. There are resistance bands with different levels of elasticity which change the intensity of your workout.
There are several different ways you can work on your cardiovascular training and rowing is one of the most effective low-impact workouts. If you have a large enough space to spare for your home gym, you should consider investing in an indoor rowing machine. Typically, indoor rowing machines can be separated into two parts to make them easier to store. Rowing machines are total-body workout equipment that can be used for both cardio and muscle toning purposes. Specifically, you can have a full-body exercise with an indoor rowing machine, which focuses mostly on your arms, legs, core, and back. Moreover, in contrast to running, there is less impact on your ankles and knees. Remember to look into the exact measurements of your chosen rowing machine to make sure that your home gym is spacious enough to place it.
If you are looking for a full-rounded workout program, you need to incorporate strength training into your exercise routines. There are various types of fitness equipment that are designed to target different groups of muscles and the most versatile are dumbbells. Because of that, most home gyms are equipped with a few sets of dumbbells in different weights or better yet, have an adjustable pair of dumbbells to help trainers to target most major muscle groups such as arms, chest, legs, and back. Adjustable dumbbells are highly convenient, versatile, and easy to store.
Running on a treadmill is one of the most effective forms of cardiovascular exercise. Treadmills come with different programs and speed features and can be customized with different calorie and heart rate tracking features. Along with exercise bikes, treadmills are among the top choices of cardio equipment for home gyms. Depending on your available space, you may want to consider a treadmill with a folding frame. Prices of treadmills range significantly depending on the in-built features, but for basic home use, a simple model will be all you need.
A good-quality yoga mat can serve you for different fitness activities including yoga practice, pilates, and strength training workouts using your body weight. When choosing your yoga mat, it is important to look for a non-slip mat to avoid potential injuries and maintain good alignment. Moreover, good-quality mats tend to be well cushioned and are easy to wipe clean. Surprisingly, some high-end yoga mats can actually be very expensive, but a regular, multi-purpose yoga mat will only set you back a few dollars.
Medicine balls are versatile pieces of fitness equipment that can be used for a variety of workouts. Medicine balls are great for abdominal workouts and step aerobics. Medicine balls come in a range of weights and sizes, but a large medicine ball can suit most of your needs. You can choose a medicine ball in either hard plastic or a softer foam version depending on what kind of workout you intend to use it for.
Performing frequent physical exercises have numerous health benefits for us both physically and mentally. With a convenient home gym, you can meet your fitness goals and satisfy your exercise needs while saving time that would otherwise be spent commuting to the gym as well as saving a lot of money on a pricey gym membership. Work out more often at home with these 7 pieces of home gym equipment.
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7 Pieces Of Home Gym Equipment That Are Worth Buying - E/The Environmental Magazine
American Horror Story: 5 Actors That Fans Want To See Again (& 5 That Have Been In The Show Enough) – Screen Rant
Posted: at 11:52 am
American Horror Story loves to reuse it's actors each season, but which actors should stick around, and which shouldn't?
Successful horror-themed television shows are few and far between, but Ryan Murphy managed to hit it out of the park with American Horror Story. Though the series is an anthology and has an entirely different premise every season, it is most popular for its unique choice to use primarily the same cast members to play different characters every year.
RELATED:American Horror Story: 10 Actors You Forgot Appeared In The Series
Fans gets to see their favorite actors and actresses tackle a variety of roles, but this also means that some of them may wear out their welcome over time. The hit horror anthology is currently preparing to begin filmingits mysterious 10th season, and is sure to include a few familiar faces. Take a look at 5 stars that fans are eager to see more of in future seasons, and 5 that have been less popular.
The daughter of the late Carrie Fisherand granddaughter of Debbie Reynolds, Billie Lourd comes from a line of actresses brimming with talent and personality.
Throughout herAmerican Horror Story career, she has graced the screen in three separate roles in Cult,Apocalypse, and finally as the aerobics-obsessed Montana in 1984.Lourd has proven herself as a versatile actress that brings uniqueness to each performance, and she is a credit to the series.She is confirmed to appear in season 10, though little is known about her role.
Chlo Sevigny has previously won a Golden Globe for herperformance as Nicki GrantinBig Love, but herAmerican Horror Storycharacters blend together and are associated with either convoluted or less than exciting plot lines.
Despite being a sympathetic character with an intriguing past in Asylum, her inclusion was not particularly important to the overall arc of the season. In Hotel, her character is even less interesting and often frustrating to watch as she makes continuallyconfusing choices.
Leslie Jordan first starred in American Horror Story: Coven as a warlock and member of the Witches Council. He has also had small roles in Roanoke and 1984. Known for his short stature and his Southern accent, he owns the qualities that some may mock, and he carries himself with confidence and good humor.
RELATED:American Horror Story: Every Character Leslie Jordan Played
These traits bleed into his characters and make them both funny and likable even if theyre not very good people. Jordan is always entertaining to watch and bringsa fun sense of flair to his roles.
Theres a certain nostalgia about Dylan McDermott. Hes been with the show from the beginning, and his role as the cheating husband and at-home therapist, Ben Harmon, is memorable because it was the premiere season. Unfortunately, his characters have lacked oomph, and some are nothing more than a cameo or a shocking plot twist.
This can especially be said of Johnny Morgan. Asylumhad too many plots to juggle.The son of Bloodyface intent on following in his fathers footsteps was just a confusing blur after the aliens and the Nazis.
Angela Bassett is a stand out performer that brings a certain intoxicating charisma to her characters, while still giving them a distinct life of their own. Starring in four seasons, Bassett has quite the American Horror Story resume. She has appeared in Coven, Freak Show, Hotel, and Roanoke.
RELATED:Angela Bassett's 10 Best Movies Of The Past Decade (According To IMDb)
Her outstanding performance as voodoo queen Marie Laveau earned her an Emmy nomination. She was nominated for a second year in a row for her portrayal of side show entertainer, Desiree Dupree.
Previously known for his roles in American Beauty and Hunger Games, Wes Bentley has appeared in three seasons of American Horror Story. He was first featured in Freakshow as the ghost of Edward Mordrake.
His most prominent role in the show has been in Hotel. He played John Lowe, a depressed, alcoholic detectivewho checks into the Hotel Cortez while trying to solve a series of murders. Bentley is a decent actor, but his characters in American Horror Story have just lacked a certain something.
Best known for his incredible work as Michael Langdon in Apocalypse, Australian newcomer Cody Fern may be a fresh face when it comes to the series, but he has proven himself to be an excellent actor with considerable range.
He easily shifts from the calm but sinister Anti-Christ in season 8, to a flamboyant aerobics instructor and camp counselor in 1984. He is yet to be confirmed for a role in season 10, but knowing American Horror Story, anything can happen.
Lead singer of Maroon 5 and former judge on The Voice, Adam Levine has a long history in show business, but had no business being on American Horror Story. Though he was only in a few scenes as a horror enthusiast on a "haunted honeymoon", the scenes felt cheesy, jarring, and out of place.
RELATED:American Horror Story: 10 Things That Make No Sense About Asylum
Most ofAsylum takes place in 1950's Massachusetts, but Levine's characterconnectsthe season with a modern timeline to set up the return of Bloodyface. It was a confusing mess.
If there is one truth, it is that Lady Gaga is a goddess and fans need her to graceAmerican Horror Storywith her presence more often. She had a small role as the ancient witch,Scthach, in season 6's mockumentary "My Roanoke Nightmare", but her true talent shone in Hotel.
Elegant, refined, and as deadly as they come, The Countess is the fierce and fashionable owner of the Hotel Cortezand oh yeah, she's also a vampire. Known for her Oscar nominated performance in A Star Is Born, Lady Gaga brings style and a deep emotion to any role she takes.
Known for playing the snobby mean girl, Emma Roberts is the source of countless memes for her memorable role as Madison Montgomery. One of the most frequently recurring stars on the show, Roberts has appeared in Coven, Freakshow, Cult, Apocalypse, and 1984.
Most of her character have similar traits, andthe trope of mean girl with a little bit of a heart gets tired. Even when the character isconsiderably different, like Brooke Thompson in 1984, there isnt anything particularly unique about the way that Roberts chooses to play them.
NEXT:American Horror Story: 10 Movies And Shows You Recognize The Cast From
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Currently working as a freelance writer due to her passion for the entertainment industry, Alexandra is also a screenwriter and has degrees in Film Production and Fine Arts. Along with her work for ScreenRant, she has also contributed to Valnet's sister sites, GameRant and The Things.
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