t something. The only thing scarier than that is a woman who’s right.
A 2015 study from Arizona State University, which looked at gender bias in a simulated jury deliberation, found that men were deemed more credible when they spoke with heat while women expressing anger made the people around them stubborn and resistant. Subjects participated in a mock trial in which they had to agree with other “jurors” purportedly other study participants but actually creations of the researchers on whether to convict. Through messages, four of the five fictional jurors would agree with whatever verdict the participant settled on. The remaining one the only juror given a gender-coded name would disagree. This holdout might express his or her dissenting opinion with anger, with fear, or in a neutral tone.
Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate, shot into the spotlight instantly after she recited her powerful poem “The Hill We Climb” for Joe Biden’s inauguration. Her words, her Prada headband and her “Hamilton” references all drew chatter online; she tweeted that she is a big fan of the musical about the nation’s founding.
The “Hamilton” reference, however, is itself a reference, which quotes a prophetic promise repeated in Micah 4:4, Zechariah 3:10 and 1 Kings 5:5. “Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid,” Gorman said on the inaugural stage. The same biblical line about figs and vines is also featured in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical because George Washington cited it in his famous letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island.