How do we support young Black girls in this healing process? In addition to not seeing themselves in stereotypes, their beauty and lifestyles are so heavily policed by dominant culture.

I think counterstorytelling is important, especially for People of the Global Majority to be able to share their stories authentically and challenge racist stereotypes and assumptions. However, where I'm feeling a lot of tension with media representation is when People of the Global Majority are given roles that have historically been done by white folx. Counterstorytelling is not the same thing as rewriting narratives. It's frustrating that students have to see themselves in "other versions" instead of having nuance roles or roles that were specifically made for them OR even roles that are not centered around tropes of a culture but instead are actually about People of the Global Majority having normal lives with universal experiences. A good example of this is "Never Have I Ever." But also nuanced roles like Shang-Chi are important as well!

This is one of my biggest struggles working in education. In my spaces with white educators specifically, I'm constantly finding myself in conversations where they both infantilize AND adultify our Black students. In academic settings, these specific educators have such deficit thinking about what our students can and cannot do -- all based on negative assumptions about our students capabilities. However, in events with "behavior management," our students are adultified and are punished accordingly. It cannot be both, and it really shouldn't be either of those options. We should be treating our students as full humans with a wide range of capabilities while also recognizing that they are still children who need our guidance and support through love and high expectations -- not punitive reactions to disobedience of white supremacy.

This is incredibly frustrating because on top of students, specifically Black and Brown students, experiencing racial policing in the real world, many students also experience it in schools, a place that is supposed to be a inviting and inclusive and a place for them to let their guard down. We cannot build safe and brave spaces for students to have meaningful learning experiences if they aren't allowed to make mistakes or are always met with punitive measures for their mistakes. The same way that we judge "Karens" for calling police on BIPOC folx, teachers need to assess how they do the same thing when they call admin and SROs on students of color as a defense mechanism for their white discomfort.

I was a senior in high school when Donald Trump was elected into office. Many teachers had very strong opinions about this, and many had different opinions about what should and should not be allowed to share with students. I distinctly remember one teacher, who had given her opinion specifically once (as to not center herself in the conversation), but gave all of us the space to listen, speak, cry, and work through our emotions about such a controversial election the day after the election. I understand the pressure that teachers have to remain neutral in political conversations with students, especially due to legality issues but also families who heavily condemn this. However, when students are experiencing trauma from current events and are turning to schools and trusted teachers for comfort, it needs to be our responsibility to publicly condemn bigotry, white supremacy, Anti-Blackness, racism, Islamophobia, and homophobia for our students. Especially when we are active members in a system that historically has harmed students from these marginalized communities.

This is very interesting because during my teacher preparation program here at UIC, we often were covering SEL and trauma-informed lessons, but I don't think anything can truly prepare teachers for the way our society is built on trauma of BIPOC folx. For example, many of our trauma-informed pedagogies are centered around student wellness and trauma they experience on a personal level, and while we may beat around the bush that the real problem are social oppressive systems and their impact on students, it feels very rare that we are examining how trauma is ingrained in every aspect of our society for Black and Brown children. For example, none of us were prepared to support students through the trauma of Covid-19, but the trauma that Black and Brown students are experiencing from Covid-19 is very different from the experience of many white families, and that is, again, because of the oppressive systems that we know of but don't fully examine as being the reason why students have so much trauma.

I take back my previous comment. Clearly, this husband does know how to take care of himself. He explicitly spent two paragraphs telling her how to keep their home free of bugs. This letter to his wife is not only instructions on how to be a "good" wife but also how to be a good pest controller. What a time to be alive.

Why do men not know how to take care of themselves?

Yes, but does it make this "goodwife" suicidal? Kind of like there's no sense of living when my only purpose of life is to pleasure and listen to a man who has no respect for me and has no intent of pleasing me in return? Or should I simply be thankful that a man wants to come home to me at all?

Who is his "person" exactly?

Comparing men to THE Jesus Christ? Slight reach.

Do not embarrass your husband.

What's extremely interesting is that so many men have this mentality yet have never read literature containing it, which begs the question of how on earth do men, whether it is subconsciously or not, decide that women are simply less than them? It's almost like some men are inherently misogynistic because right now we can blame media and films for enforcing misogyny. What about cultures, such as medieval ones, that have absolutely no access? What influenced them?

It's official. Marriage, in the context of this society, is now legalized rape and legalized slavery.

Husband: I have just given you a ridiculous list of things because you are not the perfect wife, but here is a small compliment to you and your kind because I am not a terrible husband or human being.

He's implying that unwavering devotion to a mate is biological, that it's a primitive instinct. Maybe so, for loyalty can, indeed, be found in many animal social groups. However, it is not forced because these animals have natural attraction to one another, sexual or not. If he genuinely believes that loyalty is a primitive instinct between mates and family, he should be able to identify the reason he has to explain this letter to his wife at all.

but not as a team. Instead, wife is obedient to her husband.

He wants her attached to his hip... it's so unhealthy on both ends. It's so interesting how he doesn't seek for his wife to be independent, smart, and self-sufficient. He literally wants an obedient wife. With that intention and the fact that she is only fifteen, it just reinforces the idea that in some cultures, marriage is simply legalized rape and nothing more.

Mr. Husband sounds a little insecure. Not only does he need to write out instructions for his wife to prove her love, he also doesn't want her hanging out with other men... I genuinely wonder if she would have even read this far into his letter because I certainly would not have.

Insisting her soul even needs saving to begin with.

Again, why marry a woman you find so many flaws in? Perhaps, and maybe I'm crazy, it's because she's fifteen, and even if she doesn't change much by the time she reaches of age, I'm sure someone will love her for who she is. Leave it to men to marry women and try to change them.

He is saying she had an easier childhood or she had a gentler birth as in she's female?

For whatever reason they were married, I don't think it was well-thought out. If it was for true love, he had two options. He could accept her for who she is in and the young age that comes with it, or he could have never married her and let her live her youth without the pressures of a husband, who is demanding her to grow up faster than she needs to. Of course, the necessity for her to be older is for his benefit.

Am I surprised that a MAN is only talking about his own pleasure and what she can do to please him? No, not I am not.

This sounds strangely sexual, perhaps because it is her husband and he references "night" and "chamber," a time and place commonly reserved for sex. However, this sounds somewhat dirty, like role-play/S & M.

We often hear of cousins marrying on another... sibling marriages seem taboo even for this time period. Unless they are not truly related, and this is just a (strange) term of endearment for his wife...

Ah, the revenge of a woman is unmatched. A very Beyoncé move.

We all clearly know what he saw. The question is... does he look at arses often? Pornography does not yet seem too common, so I'm wondering how he's comparing this experience to anything at all.

I love this. She is fierce: willing to joust him and kill him. He's such an idiot, he doesn't even recognize his own wife.

It's annoying that he comes from nothing, granted fine armor, and treats it so terribly. Generally, it is the people who come from nothing that act humble.

Well, it was her family's name that brought him to status. Men ruin everything.

It's saddening how domestic violence against women has been consistent from the 13th century and now, and I have no doubts it was present before the 13th century. "She was afraid he would beat her" is an attitude many women can relate to, even without being married to a man.

That morning he was dressed in fine armor, and he purposely damaging it to appear as if he is winning battles.

I'd argue quite the opposite. However, he is not from nobility or knighthood. He doesn't truly understand chivalry.

Such humble beginnings... a peasant... only to have the fatal flaw of hubris. I suspect death is close by.

There is clear disapproving tone in the narrator's voice. I also enjoy reading a line that is very common in modern colloquial speech!

Is this a euphemism for sex?

He despises the class he was born in.

Well, isn't it? It's shameful to marry anyone of any class for money. It's difficult to assertively say marriage is about love, but during this time, marriage was about keeping royalty, sex, or men feeling entitled to women. However, there are instances where people are married for love. It's hard to tell with each story what the norm is for that context.

Is this clarification for new readers or a reference for contemporary readers?