title: Superman logo

text: Initially, the S-shield had one meaning: "S" for Superman. One of the first alternative meanings was presented in "Superman: The Movie", in which it was not an "S", but rather the "S"-shaped Coat of arms of the House of El as it was Brando's idea to have Jor-El wear the "S" as a family crest, folklore spun off from there. After the Superman reboot story "The Man of Steel", the symbol's story was that it was designed by Jonathan Kent and was derived from an ancient Native American symbol. The symbol was featured on a medicine blanket given to an ancestor of the Kent family by a Native American tribe after he helped to cure them of a plague and was supposed to represent a snake, an animal held to possess healing powers by the tribe (implying that, by wearing this symbol, Superman was a metaphorical healer). This was also included in the 1997 Superman encyclopedia. In 2004, Mark Waid's "" series says the S-Shield is the Kryptonian symbol for "hope" and Superman believes it may have begun as a coat of arms for the House of El. Later, writer Geoff Johns confirmed it was indeed a coat of arms, as well as a symbol for hope. In the 2013 film "Man of Steel", when asked by Lois Lane what the "S" stands for, Superman states that it is not an "S", but rather the Kryptonian symbol for "hope", and explaining that the design is based on a river in the 2017 film "Justice League".


title: Superman logo

text: In "Supergirl" (TV series, 2015) Season 1, episode 2 Kara states that the Kryptonian symbol stands for her family's motto, "Stronger together."


title: Superman logo

text: Marv Wolfman's novelization of the film "Superman Returns" depicts the symbol as belonging to one of the three primary houses of Krypton that brought peace to the planet after a civil uprising, a serpent coiled inside a shield, a warning not to return to the ways of violence and deception. The shield has since been taken as a coat of arms, resulting in Jor-El's continued presence in the council despite his "mad" findings. The other two are merely described, including Pol-Us' eye of vigilance and Kol-Ar's open hand of truth and justice.


title: Superman logo

text: In almost all versions, Superman's red cape has an all-yellow version of the logo, with a thin black (in the comics) or red (in movies, matching the red color of the cape) line separating the areas. A notable exception is in "", where the logo was absent from Superman's cape. This was due to the difficulty in animating the S on the flowing cape. In the 2006 film "Superman Returns", the logo appeared on the belt buckle in reverse colors (yellow diamond and S with red background pieces) instead of on Superman's cape. The logo is also absent from Superman's cape in the 2013 film "Man of Steel" due to the difficulty of animating a cape with the logo in CGI shots. In the 2011 reboot of the comic book series, on his cape is a black pentagon and S with a red background piece.


title: Superman logo

text: In the 1960s the tiny bottle city of Kandor, the miniaturized capital city of the planet Krypton, resided in Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Originally, certain inhabitants resembling Kal-El formed the Superman Emergency Squad and would, on occasion, leave the bottle, enter the Earth's atmosphere and gain super powers in order to aid Superman. As designed by artist Curt Swan, their uniforms were similar to that of Superman save for the 'S' on their chests which resembled the early version, the 'S' and border in red on a yellow field, but in an elongated triangle.


title: Superman logo

text: During the "Reign of the Supermen" story arc, Each of the four different Supermen was represented by a variant of the symbol, which each wore on their person.


title: Superman logo

text: Kryptonian family members of Superman wear the symbol, but sometimes it is worn to honor Superman. After the death of Superman, many DC Comics superheroes wore a black armband with the Superman logo.


title: Superman logo

text: In the television series "Smallville", an octagonal silver metallic key is used in the Kawatche caves, as well as in a transport device used to travel to the Fortress of Solitude. Along the edges are imprinted Kryptonian characters, one of which is the diamond border of the Superman shield with a figure 8 inside of the diamond instead of the S. The 8-shield is later described as being from an ancient form of the Kryptonian language (in the Kryptonian alphabet employed in the 2004 storyline "The Supergirl from Krypton", it corresponds to the letter S), while the modern symbol is the familiar S-shield. The familiar S-shield is seen in season 9. It is used as Clark Kent's calling card in his vigilante actions in Metropolis. Clark, known as the Blur, burns the sign using his heat vision in various places throughout the city. In the season 9 episode "Rabid", Clark mentions while talking to Oliver Queen that the mark ""gives people hope.""


title: Brooklynn Prince

text: Brooklynn Prince (born May 4, 2010) is an American child actress widely known for her critically acclaimed role in the 2017 film "The Florida Project", for which she won the Critics Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer. She has since starred in the horror film "The Turning" and the streaming television series "Home Before Dark."


title: Brooklynn Prince

text: Prince's parents, including her acting coach mother, began her career at age two, as she appeared in print and screen advertisements for Parenting, Chuck E. Cheese's, and Visit Orlando, among others.


title: Brooklynn Prince

text: In 2017, she starred in "The Florida Project", for which she received critical praise. Director Sean Baker has said that Brooklynn was the Spanky in his take on the "Little Rascals". She has since taken leading roles in "" and "The Angry Birds Movie 2".


title: Brooklynn Prince

text: In 2020, Prince starred in the horror film "The Turning". She headlined the Apple TV+ series "Home Before Dark", which is based on the life of Hilde Lysiak, a nine-year-old journalist. She also starred in the Disney+ movie "The One and Only Ivan", voicing Ruby the elephant.


title: Sex robot

text: Sex robots or sexbots are anthropomorphic robotic sex dolls that have a humanoid form, human-like movement or behavior, and some degree of artificial intelligence. , although elaborately instrumented sex dolls have been created by a number of inventors, no fully animated sex robots yet exist. Simple devices have been created which can speak, make facial expressions, or respond to touch.


title: Sex robot

text: There is controversy as to whether developing them would be morally justifiable. In 2015, Robot ethicist Kathleen Richardson called for a ban on the creation of anthropomorphic sex robots with concerns about normalizing relationships with machines and reinforcing female dehumanization. Questions about their ethics, effects, and possible legal regulations have been discussed since then.


title: Sex robot

text: People who are sexually attracted to sexbots are sometimes referred to as "digisexuals" or "robosexuals".


title: Sex robot

text: Sexbots with a male shape design may be referred to as "malebots" or "manbots". Gender neutral terms for sex robots include pleasure bot or sex droid. Sexbots with a female shape design have been referred to as "chick-bots" or "fembots".


title: Sex robot

text: The sex robot has evolved from sex doll precursors that stem back as far as the 16th century, during which French and Spanish sailors created hand-sewn masturbation puppets made of cloth, leather and old clothes. Many scholars consider this creation to be the direct predecessor of modern sex dolls. Much of the inspiration for creating the modern sex doll came from mannequin-based art created by Hans Bellmer, Man Ray and Salvador Dalí. Man Ray claimed that surrealists, including himself and Dalí, infused their work with eroticism and personally "violated" their mannequins. For example, Dalí's "Rainy Taxi" centered on a female mannequin whose half-undressed body was crawling with live snails.


title: Sex robot

text: By 1968, inflatable dolls were first advertised in pornographic magazines and became available for purchase via mail. These sex dolls were inflatable with air; consisting of penetration areas at the mouth, vagina, and anus. However, due to their inflatable nature, these dolls were subject to deterioration and were not sustainable for constant use. By the 1970s, materials such as latex and silicone were widely used in the manufacturing of sex dolls to facilitate enhanced durability and a greater resemblance to a human.


title: Sex robot

text: The realism of sex dolls greatly accelerated in the late 1990s. In 1997, Matt McMullen began constructing lifelike, tin-cured silicone rubber mannequins called RealDolls that were "realistic, posable, and life-sized". McMullen received much criticism about the anatomical correctness of his mannequins; using this as motivation to create a more enhanced version. In 2009, McMullen switched to using platinum-cured material, instead of tin-cured silicone, to further enhance the durability and lifelike nature of the doll. Consequently, all other sex doll manufacturers have followed suit.


title: Sex robot

text: Many manufacturers, including Matt McMullen, believed that companionship is a critical part of the sexbot dynamic and that incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into them is the next step. As of 2018, various new models have been constructed to hold conversations, remember important facts, and express various emotions. One such model is "Harmony", created by McMullen, which is customizable by using a mobile app, where users can choose from "thousands of possible combinations of looks, clothes, personalities and voices to make your perfect companion".


title: Sex robot

text: Sex robots are still in a relatively early stage of development. While sex dolls have been available on the market for more than 20 years and there are accordingly established doll owner communities available for research, experienced users of sex robots are hardly to be found so far. Nevertheless, the topic of sex robots has been treated quite intensively in international research since 2007, triggered by David Levy's monograph "Love and Sex With Robots". A systematic research review from the year 2020 was able to identify 98 international academic publications on sex robots. These academic sex robot publications focus on the following six research questions:


title: Sex robot

text: The majority of the available academic sex robot publications deals with ethical aspects, focusing on both currently available sex robots (that have only very limited artificial intelligence and interactivity) and future sex robots (that are envisioned as being sentient and having a free will). While at least some findings on experienced users are available on sex dolls, corresponding empirical data on sex robot users are missing. The academic sex robot discourse is – similar to the public discourse – so far characterized by relatively striking ideas about strong positive or strong negative effects of sex robots. Weak as well as ambivalent effects, which are theoretically and empirically most probable, are rarely discussed.


title: Sex robot

text: Likewise, sex robots are often regarded and criticized as predetermined products. Rarely is it considered in the state of research so far that the appearance as well as the functions and target groups of sex robots can be actively designed, for example by and for women, queer people, older people or people with disabilities. Those human-centered design processes can be the subject of academic sex robot research as well.


title: Sex robot

text: The sex robot research community meets at the "International Love and Sex With Robots Conference" series initiated by David Levy held for the sixth time in 2021 as the "6th International Congress on Love & Sex with Robots".


title: Sex robot

text: In 2014, David Levy, a chess champion and the author of "Love and Sex with Robots" said in an interview with "Newsweek" that "I believe that loving sex robots will be a great boon to society ... There are millions of people out there who, for one reason or another, cannot establish good relationships." He estimates that this will take place by the mid-21st century.


title: Sex robot

text: In 2017, MIT Press published the first book on this topic, "Robot Sex", with a preliminary approach to the several challenges this field represents for human beings and societies.


title: Sex robot

text: Scholars such as Hojjat Abdollahi argue that these robots can act as "robot companions" that aid elderly people with dementia or depression. After conducting a study on many elderly patients, it was found that elderly individuals were interested in having an intimate robot as their companion and their interest did not decay over time. He further explains that these patients established meaningful rapport with the robot companion and that they greatly valued its presence. Bioethicist Nancy S. Jecker also suggests that older people with disabilities lose their sexual functioning because of physical changes, due to aging and disease, but also because of social stigma and scorn. Jecker argues that these robots are a way to "support dignity" and continue the ability to be sexual by dispelling ageism and negative stereotypes about later-life sexuality. The robot companion "Paro", created by Takanori Shibata, has been used since 2009 as a therapeutic machine for the elderly suffering with dementia as well as those suffering from depression and anxiety. Paro is designed to respond to touch, remember faces and learn certain actions that promote a favorable reaction in the patient. Although Paro was not designed to be a sex robot specifically, Paro is an example of how intelligent machines could become a suitable therapeutic option.


title: Sex robot

text: Some manufacturers have also argued that their introductions into prisons may reduce prison rape and sexual tension in prison. Prison inmates suffer from both separation from their partners and the limited possibility of gaining such a partner in prison, and they often turn to sexual harassment and the threat of rape as a result. Scholars like Oliver Bendel suggest that sex robots could be the solution to establishing sexual health and diminishing sexual tensions beyond in prison.


title: Sex robot

text: Manufacturers have also suggested sex robots may alleviate sexlessness in encumbered professions such as long-haul truck drivers or all-male oil rigs. Sex robots can also help avoid problems of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual violence, which would be issues in brothels and with prostitutes.


title: Sex robot

text: There are ongoing attempts to make sex dolls socially interactive. In 2010, a sex doll called Roxxxy, that had the capacity to play back pre-recorded speech cues, was demonstrated at a trade show. In 2015, Matt McMullen, the creator of the RealDoll stated that he intended to create intelligent sex dolls with the capacity to hold conversations.


title: Sex robot

text: Barcelona-based Dr. Sergi Santos developed a sex robot named Samantha; the robot can switch between a "sex mode" (which can include Samantha simulating a female orgasm) and a "family mode", in which it can also can tell jokes and discuss philosophy.


title: Sex robot

text: In 2017, Matt McMullen created a sex doll called "Harmony", which has the capability of learning about the personal preferences, wants and desires of the owner. Furthermore, Harmony can smile, blink and frown in a nearly human-like fashion. She can hold a conversation, tell jokes, remember food preferences, and the names of the owner's siblings. The cost of Harmony is said to be roughly $15,000. During an onstage interview with Engadget in 2018, Matt McMullen demonstrated that the skin on Harmony's face could be peeled off and replaced with different skin. He subsequently added a different colored wig and changed her personality by using the app on his handheld device that controls the robot. He named this sex doll "Solana" and considers it to be the "sister" of Harmony.


title: Sex robot

text: Also in 2017, Chinese company AI Tech released a sex robot named "Emma" that could talk in both English and Chinese. Emma has built in sensors that cause it to moan when touched and can be heated to a human body temperature. The robot also uses AI so that the more you interact with her, the cleverer she will become in responding.


title: Sex robot

text: Other companies such as Doll Sweet, Lux Botics, MISSDOLL, and Eden Robotics are in the process of developing sex robots with automated movements. Using animatronics, Roberto Cardenas, an entrepreneur for Eden Robotics, claims that his Android Love Dolls are capable of placing themselves in 20 different sex positions with the help of AI body movement. Current sex robots on the market are not able to perform any full body movements.


title: Sex robot

text: In 2018, Realbotix, the company behind the RealDoll, announced the creation of the first-ever male sex bot, Henry. Henry will have a customizable bionic penis will be able to "go as long as you want" as it plugs into electricity instead of using batteries. Buyers will also be able to order a customizable robotic head that can be controlled by an app on the user's phone.


title: Sex robot

text: In September 2015, Kathleen Richardson of De Montfort University and Erik Billing of the University of Skövde created the "", calling for a ban on the creation of anthropomorphic sex robots. Richardson is critical of David Levy and argues that the introduction of such devices would be socially harmful and demeaning to women and children.


title: Sex robot

text: In September 2015, the Japanese company Softbank, the makers of the "Pepper" robot, included a ban on robot sex. The robot's user agreement states: "The policy owner must not perform any sexual act or other indecent behaviour".


title: Sex robot

text: Noel Sharkey, Aimee van Wynsberghe, and Eleanor Hancock of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics released a consultation report presenting a summary of the issues and various opinions about what could be society's intimate association with robots. The report includes an examination of how such robots could be employed as a rehabilitative tool for sex criminals such as serial rapists or pedophiles. Sharkey warns that this could be "problematic" in terms of sex dolls resembling children and adolescents.


title: Sex robot

text: There is considerable speculation about such technology coming from experts in the fields of philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. John P. Sullins of Sonoma State University believes that sex robots will facilitate "social isolation" and Lydia Kaye of Central Saint Martins argue that sexual relations with robots will "desensitize humans to intimacy and empathy". Furthermore, according to Chauntelle Tibbals, "nothing can replace the joy, sorrow, passion, and pain of an actual, unpredictable human interaction." She further argues that only when interacting with another human can we experience our humanity and our identity, as opposed to interacting with a robot.


title: Sex robot

text: The sex robots that have been created, as of 2018, primarily resemble women with exaggeratedly hyperfeminine features. In Barcelona, a sex doll brothel allows men to act out their fantasies where they can choose from a selection of flexible silicone dolls and request that they be dressed in whatever outfit the man prefers. Kathleen Richardson argues that these sex robots facilitate a powerful attitude towards women's bodies as commodities, and promote a non-empathetic interaction. Experts argue that improving the gender diversity of those involved in developing this sex technology could help reduce possible harm, such as the objectification of women.


title: Sex robot

text: Many scholars, including Richardson, argue that this reinforces the idea that women are property rather than human beings with free will. Scholars such as Robert Sparrow from Monash University argue that the creation of realistic female sex robots, with the ability to refuse consent, further facilitates a rape culture. He believes that sex with these robots represents the "rape of a woman" and may increase the rate of rape in society, while also facilitating a general "disrespect for women" in society. Furthermore, a sex robot called "Frigid Farah", whose personality is described as "reserved and shy", has caught the attention of several scholars. The manufacturer claimed that if you touch her "in a private area, more than likely, she will not be too appreciative of your advance". Many scholars view this as indulging rape fantasies and facilitating a rape culture.


title: Sex robot

text: The Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots (CREEPER) Act, sponsored by Daniel M. Donovan, Jr., was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on 13 June 2018. The bill would amend the federal obscenity statute, to criminalize importation and transportation for interstate commerce any "anatomically-correct doll, mannequin, or robot, with the features of, or with features that resemble those of, a minor, intended for use in sexual acts." Bob Goodlatte stated that "these dolls create a real risk of reinforcing pedophilic behavior and they desensitize the user causing him to engage in sicker and sicker behavior". Australia and the United Kingdom already have such bans. Critics of the bill argue that it is unconstitutional and/or unnecessary. The bill is said to have died in the senate in 2018. Vern Buchanan is said to reintroduce an amended version of the bill in 2020.


title: Sex robot

text: The "First International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots" was held in Funchal, Madeira in November 2014. The conference was coordinated by Professor Adrian David Cheok and Dr. David Levy. The main discussion revolved around the debate of where to draw the line with regard to cybernetic love and relationships and what the future of love and sex with robots has in store. Additional topics of discussion during the conference included humanoid robots, robot emotions, roboethics, and philosophical approaches. In October 2015 a second conference scheduled for November 2015 in Malaysia was declared illegal by the Malaysian Inspector-General of Police. The second conference was eventually held in the United Kingdom in December 2016, chaired by Dr. Kate Devlin at Goldsmiths, University of London. Devlin also founded the UK's first ever sex tech hackathon, also held in 2016 at Goldsmiths.


title: Sex robot

text: In 2016, a discussion of these issues was held at the 12th IFIP TC9 Human Choice & Computers Conference, entitled "Technology and Intimacy: Choice or Coercion?". The conference was coordinated by Dr. David Kreps from Salford University. The overall aim of the conference was to "scrutinize the journey from impersonal monolithic technology towards the intimate intertwining of devices and the self". A prospective outlook on how these technologies will evolve was closely examined. Some of the main themes discussed during the conference were intimacy, personalization, material culture and sexual relationships with robots. In September 2018, the 13th IFIP TC9 Human Choice & Computers Conference "This Changes Everything" was held in Poznan, Poland. The conference was led and directed by David Kreps, Kai Kimppa, Louise Leenen, and Charles Ess. The discussion was focused on the societal and ethical implications posed by artificial intelligence, privacy concerns, and how such technologies have significantly shifted computational strategies and altered the world people live in.


title: Sex robot

text: Intimacy with robots, artificial intelligence and other human-constructed items are saturated in the media landscape. They provoke questions about what love is, why people crave the need for affection, and challenge pre-existing beliefs of what it means to be human.


title: Sex robot

text: Originally published in 1886, the novel "Tomorrow's Eve" centers around a fictionalized Thomas Edison, who creates a female robot for his lonely patron. While the robot's beauty is apparent, the robot lacks the emotional capabilities to fulfill that hole in his heart.


title: Sex robot

text: Fritz Lang's 1927 film "Metropolis" contains the robot Maria as a central figure, who is portrayed as sexually alluring.


title: Sex robot

text: Several episodes of the 1960's television show "" featured female androids as companions of the protagonist, notably "Andrea" from episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" and "Rayna" from episode "Requiem for Methuselah". As with television censorship of the time sexuality is only alluded to. Both episodes employ the plot device of having the android struggle to comprehend human emotion.


title: Sex robot

text: Ridley Scott's 1982 film "Blade Runner" depicts the android characters Pris, Rachel and Zhora as having been manufactured to be sexually alluring; Pris, in particular, is referred to as "a basic pleasure model".


title: Sex robot

text: The 2001 film "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" has a male sex robot, Gigolo Joe, as a main character. Joe describes that humans love what robots do for them, but cannot love them since they are not flesh and blood, and in the end, hate them. A Gigolo Jane female model also briefly appears in the film.


title: Sex robot

text: "Futurama" has two episodes involving robots and organic beings, "I Dated a Robot" and "Proposition Infinity".


title: Sex robot

text: The 2007 film "Lars and the Real Girl" explores the idea of a romantic attachment to artificial human-like items. Ultimately, the film concludes with the protagonist "murdering" his sex doll lover in a river: emphasizing the projection of one's idealized lover onto an inanimate object.


title: Sex robot

text: The 2014 film "Ex Machina" questions common notions about consciousness. A sentient female robot is created with a violent outcome, rebelling against her creators. Throughout the story, "Ex Machina" appears to empathize with the robot as a victim of a man with a god complex. Responding to the protagonist's uncertainty about her fate if she does not live up to her creator's standards, the robot, Ava, responds "Why is it up to anyone?" about whether or not she lives. This questions the audience's underlying belief about whether or not a robot is entitled to a free life like other conscious beings.


title: Sex robot

text: In the 2016 TV series "Westworld", realistic interactive robots, part of a theme park, engage in sexual and other activity with guests.


title: Sex robot

text: The 2020 satirical dystopian fiction novel "Ride, Sally, Ride" by Douglas Wilson centers on the cultural impact of charging a man with murder for destroying a sex robot which was claimed to be a legal spouse by its owner.


title: Fences (play)

text: Fences is a 1985 play by American playwright August Wilson. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson's ten-part "Pittsburgh Cycle". Like all of the "Pittsburgh" plays, "Fences" explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes. The play won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play. "Fences" was first developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 1983 National Playwrights Conference and premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1985.


title: Fences (play)

text: The focus of Wilson's attention in "Fences" is Troy, a 53-year-old working-class head of household who struggles with providing for his family. The play takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; although never officially named, it makes mention of several key locations in Pittsburgh. In his younger days, Troy was an excellent player in Negro league baseball and continued practicing baseball while serving time in prison for a murder he had committed during a robbery. Because the color barrier had not yet been broken in Major League Baseball, Troy was unable to get into the MLB to make good money or to save for the future. He now lives a menial, though respectable, blue-collar life of trash collecting; later in the play, he remarkably crosses the race barrier and becomes the first Black truck driver in Pittsburgh instead of just a barrel lifter.


title: Fences (play)

text: Troy lives with his wife, Rose and his teenage son, Cory. He has a younger brother Gabe, a World War II veteran whose war injury to his head has caused him noticeable psychological damage. Gabe had received $3,000 from the government, and Troy took control of this money to purchase a home for his family, including a room for Gabe. A short time before the play's opening, Gabriel has rented a room elsewhere, but still in the neighborhood. Lyons is Troy's older son from a previous marriage, and lives outside the home. Bono is Troy's best friend and co-worker.


title: Fences (play)

text: The play begins on payday, with Troy and Bono drinking and talking. Troy's character is revealed through his speech about how he went up to their boss, Mr. Rand, and asked why Black men are not allowed to drive garbage trucks; Rose and Lyons join in the conversation. Lyons, a musician, has come to borrow money from Troy, confident that he will receive it, and promises to pay him back because his girlfriend Bonnie just got a job. Troy, who is a rigid believer in hard work and responsibility, belittles his son because he refuses to find a real job as Troy did rather than pursuing his dream of becoming a musician.


title: Fences (play)

text: Cory tells Troy and Rose about an opportunity for a college football scholarship. Troy tells Cory he will not let his son play football for fear of racial discrimination, just as Troy believes he experienced when he wanted a career in the National leagues. However, it is suggested later on that Troy told Cory's coach that his son is no longer able to play football. When Cory discovers this, he and Troy get into a fight resulting in Troy sending Cory to his room. Later, it is revealed that Troy's age after serving a prison sentence, not his race, may have been the primary factor. Father and son argue about Troy's actions, but Troy stubbornly does not back down from his argument and kicks Cory out of the house. Later it is revealed that Cory enlisted in the military after this event.


title: Fences (play)

text: Troy admits to Rose that he has been having an affair and that his mistress, Alberta, is pregnant. Later, Alberta dies in childbirth. Troy brings his baby daughter Raynell home, and Rose agrees to raise the girl as her own, saying: "From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man." She remains in the family home but the couple are estranged; she refuses to accept Troy back into her life.


title: Fences (play)

text: Seven years later, Troy has died. Cory comes home for a visit from the military where he is a corporal in the Marines. He initially refuses to go to his father's funeral due to long-standing resentment, but he is convinced by his mother to pay his respects to his father — the man who, though hard-headed and often poor at demonstrating affection, nevertheless loved his son. The family say their farewells to Troy and offer forgiveness that may not be fully deserved.


title: Fences (play)

text: The brother Gabriel is potentially an allegory to salvation. Other than being actually named Gabriel, like the angel, Gabe wears a trumpet, constantly chases away unseen "hellhounds", and regularly believes himself to be speaking with Saint Peter. At the end, just before Troy's funeral, the family gathers around Gabe in the yard. He blows three times into his trumpet, but no sound comes out. In a moment of trance, Gabe begins to dance and sing. The sun breaks through the clouds while the family looks on. Troy is at last delivered and the rest of the family is too; each seeming to find peace in their relationship with Troy.


title: Fences (play)

text: The fence referred to by the play's title is built over many years and is revealed to be finished only in the final act of the play. It is not obvious as to why Troy wants to build it, but a dramatic monologue in the second act shows how he conceptualizes it as an allegory — to keep the Grim Reaper away. The fence is also symbolic of the emotional barrier that Troy erected between himself and his sons, one from each of his adult relationships. Rose also wanted Troy to build the fence as a symbolic means of securing what was her own, keeping what belonged inside in (her family), and making what should stay outside, stay out.


title: Fences (play)

text: "Fences" was first developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's 1983 National Playwrights Conference.


title: Fences (play)

text: It premiered at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1985, under the direction of Lloyd Richards (who was then Artistic Director of the Yale Rep), with a cast of James Earl Jones (Troy Maxson), Mary Alice (Rose), Ray Aranha (Jim Bono), Russell Costen (Gabriel), and Courtney B. Vance (Cory).


title: Fences (play)

text: The play's first Broadway production was staged at the 46th Street Theatre on March 26, 1987, and closed on June 26, 1988, after 525 performances and 11 previews. Directed by Lloyd Richards, the first Broadway cast remained largely the same as that of the Yale Rep premiere: James Earl Jones (Troy Maxson), Mary Alice (Rose), Ray Aranha (Jim Bono), Frankie Faison (Gabriel), and Courtney B. Vance (Cory). The production won the Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play (James Earl Jones), Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play (Mary Alice), and Best Direction of a Play (Lloyd Richards), as well as the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Actor in a Play (Jones), and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Alice). It also received Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Faison and Vance).


title: Fences (play)

text: The first Broadway revival of the play opened at the Cort Theatre on April 26, 2010, with a limited 13-week engagement. Directed by Kenny Leon, the production starred Denzel Washington (Troy Maxson) and Viola Davis (Rose) as the married couple struggling with changing U.S. race relations. The revival was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, winning three for Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor in a Play (Denzel Washington), and Best Actress in a Play (Viola Davis).


title: Fences (play)

text: In August, 1990, the play received its premiere production in the UK by Liverpool Playhouse in association with West End producer, Bill Kenwright, in a production by Temba Theatre Company's artistic director, Alby James, starring Hollywood movie star Yaphet Kotto as the protagonist Troy Maxson, and coming star, Adrian Lester, as his son, Cory. "Financial Times" critic Alastair Macaulay wrote: "Congratulations to the Liverpool Playhouse for presenting this, its British premiere, and for doing it proud...' and 'The director Alby James has done wonders in making his largely English cast absolutely persuasive as these Americans."


title: Fences (play)

text: In 2013, the play was revived again in the UK by Theatre Royal Bath, starring Lenny Henry as Troy Maxson and directed by Paulette Randall. This production transferred to the Duchess Theatre in London's West End for a run that lasted between June and September 2013. Henry's performance attracted wide acclaim. Giles Broadbent from the "Wharf" said, “Lenny Henry is immense.” Charles Spencer from "The Telegraph" said of Henry: "He is, and I don’t use the word lightly, magnificent." Jane Shilling, also from the "Telegraph" said: "What you don’t expect is to find Henry entirely unrecognisable in the physically and morally immense character he embodies." "Best of Theatre" said: "You may love or loathe his comedy but it is impossible to deny Lenny Henry's determination to become a serious actor of some note." Paul Taylor from "The Independent" said, “the performance cements Henry's status as a serious actor.” Henry Hitchings from the "London Evening Standard" said, "He's on superb form". Simon Edge from the "Express" said, "Henry gives a perfectly controlled performance, combining physical poise with an armoury of carefully judged vocal ticks and facial mannerisms." Of the production as a whole, Hitchings commented that ""Fences" is dense and unsettling. It's brave to programme such a meaty, daunting piece during the summer months". Camilla Gurlter from "A Younger Theatre" described it as “very heavy and with its nearly three hours of lost hope and broken dreams it can feel long and depressing".


title: Fences (play)

text: A film adaptation of "Fences", directed by Denzel Washington, and starring Washington and Viola Davis reprising their roles from the 2010 Broadway revival, completed production in 2016. The film was released nationally on December 25, 2016, in the U.S. and was released on February 3, 2017, in the UK. The film was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2016, and has been nominated for numerous awards, including four Oscar nominations at the 89th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Washington), Best Supporting Actress (Davis), and Best Adapted Screenplay, with Davis winning for her performance. It also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for Washington and a Best Supporting Actress win for Davis.


title: Concertina

text: A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front.


title: Concertina

text: The concertina was developed independently in both England and Germany. The English version was invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, while Carl Friedrich Uhlig introduced the German version five years later, in 1834. Various forms of concertini are used for classical music, for the traditional musics of Ireland, England, and South Africa, and for tango and polka music.


title: Concertina

text: The word "concertina" refers to a family of hand-held bellows-driven free reed instruments constructed according to various "systems", which differ in terms of keyboard layout, and whether individual buttons (keys) produce the same (unisonoric) or different (bisonoric) notes with changes in the direction of air pressure.


title: Concertina

text: Because the concertina was developed nearly contemporaneously in England and Germany, systems can be broadly divided into English, Anglo-German, and German types. To a player proficient in one of these systems, a concertina of a different system may be quite unfamiliar.


title: Concertina

text: The "English concertina" and the "Duet concertina" bear similarities in history and construction. Both systems generally play a chromatic scale and are unisonoric, with each key producing the same note whether the bellows are being pushed or pulled. Both of these English instruments are smaller than German concertinas, and are usually hexagonal in shape, though occasionally featuring 8, 10, or 12 sides. The English system alternates the notes of the scale between two hands, enabling rapid melodies. The duet system features the lower notes on the left, and higher notes on the right, facilitating the playing of interlaced harmonies and melodies.


title: Concertina

text: The English concertina is credited to Sir Charles Wheatstone, who first patented such a design in 1829 in Great Britain. Wheatstone was also the first to patent a duet concertina, in 1844.


title: Concertina

text: German concertinas, developed in Germany for its local market and diaspora, are usually larger than English concertinas, and are generally bisonoric, using a different style of "long plate" reeds, and are often square, as opposed to hexagonal. German concertinas also sometimes have more than one reed per note, which produces a vibrato effect if their tuning differs slightly .


title: Concertina

text: Various German concertina systems share common construction features and core keyboard layout. In the United States, particularly in the Midwest where there are many German and Central European descendants, the term "concertina" often refers to the Chemnitzer concertina, which is bisonoric and closely related to the bandoneon, but features a different keyboard layout and decorative style, including a few mechanical innovations pioneered by German-American instrument builder and inventor Otto Schlicht. A related variant is the Carlsfelder concertina from C. F. Zimmerman, created in 1849 and shown at the 1851 London Industrial Exposition.


title: Concertina

text: The bandoneon (also rendered bandoneón, bandonion) is a German concertina system with an original bisonoric layout devised by Heinrich Band. Although intended as a substitute for the organ in small churches and chapels, it was soon secularized and is now associated with tango music, due to the instrument's popularity in Argentina since the late 19th century when tango developed from various dance styles in Argentina and Uruguay. Though the typical bandoneon is bisonoric, the 1920s saw the development of unisonoric variants such as the Ernst Kusserow and Charles Peguri systems, both introduced around 1925. Bandoneons typically have more than one reed per button, dry-tuned with the reeds an octave apart. "Dry" means that vibrato is absent because the tuning is accurate. The instrument is considered an essential part of the Argentine tango orchestra.


title: Concertina

text: The "Anglo" or "Anglo-German" concertina is, historically, a hybrid between the English and German concertinas. The button layouts are generally the same as the original 20-button German concertinas designed by Uhlig in 1834, and in a bisonoric system. Within a few years of its invention, the "German concertina" was a popular import in England, Ireland, and North America, due to its ease of use and relatively low price. English manufacturers responded to this popularity by offering their own versions using traditional English methods: concertina reeds instead of long-plate reeds, independent pivots for each button, and hexagon-shaped ends, resulting in the modern Anglo concertina.


title: Concertina

text: The "Franglo" system concertina was developed by the luthiers C & R Dipper, in cooperation with Emmanuel Pariselle, known for his expertise as a professional player of the two-and-a-half row diatonic melodeon. The system has the construction and reed-work of a concertina, with the buttons at the sides, but layout of the buttons is that of a melodeon. The name "Franglo" blends the words French and Anglo.


title: Concertina

text: In the mid-1830s concertinas were manufactured and sold in Germany and England, in two types specific to the country. Both systems continued to evolve into the current forms as the popularity of the instrument increased. The difference in prices and the common uses of the English and German systems led to something of a class distinction between the two. German or Anglo-German concertinas were regarded as a lower-class instrument while the English concertina had an air of bourgeois respectability. English concertinas were most popular as parlor instruments for classical music, while German concertinas were more associated with the popular dance music at that time.


title: Concertina

text: In the 1850s, the Anglo-German concertina's ability to play both melody and accompaniment led English manufacturers to start developing the various duet systems. The popular Maccann system was developed towards the end of the century; meanwhile, German manufacturers were producing concertinas with more than 20 keys for local sale. Three keyboard systems for German concertinas eventually became popular: Uhlig's Chemnitzer system, Carl Zimmerman's Carlsfeld system, and the Bandoneon's Reinische system. Various German manufacturers tried to develop a single unified keyboard system for all German concertinas, but this was only partially accomplished by the end of the 19th century, when the Chemnitzer and Carlsfelder systems merged into the unified concertina system, and a unified bandoneon system was created. Despite the new standards, the older systems remained popular into the 20th century.


title: Concertina

text: The concertina was popular throughout the 19th century. The Salvation Army in England, America, Australia, and New Zealand commonly used concertinas in their bands, and other concertina bands and musicians performed in all parts of the English-speaking world. German emigrants brought their Chemnitzers and bandoneons with them to the United States and Argentina where they became regionally popular.


title: Concertina

text: In the early 20th century, this popularity rapidly declined as demand for the accordion increased along with mass production of other instruments such as the piano which are more suited to chromatic forms of music like blues and jazz. By the middle of the century, few concertina makers remained, and most of those used accordion reeds and inexpensive, unreliable keyboard mechanisms. Yet, the various forms of concertina survived in some areas: Anglo concertinas in Irish traditional music, the English and the Anglo in English Morris dancing, the Anglo in Africa, among Afrikaners (see Boer music) and Zulus (who call it a "squashbox"), the Chemnitzer in the United States as a polka instrument, and the bandoneon in Argentina as a prominent part of the tango tradition. Between World War I and World War II, there were many concertina and bandoneon bands in Germany, but with the rise of the Nazi regime these musical clubs disappeared.


title: Concertina

text: The folk revival movements of the 1960s led to a modest resurgence in the popularity of the concertina, particularly the Anglo. More recently, concertina popularity again seems on the rise, particularly the Anglo in the traditional music of Ireland. Renewed interest in tango since the 1980s has also seen interest in the bandoneon increase.


title: Concertina

text: Traditional music playing continues in many parts of the UK in the 21st century, often using English and Anglo-system concertinas. Concertinas are mass-produced in Italy and China, and are produced by individual workshops in Europe, South Africa, Australia, and North America. Modern-made instruments are in a spectrum of quality and traditionalism, with the most expensive instruments using traditional concertina-type reeds, while mid-level and inexpensive instruments take advantage of the lower price of mass-produced accordion reeds.


title: Lee Hoi-chuen

text: Lee Moon-shuen (; 4 February 1901 – 7 February 1965) known professionally as Lee Hoi-chuen, was a Chinese opera singer and film actor in Hong Kong. He was the father of Bruce Lee, the father-in-law of Linda Lee Cadwell, and also the paternal grandfather of Brandon Lee and Shannon Lee.


title: Lee Hoi-chuen

text: Lee Hoi-chuen was born in Jun'an, Guangdong, Qing China on 4 February 1901. He moved to British Hong Kong and became a Cantonese opera actor. There, he met and married Grace Ho (1907–1996) who was of half-Cantonese and half-English descent and a daughter of Ho Kom Tong. They had two daughters, Phoebe and Agnes, and three sons, Peter, Bruce and Robert.


title: Lee Hoi-chuen

text: Lee and his wife were on a one-year US tour with the Cantonese Opera Company in 1940 when their second son Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco. They later returned to Hong Kong when Bruce Lee was three months old. Soon after, the Lee family led an unexpected four-year hard life as Japan, in the midst of World War II, launched a surprise attack of Hong Kong in December 1941 and ruled for four years.


title: Lee Hoi-chuen

text: Their youngest son Robert Lee, who was born in 1948, would go on to become famous in Hong Kong during the 1960s as the lead singer and founder of a popular beat band, The Thunderbirds.


title: Lee Hoi-chuen

text: Lee died of a heart attack in Hong Kong on 7 February 1965, three days after his 64th birthday and six days after the birth of his grandson Brandon Lee. He was buried at St Raphael's Catholic Cemetery at Cheung Sha Wan in Kowloon.


title: Lee Hoi-chuen

text: Lee Hoi-chuen was portrayed by Ric Young in the 1993 film "" and by Tony Leung Ka-fai in the 2010 film "Bruce Lee, My Brother".


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The United Arab Emirates (the UAE or the Emirates) is a country in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula located on the southeastern coast of the Persian Gulf and the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Oman. The UAE consists of seven emirates and was founded on 2 December 1971 as a federation. Six of the seven emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah) combined on that date. The seventh, Ras al Khaimah, joined the federation on 10 February 1972. The seven sheikdoms were formerly known as the Trucial States, in reference to the treaty relations established with the British in the 19th century.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Artifacts uncovered in the UAE show a history of human habitation, transmigration and trade spanning over 125,000 years. The area was previously home to the Magan people known to the Sumerians, who traded with both coastal towns and bronze miners and smelters from the interior. A rich history of trade with the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley is also evidenced by finds of jewelry and other items and there is also extensive early evidence of trade with Afghanistan and Bactria as well as the Levant.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Through the three defined Iron Ages and the subsequent Hellenistic period, the area remained an important coastal trading entrepôt. As a result of the response of the Al Azd to the message of Muhammed, the area became Islamised in the 7th Century, a position consolidated by the Ridda Wars and the bloody and definitive Battle of Dibba. The Islamic era saw the area emerge once again as an important centre for trade, centred particularly around the ports of Julfar, Dibba and Khor Fakkan. These, linked to the vast Eastern Arab trading network that centred around the Kingdom of Hormuz, formed an important link in the Arab monopoly of trade between the East and Europe. In the late Islamic era, a number of small trading ports developed alongside the development of "bustan" agriculture in inland oases such as Liwa, Al Ain and Dhaid and tribal bedouin society co-existed with settled populations in the coastal areas.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: A number of incursions and battles took place along the coast when the Portuguese, under Afonso de Albuquerque, invaded the area and disrupted the Arab trade networks, triggering a decline in trade and a rise in regional conflict following the fragmentation of Hormuzi authority. Subsequent conflicts between the maritime communities of the Trucial Coast and the British led to the sacking of Ras Al Khaimah by British forces in 1809 and again in 1819, which resulted in the first of a number of British treaties with the Trucial Rulers in 1820. These treaties, starting with the General Maritime Treaty of 1820, led to peace and prosperity along the coast and supported a lively trade in high quality natural pearls as well as a resurgence in other regional trade. A further treaty of 1892 devolved external relations to the British in return for protectorate status.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: A British decision, taken in early 1968, to withdraw from its involvement in the Trucial States, led to the decision to found a Federation. This was agreed between two of the most influential Trucial Rulers, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum of Dubai. The two invited other Trucial Rulers to join the Federation. At one stage it seemed likely Bahrain and Qatar would also join the Union of Arab Emirates, but both eventually decided on independence.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Today, the UAE is a modern, oil exporting country with a highly diversified economy, with Dubai in particular developing into a global city and a hub for tourism, retail, and finance, home to the world's tallest building, and largest man-made seaport.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In 2011 primitive hand-axes, as well as several kinds of scrapers and perforators, were excavated at the Jebel Faya archaeological site in the United Arab Emirates. These tools resemble the types used by early modern humans in East Africa. Through the technique of thermoluminescence dating the artefacts were placed at 125,000 years old. This forms some of the earliest evidence of modern humans found anywhere outside Africa and implies modern humans left Africa much earlier than previously thought. The site of these discoveries has been preserved alongside finds of later cultures, including tombs and other finds from the Hafit, Umm Al Nar, Wadi Suq, Iron Age, Hellenistic and Islamic periods, at Sharjah's Mleiha Archaeological Centre.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: During the glacial maximum period, 68,000 to 8000 BCE, Eastern Arabia is thought to have been uninhabitable. Finds from the Stone Age Arabian Bifacial and Ubaid cultures (including knapped stone arrow and axe heads as well as Ubaid pottery) show human habitation in the area from 5000 to 3100 BCE and define a linkage between the human settlements of the Gulf and those of Mesopotamia. The archaeological record shows that Arabian Bifacial/Ubaid period came to an abrupt end in eastern Arabia and the Oman peninsula at 3800 BC, just after the phase of lake lowering and onset of dune reactivation.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Within the area of Baynunah in the western region of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, a camel-slaughter site dating to about 6,000 years ago has been discovered.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The Hafit period followed a fallow period in the archaeological record of the west coast of the Emirates, known as the 'Dark Millennium', likely triggered by climate change. The re-emergence of human habitation, the Hafit period was named after extensive finds of burials of distinctive beehive shaped tombs in the mountainous area of Jebel Hafeet in Al Ain. Continued links to Mesopotamia are evidenced by finds of Jemdet Nasr pottery. The period defines early Bronze Age human settlement in the United Arab Emirates and Oman in the period from 3,200 to 2,600 BC. Hafit period tombs and remains have also been located across the UAE and Oman in sites such as Bidaa bint Saud, Jebel Buhais and Buraimi.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Umm Al Nar (also known as Umm an-Nar) was a Bronze Age culture variously defined by archaeologists as existing around 2600 to 2000 BCE in the area of the modern-day UAE and Oman. The etymology derives from the island of the same name which lies adjacent to Abu Dhabi. The key site is well protected, but its location between a refinery and a sensitive military area means public access is currently restricted. The UAE authorities are working to improve public access to the site, and plan to make this part of the Abu Dhabi cultural locations. One element of the Umm Al Nar culture is circular tombs typically characterized by well fitted stones in the outer wall and multiple human remains within.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The Umm Al Nar culture covers some six centuries (2600-2000 BCE), and includes further extensive evidence both of trade with the Sumerian and Akkadian kingdoms as well as with the Indus Valley. The increasing sophistication of the Umm Al Nar people included the domestication of animals.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: It was followed by the Wadi Suq culture, which dominated the region from 2000 to 1300 BC. Key archaeological sites pointing to major trading cities extant during both periods exist on both the Western and Eastern coasts of the UAE and in Oman, including Dalma, Umm Al Nar, Sufouh, Ed Dur, Tell Abraq and Kalba. The burial sites at both Shimal and Seih Al Harf in Ras Al Khaimah show evidence of transitional Umm Al Nar to Wadi Suq burials.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The domestication of camels and other animals took place during the Wadi Suq era (2000-1300 BCE), leading to increased inland settlement and the cultivation of diverse crops, including the date palm. Increasingly sophisticated metallurgy, pottery and stone carving led to more sophisticated weaponry and other implements even as evidence of strong trading links with the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia dwindled.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: From 1,200 BC to the advent of Islam in Eastern Arabia, through three distinctive Iron Ages (Iron Age 1, 1200-1000 BC; Iron Age II, 1000-600 BC and Iron Age III 600-300 BC) and the Hellenistic Mleiha period (300 BC onward), the area was variously occupied by Archaemenid and other forces and saw the construction of fortified settlements and extensive husbandry thanks to the development of the "falaj" irrigation system. Early finds of "aflaj", particularly those around the desert city of Al Ain, have been cited as the earliest evidence of the construction of these waterways. Important Iron Age centres in the UAE have rendered an unusual richness in finds to archaeologists, particularly the spectacular metallurgical centre of Saruq Al Hadid in what is today Dubai. Other important Iron Age settlements in the country include Al Thuqeibah, Bidaa bint Saud, Ed-Dur and Tell Abraq.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The arrival of envoys from Muhammad in 632 heralded the conversion of the region to Islam. After Muhammad's death, one of the major battles of the Ridda Wars was fought at Dibba, to the east coast of the present-day Emirates. The defeat of the non-Muslims, including Laqit bin Malik Al-Azdi, in this battle resulted in the triumph of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Over many centuries, Julfar became a wealthy port and pearling centre from which dhows travelled throughout the Indian Ocean.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The pearling industry was part of the main economy of the coastal communities across Eastern Arabia and thrived in the relative calm at sea, providing both income and employment to the people of the Persian Gulf. In total, about two to three thousand local ships were involved in the seasonal extraction of pearls from communities across the Gulf. The annual income was over half million curzados (old Portuguese currency) and workers at Julfar and surrounding areas were paid in pearls instead of cash. In 1907, some 4,500 pearling boats were operating from Gulf ports in an industry employing over 74,000 men.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The main centers of pearling extended from Bida (Doha) to Dubai. The main season was in Dalma, and was referred to as "al-ghaws al-kabir" ( "The Great Dive"). The huge rise in demand by the expanding Indian and European market led to the exploitation of more distant banks such as the areas in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The enlargement of the international merchant network turned it into an integrated industry and enforced the central power of the local rulers. Fleets remained at sea from June to late September and every able bodied male joined the fleet. Pearling provided 80% of Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan (Known as Zayed the Great) revenues, allowing him to distribute largesse and gave him great influence.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The Portuguese Empire took over the taxation system which existed in the northern coast and was collected by the Sultan of Hormuz from 1523 to 1622 and continued to gain revenue from it up to the second decade of the 18th century. The Portuguese employed a system of issuing navigation permits (called "Cartazes") and the payment of taxes (called "Magumbayas"). Centers for the distribution of the permits and collection of taxes were in ports from Julfar to Khasab. On the Persian coast, the Portuguese did the same to the Arabs from Bandar Kong up to the southwest coast of Iran. Any ship sailing without the possession of a Portuguese license was liable to be captured by the Portuguese Armada. Fear of the Armada's cannons created a naval subjugation and maritime control.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: At the start of the pearling season, which was from June to September, thousands of local ships would gather at a fixed place with necessary provisions to last for up to three months at sea and a day of commencement would be agreed on. On that day, great celebrations were held along with the customary observance of religious rites and the tradition of charming sharks so that they would not harm the divers. The ships would then disperse on a clear, windless day when the sea was calm.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Each ship carried divers who then dived to the bottom of the sea to gather pearls. In order to enable the divers to reach the bottom, two heavy stones were tied to the diver's feet and a chord to his waist. The chord end was held in the hands of those who were to pull him out. When the bag of pearls became full, the diver would signal to be pulled out with those who pulled having to remain alert to avoid the diver dying from a lack of oxygen.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The Japanese cultured pearl, initially regarded as a wonder and shown at expos and other fairs, started to be produced in commercial quantities in the late 1920s. The influx of inexpensive, high quality pearls onto world markets took place alongside the economic impact of the Great Depression. The result on the Gulf's pearl markets was devastating. In 1929, 60 of Dubai's pearling boats (in 1907 there were 335 boats operating out of the port) stayed in port throughout the season.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The complex system of financing that underpinned the pearling industry, the relationship between owners, pearl merchants, "nakhudas" (captains) and divers and pullers fell apart and left an increasingly large number of working men in the town facing destitution.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In the 1930s, a record number of slaves approached the British Agent seeking manumission, a reflection of the parlous state of the pearling fleet and its owners.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Ottoman attempts to expand their sphere of influence into the Indian Ocean failed and it was Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century following Vasco da Gama's route of exploration that resulted in the sacking of many coastal towns by the Portuguese. Following this conflict, the Al Qasimi, a seafaring tribe based on the Northern Peninsula and Lingeh on the Iranian coast, dominated the waterways of the Southern Gulf until the arrival of British ships, which came into conflict with the incumbents.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Thereafter, the region was known to the British as the "Pirate Coast", as Al Qasimi (to the British 'Joasmee') raiders based there harassed the shipping industry despite (or perhaps because of) British navy patrols in the area in the 18th and 19th centuries. A number of conflicts took place, notable between 1809 and 1819.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: After years of incidents where British shipping had fallen foul of the aggressive Al Qasimi, with the first incidents taking place under the rule of Saqr bin Rashid Al Qasimi in 1797, an expeditionary force embarked for Ras Al Khaimah in 1809, the Persian Gulf campaign of 1809. This campaign led to the signing of a peace treaty between the British and Hussan Bin Rahmah, the Al Qasimi leader. This broke down in 1815. J. G. Lorimer contends that after the dissolution of the arrangement, the Al Qasimi "now indulged in a carnival of maritime lawlessness, to which even their own previous record presented no parallel".


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: After an additional year of recurring attacks, at the end of 1818 Hassan bin Rahmah made conciliatory overtures to Bombay and was "sternly rejected." Naval resources commanded by the Al Qasimi during this period were estimated at around 60 large boats headquartered in Ras Al Khaimah, carrying from 80 to 300 men each, as well as 40 smaller vessels housed in other nearby ports.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In November 1819, the British embarked on an expedition against the Al Qasimi, led by Major General William Keir Grant, voyaging to Ras Al Khaimah with a platoon of 3,000 soldiers supported by a number of warships, including HMS "Liverpool" and "Curlew". The British extended an offer to Said bin Sultan of Muscat in which he would be made ruler of the Pirate Coast if he agreed to assist the British in their expedition. Obligingly, he sent a force of 600 men and two ships.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: With the fall of Ras Al Khaimah and the final surrender of Dhayah Fort, the British established a garrison in Ras Al Khaimah of 800 sepoys and artillery, before visiting Jazirat Al Hamra, which was found to be deserted. They went on to destroy the fortifications and larger vessels of Umm Al Qawain, Ajman, Fasht, Sharjah, Abu Hail, and Dubai. Ten vessels that had taken shelter in Bahrain were also destroyed.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: As a consequence of the campaign, the next year, a peace treaty was signed with all the sheikhs of the coastal communities, the General Maritime Treaty of 1820.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The 1820 treaty was followed by the 1847 'Engagement to Prohibit Exportation of Slaves From Africa on board of Vessels Belonging to Bahrain and to the Trucial States and the Allow Right of Search of April–May 1847'. By this time, some of the smaller Sheikhdoms had been subsumed by their larger neighbours and signatories were Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr of Ras Al Khaimah; Sheikh Maktoum of Dubai; Sheikh Abdulaziz of Ajman, Sheikh Abdullah bin Rashid of Umm Al Quwain and Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoun of Abu Dhabi.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The treaty only granted protection to British vessels and did not prevent coastal wars between tribes. As a result, raids continued intermittently until 1835, when the sheikhs agreed not to engage in hostilities at sea for a period of one year. The truce was renewed every year until 1853.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In 1853, the Perpetual Maritime Truce of 4 May 1853 prohibited any act of aggression at sea and was signed by Abdulla bin Rashid of Umm Al Quwain; Hamed bin Rashid of Ajman; Saeed bin Butti of Dubai; Saeed bin Tahnoun ('Chief of the Beniyas') and Sultan bin Saqr ('Chief of the Joasmees'). A further engagement for the suppression of the slave trade was signed in 1856 and then in 1864, the 'Additional Article to the Maritime Truce Providing for the Protection of the Telegraph Line and Stations, Dated 1864'. An agreement regarding the treatment of absconding debtors followed in June 1879.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Signed in 1892, the 'Exclusive Agreement' bound the Rulers not to enter into 'any agreement or correspondence with any Power other than the British Government' and that without British assent, they would not 'consent to the residence within my territory of the agent of any other government' and that they would not 'cede, sell, mortgage or otherwise give for occupation any part of my territory, save to the British Government. In return, the British promised to protect the Trucial Coast from all aggression by sea and to help in case of land attack.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Significantly, the treaties with the British were maritime in nature and the Trucial Rulers were free to manage their internal affairs, although they often brought the British (and their naval firepower) to bear on their frequent disputes. This was particularly the case where disputes involved indebtedness to British and Indian nationals.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: During the late 19th and early 20th-century a number of changes occurred to the status of various emirates, for instance emirates such as Rams and Zyah (now part of Ras Al Khaimah) were signatories to the original 1819 treaty but not recognised by the British as trucial states in their own right, while the emirate of Fujairah, today one of the seven emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates, was not recognised as a Trucial State until 1952. Kalba, recognised as a Trucial State by the British in 1936 is today part of the emirate of Sharjah.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Until 1930's, the British refrained from interfering in the internal affairs of the Trucial Sheikdoms as long as the peace was kept in contrast to their policy in Oman where they were concerned on maintaining stability of Oman's Sultanate and were eager to maintain their airbase in Masirah Island. According to a British official:


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In the 1930s, the first oil company teams carried out preliminary surveys. An onshore concession was granted to Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) in 1939, and an offshore concession to D'Arcy Exploration Ltd in 1952. Exploration concessions were limited to British companies only following the conclusion of agreements with the Trucial Sheikhs and British government. Management of the Trucial Coast moved from the British Government in Bombay to the Foreign Office in London in 1947, with Indian independence. The Political Resident in the Gulf headed the small team responsible for liaison with the Trucial Sheikhs and was based in Bushire until 1946, when his office was moved to Bahrain. Day-to-day management of affairs was carried out by the 'Native Agent', a post established with the 1820 treaty and abolished in 1949. This agent was bolstered by a British Political Officer based in Sharjah, from 1937 onwards.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Oil was discovered under an old pearling bed in the Persian Gulf, Umm Shaif, in 1958, and in the desert at Murban in 1960. The first cargo of crude was exported from Jabel Dhanna in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1962. As oil revenues increased, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, undertook a massive construction program, building schools, housing, hospitals and roads. When Dubai's oil exports commenced in 1969, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was also able to use oil revenues to improve his people's quality of life.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In 1952 a group of some 80 Saudi Arabian guards, 40 of whom were armed, led by the Saudi Emir of Ras Tanura, Turki Abdullah al Otaishan, crossed Abu Dhabi territory and occupied Hamasa, one of three Omani villages in the Oasis, claiming it as part of the eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The Sulṭan of Muscat and Imam of Oman gathered their forces to expel the Saudis but were persuaded by the British Government to exercise restraint pending attempts to settle the dispute by arbitration. A British military build-up took place, leading to the implementation of a standstill agreement and the referral of the dispute to an international arbitration tribunal. In 1955 arbitration proceedings began in Geneva only to collapse when the British arbitrator, Sir Reader Bullard, objected to Saudi Arabian attempts to influence the tribunal and withdrew. A few weeks later, the Saudi party was forcibly ejected from Hamasa by the Trucial Oman Levies.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The dispute was finally settled in 1974 by an agreement, known as the Treaty of Jeddah, between Sheikh Zayed (then President of the UAE) and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In the early 1960s, oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi, an event that led to quick unification calls made by UAE sheikdoms. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan became ruler of Abu Dhabi in 1966, and the British started losing their oil investments and contracts to U.S. oil companies.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The British had earlier started a development office that helped in some small developments in the emirates. The sheikhs of the emirates then decided to form a council to coordinate matters between them and took over the development office. They formed the Trucial States Council, and appointed Adi Bitar, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum's legal advisor, as Secretary General and Legal Advisor to the council. This council was terminated once the United Arab Emirates was formed.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: By 1966, the British government had come to the conclusion that it could no longer afford to govern what is now the United Arab Emirates. Much deliberation took place in the British parliament, with a number of MPs arguing that the Royal Navy would not be able to defend the Trucial Sheikhdoms. Denis Healey, who, at the time, was the UK Secretary of State for Defence, reported that the British Armed Forces were severely overextended, and in some respects, dangerously under-equipped to defend the Sheikhdoms. On 16 January 1968, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced the decision to end the treaty relationships with the seven Trucial Sheikhdoms which had been, together with Bahrain and Qatar, under British protection. The British decision to withdraw was reaffirmed in March 1971 by Prime Minister Edward Heath.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The region faced a host of serious local and regional problems. There were Iranian claims over Bahrain and other islands in the Gulf, territorial disputes between Qatar and Bahrain over Zubarah and the Hawar Islands, and the Buraimi dispute was still unresolved between Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Oman. On the issue of the shah of Iran's intentions, there are conflicting views: Abdullah Omran Taryam states that Iran was contemplating the occupation of Bahrain and other islands in the Gulf, while Alvandi Roham writes that the shah had no intention of using force to resolve the Bahrain question and was seeking a “package deal” with Great Britain over the Tunb Islands and Abu Musa, which was refused. The rulers of the emirates believed that Britain's continued presence constituted a real guarantee of the region's safety, and some genuinely wanted Britain not to withdraw. With this in mind, days after the British announcement to withdraw, Sheikh Zayed tried to persuade them to honour the protection treaties by offering to pay in full the costs of keeping British armed forces in the Emirates. However, the British Labour government rebuffed the offer.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: After Labour MP Goronwy Roberts informed Sheikh Zayed of the news of British withdrawal, the nine Persian Gulf sheikhdoms attempted to form a federation of Arab emirates. The federation was first proposed in February 1968 when the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai met in the desert location of Argoub El Sedirah, and agreed on the principle of Union. They announced their intention to form a coalition, extending an invitation to other Persian Gulf states to join. Later that month, in a summit meeting attended by the rulers of Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial Coast, the government of Qatar proposed the formation of a federation of Arab emirates to be governed by a higher council composing of nine rulers. This proposal was accepted and a declaration of union was approved. There were, however, several disagreements between the rulers on matters such as the location of the capital, the drafting of the constitution and the distribution of ministries.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Further political issues surfaced as a result of Bahrain attempting to impose a leading role in the nine-state union, as well as the emergence of a number of differences between the rulers of the Trucial Coast, Bahrain and Qatar, the latter two being in a long-running dispute over the Hawar Islands. While Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Rashid, had a strong connection to the Qatari ruling family, including the royal intermarriage of his daughter with the son of the Qatari emir, the relationship between Abu Dhabi and Dubai (also cemented by intermarriage, Rashid's wife was a member of Abu Dhabi's ruling family) was to endure the break-up of the talks with both Bahrain and Qatar. Overall, there were only four meetings between the nine rulers. The last such meeting, which took place in Abu Dhabi, saw Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan elected as the first president of the federation. There were stalemates on numerous issues during the meeting, including the position of vice-president, the defense of the federation, and whether a constitution was required.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: Shortly after the meeting, the Political Agent in Abu Dhabi revealed the British government's interests in the outcome of the session, prompting Qatar to withdraw from the federation apparently over what it perceived as foreign interference in internal affairs. The nine-emirate federation was consequently disbanded despite efforts by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Britain to reinvigorate discussions. Bahrain became independent in August 1971, and Qatar in September 1971.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: On 29 and 30 November 1971, a contingent of the Iranian army supported by the Iranian naval forces occupied the islands of Abu Musa and the Lesser and Greater Tunbs. In Greater Tunb, 6 policemen clashed with approximately 2,000 Iranian troops and in the ensuing skirmish 4 Ras Al Khaimah policemen and 3 Iranian soldiers were killed. The Iranian troops then demolished the police station, the school, and a number of houses, and forced the natives to leave the island. The deceased were buried on the island while the residents were put on fishing boats and expelled to Ras Al Khaimah. The Imperial Iranian Navy seized the islands with little resistance from the tiny Arab police force stationed there. The population of Greater Tunb in 1971 was 150. The first soldier killed on Greater Tunb was Salem Suhail bin Khamis who was shot and killed after he refused to lower the Ras Al Khaimah flag. The death of the 20 year-old bin Khamis is marked as the date of the first martyr in the United Arab Emirates and November 30 is celebrated as Commemoration Day. The ruler of Sharjah was forced to agree to negotiate for Iranian troops to occupy Abu Musa. His options were either to negotiate to save part of the territory or forego the restoration of the remaining part of the island for good.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: When the British-Trucial Sheikhdoms treaty expired on 1 December 1971, the Trucial States became independent sheikhdoms. Four more Trucial states (Ajman, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah) joined Abu Dhabi and Dubai in signing the UAE's founding treaty, with a draft constitution in place drafted in record time to meet the 2 December 1971 deadline. On that date, at the Dubai Guesthouse (now known as Union House), the emirates agreed to enter into a union to be called the United Arab Emirates. Ras al-Khaimah joined in February 1972.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: On 24 January 1972, the former deposed ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Saqr bin Sultan Al Qasimi, with an armed group supported by Ras Al Khaimah forced his way into the palace of Sharjah's ruler Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, occupied it, and demanded to be recognized as the sole ruler of Sharjah. Saqr had been deposed in 1965 by the British because he supported and received assistance from the Arab League, which Britain objected to at the time. He saw the opportunity to make a comeback as the British had terminated their commitments to the Trucial States. The incident led to UAE defence force mobilising for the first time. In a joint action this force and the Abu Dhabi defence force, together with popular resistance in Sharjah, managed to bring the situation under control and to cut the lines of supplies from Ras Al-Khaimah. After the palace was besieged, Ṣaqr surrendered with his group to the federal authorities. However, Sharjah's ruler Sheikh Khalid had already been killed in the palace. The incident was a direct attack on the authority of a member emirate of the UAE and the murder of a ruler and Supreme Council member and it constituted a test for the new union at a time when the wound caused by the occupation of the three islands had not yet healed. On 25 January 1972, the ruling family in Sharjah met to choose a new ruler for the emirate, and Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, the brother of the late ruler, was unanimously chosen to succeed him. The Supreme Council met in emergency session to consider the situation, and besides issuing an obituary of Sheikh Khālid, officially proclaimed the accession.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The move to form a union took place at a time of unprecedented instability in the region, with a border dispute that resulted 22 deaths in Kalba, and a coup in Sharjah in January 1972. The then emir of Qatar was deposed by his cousin in February 1972.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the UAE was identified as a major financial centre used by Al-Qaeda in transferring money to the hijackers. The nation immediately cooperated with the United States, freezing accounts tied to suspected terrorists and strongly clamping down on money laundering. The country had already signed a military defence agreement with the United States in 1994 and one with France in 1977.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: The UAE supports military operations from the United States and other coalition nations engaged in the invasion of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) as well as operations supporting the Global War on Terrorism for the Horn of Africa at Al Dhafra Air Base, located outside of Abu Dhabi. The air base also supported Allied operations during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and Operation Northern Watch.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: On 2 November 2004, the UAE's first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, died. His eldest son, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, succeeded him as ruler of Abu Dhabi. In accordance with the constitution, the UAE's Supreme Council of Rulers elected Khalifa as president. Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan succeeded Khalifa as Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. In January 2006, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the UAE and the ruler of Dubai, died, and Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum assumed both roles.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In March 2006, the United States forced the state-owned Dubai Ports World to relinquish control of terminals at six major American ports. Critics of the ports deal feared an increased risk of terrorist attack, saying the UAE had been home to two of the 9/11 hijackers.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In December 2006, the UAE prepared for its first election to determine half the members of UAE's Federal National Council from 450 candidates. However, only 7000 Emirati citizens, less than 1% of the Emirati population, were given the right to vote in the election. The exact manner of selection was opaque. Notably, women were included in the electorate.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In August 2011, the Middle East saw a number of pro-democratic uprisings, popularly known as the Arab Spring. The UAE saw comparatively little unrest, but did face one high-profile case in which five political activists were arrested on charges of breaking United Arab Emirates law of defamation by insulting heads of state, namely UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and Abu Dhabi crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan through running an anti-government website that express anti-government views. The trial of the UAE Five attracted international publicity and protest from a number of human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which named the five men prisoners of conscience. The defendants were convicted and given two- to three-year prison sentences on 27 November 2011.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In 2020, a UK court ruled that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum had kidnapped and imprisoned his daughters, Shamsa and Latifa.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: In early 2020s, the UAE began overhauling its criminal and civil laws. It legalized alcohol, stopped allowing lighter punishments for honor killings, enacted harsher punishments for rape and sexual harassment, allowed foreigners to follow their home country family laws for marriage and inheritance rather than local Sharia, reduced penalties for drugs, reduced penalties for having a child while unmarried, and allowed unmarried couples to live together. Economic changes have allowed foreigners to own businesses without a UAE partner, and at the beginning of 2022 moved to a Saturday-Sunday weekend with Friday as a working half-day. Homosexuality remained illegal, and though a new 21+ age rating will allow uncensored movies to be shown, freedom of speech is not guaranteed, and government critics continue to have other human rights concerns.


title: History of the United Arab Emirates

text: On 14 May 2022, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as the UAE's new president after the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: Cara Cunningham (formerly Chris Crocker; born December 7, 1987), is an American transgender Internet personality, songwriter, recording artist, YouTuber, and former pornographic film actor. , Cunningham's videos had received a combined 50 million plays on MySpace, and her vlog channel on YouTube was the 100th-most viewed of all time in all categories, with over 205 million video views, before Cunningham closed her YouTube account in September 2015. Her work consists mainly of short-form, self-directed monologues shot in her grandparents' home.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: Cunningham gained fame in September 2007 from her viral video "Leave Britney Alone!", in which she tearfully defended pop singer Britney Spears' comeback performance at the MTV Video Music Awards; the video received over four million views in two days. The video gained international media attention, hundreds of parodies, and criticism for Cunningham, which included accusations of narcissism, melodramatics, histrionics, and using Spears' personal shortcomings to bolster her own fame. Others have accused Cunningham of acting in the "Leave Britney Alone!" video, although Cunningham insisted it was genuine on a September 2007 appearance on Maury Povich's "Maury" show.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: In most of Cunningham's adolescent works, she presents herself as an openly gender non-conforming person and effeminate Southerner in a "small-minded town" in the Bible Belt. During her teenage years, Cunningham used "Crocker" as a stage name in order to keep her identity and location secret, due to death threats she received. In 2014, "Queerty" stated that with thousands of Facebook and Twitter followers, Cunningham is "one of those self-invented social media icons".


title: Cara Cunningham

text: Cunningham was born in East Tennessee to a teenage couple and was raised by her grandparents. Cunningham said she "raised eyebrows" by bringing Barbie dolls to kindergarten for show and tell rather than the toys or action figures more conventionally associated with boys. Cunningham continued to live in Tennessee throughout her youth, and was homeschooled in response to constant "death threats, bullying and glares at her clothes and makeup" specifically after reportedly being "harassed by a homophobic high school gym coach". Cunningham lived with her fundamentalist Pentecostal grandparents who continued raising her when her teenage parents were not able. While her grandfather reportedly knows little about her Internet fame, her grandmother has reluctantly appeared in some of her videos.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: Cunningham is best known for her Britney Spears video, uploaded to YouTube on September 10, 2007. The first part of the infamous work was posted September 9, 2007, called "Leave Britney Alone pt.1" to her MySpace page, while the better-known "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" (part 2) was posted to both Myspace and YouTube. In "Leave Britney Alone pt.1", an emotional Cunningham stated that she did not want fellow Southerner Britney Spears to spiral out of control like Anna Nicole Smith, who had died in February 2007. , the video had been viewed over 35 million times and had accumulated a total of over 500,000 comments. It is just a few seconds shorter than the second part, and Cunningham, although emotional, remains relatively calm and composed, becoming teary only at the very end.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: In the videos, Cunningham condemns gossip columnists such as Perez Hilton and reality TV star Simon Cowell who criticized Britney Spears' onstage music performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas. Within the first 24 hours of its posting, the video had accumulated over 2 million views. , it had accumulated a total of 24 million views and was the second-most discussed video of all time on the site (in all categories), with over 350,000 comments. "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" was one of YouTube's fastest "climbing" videos, reaching the minimum seven million views needed () to be included in the "Top 100". The video was nominated in the Commentary category in the 2007 YouTube Awards. The video received worldwide attention and earned Cunningham interviews on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, "The Today Show", "Maury", "The Howard Stern Show", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM morning show. Cunningham and her video were also commented upon in the mainstream media by shows like "The View" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". YouTube said "the melodramatic two-minute clip made [Cunningham] an instant YouTube star" and named it one of the top videos of 2007. "Wired" magazine named it the top video of 2007.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: Prior to the attention from her September 2007 "Leave Britney Alone!" video, Cunningham was seen as a viral video sensation and was asked by MTV vlogger and news staffer Matt Sunbulli to provide video for MTV's website which also broadcasts on MTV itself. Cunningham indicated that she hoped to develop her acting career; she agreed to develop ideas for a TV show with Los Angeles producer Glenn Meehan and met with representatives from MTV's gay-themed channel LOGO. According to "Variety", Cunningham signed a development deal with 44 Blue Productions to create a "docusoap" reality television show, which would be called "Chris Crocker's 15 Minutes More". Rasha Drachkovitch, the production company's co-founder, stated, "It's going to pretty much be the Chris Crocker experience. We consider [her] a rebel character that people will find interesting. [She's] going to be a TV star."


title: Cara Cunningham

text: Although sometimes shown in conjunction with news footage of Spears' performance, the "pure performance art" video became its own story, with the news media and the gossip industry offering opinions on the phenomenon, joking that Cunningham could be "an insidious satiric mastermind" and comparing her to Andy Kaufman. In the video, Cunningham proclaims, "All you people care about is readers and making money off of her. She's a human! Leave Britney alone!" Cunningham stated that although she is often acting in her videos, her emotions were genuine and "straight from the heart"; although she described the clip as a "second take" in one interview, she clarified on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that she meant that it was the second part of a longer video, the first part being "Leave Britney Alone pt. 1".


title: Cara Cunningham

text: The "Leave Britney Alone!" video became a satire target, with parody videos, references in mainstream television spoofs, and films. Actor Seth Green's parody, which included him applying eyeliner several times and promoting his show "Robot Chicken", called for people to "leave Chris Crocker alone!" Some video responses characterized Cunningham as a drama queen, and "Wired" magazine stated that the video "sent world Schadenfreude levels zooming to heights unseen since the Fatty Arbuckle scandal." The January 2008 parody film "Meet the Spartans" used pop culture references and met with generally poor reviews; the "Electronic Urban Report" called Cunningham's cameo the "film's funniest moment". Both Cunningham and the video were also parodied in the "South Park" episode "Canada on Strike", with a cartoon Cunningham running around in a fight between various Internet memes, telling it to "leave the others alone". In March 2008, a "trance remix" dance single "Leave Britney Alone" was released on iTunes and other sites by "Double J" featuring quotes from Cunningham's video.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: While numerous news and media outlets reported on the viral video, Fox News Channel's morning program "Fox & Friends" commentators questioned Cunningham's gender and compared the fabric backdrop in the video to Osama bin Laden's videos. Cunningham produced two response videos – "Poor FOX "News".." and "Rosie O'Donnell was right about FOX "News"" (originally posted as ""Dear Fox 'News'"") – addressing what she characterized as biased treatment while she called Fox News the "Republican, conservative, homophobic channel". Cunningham's stated concerns were the commentators calling her a "she/he" and what she felt was needless questioning of her gender instead of commenting on the content of the video. Cunningham deactivated her YouTube channel in 2015. In March 2016, Cunningham interviewed for Contrast Magazine and opened up about why she deleted her YouTube channel.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: In February 2021, Cunningham created an OnlyFans account. In the same month, following the release of the "New York Times" documentary "Framing Britney Spears" led to broader public reconsideration of how media treated Spears in 2007, Cunningham released a statement on Instagram framing her experience as a teachable moment. She described the backlash she faced as a visibly genderbending teenager for expressing the same then-unpopular opinion as straight media critics such as Michael Moore as transphobic. She also said that she was verbally and physically assaulted by members of the LGBT community for making them look bad in the media. Cunningham said that the backlash made her fear for her life as a gay teenager without much money living in the South.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: Cunningham has been involved in various projects. In a June 2007 autobiographical comic strip, where she discusses future plans, she states, "I'm going to make the leap from living with my Pentecostal grandparents to living with drag queen roommates. I'm going to star in my own TV show. I'm going to make the leap from outhouses to bathhouses...to my very own house." In October 2007, Cunningham opened Fox Reality channel's "Reality Remix Really Awards". Cunningham was one of Lily Allen's Internet correspondents on the February 2008 premiere episode of BBC's "Lily Allen and Friends" where she posed questions for the guest celebrities, in this case David Mitchell and later, Cuba Gooding, Jr. On May 23, 2008, rock band Weezer released a viral music video for their song "Pork and Beans" – "a natural anthem for the self-expression that's been taking shape on YouTube" – which featured various mash-ups of viral videos and YouTube celebrities, including Cunningham, all playing themselves. On May 22, 2009, Cunningham made a video showing a Grammy plaque that she received for her contribution to the band's video. On July 9, 2009, Cunningham appeared on the Comedy Central show "Tosh.0".


title: Cara Cunningham

text: Cunningham released her first single, "Mind in the Gutter", in 2008. She released her first EP titled "The First Bite" digitally on iTunes March 19, 2011. "I Want Your Bite" was then released as the second single. Later that year, Cunningham released the songs "Second to None", "Tug of War", and "Taking My Life Back". In 2012, Cunningham released the songs "Locked Up Lovers" and "Lucky Tonight". Cunningham's second EP, "Walls Down", was released on March 14, 2013, under her new stage name Chris Cunningham-Crocker. The EP is a departure of her previous dance style, mainly consisting of ballads and features a duet with her mother. The first single from the EP, "Breaking Up", was released on January 24, 2013. Cunningham announced in August 2011 that a film documenting her life over the past few years would be released, titled "Me at the Zoo". The film also explores how video sharing and social media have shaped the way people share her stories and go about her lives. On January 17, 2012, HBO Documentary Films secured the US broadcasting rights to the film. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2012 and on HBO on June 25, 2012.


title: Cara Cunningham

text: In July 2011, it was announced that Cunningham had been signed by Chi Chi LaRue to appear in a pornographic film. She made her adult film debut in October 2012 for Maverick Men. In 2014, Lucas Entertainment digitally released "Chris Crocker's Raw Love", which features Cunningham in a scene with her then-boyfriend Justin Dean. Cunningham stated that acting in porn was going to be more than a single event; "it was going to be the porn and then a website, with the same companies." She said she was focused on setting up a future with her then-boyfriend and getting a house and a mortgage. "I said, 'Well if I'm going to do it, then let's make it worth it.' So, then we broke up a week before the porn came out. So then, yeah, it kind of ended." She added, "You have to contractually, and things, promote a porn. So I regret doing it with my ex more than I regret doing it in general." She said she could do porn again, but wondered how she would extend that into a viable career. "[W]here is the reality show? And where are the people that have seen how interesting my life is? Not that many people were, like, the first of their kind to be an Internet celebrity—what happens after that?" she said. "What happens after you extend your 15 minutes of fame to 30 minutes of fame, and it's six, seven years later, and you're still living at home in Tennessee? I think that's an interesting story, a little more than "Honey Boo Boo.""