title: Gender identity

text: John Money was instrumental in the early research of gender identity, though he used the term "gender role". He disagreed with the previous school of thought that gender was determined solely by biology. He argued that infants are born a blank slate and a parent could be able to decide their babies’ gender. In Money's opinion, if the parent confidently raised their child as the opposite sex, the child would believe that they were born that sex and act accordingly. Money believed that nurture could override nature.


title: Gender identity

text: A well-known example in the nature-versus-nurture debate is the case of David Reimer, born in 1965, otherwise known as "John/Joan". As a baby, Reimer went through a faulty circumcision, losing his male genitalia. Psychologist John Money convinced Reimer's parents to raise him as a girl. Reimer grew up as a girl, dressing in girl clothes and surrounded by girl toys, but did not feel like a girl. After he tried to commit suicide at age 13, he was told that he had been born with male genitalia. Reimer stopped seeing Money, and underwent surgery to remove his breasts and reconstruct his genitals.


title: Gender identity

text: In the early 1970s, Money reported that Reimer's sex reassignment to female was a success, influencing the academic consensus toward the nurture hypothesis, and for the following 30 years, it became standard medical practice to reassign intersex infants and male infants with micropenises to female. However in 1997, sexologist Milton Diamond published a follow-up, revealing that Reimer had rejected his female reassignment, and arguing against the blank slate hypothesis and infant sex reassignment in general.


title: Gender identity

text: Diamond was a longtime opponent of Money's theories. Diamond had contributed to research involving pregnant rats that showed hormones played a major role in the behavior of different sexes. The researchers in the lab would inject the pregnant rat with testosterone, which would then find its way to the baby's bloodstream. The females that were born had genitalia that looked like male genitalia. The females in the litter also behaved like male rats and would even try to mount other female rats, proving that biology played a major role in animal behavior.


title: Gender identity

text: One criticism of the Reimer case is that Reimer lost his penis at the age of eight months and underwent sex reassignment surgery at seventeen months, which possibly meant that Reimer had already been influenced by his socialization as a boy. Bradley et al. (1998) report the contrasting case of a 26-year-old woman with XY chromosomes whose penis was lost and who underwent sex reassignment surgery between two and seven months of age (substantially earlier than Reimer), whose parents were also more committed to raising their child as a girl than Reimer's, and who remained a woman into adulthood. She reported that she had been somewhat tomboyish during childhood, enjoying stereotypically masculine childhood toys and interests, although her childhood friends were girls. While she was bisexual, having had relationships with both men and women, she found women more sexually attractive and they featured more in her fantasies. Her job at the time of the study was a blue-collar occupation that was practiced almost exclusively by men. Griet Vandermassen argues that since these are the only two cases being documented in scientific literature, this makes it difficult to draw any firm conclusions from them about the origins of gender identity, particularly given the two cases reached different conclusions. However, Vandermassen also argues that transgender people support the idea of gender identity as being biologically rooted, as they do not identify with their anatomical sex despite being raised and their behaviour reinforced according to their anatomical sex.


title: Gender identity

text: One study by Reiner et al. looked at fourteen genetic males who had suffered cloacal exstrophy and were thus raised as girls. Six of them changed their gender identity to male, five remained female and three had ambiguous gender identities (though two of them had declared they were male). All the subjects had moderate to marked interests and attitudes consistent with that of biological males. Another study, using data from a variety of cases from the 1970s to the early 2000s (including Reiner et al.), looked at males raised as females due to a variety of developmental disorders (penile agenesis, cloacal exstrophy or penile ablation). It found that 78% of those males raised as females were living as females. A minority of those raised as female later switched to male. However, none of the males raised as male switched their gender identity. Those still living as females still showed marked masculinisation of gender role behaviour and those old enough to reported sexual attraction to women. The study's authors caution drawing any strong conclusions from it due to numerous methodological caveats which were a severe problem in studies of this nature. Rebelo et al. argue that the evidence in totality suggests that gender identity is neither determined entirely by childhood rearing nor entirely by biological factors.


title: Gender identity

text: Several prenatal, biological factors, including genes and hormones, may affect gender identity. It has been suggested that gender identity is controlled by prenatal sex steroids, but this is hard to test because there is no way to study gender identity in animals. According to biologist Michael J. Ryan, gender identity is exclusive to humans.


title: Gender identity

text: In a position statement, the Endocrine Society stated "The medical consensus in the late 20th century was that transgender and gender incongruent individuals suffered a mental health disorder termed “gender identity disorder.” Gender identity was considered malleable and subject to external influences. Today, however, this attitude is no longer considered valid. Considerable scientific evidence has emerged demonstrating a durable biological element underlying gender identity. Individuals may make choices due to other factors in their lives, but there do not seem to be external forces that genuinely cause individuals to change gender identity."


title: Gender identity

text: Some studies have investigated whether or not there is a link between biological variables and transgender or transsexual identity. Several studies have shown that sexually dimorphic brain structures in transsexuals are shifted away from what is associated with their birth sex and towards what is associated with their preferred sex. The volume of the central subdivision of the bed nucleus of a stria terminalis or BSTc (a constituent of the basal ganglia of the brain which is affected by prenatal androgens) of transsexual women has been suggested to be similar to women's and unlike men's, but the relationship between BSTc volume and gender identity is still unclear. Similar brain structure differences have been noted between gay and heterosexual men, and between lesbian and heterosexual women. Another study suggests that transsexuality may have a genetic component.


title: Gender identity

text: Research suggests that the same hormones that promote the differentiation of sex organs in utero also elicit puberty and influence the development of gender identity. Different amounts of these male or female sex hormones within a person can result in behavior and external genitalia that do not match up with the norm of their sex assigned at birth, and in a person acting and looking like their identified gender.


title: Gender identity

text: Social scientists tend to assume that gender identities arise from social factors. In 1955, John Money proposed that gender identity was malleable and determined by whether a child was raised as male or female in early childhood. Money's hypothesis has since been discredited, but scholars have continued to study the effect of social factors on gender identity formation. In the 1960s and 1970s, factors such as the absence of a father, a mother's wish for a daughter, or parental reinforcement patterns were suggested as influences; more recent theories suggesting that parental psychopathology might partly influence gender identity formation have received only minimal empirical evidence, with a 2004 article noting that "solid evidence for the importance of postnatal social factors is lacking." A 2008 study found that the parents of gender-dysphoric children showed no signs of psychopathological issues aside from mild depression in the mothers.


title: Gender identity

text: It has been suggested that the attitudes of the child's parents may affect the child's gender identity, although evidence is minimal.


title: Gender identity

text: Parents who do not support gender nonconformity are more likely to have children with firmer and stricter views on gender identity and gender roles. Recent literature suggests a trend towards less well-defined gender roles and identities, as studies of parental coding of toys as masculine, feminine, or neutral indicate that parents increasingly code kitchens and in some cases dolls as neutral rather than exclusively feminine. However, Emily Kane found that many parents still showed negative responses to items, activities, or attributes that were considered feminine, such as domestic skills, nurturance, and empathy. Research has indicated that many parents attempt to define gender for their sons in a manner that distances the sons from femininity, with Kane stating that "the parental boundary maintenance work evident for sons represents a crucial obstacle limiting boys options, separating boys from girls, devaluing activities marked as feminine for both boys and girls, and thus bolstering gender inequality and heteronormativity."


title: Gender identity

text: Many parents form gendered expectations for their child before it is even born, after determining the child's sex through technology such as ultrasound. The child thus is born to a gender-specific name, games, and even ambitions. Once the child's sex is determined, most children are raised in accordance with it to be a man or a woman, fitting a male or female gender role defined partly by the parents.


title: Gender identity

text: When considering the parents' social class, lower-class families typically hold traditional gender roles, where the father works and the mother, who may only work out of financial necessity, still takes care of the household. However, middle-class "professional" couples typically negotiate the division of labor and hold an egalitarian ideology. These different views on gender from a child's parents can shape the child's understanding of gender as well as the child's development of gender.


title: Gender identity

text: Within a study conducted by Hillary Halpern it was hypothesized, and proven, that parent behaviors, rather than parent beliefs, regarding gender are better predictors for a child's attitude on gender. It was concluded that a mother's behavior was especially influential on a child's assumptions of the child's own gender. For example, mothers who practiced more traditional behaviors around their children resulted in the son displaying fewer stereotypes of male roles while the daughter displayed more stereotypes of female roles. No correlation was found between a father's behavior and his children's knowledge of stereotypes of their own gender. It was concluded, however, that fathers who held the belief of equality between the sexes had children, especially sons, who displayed fewer preconceptions of their opposite gender.


title: Gender identity

text: Estimates of the number of people who are intersex range from 0.018% to 1.7%, depending on which conditions are counted as intersex. An intersex person is one possessing any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies". An intersex variation may complicate initial sex assignment and that assignment may not be consistent with the child's future gender identity. Reinforcing sex assignments through surgical and hormonal means may violate the individual's rights.


title: Gender identity

text: A 2005 study on the gender identity outcomes of female-raised 46,XY persons with penile agenesis, cloacal exstrophy of the bladder, or penile ablation, found that 78% of the study subjects were living as female, as opposed to 22% who decided to initiate a sex change to male in line with their genetic sex. The study concludes: "The findings clearly indicate an increased risk of later patient-initiated gender re-assignment to male after female assignment in infancy or early childhood, but are nevertheless incompatible with the notion of a full determination of core gender identity by prenatal androgens."


title: Gender identity

text: A 2012 clinical review paper found that between 8.5% and 20% of people with intersex variations experienced gender dysphoria. Sociological research in Australia, a country with a third 'X' sex classification, shows that 19% of people born with atypical sex characteristics selected an "X" or "other" option, while 52% are women, 23% men, and 6% unsure. At birth, 52% of persons in the study were assigned female, and 41% were assigned male.


title: Gender identity

text: A study by Reiner & Gearhart provides some insight into what can happen when genetically male children with cloacal exstrophy are sexually assigned female and raised as girls, according to an 'optimal gender policy' developed by John Money: in a sample of 14 children, follow-up between the ages of 5 to 12 showed that 8 of them identified as boys, and all of the subjects had at least moderately male-typical attitudes and interests, providing support for the argument that genetic variables affect gender identity and behavior independent of socialization.


title: Gender identity

text: Gender identity can lead to societal security issues among individuals that do not fit on a binary scale. As of 2022, only 23 states plus Washington D.C. currently have state laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Moreover, only "53% of [the] LGBTQ population live in states prohibiting housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity," while a dismal "17% of [the] LGBTQ population lives in states explicitly interpreting existing prohibition on sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and/or gender identity."


title: Gender identity

text: In some cases, a person's gender identity is inconsistent with their biological sex characteristics (genitals and secondary sex characteristics), resulting in individuals dressing and/or behaving in a way which is perceived by others as outside cultural gender norms. These gender expressions may be described as gender variant, transgender, or genderqueer (or non-binary) (there is an emerging vocabulary for those who defy traditional gender identity), and people who have such expressions may experience gender dysphoria (traditionally called gender identity disorder or GID). Transgender individuals are often greatly affected by language and gender pronouns before, during, and after their transition.


title: Gender identity

text: In recent decades it has become possible to provide sex reassignment surgery. Some people who experience gender dysphoria seek such medical intervention to have their physiological sex match their gender identity; others retain the genitalia they were born with (see transsexual for some of the possible reasons) but adopt a gender role that is consistent with their gender identity. Within recent years modern society has made strides towards the acknowledgement and destigmatization of those who identify as non-binary or a gender variant, with sex reassignment surgery expected to grow by an annual rate of about 11% from the years 2022 to 2030. Although sex reassignment surgery is expected to become more popular, the surgery is still not destigmatized in a lot of countries, including the United States. Such stigmatization has been shown to have adverse health effects on LGBTQ+ individuals, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Gender identity

text: The terms "gender identity" and "core gender identity" were first used with their current meaning—one's personal experience of one's own gender—sometime in the 1960s. To this day they are usually used in that sense, though a few scholars additionally use the term to refer to the sexual orientation and sexual identity categories "gay", "lesbian" and "bisexual". Gender expression is distinct from gender identity in that gender expression is how one chooses to physically express their gender through one's "name, pronouns, clothing, hair style, behavior, voice or body features." It is thus distinct from gender identity in that it is the physical expression of an internal sense of gender but may not necessarily portray a person's gender identity and may vary "according to racial/ethnic background, socio-economic status and place of residence."


title: Gender identity

text: In late-19th-century medical literature, women who chose not to conform to their expected gender roles were called "inverts", and they were portrayed as having an interest in knowledge and learning, and a "dislike and sometimes incapacity for needlework". During the mid-1900s, doctors pushed for corrective therapy on such women and children, which meant that gender behaviors that were not part of the norm would be punished and changed. The aim of this therapy was to push children back to their "correct" gender roles and thereby limit the number of children who became transgender.


title: Gender identity

text: In 1905, Sigmund Freud presented his theory of psychosexual development in "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality", giving evidence that in the pregenital phase children do not distinguish between sexes, but assume both parents have the same genitalia and reproductive powers. On this basis, he argued that bisexuality was the original sexual orientation and that heterosexuality was resultant of repression during the phallic stage, at which point gender identity became ascertainable. According to Freud, during this stage, children developed an Oedipus complex where they had sexual fantasies for the parent ascribed the opposite gender and hatred for the parent ascribed the same gender, and this hatred transformed into (unconscious) transference and (conscious) identification with the hated parent who both exemplified a model to appease sexual impulses and threatened to castrate the child's power to appease sexual impulses. In 1913, Carl Jung proposed the Electra complex as he both believed that bisexuality did not lie at the origin of psychic life, and that Freud did not give adequate description to the female child (Freud rejected this suggestion).


title: Gender identity

text: During the 1950s and '60s, psychologists began studying gender development in young children, partially in an effort to understand the origins of homosexuality (which was viewed as a mental disorder at the time). In 1958, the Gender Identity Research Project was established at the UCLA Medical Center for the study of intersex and transsexual individuals. Psychoanalyst Robert Stoller generalized many of the findings of the project in his book "Sex and Gender: On the Development of Masculinity and Femininity" (1968). He is also credited with introducing the term "gender identity" to the International Psychoanalytic Congress in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1963. Behavioral psychologist John Money was also instrumental in the development of early theories of gender identity. His work at Johns Hopkins Medical School's Gender Identity Clinic (established in 1965) popularized an interactionist theory of gender identity, suggesting that, up to a certain age, gender identity is relatively fluid and subject to constant negotiation. His book "Man and Woman, Boy and Girl" (1972) became widely used as a college textbook, although many of Money's ideas have since been challenged.


title: Gender identity

text: In the late 1980s, Judith Butler began lecturing regularly on the topic of gender identity, and in 1990, they published "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity", introducing the concept of gender performativity and arguing that both sex and gender are constructed.


title: Gender identity

text: Transgender people sometimes wish to undergo physical surgery to refashion their primary sexual characteristics, secondary characteristics, or both, because they feel they will be more comfortable with different genitalia. This may involve removal of penis, testicles or breasts, or the fashioning of a penis, vagina or breasts. In the past, sex assignment surgery has been performed on infants who are born with ambiguous genitalia. However, current medical opinion is strongly against this procedure on infants, and recommends that the procedure be only conducted when medically necessary. Today, sex reassignment surgery is performed on people who choose to transition so that their external sexual organs will match their gender identity.


title: Gender identity

text: In the United States, it was decided under the Affordable Care Act that health insurance exchanges would have the ability to collect demographic information on gender identity and sexual identity through optional questions, to help policymakers better recognize the needs of the LGBT community. In 2020, however, the Trump administration finalized a rule that "would remove nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people when it comes to health care and health insurance" in the Affordable Care Act and extends to "regulations pertaining to access to health insurance." This rule "is one of the many rules and regulations put forward by the Trump administration that defines 'sex discrimination' as only applying when someone faces discrimination for being male or female, and does not protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity."


title: Gender identity

text: Gender dysphoria (previously called "gender identity disorder" or GID in the DSM) is the formal diagnosis of people who experience significant dysphoria (discontent) with the sex they were assigned at birth and/or the gender roles associated with that sex: "In gender identity disorder, there is discordance between the natal sex of one's external genitalia and the brain coding of one's gender as masculine or feminine." The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (302.85) has five criteria that must be met before a diagnosis of gender identity disorder can be made, and the disorder is further subdivided into specific diagnoses based on age, for example gender identity disorder in children (for children who experience gender dysphoria).


title: Gender identity

text: The concept of gender identity appeared in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" in its third edition, DSM-III (1980), in the form of two psychiatric diagnoses of gender dysphoria: gender identity disorder of childhood (GIDC), and transsexualism (for adolescents and adults). The 1987 revision of the manual, the DSM-III-R, added a third diagnosis: gender identity disorder of adolescence and adulthood, nontranssexual type. This latter diagnosis was removed in the subsequent revision, DSM-IV (1994), which also collapsed GIDC and transsexualism into a new diagnosis of gender identity disorder. In 2013, the DSM-5 renamed the diagnosis "gender dysphoria" and revised its definition.


title: Gender identity

text: The authors of a 2005 academic paper questioned the classification of gender identity problems as a mental disorder, speculating that certain DSM revisions may have been made on a tit-for-tat basis when certain groups were pushing for the removal of homosexuality as a disorder. This remains controversial, although the vast majority of today's mental health professionals follow and agree with the current DSM classifications. In recent years, however, there has been a "growing chorus of voices contesting the pathologization of transgender lives and the dominance of medical-scientific narratives about trans experience." As such, in 2019, the World Health Organization removed gender dysphoria from the mental illness chapter and moved it instead to the sexual health chapter, changing the term "Gender Dysphoria" to "Gender Incongruence," thereby removing gender dysphoria as a pathological mental illness.


title: Gender identity

text: The Yogyakarta Principles, a document on the application of international human rights law, provide in the preamble a definition of gender identity as each person's deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth, including the person's sense of the body (which may involve, if freely chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or other means) and other experience of gender, including dress, speech and mannerism. Principle 3 states that "Each person’s self-defined [...] gender identity is integral to their personality and is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity and freedom. No one shall be forced to undergo medical procedures, including sex reassignment surgery, sterilisation or hormonal therapy, as a requirement for legal recognition of their gender identity." and Principle 18 states that "Notwithstanding any classifications to the contrary, a person's sexual orientation and gender identity are not, in and of themselves, medical conditions and are not to be treated, cured or suppressed." Relating to this principle, the "Jurisprudential Annotations to the Yogyakarta Principles" observed that "Gender identity differing from that assigned at birth, or socially rejected gender expression, have been treated as a form of mental illness. The pathologization of difference has led to gender-transgressive children and adolescents being confined in psychiatric institutions, and subjected to aversion techniques – including electroshock therapy – as a 'cure'." The "Yogyakarta Principles in Action" says "it is important to note that while 'sexual orientation' has been declassified as a mental illness in many countries, 'gender identity' or 'gender identity disorder' often remains in consideration." These Principles influenced the UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity.


title: Gender identity

text: In 2015, gender identity was part of a Supreme Court case in the United States called "Obergefell v. Hodges" in which marriage was no longer restricted between man and woman.


title: Gender identity

text: No objective measurement or imaging of the human body exists for gender identity, as it is part of one's subjective experience. Numerous instruments for assessing gender identity as a clinical measure exist, including questionnaire-based, interview-based and task-based assessments. These have varying effect sizes among a number of specific sub-populations. Gender identity measures have been applied in clinical assessment studies of people with gender dysphoria or intersex conditions.


title: Gender identity

text: Before the , the term "gender" was used exclusively as a grammatical category. The terms "male" and "man", or "female" and "woman", were used more or less interchangeably when referring to people of one sex or the other. As the term "gender" took on new meaning following the work of John Money, Robert Stoller, and others, a distinction began to be drawn between the terms "sex" and "gender". As a result of the new understanding of gender, academic usage of the term "sex" began to be more restricted to biological aspects, and associated with the choices "male" and "female", while the term "gender" was associated initially with "man" or "boy", "girl" or "woman".


title: Gender identity

text: While academic usage of terms "man" and "woman" began to diverge at the same time, and become more restricted to concepts related to gender, this distinction was not universal (and still isn't) even in academic usage, and even less so in more informal writing or in speech, which often conflate the two.


title: Gender identity

text: Some people, and some societies, do not construct gender as a binary in which everyone is either a boy or a girl, or a man or a woman. Those who exist outside the binary fall under the umbrella terms "non-binary" or "genderqueer". Some cultures have specific gender roles that are distinct from "man" and "woman." These are often referred to as "third genders".


title: Gender identity

text: In Samoan culture, or Faʻa Samoa, fa'afafine are considered to be a third gender. They are anatomically male but dress and behave in a manner considered typically feminine. According to Tamasailau Sua'ali'i ("see references"), fa'afafine in Samoa at least are often physiologically unable to reproduce. Fa'afafine are accepted as a natural gender, and neither looked down upon nor discriminated against. Fa'afafine also reinforce their femininity with the fact that they are only attracted to and receive sexual attention from straight masculine men. They have been and generally still are initially identified in terms of labour preferences, as they perform typically feminine household tasks. The Samoan Prime Minister is patron of the Samoa Fa'afafine Association. Translated literally, fa'afafine means "in the manner of a woman."


title: Gender identity

text: "Hijras" are officially recognized as third gender in the Indian subcontinent, being considered neither completely male nor female. Hijras have a recorded history in the Indian subcontinent since antiquity, as suggested by the Kama Sutra. Many "hijras" live in well-defined and organised all-"hijra" communities, led by a guru. These communities have consisted over generations of those who are in abject poverty or who have been rejected by or fled their family of origin. Many work as sex workers for survival.


title: Gender identity

text: The word ""hijra"" is a Hindustani word. It has traditionally been translated into English as "eunuch" or "hermaphrodite", where "the irregularity of the male genitalia is central to the definition". However, in general hijras are born male, only a few having been born with intersex variations. Some Hijras undergo an initiation rite into the hijra community called nirvaan, which involves the removal of the penis, scrotum, and testicles.


title: Gender identity

text: The khanith form an accepted third gender in Oman. The khanith are male homosexual prostitutes whose dressing is male, featuring pastel colors (rather than white, worn by men), but their mannerisms female. Khanith can mingle with women, and they often do at weddings or other formal events. Khaniths have their own households, performing all tasks (both male and female). However, similarly to men in their society, khaniths can marry women, proving their masculinity by consummating the marriage. Should a divorce or death take place, these men can revert to their status as khaniths at the next wedding.


title: Gender identity

text: Many indigenous North American Nations had more than two gender roles. Those who belong to the additional gender categories, beyond cisgender man and woman, are now often collectively termed "two-spirit" or "two-spirited". There are parts of the community that take "two-spirit" as a category over an identity itself, preferring to identify with culture or Nation-specific gender terms.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Miranda Katherine Hart Dyke (born 14 December 1972) is an English actress and writer. Following drama training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, Hart began writing material for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and making appearances in various British sitcoms, including "Hyperdrive" (2006–2007) and "Not Going Out" (2006–2009).


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart reached a wider audience with her self-driven semi-autobiographical BBC sitcom "Miranda", which is based on her earlier BBC Radio 2 radio series "Miranda Hart's Joke Shop" (2008). The television sitcom ran for three series and several Christmas specials from 2009 to 2015, and earned her three Royal Television Society awards, four British Comedy Awards and four BAFTA nominations. From 2012 to 2015, she appeared as Camilla "Chummy" Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne in the BBC drama series "Call the Midwife". She made her Hollywood debut in the action comedy film "Spy" (2015).


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart has also written four books: "Is It Just Me?" (2012), a semi-autobiographical book; "The Best of Miranda" (2014), a compilation of scripts from the TV series; "Peggy and Me" (2016), a description of her life since owning her titular dog; and "Miranda Hart's Daily Dose of Such Fun!" (2017), in partnership with Comic Relief.


title: Miranda Hart

text: In 2017, Hart presented the Royal Variety Performance in the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, making her the first solo female presenter in 105 years; she and the Duke are distant cousins.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart was born on 14 December 1972 in Torquay, Devon, the child of Captain David Hart Dyke and Diana Margaret Luce, daughter of Sir William Luce, Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Aden, and sister of Lord Luce. Hart is from an aristocratic background, but does not consider herself upper class, stating that her aunt and uncle live in a castle.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Her father was commanding officer of when it was sunk during the 1982 Falklands conflict, and he was badly burned trying to escape the stricken warship. She has a younger sister, Alice Louisa Hart Dyke.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart grew up in Petersfield, Hampshire. She was privately educated at Downe House, an independent boarding school for girls near Thatcham, Berkshire. She was a classmate and friend of the sports presenter Clare Balding, who was head girl. She attended the University of the West of England, Bristol, graduating with a 2:1 in political science. She then completed a postgraduate course in acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts.


title: Miranda Hart

text: In 2002, she performed a solo show in Edinburgh, and in 2004 she pitched a comedy show to the BBC. At her read-through for BBC executives, "Absolutely Fabulous" writer and star Jennifer Saunders was present.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Before her own series was commissioned, Hart made appearances in various British sitcoms. In "Not Going Out" she initially appeared as an acupuncturist. However, her performance impressed producers so much that they wrote a regular role for her as Barbara, a sarcastic and clumsy cleaner. She continued to play the part until the production of "Miranda" in 2009. Hart earned a British Comedy Award nomination for her role as Teal in two series of the BBC television comedy sci-fi sitcom "Hyperdrive", which ran from January 2006 to August 2007.


title: Miranda Hart

text: She also appeared in even smaller roles in "French & Saunders", "My Family and Other Animals", "Nighty Night", "Absolutely Fabulous", "The Vicar of Dibley" as a speed-date programmer, "Lead Balloon", "William and Mary", "Smack the Pony" (for which she wrote and performed in a couple of sketches and a number of video diaries), "Stupid!", "Monday Monday" as Tall Karen, and as a minicab driver in the Channel 5 comedy "Angelos", which ran for 6 episodes.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart is best known for her performance in her self-titled, self-penned and semi-autobiographical sitcom "Miranda", which started recording for BBC Two in 2008 and began airing on 9 November 2009. The situation comedy also features Sarah Hadland, Tom Ellis, Patricia Hodge, James Holmes, and Sally Phillips. The series is based on Hart's semi-autobiographical writing and followed a television pilot and the BBC Radio 2 comedy "Miranda Hart's Joke Shop". Described as an "old-fashioned" sitcom, it received positive comments from critics and Hart won the 2009 Royal Television Society award for comedy performance for her role in the first series.


title: Miranda Hart

text: A second series was commissioned and filming started in mid-2010. The series began airing on BBC Two and BBC HD on 15 November 2010. A third series began broadcasting from 26 December 2012 on BBC One. Repeats of the show have begun airing on UKTV Gold. She also presented a BBC spoof programme looking back over 2009 called "2009 Unwrapped with Miranda Hart". A similar show looking back over 2010 was also broadcast in December 2010. In 2014, she announced that her sitcom "Miranda" would come to an end after two final episodes due to air in December 2014.


title: Miranda Hart

text: She appeared as guest host of "Have I Got News for You" in October 2009, December 2010 and again in December 2011. On 27 December, she was a team member on "Big Fat Quiz 2011", a quiz about the events of that year presented by Jimmy Carr, appearing alongside David Walliams (team blue). As a fan of the series, Hart has also appeared twice on "Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two". On Boxing Day 2011, she appeared in an episode of "Bear Grylls' Wild Weekend". She also scaled down one of the Alps with Bear Grylls in a show with him in March 2013. She has appeared on the "Graham Norton Show" 7 times, on 10 May and 3 December in 2010, 29 April 2011, 19 October 2012, 20 December 2013, 24 October 2014 and 8 May 2015. In January 2013, Hart appeared on "Room 101" along with Reggie Yates and John Craven.


title: Miranda Hart

text: In 2012, Hart began to appear in the BBC One drama "Call the Midwife", playing the character of "Camilla 'Chummy' Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne".


title: Miranda Hart

text: As part of the 60-year Diamond Jubilee celebrations, Hart co-presented a number of segments at the Diamond Jubilee Concert in 2012. In 2013, Hart presented a one-off interview show with her hero Bruce Forsyth entitled "When Miranda Met Bruce".


title: Miranda Hart

text: In December 2013, Hart appeared in David Walliams' film adaptation of his book "Gangsta Granny". She played Linda, Ben's mother. Also in December 2013, she was lined up to star in "To Love, Honour and Betray (Till Divorce Do Us Part)", the TV version of Kathy Lette's novel.


title: Miranda Hart

text: In December 2017, Hart took part in Celebrity Send To All in the third series of "Michael McIntyre's Big Show".


title: Miranda Hart

text: In 2017, it was reported that her sitcom "Miranda" may return for a fourth series, and was said to be in the conception stage. However, in early 2018, Hart denied the rumours were true, stating that while she had "thought about" it, "that's all."


title: Miranda Hart

text: A 10th anniversary special of "Miranda", filmed at the London Palladium in 2019 and described by Hart as "a party (not a new episode)", aired on BBC One on 1 January 2020.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart played a cameo in David Baddiel's feature film "The Infidel" and appeared in "World of Wrestling", a short film by Tim Plester, in which she played "Klondyke Kate", a wrestler billed as "hell in boots." The film was released in late 2007 alongside its companion shorts "Blakes Junction 7" and "Ant Muzak". Hart made a cameo appearance as a loan officer in the 2007 comedy film "Magicians" which featured David Mitchell and Robert Webb, both stars of the long running television series "Peep Show".


title: Miranda Hart

text: In 2013, "12 in a Box" was released, a feature film in which Hart plays a small role that was originally made in 2007. In 2015, she co-starred in the comedy film "Spy", which was filmed on location in Budapest, Hungary. In 2020, Hart played "harmless chatterbox" Miss Bates in the Jane Austen adaptation film "Emma.", alongside Anya Taylor-Joy and Bill Nighy.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Her semi-autobiographical series "Miranda Hart's Joke Shop" was aired on BBC Radio 2 in 2008 and went on from there to be developed into the television series "Miranda". Hart has also presented comedy specials for the network alongside Jon Holmes. In October 2011 she attracted criticism after co-hosting "The Chris Evans Breakfast Show" with Holmes while Chris Evans was on holiday. The website "Digital Spy" reported that some listeners were unhappy with the quality of the programme. The BBC issued a statement in response saying, "Miranda Hart is one of the UK's best-loved comedians and BBC Radio 2 felt it appropriate to bring her warmth to its audience for a week. Jon Holmes is a highly experienced presenter from BBC Radio 6 Music [...] BBC Radio 2 appreciates if their presentation wasn't to everyone's liking, but feels it's important to be able to bring new talent to its output and hopes its audience understands the importance of maintaining a breadth of content on the network."


title: Miranda Hart

text: Avoiding the normal stand-up circuit for more character-based comedy, including an appearance in the Edinburgh and touring show "The Sitcom Trials", Hart has written her own theatre material for the Edinburgh Fringe. Her one-woman shows include "Miranda Hart – Throbs", "It's All About Me" and "Miranda Hart's House Party". She also performed in Alecky Blythe's 2006 play "Cruising" at the Bush Theatre.


title: Miranda Hart

text: She was among the performers at the Diamond Jubilee concert held outside Buckingham Palace on 4 June 2012.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart embarked on her first tour in 2014, titled "My, What I Call, Live Show", performing in arenas in the UK and Ireland. Tickets went on sale on 17 December 2012.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart was the second contestant to be voted off the third series of "Comic Relief does Fame Academy" in 2007. Two years later, she appeared in the final sketch from comedy duo "French and Saunders", which was broadcast during Red Nose Day 2009. In 2010, she and six other TV celebrities raised over £1 million for the charity Sport Relief cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End. She starred as a judge on both series two and three of "Let's Dance for Comic Relief", alongside other guest judges including Kelly Brook, Rufus Hound and Louie Spence in 2010 and 2011.


title: Miranda Hart

text: In aid of Comic Relief, a "Miranda" mini-episode set in the world of "Pineapple Dance Studios" was broadcast on 18 March as part of Red Nose Day 2011. She took part in a Red Nose Day edition of Celebrity MasterChef in 2011, which she won. Hart also co-presented Sport Relief 2012, which concluded with her and fellow comedian David Walliams dancing semi-naked to ABBA's "Dancing Queen". She also donated a signed "Miranda" script to be auctioned in aid of Comic Relief.


title: Miranda Hart

text: It was revealed in February 2017 that Hart would star as "Miss Hannigan" in the West End production of "Annie".


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart released a book in October 2012 titled "Is It Just Me?", featuring stories, anecdotes and life advice delivered in her own style. In January 2013 it was announced that she was writing a second book, called "Peggy and Me", which was to be published on 9 October 2014, but was pushed back to 2015 and finally released in October 2016. "The Best of Miranda", a compilation of scripts from the TV series "Miranda", was published on 23 October 2014. In partnership with Comic Relief, Hart released a book called "Miranda Hart's Daily Dose of Such Fun!" in 2017, which featured something unique for the reader to do each day in the year. Also in 2017, she published "The Girl with the Lost Smile", released in October.


title: Miranda Hart

text: Hart is a Christian; she once said to fellow theist Victoria Coren Mitchell, "It's scary to say you're pro-God". She lives in Hammersmith, West London.


title: Miranda Hart

text: In her early twenties, Hart had an unsuccessful trial at Queens Park Rangers' women's team; she revealed this during "Would I Lie to You". During a special guest exclusive on the BBC Red Button, her first guest was her friend Clare Balding who was head girl in their schooldays.


title: Miranda Hart

text: In 2010, Hart won the Best Comedy Performance award from the Royal Television Society for her performance in "Miranda" and was also nominated for best comedy writing. She and Patricia Hodge were both nominated for "Best Comedy Actress" awards at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival 2010.


title: Miranda Hart

text: In 2011, she won "Best Comedy Actress" and "People's Choice Award for the King or Queen of Comedy" in the British Comedy Awards 2011, where "Miranda" also won "Best New British TV Comedy" and was nominated for "Best Sitcom". The same year, she was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress in a comedy role and her hit BBC Two sitcom "Miranda" was nominated for the BAFTA YouTube choice award, the only award voted for by the public.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Zero is a 2018 Indian romantic comedy film written by Himanshu Sharma, directed by Aanand L. Rai and produced by Colour Yellow Productions in collaboration with Red Chillies Entertainment. Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Abhay Deol, R. Madhavan and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. The film revolves around Bauua Singh, a short man from Meerut who after having difficulty finding a marriage partner, finds a companion in Aafia Bhinder, a NSAR (a fictional space research facility) scientist with cerebral palsy. However, film superstar Babita also gets close with him, testing his first relationship, before this love triangle takes them to far-off cities, thrusting Bauua into an adventure to discover both his true love and completeness in a life lived to the fullest.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: The project was conceived by Rai in 2012, before pre-production began in 2016. Initially having a working title "Katrina Meri Jaan", it went through numerous name changes before arriving at the final title in early 2018. Principal photography began in Mumbai during May 2017 and concluded in 2018 at Orlando. The soundtrack is composed by Ajay–Atul with lyrics written by Irshad Kamil, under the label T-Series.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: "Zero" was released on 21 December 2018, and received mixed reviews from critics. with praise for its visual effects; however its "outlandish" story and inconsistent screenplay received sharp criticism. Kaif's performance in the film received widespread critical acclaim, and is considered as her career-best performance yet. Despite being hyped prior to its release, the film was one of the biggest box-office failure in Khan's career.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: At the 64th Filmfare Awards, "Zero" received 7 nominations, including Best Actor (Khan) and Best Supporting Actress (Kaif), and won Best Special Effects.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Bauua Singh is a young man who is very short and hails from Meerut who has trouble finding a marriage partner. After using matrimonial agencies with little luck, he eventually finds his companion in Aafia Yusufzai Bhinder, a NSAR scientist (a fictionalized depiction of NASA) with cerebral palsy. In the events that followed, both fall in love with each other, but Bauua dumps her after five months. However, Aafia comes looking for him, and Bauua's parents fix their marriage. On their marriage day, Bauua's friend Guddu tells him that he is shortlisted for a dance competition where he had applied earlier, where the winner gets a chance to meet Babita Kumari, a Bollywood actress. Baua, determined to meet Babita, runs away from the marriage after a confrontation with Aafia, leaving everyone devastated.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Bauua wins and gets to meet Babita at a party, accompanied by other famous Bollywood actors. Babita offers him a job after he displays an ability to guess what goes on in people's mind by observing them. He accompanies her on film schedules and award functions, helping her patch up with her ex-boyfriend Aditya Kapoor, who had previously cheated on her. Bauua tells Babita about Aafia, who in turn falsely tells him that her parents were dwarves and her father cheated on her mother, to make Bauua realise his mistake. He realizes his wrongdoings and wishing to reconcile with Aafia, starts an argument at a party organized by Babita, following which Babita throws him out and breaks all ties with Aditya, realizing the latter is cheating on her again.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Bauua and Guddu travel to New York, where Aafia is attending a seminar. Bauaa crashes the seminar to meet her, but Aafia refuses to see him. Aafia's father tells him that Aafia was pregnant with Bauua's child, due to which she wanted him to marry her in the first place. A heartbroken Bauua decides to leave the city, but decides to try his luck one more time. After meeting with Aafia again at NSAR and getting rejected by her, Bauua enlists in a program recruiting human volunteers to be sent to Mars on a rocket. After painstaking training and getting help from one of the applicants, Bauaa gets selected, while Guddu is rejected for his vision disability. On the day of his launch, Aafia, who is supposed to marry Srinivasan, a fellow scientist and Aafia's colleague, leaves him, and she reaches NSAR seconds before Bauua's launch. Bauua assures her that he always loved her, just before the rocket takes off. The launch is witnessed by Aafia, Guddu and Srinivasan, along with Babita and Bauua's family via television broadcast. The launch is successful, and the rocket thrusts off in space.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: In a voice-over by Aafia, it is revealed that Bauua eventually reaches Mars, and sends a video recording of himself from there. His rocket gets lost somewhere in space on the return journey, and Aafia waits for him. Fifteen years later, a Chinese space station receives the signal of Bauua's escape pod, which crash lands in the Pacific Ocean, revealing Bauua is still alive.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Director Aanand L. Rai conceived the film in 2012 after watching "Krrish" (2006) and drawing parallels of the titular character with that of American superheroes such as Superman, Batman and Spider-Man. He appreciated the achievement of Indians having their own superhero film but felt wary of the outreach, saying, "I loved seeing Hrithik Roshan fly off a 250-feet building, it was brilliantly done, but deep down I felt this wasn't us. Apart from our mythological demigods, Indians aren't ready for superheroes" and "That's what made me want to live life from the perspective of a dwarf ["sic"]."


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: The film was initially titled "Katrina Meri Jaan". However, this was later scrapped because the producers thought the title would be too misleading to people and make them presume the film is about Kaif. In between productions, the film underwent numerous working titles such as "Bauaa", "Bauna", "Butka", "Bandhua" and "Batla". Red Chillies Entertainment registered three names for use as the film's title. In the end, a unanimous decision was made to call the film "Zero", revealed in January 2018.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Bollywood Hungama reported the budget of the film to be around 150 crore. Rai refuted these reports and stated that the film did have a big budget at that time, but less than the reported amount, and that the amount might change. In October 2018, after post-production work was completed, the film's budget was revealed to be 2 billion, making it the most expensive film starring Khan. Himanshu Sharma, who wrote the script, confirmed the story to be a romantic drama. He stated that while the story does feature a little person as a character, the plot does not revolve only around that character.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Initially, Salman Khan was approached for the role in 2012. The role then went to Shah Rukh Khan. His casting was confirmed in March 2016. He plays a man with dwarfism. Rai cast Khan to play the lead role because he needed a big star for the story to penetrate globally. He needed "an intelligent actor, who also can carry that happy-go-lucky attitude," and he felt Khan possessed those qualities. Rai realised the difference between a six-foot tall person saying "I love you" and a four-foot tall person; hence he hired Khan. Khan is the fifth actor of normal stature in Indian cinema to play a little person after Kamal Haasan in "Apoorva Sagodharargal" (1989), Johnny Lever in "Aashiq" (2001), Jagathy Sreekumar in "Athbhutha Dweepu" (2005) and Anupam Kher in "Jaan-E-Mann" (2006).


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: After much speculation, Rai confirmed Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif as the female lead actors in the film in June 2017; this would be the second collaboration between the two actresses and Khan after their 2012 film "Jab Tak Hai Jaan". While Kaif was the first choice for the first lead, Sharma's role was initially offered to Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt who play cameos in the film, they dropped out due to date issues. Sharma was reported to play a differently-abled person, whereas Kaif confirmed that she will portray the role of an actress. Both Sharma and Kaif were offered the role not because of their stardom but because they fit the role according to Rai. According to Kaif, she was offered the film before Khan was cast. She later confirmed that the script and story of "Zero" had changed over two years, hinting that Khan recommended this.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Tigmanshu Dhulia portrayed the father of Khan's character. He showed interest in the project after hearing about its heavy technical involvements. Abhay Deol was cast as a love interest, and Madhavan, who had previously worked with Rai in both "Tanu Weds Manu" films, announced his casting by sharing a selfie with Rai on the film's set in late May 2018. Khan refrained from signing any other film during "Zero"s production. The film features guest appearances by Salman Khan, Sridevi, Juhi Chawla, Kajol, Rani Mukerji, Karisma Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt who will portray themselves. This marked Sridevi’s posthumous appearance in a film, as she died before the film's release shortly after filming.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: In August 2016, it was said that filming would begin in December 2016. This was later postponed to 2017. Principal photography of the film eventually began in May 2017 in Mumbai. In May, an accident occurred on the set, in which crew members were injured. In June 2017, Khan revealed that only 10 minutes of footage had been completed. Kaif joined the team on 22 September 2017. Sharma started shooting in September. On 8 January, she resumed her shooting after taking a break for a couple of weeks for her wedding. Two days later, Khan was photographed on the sets of the film in suburban Mumbai. The crew took a break during the Makara Sankranti festival. The shoot was also extended to Bandra, Mumbai. Around January 2018, Kajol completed filming for her cameo. Parts of the film were also shot in Dubai. Overall, the film took 200 days to shoot, instead of the originally allotted 140 days.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: For the scenes in the film taking place in Meerut, preparations were undertaken by the producers to ensure an authentic setting. A large-scale replica of the city was reproduced in Mumbai's Film City, where special attention was given to recreating the streets (and even buildings like the famed clock-tower) accurately. Director Rai also flew 300 actors from Meerut onto the sets to simulate the "feel" of the town; actors familiar with the Meerut area, like Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, also helped Shah Rukh Khan understand and integrate local mannerisms into Bauua's character.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Visual effects were heavily used to make Khan's character three feet tall. According to Khan, this was done as "I would have a problem if I have to do it on my knees. I am trying to avoid that part because that looks unreal also, and in today's time and age, you don't want to do that." The makers took inspiration from the technology used in "The Lord of the Rings". Khan noted that he had to be careful about the "little things" in enacting Bauua, such as not making his strides too long, and using a ramp instead of stairs; for many scenes, he would be made to stand in a pit (which would be edited out in post-production), so the other actors would be looking at him from a slightly higher vantage point and hence creating a sense of realism for his short stature. The character was also shot using Forced Perspective, which according to NDTV, is "a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It will make SRK look shorter." According to Rai, the film will use the most visual effects for an Indian film.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: To better prepare for playing a wheelchair user, Sharma met with an occupational therapist and an audiologist, who taught her how to create an involuntary spasm-like action during her dialogue scenes; the occupational therapist was always on set to monitor Sharma's performance. In an interview with The Telegraph, Sharma noted that in the beginning stages of the shoot, shaping the physicality of the character was difficult for her and that she would ask for many more takes than usual because her movements didn't feel correct. During the first schedule, she asked Khan to be more patient with her during their scenes while she got used to the character, which he obliged. She observed that because the character performed involuntary movements, they were very difficult to do and required "heavy breathing, which would get me very tired and my body would go into spasms because I had tightened it so much." She eventually got more comfortable in her performance later on. In between takes, instead of returning to her normal physicality as most actors would, she would stay in the wheelchair, then "go to another mark on my wheelchair and sit there alone. I would rarely leave the wheelchair on set, and ended up staying away from everybody as well."


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Kaif was initially relucatant to play Babita; to her the character "seemed like just another film star going through pain," with Kaif herself having recently reached a personal point of equilibrium after coming out a challenging phase in her life. Director Rai eventually convinced her of the role and the internal transformation the character would undertake, with Kaif noting that it was "an intense journey we went on together." Babita's vulnerability, and her continuous struggle to hide her true feelings from the world, appealed to Kaif and she eventually found the character intriguing. She noted that in real life, most people eventually hide their feelings from the real world in some way or another, and that they would find Babita relatable as she was dealing with her own issues and personal insecurities; she would often react defensively or aggressively, and yet the fact that she was "fighting for herself" gave her respectability and makes her interesting to watch.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: In the behind-the-scenes video of the making of the song "Mere Naam Tu," Anushka Sharma details the video in a voice-over, and she mentions several aspects of the song's making. She noted that choreographer Remo D'Souza directed the video and brought his trademark creativity, including the inclusion of children, into the song's dance sequence. The sequence was filmed over the course of 14 days, with Sharma mostly wearing pajamas and using a wheelchair for its duration. It was filmed in the corridor of a hotel, yet was transformed into a "fantasy land," with the addition of on-set rain and Holi colors. While on set, wheelchair user Sharma can be seen on an elevated platform while interacting with Shah Rukh Khan's character Bauua, to create the illusion of his short stature.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Most of the film was filmed entirely in Film City. In February 2018, it was reported that the post-production work of a second teaser was being carried out. From 4–8 April 2018, Khan shot the film's schedule in Vasai, Mumbai, flying in a helicopter to avoid the traffic. In middle April, the film's shooting was reported to shift to the United States for a sequence. Some sequences were also filmed in Huntsville, Alabama. Khan finished filming for "Zero", and wrapped the film's principal photography in Orlando, during the month of June 2018.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: The film's score and soundtrack were composed and produced by Ajay–Atul collaborating with Khan for the first time, while Tanishk Bagchi worked as a guest composer. Lyrics are written by Irshad Kamil and Kumaar. The first single, "Mere Naam Tu" was released on 23 November 2018. It was sung by Abhay Jodhpurkar (who made Bollywood debut) and arranged by Ustad K. Shayan-Hussaini (who also played its piano pieces); other instrumentals include the Indian flute by Varad Kathapurkar and the Nylon guitar by Pawan Rasayli. On 4 December, "Issaqbaazi," the film's second song, was released; a fast-paced, rustic dance number picturized on a jubilant Bauua dancing with Salman Khan after being kissed by Babita, it was sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Divya Kumar, and was composed by Ajay–Atul, with lyrics by Irshad Kamil.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: The third single track "Husn Parcham" was released on 1 December 2018. The song was sung by Bhoomi Trivedi and Raja Kumari. On 20 December 2018, a fourth song was released, titled "Heer Badnaam." Revealing the stardom and personal issues of Babita Kumari, and depicting Bauua as her long-standing fan, the song is reminiscent of the Punjabi song "Daru Badnaam" by Kamal Kahlon and Param Singh; it is composed by Tanishk Bagchi, lyricized by Kumaar, and sung by Romy. The album was released by T-Series on 7 December 2018.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: The title of the film was announced by Khan and Rai on 1 January 2018 in a minute long teaser trailer posted on Twitter due to robust demand from fans. The video showed Khan in his dwarf avatar singing and dancing to Mohammed Rafi's "Hum Ko Tum Pe Pyar Aaya". Although neither Kaif nor Sharma appeared in the teaser video, in one of the scenes, Khan wore a jacket with a collage of Kaif's pictures imprinted on it. In less than 24 hours, the video garnered over 3 million views on YouTube alone, and Khan's announcement tweet had over 30,000 likes. Red Chillies Entertainment later announced that "Zero"-related posts had reached over 10 million views, likes and mentions across various social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. The following day, the first teaser poster with the tagline "21st December 2018 se aapke piche" was unveiled by Red Chillies Entertainment, revealing that the film would release on 21 December 2018.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: According to Rai, "Zero" was chosen to be released in December since it is "a month when we celebrate life and what better time for a boy who celebrates that he is physically incomplete and in his incompleteness completes others as he travels from Meerut to New York. There is a beauty in incompleteness we are celebrating." During the Islamic festival of Eid, a promotional teaser was released on 13 June 2018, featuring Shah Rukh and Salman, the latter in the attire sported by him in the film "Tiger Zinda Hai" (2017). In late August 2018, Rai confirmed to news agency Bollywood Hungama that the trailer for "Zero" would release on 2 November, Khan's birthday. In late October 2018, as part of the promotional campaign, a verified Twitter account emerged in the name of Bauua, Khan's character from the film, featuring the cartoon version of Bauua Singh's first look and posting humorous tweets.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: On 1 November, the day before the release of the trailer, two official posters were revealed by Khan on his social media pages: one featuring Khan's character Bauua Singh and Anushka Sharma's character in Connaught Place in New Delhi, and another with Singh and Katrina Kaif's character in front of Meerut's clock tower.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: On the morning of 2 November, Director Aanand L. Rai released a third poster on his Twitter page, depicting Khan's Bauua Singh standing on a street near Broadway in New York City. The same day, Red Chillies Entertainment released the official trailer on YouTube. The trailer recorded more than 54 million views within 24 hours, and eventually recorded the fastest 100 million views on YouTube for any Indian film, surpassing "Thugs of Hindostan" to become YouTube's most-watched Indian trailer of all time. On 10 November, "Zero"s trailer was screened at the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival in the presence of Khan and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. On 20 November, Red Chillies Entertainment uploaded an official promo video to their YouTube channel. On the same day, the film's makers launched an exclusive Bauua Singh WhatsApp sticker pack available for download.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: On 21 November, in starting a month-long countdown to the release of the film, a humorous behind-the-scenes look was released, entitled "Mera Samosa Waapis Karo" – revealing Director Aanand L. Rai's fondness for samosas and Shah Rukh Khan's playful prank on him about it. Also on 21 November, Red Chillies Entertainment tweeted to announce official merchandise for the film – including phone covers, mugs, shirts, and headphone sets – which would be available for purchase on their company website's store page. On 22 November, Red Chillies Entertainment revealed a new film poster depicting Bauua kissing Aafia on the forehead in front of a large sunlit dome-arched window, and announced that the first song of the film would release the following day. On 23 November, the first song of the film was released, titled "Mere Naam Tu"; an orchestral ballad picturized on Bauua as he sweepingly proclaims his love for Aafia, it was composed by Ajay–Atul, lyricized by Irshad Kamil and sung by Abhay Jodhpurkar.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: On 30 November, Red Chillies Entertainment announced a fan-interaction website, called "Bauua Ki Toli." By completing social-media related activities and earning points, fans can earn the chance to become Bauua's "Khaasam Khaas" and win "Zero" merchandise, personalised autographed posters from Shah Rukh Khan, as well as movie ticket cashback from Paytm and exclusive Bauua apparel. On 2 December, the producers released a new poster, featuring Khan's Bauua Singh being held by Salman Khan in the center-stage of a crowded dance hall, announcing the release of a new song, "Issaqbaazi."


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: On 5 December, Shah Rukh Khan flew to Dubai to promote the film, greeting fans at a club on the rooftop of the Meydan Racecourse's grandstand; the following day, he entertained 100,000 viewers at Dubai's Global Village, dancing to several hit songs from his films. On 7 December, he travelled to Muscat (Oman), and Kuwait as part of the film's promotional tour. On 7 December, Red Chillies Entertainment uploaded onto YouTube a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the "Mere Naam Tu" music video. On 10 December, a teaser for a new song was released, "Husn Parcham." On 14 December, a new dialogue promo featuring Bauua Singh was released, called "Bhabhi Ke Naam Ki Biryani," revealing his relationship with his father and his "quirky sense of humor."


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: In late December, Red Chillies Entertainment partnered with Amazon to bring an interactive Bauua Singh voice (available only in India) to their Alexa device, Echo smart speakers, and other Alexa built-in devices, which allows users to listen to his "jokes, anecdotes, and poetry" as requested; the producers have also released special GIFs from the film that can be used across all social-media platforms. "Zero" also partnered with Snapchat to become the first film in India to use their Augmented Reality Lens' feature promotionally; users applying the Lens can transform into Bauua, with his sunglasses and a garland around them, and will be "able to interact with the plotline of the movie." Shah Rukh Khan debuted the feature on Snapchat himself, sharing a story using the Lens. On 18 December 2018, a fourth poster for the film was released to announce advance-show bookings, showing Bauua sitting on the railing of a high-rise building, with one arm around a chimpanzee, and his other arm pointing up at the sky.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: A fifth poster was also released by Red Chillies Entertainment on the same day, depicting Bauua and Aafia in a zero-gravity simulator, holding onto each other's arms, with an enlarged and well-lit moon and sky in the background.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: "Zero" was released on 21 December 2018. According to film trade analyst Taran Adarsh, it was shown on 4380 screens in India and 1585 overseas (noting that additional international territories will open later), for a worldwide total of 5965 screens. Domestically, the film had the third-widest release of all Hindi films released in 2018, behind only Thugs of Hindostan (5000 screens) and Race 3 (4400 screens).


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: In mid-December 2018, the film passed the British Board of Film Classification with a certified 12A rating and a 164-minute runtime. In Pakistan, "Zero" was cleared by the Central Board of Film Censors without any cuts. It was released in 156 screens across the country by local distributor Eveready Pictures, which is said to be the highest number of screens for any film in Pakistan.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: The film, which was initially planned for a 20 December 2018 release in Germany, was postponed on 17 January 2019, to ensure a wider release.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: The film released in China in March 2019. "Zero" was the closing film of Beijing International Film Festival.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Upon release on home video in 2019, "Zero" became the top-selling film on the Google Play Store, beating "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "A Star is Born".


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: "Zero" collected at the Indian box office on its first day. In its three-day opening weekend, the film earned approximately domestically. It earned on Monday 95.0 million and on Tuesday (Christmas holiday) in domestic circuit. The USA Box office collection of "Zero" on Day 2 (22 December) was () from 262 screens.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: The total domestic gross collection of the film is , and the overseas gross collection was $14 million according to Box Office India. The film's worldwide gross collection is . The film was considered highly unsuccessful.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: "Zero" released to mixed reviews from critics. Most praised the film's visual effects and agreed that Kaif gave the best performance of her career, while they were critical about its plot it was "cut short by the resources at hand," and that the second half in particular was "aimless" and "scattered."


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Baradwaj Rangan gave the film 3.5 stars out of five, saying the film was "all heart" and that he found it "easy to embrace". He called the film Rai's most "fluid" film yet, and mentioned that Khan was "fantastic".


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Raja Sen of the "Hindustan Times" gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling the first half of the film "flat-out fantastic, an unabashed charm-offensive," and noting that the writing and dialogues "crackle with spontaneity and inventiveness." Yet he says that when the film outgrows the small town of Meerut, it finds it hard to keep its witty nature along with the ambitious second half; where the film should have "gone bonkers," it takes a melodramatic approach that doesn't work. Sen commends the actors, particularly Sharma's commitment to the role and Khan's tremendous energy. He implies that Khan saves the film with his trademark acting, regardless of the film's writing issues. Swetha Ramakrishnan of "Firstpost" praised the "ambitious" nature of the film and called it "extremely self-aware," particularly in its first half, crediting it for grounding the plot in warmth. She praised Sharma's "impassioned" role and Kaif's performance as a strong yet vulnerable actress, and commended both actresses for digging into their roles. She also praised Khan's charm and wrote, "You may or may not like the film, but you will most certainly fall in love with Bauua Singh." However, she noted that the second half felt "surreal" and that it was hard to keep up with, saying that it "falls prey to the second-half curse".


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Rachit Gupta of "The Times of India" gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying the film had an "inspiring concept" yet was poorly executed. He said that while the film puts forth many ideas, few of them stick and the romantic moments and visuals, while striking, only stay for a little while. The film felt too long and the second half, when Bauua travels out of his hometown, feels more audacious than the first. Yet the positive is that the characters stay upbeat despite their challenges, and the lead actors (particularly Kaif in a striking role) give good performances. Gupta concludes in saying that while the film builds up an exciting story well, it doesn't quite finish it in the way the viewer would anticipate. Ankur Pathak of "Huffington Post India" praised the performances of the leads, yet says that the film was "weighed down by its own excesses." While the film was ambitious, it was mostly "heightened and exaggerated and hyper-glamorized." He called the main characters excellent, and praised Khan's performance, with Kaif being "a huge revelation" and acting in ways hitherto unseen. Yet the "starkly different, bizarre visual language of the second half hampers the overall experience of the movie." Despite this, Pathak believes that Khan's performance saves the film and that "although this ride has a few breakdowns, overall, one comes out smiling..."


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Rajeev Masand of "News18" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, saying that while the first half was impressive, the ambitious screenplay and ideas were plagued by an "overwrought screenplay" and that the second half that "feels like an entirely different film." He commended the effort of the actors and producers, particularly the acting of Khan; yet noted that the second half becomes undone. He said it seemed as if the writers " threw everything at the wall and decided to see what sticks. Unfortunately, very little does." Anupama Chopra of "Film Companion" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, saying that it was so "bizarre and implausible and incoherent" despite having "ferociously talented people both in front of the camera and behind it." She says in the second half the "promising premise derails;" while the individual characters are interesting, the "connective tissue between...is so thin that the narrative starts to wobble." She praised the VFX, scope and imaginative feel, but was "sad" that the artistic ambition of the creators wasn't achieved. Saibal Chatterjee of "NDTV" gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, noting that while the impressive acting of the leads and stellar visual effects aided the film, ultimately the screenplay was its undoing and left it a "monumental mess." The plot was undermined by a "slew of whimsicalities that defy logic and an uneven tone that borders on the gratuitously facetious." He notes that while Khan's electric performance powers the film, it never gives the film enough to make sense, noting that the second half "flies too high and too helter-skelter." He commended the physical efforts of Sharma's acting and Kaif's vulnerability, yet felt that the film aimed too high without sensitively portraying the struggles of disabled people.


title: Zero (2018 film)

text: Anna MM Vetticad of "Firstpost" gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, saying that Shah Rukh Khan is the best part about it, and that without him the film would have little to show; the first half lets the actor have fun to the hilt, while the second tries to take a serious message but fails to deliver properly. She noted that while Zero does not have the misogyny of Rai's previous films, it also "does not know what to do with" its female characters – while commending Bauua's sharp wit and strong character in facing the odds of life. Writer Sharma doesn't know how to write about relatable women – and thus Aafia and Babita come off as "bores." Overall, the film was "a spluttering, tottering affair."


title: Mite

text: Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evidence of a close relationship.


title: Mite

text: Most mites are tiny, less than in length, and have a simple, unsegmented body plan. The small size of most species makes them easily overlooked; some species live in water, many live in soil as decomposers, others live on plants, sometimes creating galls, while others again are predators or parasites. This last type includes the commercially destructive "Varroa" parasite of honey bees, as well as scabies mites of humans. Most species are harmless to humans, but a few are associated with allergies or may transmit diseases.


title: Mite

text: The mites are not a defined taxon, but is used for two distinct groups of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes. The phylogeny of the Acari has been relatively little studied, but molecular information from ribosomal DNA is being extensively used to understand relationships between groups. The 18 S rRNA gene provides information on relationships among phyla and superphyla, while the ITS2, and the 18S ribosomal RNA and 28S ribosomal RNA genes, provide clues at deeper levels.


title: Mite

text: The mite fossil record is sparse, due to their small size and low preservation potential. The oldest fossils of acariform mites are from the Rhynie Chert, Scotland, which dates to the early Devonian, around 410 million years ago while the earliest fossils of Parasitiformes are known from amber specimens dating to the mid-Cretaceous, around 100 million years ago. Most fossil acarids are no older than the Tertiary (up to 65 mya).


title: Mite

text: Members of the superorders Opilioacariformes and Acariformes (sometimes known as Actinotrichida) are mites, as well as some of the Parasitiformes (sometimes known as Anactinotrichida). Recent genetic research has caused a change in the naming scheme, however, and recent publications have changed the superorder Parasitiformes to an order. Other recent research has suggested that Acari is polyphyletic (of multiple origins), with ticks and spiders more closely related than ticks and mites. The cladogram is based on Dabert et al. 2010, which used molecular data. It shows the Acariformes sister to the Solifugae (camel spiders), while the Parasitiformes are sister to the Pseudoscorpionida.


title: Mite

text: Mites are tiny members of the class Arachnida; most are in the size range but some are larger and some are no bigger than as adults. The body plan has two regions, a cephalothorax (with no separate head) or prosoma, and an opisthosoma or abdomen. Segmentation has almost entirely been lost and the prosoma and opisthosoma are fused, only the positioning of the limbs indicating the location of the segments.


title: Mite

text: At the front of the body is the gnathosoma or capitulum. This is not a head and does not contain the eyes or the brain, but is a retractable feeding apparatus consisting of the chelicerae, the pedipalps and the oral cavity. It is covered above by an extension of the body carapace and is connected to the body by a flexible section of cuticle. The mouthparts differ between taxa depending on diet; in some species the appendages resemble legs while in others they are modified into chelicerae-like structures. The oral cavity connects posteriorly to the mouth and pharynx.


title: Mite

text: Most mites have four pairs of legs, each with six segments, which may be modified for swimming or other purposes. The dorsal surface of the body is clad in hardened tergites and the ventral surface by hardened sclerites; sometimes these form transverse ridges. The gonopore (genital opening) is located on the ventral surface between the fourth pair of legs. Some species have one to five median or lateral eyes but many species are blind, and slit and pit sense organs are common. Both body and limbs bear setae (bristles) which may be simple, flattened, club-shaped or sensory. Mites are usually some shade of brown, but some species are red, orange, black or green, or some combination of these colours.


title: Mite

text: Mite digestive systems have salivary glands that open into the preoral space rather than the foregut. Most species carry two to six pairs of salivary glands that empty at various points into the subcheliceral space. A few mite species lack an anus: they do not defecate during their short lives. The circulatory system consists of a network of sinuses and most mites lacks a heart, movement of fluid being driven by the contraction of body muscles. But ticks, and some of the larger species of mites, have a dorsal, longitudinal heart. Gas exchange is carried out across the body surface, but many species additionally have between one and four pairs of tracheae, the spiracles being located in the front half of the body. The excretory system includes a nephridium and one or two pairs of Malpighian tubules. Several families of mites, such as Tetranychidae, Eriophyidae, Camerobiidae, Cunaxidae, Trombidiidae, Trombiculidae, Erythraeidae and Bdellidae have silk glands used to produce silk for various purposes. Also water mites (Hydrachnidia) produce long thin threads that may be silk.


title: Mite

text: The sexes are separate in mites; males have a pair of testes in the mid-region of the body, each connected to the gonopore by a vas deferens, and in some species there is a chitinous penis; females have a single ovary connected to the gonopore by an oviduct, as well as a seminal receptacle for the storage of sperm. In most mites, sperm is transferred to the female indirectly; the male either deposits a spermatophore on a surface from which it is picked up by the female, or he uses his chelicerae or third pair of legs to insert it into the female's gonopore. In some of the Acariformes, insemination is direct using the male's penis. The spermatophora in all mites are aflagellate.


title: Mite

text: The eggs are laid in the substrate, or wherever the mite happens to live. They take up to six weeks to hatch, according to species, and the first stage larvae have six legs. After three moults, the larvae become nymphs, with eight legs, and after a further three moults, they become adults. Longevity varies between species, but the lifespan of mites is short as compared to many other arachnids.


title: Mite

text: Mites occupy a wide range of ecological niches. For example, Oribatida mites are important decomposers in many habitats. They eat a wide variety of material including living and dead plant and fungal material, lichens and carrion; some are predatory, though no oribatid mites are parasitic. Mites are among the most diverse and successful of all invertebrate groups. They have exploited a wide array of habitats, and because of their small size go largely unnoticed. They are found in fresh and salt water, in the soil, in forests, pastures, agricultural crops, ornamental plants, thermal springs and caves. They inhabit organic debris of all kinds and are extremely numerous in leaf litter. They feed on animals, plants and fungi and some are parasites of plants and animals. Some 48,200 species of mites have been described, but there may be a million or more species as yet undescribed. The tropical species "Archegozetes longisetosus" is one of the strongest animals in the world, relative to its mass (100 μg): It lifts up to 1,182 times its own weight, over five times more than would be expected of such a minute animal. A mite also holds a speed record: for its length, "Paratarsotomus macropalpis" is the fastest animal on Earth.


title: Mite

text: Many mites are parasitic on plants and animals. One family of mites, Pyroglyphidae, or nest mites, live primarily in the nests of birds and other animals. These mites are largely parasitic and consume blood, skin and keratin. Dust mites, which feed mostly on dead skin and hair shed from humans instead of consuming them from the organism directly, evolved from these parasitic ancestors. Ticks are a prominent group of mites that are parasitic on vertebrates, mostly mammal and birds, feeding on blood with specialised mouthparts.


title: Mite

text: Parasitic mites sometimes infest insects. "Varroa destructor" attaches to the body of honey bees, and "Acarapis woodi" (family Tarsonemidae) lives in their tracheae. Hundreds of species are associated with other bees, mostly poorly described. They attach to bees in a variety of ways. For example, "Trigona corvina" workers have been found with mites attached to the outer face of their hind tibiae. Some are thought to be parasites, while others are beneficial symbionts. Mites also parasitize some ant species, such as "Eciton burchellii".


title: Mite

text: Plant pests include the so-called spider mites (family Tetranychidae), thread-footed mites (family Tarsonemidae), and the gall mites (family Eriophyidae). Among the species that attack animals are members of the sarcoptic mange mites (family Sarcoptidae), which burrow under the skin. Demodex mites (family Demodecidae) are parasites that live in or near the hair follicles of mammals, including humans.


title: Mite

text: Being unable to fly, mites need some other means of dispersal. On a small scale, walking is used to access other suitable locations in the immediate vicinity. Some species mount to a high point and adopt a dispersal posture and get carried away by the wind, while others waft a thread of silk aloft to balloon to a new position.


title: Mite

text: Parasitic mites use their hosts to disperse, and spread from host to host by direct contact. Another strategy is phoresy; the mite, often equipped with suitable claspers or suckers, grips onto an insect or other animal, and gets transported to another place. A phoretic mite is just a hitch-hiker and does not feed during the time it is carried by its temporary host. These travelling mites are mostly species that reproduce rapidly and are quick to colonise new habitats.


title: Mite

text: Mites are tiny and apart from those that are of economic concern to humans, little studied. The majority are beneficial, living in the soil or aqueous environments and assisting in the decomposition of decaying organic material, as part of the carbon cycle.


title: Mite

text: The majority of mite species are harmless to humans and domestic animals, but a few species can colonize mammals directly, acting as vectors for disease transmission, and causing or contributing to allergenic diseases. Mites which colonize human skin are the cause of several types of itchy skin rashes, such as gamasoidosis, rodent mite dermatitis, grain itch, grocer's itch, and scabies; "Sarcoptes scabiei" is a parasitic mite responsible for scabies, which is one of the three most common skin disorders in children. "Demodex" mites, which are common cause of mange in dogs and other domesticated animals, have also been implicated in the human skin disease rosacea, although the mechanism by which "demodex" contributes to the disease is unclear. Ticks are well known for carrying diseases, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.


title: Mite

text: Chiggers are known primarily for their itchy bite, but they can also spread disease in some limited circumstances, such as scrub typhus. The house-mouse mite is the only known vector of the disease rickettsialpox. House dust mites, found in warm and humid places such as beds, cause several forms of allergic diseases, including hay fever, asthma and eczema, and are known to aggravate atopic dermatitis.


title: Mite

text: Among domestic animals, sheep are affected by the mite "Psoroptes ovis" which lives on the skin, causing hypersensitivity and inflammation. Hay mites are a suspected reservoir for scrapie, a prion disease of sheep.


title: Mite

text: The mite "Varroa destructor" is a serious pest of honey bees, contributing to colony collapse disorder in commercial hives. This organism is an obligate external parasite, able to reproduce only in bee colonies. It directly weakens its host by sucking up the bee's fat, and can spread RNA viruses including deformed wing virus. Heavy infestation causes the death of a colony, generally over the winter. Since 2006, over 10 million beehives have been lost.


title: Mite

text: Mites were first observed under the microscope by the English polymath Robert Hooke. In his 1665 book "Micrographia", he stated that far from being spontaneously generated from dirt, they were "very prettily shap'd Insects". In 1898, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a satirical poem, "A Parable", with the conceit of some cheese mites disputing the origin of the round cheddar cheese in which they all lived. The world's first science documentary featured cheese mites, seen under the microscope; the short film was shown in London's Alhambra music hall in 1903, causing a boom in the sales of simple microscopes.


title: Rus' people

text: The Rusʹ people (Old East Slavic: Рѹсь; Modern Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian: Русь, "Rusʹ"; Old Norse: "Garðar"; Greek: Ῥῶς, "Rhos") were an ethnic group in early medieval eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were originally Norse people, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, settling and ruling along the river-routes between the Baltic and the Black Seas from around the 8th to 11th centuries AD. They formed a state known in modern historiography as Kievan Rusʹ, which was initially a multiethnic society where the ruling Norsemen merged and assimilated with East Slavic, Baltic and Finnic tribes, ending up with Old East Slavic as their common language. The elite of Kievan Rus was still familiar with Old Norse until their assimilation by the second half of the 11th century, and in rural areas vestiges of Norse culture persisted as late as the 14th and early 15th centuries.


title: Rus' people

text: The history of the Rus is central to 9th through 10th-century state formation, and thus national origins, in eastern Europe. They ultimately gave their name to Russia and Belarus, and they are relevant to the national histories of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Because of this importance, there is a set of alternative so-called "Anti-Normanist" views that are largely confined to a minor group of East European scholars.


title: Rus' people

text: The name "Rusʹ" remains not only in names such as "Russia" and "Belarus", but it is also preserved in many place names in the Novgorod and Pskov districts, and it is the origin of the Greek "Rōs". "Rus" is generally considered to be a borrowing from Finnic "Ruotsi" ("Sweden"). There are two theories behind the origin of "Rus"/"Ruotsi", which are not mutually exclusive. It is either derived more directly from OEN "rōþer" (OWN "róðr"), which referred to rowing, the fleet levy, etc., or it is derived from this term through "Rōþin", an older name for the Swedish coastal region Roslagen.


title: Rus' people

text: The Finnish and Russian forms of the name have a final -s revealing an original compound where the first element was - (preceding a voiceless consonant, "þ" is pronounced like "th" in English "thing"). The prefix form "rōþs-" is found not only in "Ruotsi" and "Rusʹ", but also in Old Norse "róþsmenn" and "róþskarlar", both meaning "rowers", and in the modern Swedish name for the people of Roslagen – "rospiggar" which derives from ON *"rōþsbyggiar" ("inhabitants of Rōþin"). The name "Roslagen" itself is formed with this element and the plural definite form of the neuter noun "lag", meaning "the teams", in reference to the teams of rowers in the Swedish kings' fleet levy.


title: Rus' people

text: There are at least two, probably three, instances of the root in Old Norse from two 11th c. runic inscriptions, fittingly located at two extremes of the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. Two of them are roþ for "rōþer "/"róðr", meaning "fleet levy", on the Håkan stone, and as i ruþi (translated as "dominion") on the lost Nibble stone, in the old Swedish heartland in the Mälaren Valley, and the possible third one was identified by Erik Brate in the most widely accepted reading as on the Piraeus Lion originally located in Athens, where a runic inscription was most likely carved by Swedish mercenaries serving in the Varangian Guard. Brate has reconstructed *"Rōþsland", as an old name for Roslagen.


title: Rus' people

text: Between the two compatible theories represented by "róðr" or "Róðinn", modern scholarship leans towards the former because at the time, the region covered by the latter term, Roslagen, remained sparsely populated and lacked the demographic strength necessary to stand out compared to the adjacent Swedish heartland of the Mälaren Valley. Consequently, an origin in word compounds such as "róþs-menn" and "róþs-karlar" is considered the most likely one. Moreover, the form "róþs-", from which "Ruotsi" and "Rusʹ" originate, is not derived directly from ON "róðr", but from its earlier Proto-Norse form "roðz" ().


title: Rus' people

text: Other theories such as derivation from "Rusa", a name for the Volga, are rejected or ignored by mainstream scholarship.


title: Rus' people

text: Having settled Aldeigja (Ladoga) in the 750s, Scandinavian colonists played an important role in the early ethnogenesis of the Rus people, and in the formation of the Rusʹ Khaganate. The Varangians ("Varyags", in Old East Slavic) are first mentioned by the "Primary Chronicle" as having exacted tribute from the Slavic and Finnic tribes in 859. It was the time of rapid expansion of the Vikings' presence in Northern Europe; England began to pay Danegeld in 865, and the Curonians faced an invasion by the Swedes around the same time.


title: Rus' people

text: The Varangians being first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle suggests that the term "Rus" was used to denote Scandinavians until it became firmly associated with the now extensively Slavicised elite of Kievan Rus. At that point, the new term "Varangian" was increasingly preferred to name the Scandinavians, probably mostly from what is currently Sweden, plying the river routes between the Baltic and the Black and Caspian Seas. Relatively few of the rune stones Varangians left in their native Sweden tell of their journeys abroad, to such places as what is today Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Greece, and Italy. Most of these rune stones can be seen today, and are a significant piece of historical evidence. The Varangian runestones tell of many notable Varangian expeditions, and even recount the fates of individual warriors and travelers.


title: Rus' people

text: In Russian historiography, two cities are used to describe the beginnings of the country: Kiev and Novgorod. In the first part of the 11th century the former was already a Slav metropolis, rich and powerful, a fast growing centre of civilisation adopted from Byzantium. The latter town, Novgorod, was another centre of the same culture but founded in different surroundings, where some old local traditions moulded this commercial city into the capital of a powerful oligarchic trading republic of a kind otherwise unknown in this part of Europe. These towns have tended to overshadow the significance of other places that had existed long before Kiev and Novgorod were founded. The two original centres of Rus were Staraja Ladoga and Rurikovo Gorodishche, two points on the Volkhov, a river running for 200 km between Lake Ilmen in the south to Lake Ladoga in the north. This was the territory that most probably was originally called by the Norsemen "Gardar", a name that long after the Viking Age acquired a much broader meaning and became Gardariki, a denomination for the entire Old Russian State. The area between the lakes was the original Rus, and it was from here that its name was transferred to the Slav territories on the middle Dnieper, which eventually became Rusʹ (Ruskaja zemlja).


title: Rus' people

text: The prehistory of the first territory of Rus has been sought in the developments around the early-8th century, when Staraja Ladoga was founded as a manufacturing centre and to conduct trade, serving the operations of Scandinavian hunters and dealers in furs obtained in the north-eastern forest zone of Eastern Europe. In the early period (the second part of the 8th and first part of the 9th century), a Norse presence is only visible at Staraja Ladoga, and to a much lesser degree at a few other sites in the northern parts of Eastern Europe. The objects that represent Norse material culture of this period are rare outside Ladoga and mostly known as single finds. This rarity continues throughout the 9th century until the whole situation changes radically during the next century, when historians meet, at many places and in relatively large quantities, the material remains of a thriving Scandinavian culture. For a short period of time, some areas of Eastern Europe became as much part of the Norse world as were Danish and Norwegian territories in the West. The culture of the Rus contained Norse elements used as a manifestation of their Scandinavian background. These elements, which were current in 10th-century Scandinavia, appear at various places in the form of collections of many types of metal ornaments, mainly female but male also, such as weapons, decorated parts of horse bridles, and diverse objects embellished in contemporaneous Norse art styles.


title: Rus' people

text: The Swedish king Anund Jakob wanted to assist Yaroslav the Wise, Grand prince of Kiev, in his campaigns against the Pechenegs. The so-called Ingvar the Far-Travelled, a Swedish Viking who wanted to conquer Georgia, also assisted Yaroslav with 3000 men in the war against the Pechenegs; however, he later continued on to Georgia. Yaroslav the Wise married the Swedish king's daughter, Ingegerd Olofsdotter of Sweden, who became the Russian saint, Anna, while Harald Hardrada, the Norwegian king who was a military commander of the Varangian guard, married Elisiv of Kiev. The two first uncontroversially historical Swedish kings Eric the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung both had Slavic wives. Danish kings and royals also frequently had Slavic wives. For example, Harald Bluetooth married Tove of the Obotrites. Vikings also made up the bulk of the bodyguards of early Kievan Rus rulers.