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ice-cream-nekogirl · 5 years ago

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I just wanna make you feel okay But all you do is look the other way, mm I can't tell you how much I wish I didn't wanna stay I just kinda wish you were gay ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bPEjcgytN8

Amy and Midoriya:

Believe it or not, Midoriya just might be another one of Amy’s most complex and complicated relationships, second to her’s and Fiona’s, which is saying something. The only thing Midoriya and Fiona have in common at all though is their closeness to the young witch and the fact that they both ended up breaking her heart. Midoriya is also living proof of how Amy can go from intensely loving someone one moment, to intensely hating them the next...

They didn’t always have a rocky relationship though, it just... got strained along the way but don’t worry! There’s a happy ending!

Amy met Midoriya as a child, and ironically, she ended up saving him from Bakugo when he was bullying him. She attacked him because he was picking on a defenseless Midoriya, which really surprised the latter since no one’s ever attempt to stop Bakugo from being a jerk. Amy took an immediate liking to Midoriya as they ran away from Bakugo and his friends at the time, and even already gave him a nickname ‘Greenie’. She sympathized with him since he was quirkless and although she didn’t tell him that she was really a witch and that her powers just emerged, she still comforted the boy when he said that he really wanted to be a hero. Amy expressed her faith in Midoriya, and said that he was going to be a great hero some day because he’s a nice guy. Their friendship was short-lived when Amy moved to New Orleans, but they reunited when she returned to Japan and met him again at the UA Entrance exams.

Excited, Amy happily greeted him and asked if he remembered her, and once he got a glimpse of her powers, he remembered her as the girl with the teleportation power much to her delight. Amy instantly clung to Midoriya and declared herself as his ‘new best friend’, which rather annoyed Shinsou, who she had also reunited with beforehand. In truth though, Amy’s fondness of Midoriya was actually a crush as she notes that he got ‘cuter’ 4 years later and was happy to see that he was still the determined and kind-hearted boy she met in the past. Although this ended up in her being very jealous of other girls, but especially Uraraka, who Amy often secretly pushed with her telekinesis whenever she got too close to Midoriya. Although she was perfectly fine with Hatsume and Toga whenever they were getting close to Midoriya, and she even happily chatted with Toga about how cute he was.

On his side, Midoriya was both happy to see her and have her as a new friend but was also extremely flustered by her physically affectionate and hands-on attitude as she frequently hugged him and held his hands, arms and shoulders and overall made him very nervous. Nonetheless, Midoriya began to view her as a good friend and someone that he can rely on despite her flightiness as Amy proved to be a good help whenever she gave him emotional support and cheered him up by being her silly self especially when she hung around him, Uraraka and Iida.

Midoriya became used to Amy’s personality and knew that she could be relied on to lighten up the mood since she was almost always smiling and being funny, which he admired. Midoriya notes that Amy is a good person and good in a tense situation because she can bring the laughter and smiles back on people’s faces. But Amy also ends up surprising Midoriya though during the USJ incident and when she showed up to help him, Iida and Todoroki fight off the Hero Killer Stain as he was amazed by her fighting spirit and skills with magic. Midoriya had and still has a lot of respect for Amy because of her skillset in witchcraft and the power she has, although he is also bewildered by her tendency to be lazy and preference to goof off. Despite this, Midoriya’s respect for her grows when Amy proves to be reliable both in and out of battle and Amy was amazed by his strength and kind heart.

Sadly, their relationship slowly began to skew as Midoriya began to grow as a person and start prioritizing his new goals to become stronger above most of everything so he can become a better hero. Amy was aware of Midoriya’s goals but was oblivious to his gradual maturation as she continued to joke around and entertain him which only made her look much more immature in comparison and she ended up becoming clingy. She slowly became grating towards Midoriya because of this, but he was too polite to turn her away and merely humored her because he liked seeing her happy and still regarded her as a good friend.The Kamino Ward Arc is where their relationship began to slowly sour when Amy gets captured with Bakugo, and discovers that he, Kirishima, Todoroki, Iida and Yaoyorozu went to rescue them on their own without any knowledge of the pro-heroes. While Amy was impressed that he broke the rules, she was also irritated with the fact that his main priority at the time was Bakugo, and that he didn’t think far ahead given that Amy and Bakugo were trapped with 7 dangerous villains at the time and Midoriya and his friends were still merely novices at the time. She irritably chides him for being reckless and when she was rescued by Madison instead, she also asks him if he even knew that she was alive. A shocked Midoriya doesn’t answer, and Amy leaves without a word.

Amy did want to forgive Midoriya for unintentionally forgetting about her, and as she spent her time interning with Mallory and Madison she expressed the hope that maybe confessing her feelings to him would improve on their relationship. And when she returns after the Internship arc and expresses pride in Midoriya initially for taking down Overhaul and rescuing young Eri, but that pride gets instantly dissipated when she hears more details surrounding the entire rescue operation. When she hears how it resulted in the death of a hero, several heroes getting injured and some of their friends, including their teacher, getting injured all for the sake of one that they didn’t even know well Amy gets very upset. To the point where she starts yelling and calls Midoriya an idiot for his recklessness and states that he has no idea what he’s doing, and the two of them get in a verbal fight as Midoriya tells Amy that she has no place to speak since she’s just as reckless, if not more so than he is. But Amy remarks that she’s not reckless to the point of sacrificing her friends’ lives for a stranger he just met, only for Midoriya to point out that it’s a heroes job to protect the innocent lives.

However, Eri’s rescue also negatively enlightened Amy as she compared her own rescue to the former’s less than meaningful and positive one, and the witch realizes that she never received that kind of care, nor did the heroes showcase that kind of determination to give her a better life as they did for Eri, which greatly angers and hurts her when she recollects what kind of harsh life she had ever since she was rescued by the heroes and later given away. Amy rants this newfound knowledge to Midoriya, who although is sympathetic to her plight, can’t understand her on an emotional level and instead urges her to let go of that since she is here now as a hero-in-training and needs to be above all of that. But Amy doesn’t want to hear it as she laughs off his words, and then callously disregards Eri, as Amy says that she herself matters. Disgusted and horrified by Amy’s lack of empathy, he chastises her for being cruel and calls her out on her selfishness and reminds her of the ‘kind, sweet girl’ she used to be, which shocks the young witch when it becomes clear that Midoriya isn’t happy to see how she truly is behind one aspect of herself. And when Midoriya ends the conversation Amy is left unhinging and hurt from having the boy she likes speak to her like that and point out her flaws.

Amy acts much colder and emotionless during the Culture Festival, which her classmates noted and likened her to Todoroki, who was more concerned than amused by her strange and distraught behavior. To make matters worse Amy refused to join the class dance out of spite towards Midoriya and also Aizawa; who she also began to hate since he started to take care of Eri, something she begged for him to do for her, but he didn’t when he could have. And when Midoriya pleads with Amy to be a team-player and help them she refuses and tells him to go to hell. Instead, Amy goes to the General Studies to be with Shinsou, who’s well aware of her anger and does what he can to ease her. Unfortunately, when the Culture Festival comes to an end and she sees her entire class looking happy without her, and especially Midoriya, she starts hallucinating Fiona, who reminds her that she has no place in Hero Society, which causes her to suffer a mental breakdown. Incensed, heartbroken and now bubbling with rage, Amy sets up a plot in motion for the next day and attacks Aizawa and UA. The pro-heroes fight back, but Amy planned ahead and instantly defeated them with her telekinesis and Concilium, and also put her friends to sleep with a sleeping potion to spare them from her wrath. Midoriya notices this and quickly steps in to try and stop her, and the two of them engage in a fight when the insane and hostile Amy mocks and unnerves him with her psychosis.

Midoriya attempts to calm Amy down by saying that their friends and shouldn’t be fighting each other, but a pissed off Amy angrily tells him that she’s not in the mood for his ‘hero speeches’ and continues to attack him. He has no choice but to fight back as he tries desperately to remind her of their friendship, only for her to say that he isn’t seeing from her point of view. But as Amy goes on tirade about how Hero Society has abandoned and failed people like her and points out all of the flaws, Midoriya tells her that she’s starting to sound like Stain. Amy doesn’t heed this though, only further angered, but when Midoriya gets the upperhand and pins her down, she breaks down crying. Feeling guilty, Midoriya gently requests for her to stop what she’s doing, but Amy tearfully begs for him to let her go and to listen to her, and confesses that she’s only doing this because she loves him. However, Midoriya was extremely taken aback by her confession, and because of his insecurity with girls and belief that Amy doesn’t truly mean it, he angrily yells at her to stop playing around and that she really is crazy if she’s doing this out of some twisted idea of love. He then goes on to say that she can’t blame Hero Society for her own shortcomings since he himself didn’t despite the system being against him, and harshly reminds her that only she’s to blame for her what’s happening because she let it get to her instead of rising above that.

Midoriya had good intentions, but those words are what served as the final nail into the coffin and Amy’s Sentio Compassios awoke into a stronger, more enraged form ‘Sentio Furia’ which both surprises and scares Midoriya. Scorned and heartbroken, Amy’s power fueled by her unbridled fury overwhelms and dominates Midoriya as she tosses him around like a ragdoll and grabs him with her enlarged form and prepares to crush him. Horrified, remorseful and frightened by this new rage that he realizes is caused by him, Midoriya begs for Amy to stop and apologizes for what he said, but Amy says that she hates him and attempts to crush him. At least, until Shinsou arrives and sadly looks up at Amy, which she notices and upon seeing Midoriya’s tears, Amy remembers her human heart and memories with him as she slowly comes down from her high and lets him go but leaves him to writhe in pain with broken ribs. She heals his internal bleeding but backhand slaps him one last time with a scowl, much to Midoriya’s dismay when she leaves with Shinsou.

At the end of the battle and destruction she caused, Amy is pardoned by Cordelia and she’s freed of any punishments that would have been planned for her. But because Amy felt too upset and hurt by the pro-heroes, she quits UA which shocks all of her classmates but especially Midoriya, who feels partially responsible for her departure. Amy isolates herself in her mansion in an attempt to numb the pain of her heartache caused by both the pro-heroes and Midoriya as she thought about him, both positively and negatively as she frequently ranted to Shinsou, Madison, Mallory and Coco (who took care of her) about her newfound hate for him. In truth, Amy didn’t really hate Midoriya, but still didn’t like him nor was she able to feel any affection for him for a long time. Even as Midoriya visited her at her mansion and attempted to apologize to her with an All-Might gift (suggested by Shinsou), Amy was still upset and rejected his apology, dismissed it as garbage and crushed it before she menacingly told him to get out. Hurt, Midoriya would continue his school life sadly and upset with himself for failing Amy and not being able to get through to her.

Amy’s newfound grudge against Midoriya remains for quite some time even when she eventually returns to UA as she treats him coldly and refuses to speak to him. Although, she did end up having to talk to him during their internship with Endeavor, but many of her words were unfriendly and she even punched him in the stomach for innocently, but insensitively dismissing her when they talked about Todoroki, which highly amused Bakugo, who liked her new attitude towards Midoriya. After Natsuo is rescued, Amy and Midoriya finally have another conversation after he asks for her to talk to him, and Amy confesses that she’s not mad at him anymore, but doesn’t look at him the same anymore. She confesses that her confession was real and that her feelings for him were real, which flustered him a bit, until she said that she related to him and felt a connection to him since they were both outcasts. But then she expressed her disappointment in him for no longer being able to be on the outside and look in as he has forgotten his former quirkless self in favor of his new power, while Amy embraced the things that made her different from society. Shocked but also regretful over this new realization, he apologizes to her oncemore, but Amy sadly says that ‘sorry’ isn’t going to change anything.

While Midoriya does keep his priorities, Amy remained in his mind and he couldn’t stop thinking about how he failed her, and there were many times where he did try his best to repair or at least patch up their relationship once Amy slightly lessened her grudge. Todoroki and Shinsou offered him advice by telling him to not push it and to let her forgive him on her own terms, but Midoriya was still willing to do whatever he could to get to forgive him. Later, Amy takes 1-A (plus Shinsou) to New Orleans as a field trip since she felt guilty for what she did to UA and the class was ecstatic to visit America. However, an ambush by witch-hunters takes them by surprise as they are forced to fight and when Amy is killed by one of the hunters Midoriya is crestfallen and cries for her. At least, until she is quickly revived by Misty Day and Cordelia, and Amy happily hugs everyone, including Bakugo, but doesn’t do the same for a very dismayed Midoriya. Sensing their tension, Cordelia sends both Midoriya and Amy on a mission to infltrate and stop a cult of Satanists in New Orleans who are framing witches and killing innocent people. Amy isn’t happy to be with Midoriya, but takes her mission seriously to protect her coven and Midoriya is more than happy to help.

The mission is rather awkward as Amy tells Midoriya that they’re going to be disguised as an illegally married teenage Satanist couple which greatly flusters the boy and amuses Amy. Throughout the entire mission though, Amy does most of the heavy lifting and uses some very underhanded tactics to take down the cult from the inside out and just tells Midoriya to stay out of her way even when he’s trying to help her and is constantly on edge by her brutality. And when he yells at her for not letting him help and for her savage murders, he is quickly intimidated by her cold glare as she reminds him that he shouldn’t be getting mouthy with the girl who’s not above murdering people. However, when Amy starts to get overwhelmed by the amount of power and Satanists, Midoriya rescues her before she can get killed and he kind of scolds her about letting her anger cloud her judgement.

And Amy reluctantly agrees that she shouldn’t have silenced him but then tells him that feeling ignored and dismissed isn’t a nice feeling and Midoriya reflects on how he made her feeling. Amy then tells him that she’s not going to be the kind-hearted girl he wants her to be. Midoriya tries to assure her that he’s not asking for her to be that girl, but Amy doesn’t believe him. Although, Amy does still express her concern and worry for Midoriya when he gets injured by the leader of the Satanists and she lets go of her negative feelings towards him momentarily. Together they both put their differences aside and they are both able to destroy the cult together, although Amy’s way of going about it is more brutal but Midoriya says nothing on it.

As the cult is destroyed and later killed by Satan himself in a very gory fashion, Amy is amazed but not fazed upon seeing Satan as he gives both her and Midoriya an impressed nod at how they defeated the cult that failed him. A horrified and blood-soaked Midoriya asks her if that’s really what she grew up with and she casually says ‘yes’ and that there’s more blood than normal. But later Midoriya goes into shock upon having several other people’s blood on him, and Amy finally shows her gentler side and takes him back to the coven so he can recover both physically and emotionally as she stays by his side the entire time. Midoriya tells Amy that if that’s truly what she’s grown up with, then he can understand a little bit more why she is the way she is today and she awkwardly smiles and says that it wasn’t easy and she tells him more of her past stories. Sympathetic and also shocked by what she went through, Midoriya nonetheless expresses more respect and awe towards Amy’s resilience and reassures her that while she’s more ruthless than she used to be, that he knows she still has a sympathetic heart despite all of that. Touched by his words, Amy finally forgives Midoriya although she breaks down in tears as she apologizes to him for everything she’s done and for how she’s acted, but he quickly forgives her as she tightly hugs him, and for once Midoriya returns the favor and hugs her back as the two of them cry together.

That’s... their relationship. Rocky, complicated but also close because while Amy and Midoriya have had a fairly shaky journey together, they learned a lot from each other nonetheless. Midoriya learned to remember where he came from and Amy learned to be more forgiving towards others and he ended up inspiring her to make her own place in society since that’s what he did when he made his mark and showcased himself as no longer weak. For better or worse Amy’s new goal is to make her mark and further integrate both witches and heroes, but Midoriya believes that she’s still heroic at heart despite her issues. So in the end... Amy and Midoriya patched up their relationship, and while she’s not in love with him anymore she still has real love for him.

Likewise, Midoriya still holds Amy in very high regard and cares for her deeply, although he is a lot more afraid of her anger now and secretly admits that he doesn’t ever want to fight her again. And also, he still gets flustered by her especially when she goes back to the way she was by hugging him and holding his arm as Amy begins giving him affection once again. It’s implied that there’s a mutual attraction between the two, but overall, Amy and Midoriya have fixed their rocky relationship and are back to being good friends, even though she still likes to tease and prank him, and there is still some awkward moments since Amy started a relationship with Bakugo, and the latter is still very jealous of him whenever he’s even close to Amy, much to her amusement.

I didn’t intend for Amy to have this kind of friendship/relationship with Midoriya but he IS the protagonist of BNHA so... it only makes sense that she has a unique and impactful relationship with him right? XD I think so... and they’re still friends thank goodness, and will continue to be friends even if they come from two different worlds, they do maintain their close bond.

I just kinda wish you were gay...

#midoriya izuku #deku midoriya #mha midoriya #bnha izuku #mha izuku #izuku x oc #midoriya x oc #deku x oc #amy martinez #bnha x oc #american horror story #american horror story coven #ahs coven #coven #witches #ahs oc #american horror story oc #american horror story original character

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toaarcan · 5 years ago

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Scourge the Hedgehog: The Bad Fanfic Apotheosis

Y’all are gonna hate me for this one.

This is something of a followup to my previous post, Fiona Fox: Depth vs. Prominence, and inspired directly by the discussion I had with a friend in the comments section of the DA upload of it.

Part 1: Fanfic vs. Canon- Genesis of the Recolour Elements of the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic have long been compared to a bad fanfiction, particularly the parts of the story written by Ken Penders, though other writers like Bollers, Chacon, and Flynn have drawn that label too. I'm one of the people that's done it, and that's largely because I hold fanfic and official material to very different standards. There are certain things you can do in fanfic that you can't do in official material, especially with franchises like Sonic, and especially with more niche parts of said franchise, like a comic series. Of course, there are also certain things you can do in both, but you probably shouldn't. And Scourge is one of them. What exactly the process behind Scourge's creation was is something that's been debated. For a lot of people, he's considered to be a parody of the then-rampant "Sonic Recolour" fad, wherein fans would take screenshots of Sonic X, and other official artwork, and then edit it in Microsoft Paint, or another similar program, to create their own characters and stories. Now, this was long decried by other fans, myself included, as incredibly lacking in creativity and originality. It also had an "Ew, cringe" reaction, due to the often-shoddy editing, text-to-speech voices, and usually some top-tier mid-2000s Nu Metal for the music. These days, it's much easier to look back and say "These were mostly made by kids who were just having fun, and it's completely harmless", and it becomes apparent that a lot of the people that were making fun of them and criticising them were grown men, at which point you kinda realise that this "internet fad" was basically just bullying a bunch of children for not being up to the creative standards of some adults. Everybody was looking for the next Chris-Chan, but Chris-Chan is a near-unique entity, as only one other person alive has ever managed to combine that sheer void of talent with a monumentally repulsive personality, and that person is Ken Penders. But Sonichu is the least interesting thing about Chris, and Chris became the laughingstock that he is because of his inability to avoid posting his entire life on the Internet, which was something of a rarity in those halcyon days before the rise of modern social media. Sonichu was a gateway to the actually interesting content also on his channels, whereas these recolour-creators didn't have anything like that, just endless Windows Movie Maker slideshows. And, like, Chris was in his 20s when he became the Internet's punching bag for the first time, and while he's a horrible person, so were the people that dedicated their time and effort to trolling him- His story is fascinating, but it has no heroes. And into this collective cocktail of grown men shitting on preteens, so Ian Flynn introduced Scourge the Hedgehog. Is Scourge a parody of Sonic recolours? I sincerely hope not. The reason for that is twofold, and I'll discuss how his portrayal generally doesn't seem to be mocking those tropes further down the page, but the second issue with the idea that he is a parody is best explained by Sir Terry.

Parody can never punch down, and as a then-24 year old man writing official canon for a franchise, mocking a bunch of 10 year olds on the Internet for making bad stories would definitely be punching down. And, as I said, nothing about the way Scourge is written is in any way poking fun at the tropes of these fancharacters and stories. It's pretty much all played completely straight. So not only do I hope Ian wasn't trying to mock these fancharacters, but there's also little reason to believe that he actually was. He's not a parody, he is a send-up. And on the one hand, it's kinda nice to throw a bone to those kids. But on the other hand... is Scourge really the character you want to represent your part of the fandom in official material? A cruel, violent, abusive, vicious monster that spends his time palling around with a girlfriend that the writer reforged to be the most unlikable character in the entire comic? Yeah, can't say that's what I'd want if I were one of those people, but he seems to be popular enough, so maybe I'm in the minority there. But now we get to the meat of the problem. You see, the way Scourge is written is one of those things that you can do in fanfic, but you shouldn't do in canon. Part 2: What is a Mary-Sue? The term "Mary-Sue" gets thrown around a lot these days. It's gradually lost all meaning, and has slowly become a term for "Female character that I don't like," mainly used by whiny, easily-offended Broflake Youtubers, who get all pissy that Star Wars films aren't specifically catering to them, to the point that you only have to make a girl be good at something in a movie and these pissbabies lose their shit. I liked Episode VII and VIII more than I, II, or VI, get fucked. But what, then, is a Mary-Sue? And why is it relevant to Scourge? The answer to that first question is a lot more complicated than it might seem. Not just because there are now several different varieties of the trope, but also because the trope itself evolved as it began to be applied to non-fanworks, and additionally because the name itself is somewhat non-indicative. A male Mary-Sue can exist, though these are normally referred to as "Marty-Stue" or "Gary-Stue", or more cynically "The Protagonist". Check out the average Batman comic these days and you'll see what I mean. Originally, the term applied only to a self-insert character in a fanfic, that was an overly-idealised version of the author, dramatically overpowered, hugely popular, normally dating whichever member of the cast the author wanted to bone, or sometimes multiple partners at the same time, along with a few other traits. It's actually pre-Internet term, originating in a Star Trek fanzine when "Mary-Sue" was created as a parody of other fans' similar characters. Over time, the trope evolved to the point that, while the "author avatar" feature is still a pretty big indicator, it's not really necessary. So while there are probably plenty of people out there who want to be Batman, not every character that is a Mary-Sue is someone for the author to project themselves onto, and not every author avatar is a Mary-Sue. Generally, the important features of a Mary-Sue are now: 1) Receives a great deal of favouritism from the author 2) More powerful than the rest of the cast, often to the point of absurdity 3) Faces zero consequences for their actions. 4) Liked by characters that have no reason to do so 5) In a relationship with a character that has no reason to date them, previous relationships be damned. 6) Most importantly, the story will bend over backwards to give them easy wins, even in situations where they logically should struggle. You're probably starting to get where I'm going with this, and if you're not... Part 3: Creator's Pet Scourge is a Creator's Pet. He gets shown a fair bit of favouritism from Ian Flynn, primarily the guise of how much focus he gets. Scourge is the most prolific villain in Ian's run, aside from Eggman himself. While other, better villains like Mogul and Naugus were being imprisoned repeatedly until one retired and the other became a dog, and a huge chunk of the comic's remaining antagonists were being subsumed into the Eggman Empire, Scourge was only moving up, not only being the villain of Ian's first two issues on the book, but continuing to make sporadic appearances for the next twenty issues, before appearing as the new leader of the Destructix under Finitevus in the Enerjak Reborn arc, followed swiftly by a stint as the Big Bad in Bold New Moebius. Does he actually deserve this level of importance? You be the judge, but personally, I don't think so. Even within those stories, Scourge gets special treatment, the biggest and most obvious being Metal Scourge. Now, personally, I think Metal Scourge was a better character than Scourge himself, but the fact that, of all people, Scourge got a Metal counterpart before anyone else, including Knuckles, who had such a counterpart in the games for over a decade by that point. Especially since, well... Metal and Mettle is a fun story, but it doesn't really do anything for Bold New Moebius as a whole, does it? It's basically pure filler, only really serving to add another dead Metal Sonic to Ian's list and stall the plot out for a bit longer. And, of course, the most clear indicator of Scourge's favouritism is that he was he first Archie character to receive his own Sonic Universe arc, and the only one to do so without needing two or three SEGA characters also making up the rest of the lead cast. "Lockdown" isn't a particularly good story, but its existence speaks to not just the insane popularity that such an unworthy character received, but also Archie's willingness to indulge that. Sonic Universe was largely intended to tell stories revolving around the members of the SEGA cast that, for whatever reason, weren't able to regularly appear in the main book. This... frequently got broken, with Sonic, Tails, Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, and Amy all taking centre-stage in the book before obvious candidates like the Chaotix got a look in, some of them twice over, but Scourge was the only time they were willing to try a story based entirely around one of their characters, and they gave it to the already extremely prominent Scourge. It's pretty clear that Ian loved using this character, and did so as much as possible. YMMV on whether that's good or not. Part 4: Scourge OP plz nerf Let's be real, he's overpowered as fuck. Now, overpowered characters aren't necessarily bad, but it's significantly harder to write an OP character than an on-average one, and Scourge didn't work out so well. From the moment he turns green, he's basically unstoppable. The one time he actually seems to remotely struggle is actually in 161, where he looks ever-so-slightly winded after curbstomping Sonic and Shadow at the same time. From then on, while he does start to slowly even out with Sonic, he also continues to utterly demolish basically everyone else, especially his easy conquest of Moebius. It's been suggested that conquering Moebius should be easy, because the big threats are all good, kind people there, but that somewhat ignores that there are anti-versions of the heroes kicking about too. All the (Mostly) benevolent rulers of the Primeverse should be tyrannical despots there, and there are excessively powerful entities like the Anti-versions of Merlin and the Guardians, not to mention whatever horrors Anti-Gerald would've unleashed on the world, and that's without the Suppression Squad themselves. While the comic has generally treated Sonic as being able to stomp the entire rest of the FF, well, who says it has to be a fight? Why the fuck doesn't Patch just poison him? I mean, the obvious answer is "Because then Bold New Moebius won't have a main villain", and sometimes contractual villain immortality has to be a thing, but a good writer should be able to avoid putting the characters in that position. Following on from that, Scourge gets to fight basically the entire FF and Suppression Squad at the same time, (Sonic and Amy are absent and Fiona is on his side), and he's winning until Sonic shows up. Then directly after that is the hedgehog brawl, and despite Sonic managing to get everyone against Scourge, he easily manages to escape and break out his Super form. Even after spending his time in the No-Zone completely powerless, Scourge manages to break out the moment he gets his powers back, despite the prison being full of characters who should be equally or more powerful than him, and the police force that caught them all, basically unchallenged. Scourge never faces an actual challenge in the comic. He never struggles, and the one time he actually loses? Ian makes up some new lore on the spot, which is contradictory to SEGA lore from the same year, and then uses that to have Sonic trick Scourge into depowering himself. Not only does Scourge never struggle with anything, but he also never actually loses a fight. Part 5: When will you learn, that your actions have consequences?! Probably never, because Scourge's actions never have consequences. Throughout his entire run, Scourge gets to go wherever he wants, do what he wants, with or to whomever he wants, and he never has to deal with the fallout of the decisions he makes. Absorbs the energy of a matter world into his antimatter body? He's better than fine, it only made him stronger. Turns up in Knothole with his secret girlfriend's hated arch rival by his side? Never mentioned again. Blows Fiona's connection to him, costing Finitevus' operation a potential spy in Knothole, where Knuckles is? Not even considered a factor. Ditches Finitevus to go and make Moebius into an egopolis? Finitevus isn't bothered, and supports Fiona's efforts to rescue him later down the line after than plan backfired on him. Blinds Patch in one eye out of jealousy/spite? The guy that poisoned Armand and Max, took a torch to Antoine's personal life, took advantage of Sally's frayed mental state, emotionally damaged Bunnie, and tried to assassinate Elias to get what he wanted lets him get away with it. Openly announces that he's going to destroy both worlds? Conveniently does it when he's alone with Sonic so nobody can tell Fiona what she's letting herself in for. He eventually does get sent to jail, but he breaks out with ease the next time he turns up. Because, y'know, that's just what we want to see. Villains never having to deal with karma. Part 6: What does anyone see in him? Scourge doesn't quite get the "everyone loves him" treatment, but he still gets a whole lot more respect than he's ever earned. Both Sonic and Zobotnik are portrayed arbitrarily deciding that maybe there's a shred of good in this monster, and this is the part where I stress that he's abusive again. Maybe if I repeat that enough it'll sink in. Despite knowing full-well the sort of person Scourge is, Sonic's response to Scourge's crappy cribbing of the "One Bad Day" speech is to try and turn it around and claim that Scourge only needs a tiny bit of decency to be a good person, and this is outright untrue, and given what we see of Scourge later, I'm frankly disgusted that Ian tried to pull this with a character he'll pretty much unambiguously portray as an abuser. Zobotnik's case is even more baffling. We're introduced to the guy in the Lockdown arc, and it's implied that he's effectively a tyrannical warden, ruling over the No-Zone with an iron fist, taking an almost sadistic delight in punishing the inmates. But yet, for whatever reason, he decides that it's a good idea to try and rehabilitate Scourge, for no adequately established reason. Even on the other side of the morality line, we have Finitevus, who apparently respects Scourge enough to not just make him leader of the Destructix during the Enerjak Reborn arc, despite him very clearly not being a leader, and not being liked by any of his comrades except Fiona, but then when he promptly ditches the whole plan toward the end, Finitevus apparently decides that he not only wants to get him back, but is willing to go to great lengths and risk losing the only team of mercenaries dumb enough to work for a guy who is quite open about his intentions to "purify the world with Chaos fire" in order to do it. And speaking of, the most egregious case of this comes again in Lockdown, where the Destructix all end up siding with Scourge. Across the second half of the arc, Scourge learns his new team's backstories, and despite them clearly showing traits and beliefs that should make them respect him less, this somehow works in his favour, and he manages to wrest leadership of the team from Fiona. Especially galling is that it appears that Fiona loses their respect early on because of her faith in Scourge, who to them, looks pathetic, but then they end up supporting him anyway, despite doing nothing to earn it. But wait, one's missing... Looks like it's that time again. Part 7: Oh right, he's an abuser. It's time to talk about Fiona. Fiona's heel turn is really, really effective at selling you on the idea that Fiona is a vile, cruel, and selfish person. It's a dramatic, "big bang" moment that, in basically a single panel, got an entire fandom to hate a character. Now for some it was more of a "Love to hate" thing, but there are plenty of people out there who just really hate Fiona for this single moment. And when you're introducing a new major villain, maybe that's what you want to accomplish. What it doesn't do, however, is sell you on her motives for taking that course of action. Fiona, for the rest of her existence, mainly antagonises Sally, whom she has no worthwhile connection to on either side of her turn, other than being the evil Sally to Scourge's Evil Sonic, and stands around or clings to Scourge's arm, looking smug about her abusive relationship. And yes, it is abusive, verbal abuse is still abuse, and the implications that he's physically abusive are present too. I know this is something that Scourge's fans don't really want to accept, but it's true, and we're going to get into that later. For now, what matters is that this character's run as a villain mainly consists of: Fiona: "Hey Sugar-Queen, look at how much my boyfriend yells at me and insults me, and probably beats me when he's angry. I make smart decisions and you suck." We never come to understand why this character, who is so motivated by her belief that everyone will eventually double-cross her that she has decided to start lashing out at people before they can turn on her, is willing to put her faith 100% in someone so repeatedly deceptive that he first approached her by pretending to be someone else. Like, in terms of bad first impressions, that's up there with arriving at a job interview in full clown regalia. The comic makes no effort to show why these characters like each other. Scourge allegedly likes her because she chooses to turn evil and join him, rather than being born evil, but this clashes with not only the fact that Fiona is a genuinely good person before this, who makes a solid effort to stay loyal to her friends first, and is lured into villainy by him, but also the fact that she blames everyone but herself for her current situation, but especially with the fact that all of the foreshadowing for Fiona turning evil consists of people not trusting her because she has a shady history. Scourge claims to appreciate that Fiona is a good person that chooses to be evil, but the narrative has a clear message of "If you started evil, it doesn't matter if you try to become good, you will always revert to type." Which isn't exactly a good message, Ian. In return, all we get from Fiona's side is that Scourge "has no expectations of her and just wants to have fun", which clashes entirely with how we see them interact in subsequent arcs, where Fiona frequently looks disturbed or apprehensive, or just bored, while Scourge yells at her and threatens her for not meeting his standards. Seriously, why do people ship this? But okay, okay. Scourge is a good liar, and Fiona's established paranoia and history do make her vulnerable to manipulators like him, so maybe she falls for his lies and gets taken for a ride. That could happen, sure. Doesn't really explain why she becomes a horrendous person all of a sudden, but whatever. Maybe he convinced her to do it as a sort of hazing, and a means of ensuring she couldn't go back. That fits with his abusive nature (You might also notice that this the explanation I used in Revival). But why does she stay? And why does she refuse every out she's given? Why, after everything that pulled her to his side has turned out to be bullshit, does she remain devoted to him? Now, you can argue that due to the abuse and the manipulation she's suffered, she believes she has to stay with him, and that's a fair shout, but her appearance in Journey to the East is kind of a stumbling block for that theory, because we're shown a Fiona who is fully capable of functioning without him, and even after making efforts to establish herself... the next time we see her she's gone back for him. And now... well, it's time to talk about that "A" word I've been bringing up a lot in this section. Scourge is abusive. I've frequently referenced that he verbally abuses Fiona every time she displeases him across the book, but the most telling scene is this one from Issue 190.

"You do not want to be sent back with me." Translation: "If I get sent back, and you're sent back too, I'm going to beat the shit out of you." Fiona (With her invisible left arm) isn't excluded from this threat. Fiona isn't surprised by this threat either. Nor does she not take the threat seriously. She looks like she's expecting to be struck. He beats her. And please, nobody say that "he's just angry", that's apologism. Now, I dunno if this was in the script, or if Fiona's face was something Yardley did on his own, but given that this arc ends with Super Scourge announcing his intention to destroy both Mobius and Moebius, simply because he can, regardless of the collateral, I'm willing to bet that this relationship wasn't a happy, stable one. But, unfortunately, this element was never made clear enough. Now, your mileage may vary on whether you think Sonic the Hedgehog comics are the appropriate place to discuss abusive relationships or not, but we've got one now, and Ian dropped the ball. This wasn't a Joker/Harley, where the pairing was clearly abusive but also sold DC/Warner millions of dollars worth of merch, this wasn't a RWBY, where Adam took three years to show up and had already won a huge number of fans from his admittedly cool design and powers, so people already liked him before they even knew what his personality was like. Ian had full control over this, no merch to worry about, and Scourge's prolific appearances gave him plenty of opportunity to make it clear that this was an ugly, repulsive thing that Fiona needed to get out of ASAP. And he didn't. Because panels like this, and all the yelling, clearly weren't enough for the fandom. No, you point this detail out to them and they'll make excuses, try to pretend it didn't happen, or just get offended, or worst of all, outright say they don't care and still ship it. We have fanartists who became real official artists creating stories where this garbage-fire pairing is used for sad feels, not because Fiona got stuck in a relationship with a controlling, violent monster, but because oh no they really loved each other and now Fiona's dead isn't it tragic don't you feel sorry for Scourge? No. No I don't. I feel sorry for the thousands of teenagers who support an abusive relationship because Ian was too cowardly to make it clear that the relationship in question was just that. Now, do I think that Ian is an intentional abuse apologist? No. Do I think he wimped out of taking the necessary steps to make it clear that this was bad because he didn't want people to dislike his shitty pet villain? Oh yeah, I do. Scourge's reputation was more important to Flynn than appropriately and sensitively portraying a destructive, damaging relationship between a woman and her monstrous partner. Well, I say "Woman", let's not forget that Fiona was meant to be sixteen, and realistically if you take her timeline into account she's more likely to be about fourteen. Real fucking classy. Part 8: Effort? What effort? So, now we get to our final criteria. And frankly, it's the easiest one to cover. From the moment, Scourge turns green, his life becomes a cakewalk. Everything he ever wants is handed to him with zero actual struggle on his part. Wants to be stronger than Sonic? He is. Zero side-effects to using a Chaos energy form from a mirror universe, or having a Super transformation interrupted, he just seemingly gets to be half-Super forever. Wants another leg-up on Sonic? Here's Fiona, sans personality. Sonic says he's just a lame ripoff of himself? He conquered a planet in a week, look at how cool he is. Also his team all roll over and make him their leader even though they hate him and they could easily kill him. He gets to walk through the entire FF/Squad teamup, and the Hedgehog teamup, and then when he gets to the No-Zone, Zobotnik, who has kept far smarter and more dangerous characters locked up for decades arbitrarily decides to reform him and gets completely suckered by him. The Destructix fully throw in with him, despite him never actually earning their respect. He never loses a fight where he wasn't depowered first. You know what the irony of this is? Ian has a character whom he is contractually obligated to never have lose for longer than an issue or two. And honestly, he wasn't awful at disguising that. Sonic gets a few wins that feel too easy, but for the most part, the issues with this rule mainly manifest in Sonic's limp responses to the tragedies happening around him, and a sprinkling of minor failures and pyrrhic victories ensure that the rule looks more like shoddy writing in a few places unless you're explicitly told about it. And even then, he still manages to make it look like Sonic struggles to attain those victories, that he has to actually put his back into it every time. He is challenged. Scourge isn't allowed to be challenged. That's the irony. Ian has a protagonist who he is not allowed to have lose, and Sonic still manages to be avoid looking like a boring invincible hero, while Scourge just never faces anything that can actually pose a threat to him. Powerful opponents crumple before him. Characters' personalities and development shift to suit his needs. The plot warps to benefit him. Because heaven forbid Scourge actually have to work for his wins. Who needs stakes when you can have the writer on your side! Part 9: In summation... I think you should've all twigged where this is going by now, so let's wrap up. 1) Does Scourge receive a great deal of favouritism from the author? Yes. 2) Is Scourge more powerful than the rest of the cast, often to the point of absurdity? Yes. 3) Does Scourge face zero consequences for his actions? Yes. 4) Is Scourge liked or respected by characters that have no reason to do so? Yes. 5) Is Scourge in a relationship with a character that has no reason to date him? Yes. 6) Most importantly, does the story will bend over backwards to give Scourge easy wins, even in situations where he logically should struggle? Yes. According to these criteria, Scourge the Hedgehog is almost a textbook example of a Mary-Sue. Which is probably why something as disgusting as him got away with so much. I guess, then, that his role in Revival, and a lot of the stuff before that, is the unfortunate reality of a Mary-Sue who suddenly has to deal with the fact that they're no longer getting that special treatment from the writer. That now their actions have consequences, that now the universe doesn't shape itself to their desires.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Archie Sonic #Ian Flynn #Scourge the Hedgehog #Fiona Fox #Evil Sonic #Critical #CW: Abuse #TW: Abuse

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hotelsweet · 7 years ago

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you might kill me with desire - chapter 4

it’s me! back with the fic I apparently only update when I damn well feel like it!

ao3 link

***

As a detective, Amy’s made habit of reminding herself that she can never know anything for sure.

Today, standing to the side of Major Crimes’ biggest press junket yet, she has changed her mind. There is one thing of which she has never been more certain.

Keith Pembroke is an asshole.

As a self-respecting woman with at least half a shred of common sense, she’s always suspected it- but standing here, now, watching him take credit for her decision to reorder Oliver Clare’s autopsy, it’s decidedly clear.

Though it’s far from the reason she works where she does, Amy will happily admit that she enjoys receiving credit for her work. Being humble is one thing, obviously, but where it’s due, there’s nothing wrong with accepting praise for your hard work. Of course, she’s been told she’s a teacher’s pet- she can be smug, proud, and hugely competitive. But this is just insanely unfair.

She watches Pembroke, sat next to the commissioner. A seemingly endless tide of camera flashes blind the air, a room full of eager eyes, and he’s lapping it up- he’s not even smirking, putting on his Serious Face, and somehow this infuriates Amy even more. He’s doing everything he can to make himself convincing, like it was him who figured out Oliver might have been murdered, when he’s actually a total asshat who’s done virtually nothing this entire case-

“Hey.”

Jake, stood next to her, smiles lowly down at her. “You’ve got crazy eyes again,” he says under his breath.

Amy stays quiet- it’s unlikely that anyone would see them talking and question it, but she’s not sure she can even bring herself to risk it.

They must have opened the floor to questions, because suddenly the room is filled with the noise of eager voices competing to make themselves heard.

“I’m fine,” she says calmly to Jake, smiling politely, while she has the chance.

She’s not fine. She’s angry, confused, and determined to find out who hurt Oliver Clare. If it’s not torture enough having to stand here and watch the Vulture take credit for her work, it’s taking too long, and she desperately wants to be working.

It’s not like she’s really in the mood to have Jake comforting her, either- since she saw that text on his phone last night, she can’t help but feel a little wound up. She knows it’s petty, especially if she’s not going to ask him about it or give him a chance to explain, but they’re finally in a kind-of good place and she doesn’t want to ruin it by bringing something unnecessary up. Anyway, it could be nothing. It is nothing. If he wanted to see someone else, he’d see someone else.

There is, of course, the possibility that he’s seeing someone at the same time as their relationship-slash-not-relationship is happening. Amy can’t bring herself to believe it, but men she’s known have done worse.

All of a sudden, everything hits her. Jake, the case, the look on Pembroke’s face- her jaw aches slightly and before she knows it she feels sick to her stomach.

“I can’t be here,” Amy whispers quickly.

“What?!” Jake hisses back, but she’s already silently making her way out of the room.

Thankfully, it’s not too hard to be quiet. If the sudden tide of voices is anything to go by, they’re taking questions. She’ll be unnoticed.

The near-empty hall she finds herself in is far cooler, and she immediately finds herself more relaxed as a result. There’s a little residual dizziness, but nothing she can’t handle- she sinks into a seat off to the side and rubs her temples in a futile attempt to slow it all down.

There’s movement from the other side of the hall, which must mean things are coming to a close. Amy wipes the small sheen of sweat from her forehead and takes a deep breath. Her head is pounding, every negative emotion possible is boiling over, and she’s just about ready to punch somebody in the throat.

“Keep going, Amy.”

There’s no real belief in the words she’s speaking to herself, but hearing it is enough to get her back on her feet and moving towards the exit. Through the doors, and into the parking lot, and into her car, and back to the office. She wonders if she should wait for Jake, then decides against it. If she’s going to work she needs to be focused, and she can’t have him in her front seat and spend the entire time wondering if that text on his phone was from a girl, or worse yet, somebody who actually mattered to him.

No. Instead of waiting for Jake, she keeps repeating the same words over and over in her head.

Keep going, Amy.

***

“Thanks for meeting me. This should be pretty… brief.”

“No worries. I just want to help.”

The young, handsome man sat in front of Jake seems oddly comfortable. Naturally confident. Surprisingly at ease, given that his boss- and his boss’s son- have just been murdered.

“We appreciate it. This shouldn’t take too long- we’re just looking over everyone we’ve already spoken to,” Jake explains, in his super-manly-and-professional-detective voice. Secretly, this voice is one of his favourite parts of his job.

“No problem. Ask away.”

Daniel Clarke may just be the most charismatic man Jake’s ever met. He’s sat opposite a cop in an interview room, and he seems as appropriately at ease as a reasonable man could be in this situation. Of course, there’s an anguished seriousness behind those impossibly blue eyes, but he’s friendly, self-assured, and instantly likable. Makes sense- he seems exactly the kind of person someone as busy and powerful as Kristoff would want to hire.

“You said last time we spoke to you that you were almost constantly in the house, working with Kristoff.”

Daniel nods, completely focused on Jake.

“What was that like, being in his home so often, rather than an office?”

“I mean,” Daniel begins, pausing to think for a moment. “I was between the house and the offices. 70/30, really. It wasn’t too intense. But when it was just Kristoff and I in the house, things definitely felt… quiet.”

“Were you ever brought into family matters?”

“Never,” Daniel replies quickly. “I drove Angelica to therapy once or twice, but that’s it. It wasn’t the closest family environment, if y’know what I mean.”

“Angelica was in therapy?”

“Is,” Daniel corrects him. “I probably shouldn’t even be saying anything.”

“Why?”

Daniel sighs, an uncomfortable look on his face, as if realising he’s dug himself a hole.

“It’s pretty hush-hush. Emilia doesn’t want it getting out. Angelica’s had some problems with alcohol and drugs over the last couple years.”

“Didn’t she graduate high school early?”

“I’d imagine that’s thanks to the Adderall.”

“I see,” Jake replies solemnly, slightly discomfited by Daniel’s smooth reply. Angelica’s just a kid, with god knows what kind of pressures going on in her life. “From what you’re telling me, you sound like a pretty integral part of this life.”

“Eh,” Daniel brushes this off, “Kristoff was a self-made millionaire. I was just a pair of helping hands.”

Jake smiles politely at his modesty.

“Did Oliver have much involvement in the company?”

Daniel grimaces.

“Kristoff and his son weren’t on the best of terms. When Oliver was at MIT, Kristoff offered him work in the… online presence of the company, if you will, since he was studying computer science. He turned it down.”

Jake nods, but finds it hard not to feel a little frustrated. He’s hearing the same thing over and over, from everyone he interviews- Kristoff and Oliver had little to no relationship, both were closed-off moody men, et cetera, et cetera. There’s a missing link in something, or someone, that’s supposed to be coming after this family.

“Is there anyone you can think of that’d want to hurt the Clare family?”

“You’ve asked me that before.” Daniel smiles wryly.

“Better safe than sorry, I guess.”

“Well, there’s plenty,” Daniel half-laughs, “but none that’d want to kill them. Business is cut-throat, but Kristoff was virtually untouchable.”

“Or so it seemed.”

“Exactly.”

“If you don’t mind,” Jake continues cautiously, “could you take me back to the night Kristoff was killed? You said you were called back to the estate in the evening. Was there anything unusual about that?”

“Oh. Sure,” Daniel agrees, clearing his throat. “I was on a date, as you know, and I got a text from Kristoff asking me to come back to the estate urgently. I have no idea what it was for. Not that it mattered in the end, obviously.”

Except it did, Jake thinks- Kristoff might have known he was going to be hurt.

“Honestly, I didn’t think much of it. I don’t get much time off, and when I do it’s not exactly unusual to be called back in. I was essentially Kristoff’s bitch,” he half-laughs.

“Huh.” Jake flicks back and forth through the file Amy’s given him on Daniel. It’s only a couple of pages- his details, original alibi, that kind of stuff. But there’s no record of a text. “Would you be able to show me the text from Kristoff?”

Fleetingly, Daniel looks a little panicked.

“Uh, yeah-”

“Don’t worry, it’s just so we have a full collection of evidence. We need everything possible to make sure whoever did this is punished. We’ll take it on the way out.”

“Sure,” he agrees.

“Great. That’s all we really need from you today.”

“Sure.” Daniel repeats himself.

Once the interview’s been tied up and the screenshots have been collected as evidence, there’s very little for Jake to do except head back up to the office. Truthfully, Amy’s taken over the bulk of the work, barely uttering a word unless it’s to do with the case- he had to convince her to let him take the interview with Daniel just so he had something to do.

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about her.

The worst part is, he suspects it has something to do with him; since the night he received that text from the woman he met at the bar, she’s been… off. Not angry. Not cold. Just not quite Amy. If he thought she was intense about work before, he’s certainly coming to change his mind now. He wants to sit her down and tell her it was nothing, but he can barely get a word in edgeways if she’s talking to him at all.

When he reaches the office she’s leaning on one of her hands, hunched over a pile of papers so wide they’re almost falling off her desk. For the life of him he can’t even figure out what she’s looking at- but he daren’t disturb her. She doesn’t look up when he sits down at his desk, opposite her.

“I didn’t have much luck with Daniel,” he confesses, after at least a full minute of silence since he’s entered the room.

“Damn.” Amy glances up quickly to offer this one-word response, shooting him a brief, pitying look.

“Did get something new, though. I don’t know how helpful it really is.”

“What?” She doesn’t look up.

“Angelica’s in therapy.”

“Oh, I knew that. I thought I sent it to you last night.”

“No. What’ve you got there?” Jake asks after a pause lasting exactly the amount of time he feels makes it clear she’s not looking to further the conversation herself.

“Family records,” she replies absently.

“We’ve looked over those a hundred times,” he says reluctantly, conscious that this is neither helpful nor positive.

“I’m aware. I was hoping the hundred-and-first time would bring up something we haven’t seen yet.”

This time she doesn’t look at him when she says it, and now he’s sure she’s pissed off with him. He can’t be in the office while it’s like this, he decides, pulling on his jacket.

“I’m gonna get some coffee, maybe some lunch. Want anything?”

Staying away, for now, seems the best option; knowing the way their relationship is swinging back and forth right now, the icy reception could very easily be hot sex within the next twelve hours. Regardless, that vague sense of unease, of guilt, remains. They need to talk, he thinks, observing her as she twiddles a pen over her lower lip in concentration- but not right now.

“I’m good, thanks.”

He nods, instead of forcing a reply, and heads for the door.

But a loud, distinct iPhone’s ping! stops him in his tracks- for a moment, he thinks he might have left his phone on his desk, seeing as his is the only one that ever has the ringer switched on. But the noise has come from the corner, where Amy’s phone is charging on top of a filing cabinet. He’s not sure what makes him reach for it- perhaps the inviting look of curiosity that’s peeled her gaze away from her work and towards the phone.

“Who is it? Only VIP contacts have a ringtone,” Amy explains curiously, a touch of concern in her voice.

Jake can’t reply. His eyes have already found the screen, and he’s not sure he can look away. He can’t bring himself to mentally process the block of a message, only catching real buzzwords like miss you and touch and fuck and come back and what we had. Perhaps he’d be able to read this message if it weren’t for the name above it.

“Jake? Who is it?”

“It’s Teddy.” He’s almost embarrassed at how obviously thick his voice sounds when he says this. He couldn’t be more obviously affected.

“What?!” Amy springs up out of her chair and towards him, but she needn’t bother; Jake’s already holding out her phone towards her.

“So, when did that start again?” Jake forces these words through a laugh. It threatens to choke him.

“It didn’t.” She replies indignantly, staring wide-eyed at her lockscreen. “God, this is intense.”

“He really misses you.”

“Or he’s just horny. That’s a little embarrassing,” Amy grimaces, stepping past Jake as she clicks her phone shut and plugs the charger back in.

Jake can’t quite believe how easily she’s brushing over this. Amy’s about as likely to send a message that overtly sexual as she is to skip laundry day- so he’s a little surprised, to say the least, that receiving one hasn’t completely disgusted her. On the other hand is the fact that they’ve slept together several times now, not to mention the underlying romantic weirdness still lingering between them. Some part of him, however, small, feels owed an explanation.

“What’re you gonna say back?” He asks bluntly, maybe a little too late, since Amy’s already settled back into her reading.

“I…” She looks at him strangely. “I don’t know. I honestly wasn’t planning on texting back at all.”

“We both know you’re too polite to not text back.” Jake forces a smile. “C’mon, what’re you going to say?”

Amy smiles back, but it seems slightly pained- her eyes narrow and her lips part into an uncomfortable position, like she’s trying to read him on the spot.

“Jake, why do you care?”

There’s something sad in her eyes. He wonders if that’s because she pities him, or because she already regrets asking that question.

“Are you-” Jake has to steady himself for a moment, feeling that anger at their situation rise again. Every time they reach a solution they hit another wall, and it’s driving him insane. “Are you kidding me, Amy?”

She just raises her eyebrows at him, staring up at him with dark, sad eyes.

“We both have feelings for eachother. We’ve been sleeping together on and off for weeks, staying in eachother’s apartments, and I like you, Amy- obviously a message like that is gonna make me feel like crap.”

She doesn’t reply this time, just watching him. Her expression becomes more concentrated, upset transforming into red cheeks and angry eyes and ever so slightly glistening eyes.

“I mean, you just said yourself he’s a VIP contact, or whatever,” Jake continues, unable to stop the words falling out of his mouth. He can hear himself being bitter, petty, maybe even straight-up childish, but it’s been days of virtually no communication and he can feel it all spilling out in one go. “Why? Have you been talking to him?”

Amy sighs. Her eyes find another point in the room and seem to stay there for a second, before she’s back on her feet again moving over to her phone.

“First of all, Jake-” she says calmly, taking her phone down from where it’s charging- “he’s a VIP contact because he used to be my boyfriend. I guess I never turned it off. It’s the first message he’s sent in months, as you can see,” she says, holding up the screen displaying their conversation to Jake’s face, “and secondly, I think it’s pretty rich that you’re this mad.”

Instantly, the penny drops-

“You did see that text!” Jake almost laughs, incredulous. “I knew it.”

“You knew?!” Amy laughs exasperatedly. “Oh my god-”

“- I knew it. You’ve been acting weird all week!”

“I’ve been busy.”

“No, you’ve been bitter. I wish you’d have said something-”

“If you knew, you should have said something to me!” Her eyes burn into him. “I had just slept with you, I didn’t want to mess things up by bringing up something that was probably nothing.”

“That-” Jake finds himself replying too quickly, and slows himself down. “That… makes sense. I didn’t want to bring it up because it’s nothing, so… y’know…”

“If I hadn’t seen it then you’d be bringing it up for no reason at all. Right,” Amy agrees, an understanding exasperation clouding over her expression. “What was the text even about, anyway?”

“She’s this girl I met in a bar a few weeks ago. We talked, she invited me to sit with her friends, nothing happened.”

“Except for the taking her number part?”

“Yeah,” Jake admits. “I wasn’t in a great place, it was a couple days after we agreed not to sleep together again. I didn’t want to do anything with her. She knew that, I guess, but asked for my number. I never even got hers.”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain. We’re adults,” Amy responds, mostly unconvincingly.

There’s a moment of quiet as they look at each other.

“I’m sorry for not talking to you,” Amy’s voice is quiet. “It’s difficult, sometimes… we’re both so exhausted and stressed that we can’t really date right now, but I do care about you.”

“I care about you too,” Jake says softly. “Sorry for being such a baby.”

Amy smiles, a little amused.

“It’s okay.”

“I was just jealous. I shouldn’t have acted like that.”

“… jealous?”

Amy’s got a kind of smirk on her lips. She draws her hand to her mouth, like she’s trying to stop herself.

“What? Are you laughing?” Jake smiles as he watches her.

“No! I just,” she sighs, leaning against her desk. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

Jake laughs.

“Amy, I’ve been jealous of everyone you’ve dated for a solid year and a half.”

She beams.

“Shut up.”

“I’m serious.”

For a moment they just smile at eachother, and Jake feels awake for the first time all week.

“For the record,” she adds- “I was mentally planning what I’d do if I ever met her. Y’know, if you two were dating.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Mm. It mostly included alcohol and a lot of side-eye.”

“Huh. Amy Santiago likes me enough that she’d be deliberately impolite to somebody.”

She shrugs, smiling, watching him as he makes his excuses about getting their lunch from that place they both love down the street. Jake will admit it’s tiring: they’re between not talking at all, flirting, and having sex in a matter of a week. But having her look at him like that makes him feel like he’s in the room with his first crush all over again. When it’s good, it’s so good.

He couldn’t get over her in a thousand years.

***

Amy shivers a little in the cold of the night. She’s stood outside her apartment complex holding a cardboard box filled to the brim with an assortment of total junk. It needs to go. Call this spring-cleaning.

Unfortunately, Teddy is late.

Her eyes search the roads around her building, looking for his car. Nerves bubble within her. The relationship’s long dead, but after that text today she’s slightly worried about the kind of conversation he might try and start while he’s here. In her head she rehearses the lines she’s constructed to make this situation go by as swiftly as possible- it’s what’s best for both of us, please don’t contact me again, and the real kicker: I’m seeing someone else.

The words sound as strange in her mouth as they do in her head. Whatever it is that’s going on between her and Jake, it’s far from easy to define. As far as Amy can tell, they’re hanging in the balance somewhere between friends and lovers, and the mess of the case is limiting the communication they’re able to share. On top of that, they’re both perpetually tired, stressed, angry, and, apparently, still dealing with other people.

They’re not boyfriend and girlfriend. At the rate things are going, Amy can’t help but wonder if they’ll even make it that far- if the work becomes any more strenuous there’s a very real chance they’ll end up killing each other. Objectively, she knows they were stupid for hooking up in the first place. If they’d have waited until everything had blown over, maybe instead of all the complicated emotions currently on their side, it’d still just be a case of moderate sexual tension and teasing. There wouldn’t be entire days or weeks going by where she didn’t feel like they were friends anymore.

If they want to move forward they need to be ready as soon as it comes. And this, standing out here in the dark waiting for Teddy to come by and collect the very last of his things, is part of it. She wants to be prepared for him.

Eventually, the car she’s been waiting for comes around the corner and stops in front of her building.

Amy comes down the steps and moves towards the vehicle, which is when he opens his door. His face is steely, almost angry, the pained face of a man holding back his feelings. Some part of her senses that she’s about to hear about these feelings. In detail.

“Oh, no, it’s okay-” she stammers, in a futile attempt to stop him from leaving the car. “You don’t have to get out. I can just put these in the back.”

“We need to talk,” he says quickly. “Please.”

“Teddy.” She holds out the box, in some part just to create a necessary distance between them. “We’ve been broken up for four months. I think everything that needs to be said has been said. I’m sorry.”

“I can’t let you walk away.” He shakes his head as he says this. There’s real desperation in his eyes, Amy thinks, feeling a little guilty. “I’ve been thinking about you every single day.”

“Teddy-”

“Do you know what you mean to me, Amy?”

“I have an idea,” she mutters weakly. She’s used to this flair for the dramatic.

“You’re my future. I can’t picture my life without you in it. I’ll do whatever it takes to change, I’ll make it better than it was before-”

“You weren’t the problem, Teddy.” She breathes. “I mean… you weren’t not the problem, but I had my own issues to work through. I still do. And I’m super busy, I’m on the Clare case-”

“Which I’m so proud of, Ames-”

“- and I have feelings for somebody else.”

This stops him in his tracks.

“Who?”

“That’s not important-”

“- Amy, if this is actually goodbye…”

“It was goodbye four and a half months ago. This is me giving you your stuff back.” She looks down at the box in her hands. “Which you still haven’t taken out of my hands, by the way.”

“I have to kiss you one last time.”

Before she’s really got a chance to do anything, he’s pressing his lips against hers. Her eyes are wide open, and her first instinct is to push him off her. Unfortunately, her hands are a little full.

“Mm!” She objects against his mouth.

He pulls away, a sullen look on his face.

“You know where to find me,” he says sulkily, taking the box from her and pushing it into the passenger seat of his car.

“Sure.”

Part of her feels bad for being blunt. The other part feels like a chapter has been legitimately closed, and room’s been made for Jake. That part feels a hell of a lot better than the other one.

She stands and watches as his car pulls away from her building, her eyes following it until he’s out of sight.

The absence is a wonderful thing, if not just relaxing.

Right until she sees Jake standing across the street, looking at her with the most pain in his eyes she’s ever seen.

Maybe the exhaustion makes her feel worse, but she could swear things are coming crumbling down. Her stomach churns the second she sees him, plastic bag in hand- oh god, he brought takeout- and pure confusion in his eyes. She’s running across the street, not looking twice for traffic. She needs to explain-

“Jake-”

His name is leaving her lips over and over, because he’s walking away-

“It’s not what it looks like-” He’s not stopping. “Jake!”

He stops and turns to her. His face is eerily… blank. He just seems tired, she thinks, and she doesn’t blame him. It’s a misunderstanding, and she can fix it-

“I’m tired. I need to go home.”

“Are you gonna let me explain?” She can’t help it. She’s angry. It’s one catastrophe after another right now, and after the last ten minutes, she could really use just one of the men in her life listening to her.

“Amy… I don’t think you’re a liar.” He looks at her funnily, like he can’t find the right thing to say.

She tries to find the words to reply, but she can’t. What’s she supposed to say to that?

“So?” Is all she manages.

“I can’t deal with this. One second you’re not talking to me, the next we’re sleeping together…the next your ex-boyfriend is kissing you outside your apartment.”

“That’s not fair. I was giving him his stuff back.”

“You were right. About timing. This entire… attempt, at whatever our relationship is, has been a mess. I miss my friend. I love you, Amy” he says, like it’s nothing, and Amy’s heart drops- “but I miss things being simple.”

No matter who’s wrong or right, in any of this, the worst thing which Amy has to admit to herself is that she misses him too. Everything made sense, and now it’s in tatters. Every time they come close to fixing it, things only become worse. Her heart is swollen, a painful beating in the middle of her chest. He looks so sad, and it’s her fault.

“I miss it too.” Her voice is hoarse; talking hurts the lump in her throat, which is what makes her realise she might be about to cry.

“I want this,” he continues, his voice low, “but I want it in the right way.”

“Me too.”

And to think only minutes ago she was forcing herself not to mock Teddy for being overdramatic.

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

***

The next day is hell.

There’s word around the office that things aren’t moving quick enough, and the case is being considered for the FBI instead.

Amy can’t let it happen. She’s come too far, had too much credit stolen for her work, had almost her entire relationship with Jake destroyed. She needs a lead and she needs one now.

Of course, being able to find something without wildly damaging mental strain coming first would be far too easy, so when 7pm comes and they’ve made no progress other than reinvestigating Julian, Emilia, Angelica, and Oliver for the millionth time, as well as double-checking Daniel and Greta, Amy feels like she could just about sink into the ground.

“Alright, ding-dongs.”

Yes. She’s ready now. If the ground would like to open up, now would be the perfect time.

“Keith,” Jake responds monotonously. Pembroke grimaces at the use of his first name. Amy enjoys it for approximately .1 second.

“You’ll have heard about the FBI coming in to scoop up our case.”

“It’s happening?!” Amy can hear how panicked she sounds. She doesn’t care.

“Not yet. We’ve got until Sunday.”

“For what?” Jake asks. “Are we talkin’ Solve The Entire Case, or just some evidence, or what?”

“This may sound unfamiliar to the two of you, since you’re capable of finding one about once a month, but we need a lead,” Pembroke widens his eyes, clearly irritated. “This is getting embarrassing.”

“I’d say it’d be great if we had your help, but that’s obviously a lie.”

“Pleasure as always,” he replies, ignoring Jake’s comment, and like that he’s gone.

“I wonder what he does during the day.” Amy says sadly once he’s gone. “He’s getting paid to be a jackass.”

“So was I, until I got put on this case,” Jake jokes resentfully.

Amy smiles weakly. The night before still lingers in the air. Over and over and over in her head she hears him telling her he loves her, but it doesn’t matter. Neither of them seem quite sure where they stand.

“Do you want to work tonight?” She offers, although she’d enjoy virtually anything except this. It’s a peace offering.

“I’m actually grabbing a drink with Boyle.”

“That sounds nice.”

“You’re welcome to join, if you want-”

“No, no,” Amy insists. “I’m okay. I think I’m gonna stay here for a little while.”

“Are you sure? You’ve barely slept.”

There is no plausible explanation as to how he might know this. And yet he’s completely right. Must mean the bags under her eyes are more telling of the hours she spent awake after their exchange last night than she thought.

“Now I’ve got a deadline there’s no way I’ll be able to relax at home.”

Jake nods knowingly as slings his bag over his shoulder.

“Makes sense. I’ll see you in the morning.”

In her quiet, dim corner of the office, she watches him leave. Eventually, the sound of his steps disappears and she’s left only with the soft whirring of the heater in the corner of the room. Alone.

Keep going, Amy.

***

“I’m sorry, buddy. Sounds like you’re going through a lot. I just wish you’d have told me sooner"”

Charles looks at his best friend earnestly, patting him on the back, causing a small prang of guilt in Jake’s system. He wishes he’d told him sooner, too.

“I’ve missed you, bud.”

“It’s not the same at the precinct. Those two empty desks are heartbreaking. Now I really understand how Marius felt when he sang Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.”

“The awful, heart-breaking story of all his friends dying at the barricade wasn’t explanatory enough?” Jake asks. Charles shrugs.

“I still can’t believe you never told me you and Amy hooked up!” Charles grins. Jake gives him a pointed look. “I know, I know. Your relationship has become chaos as a result. But still! It’s the romance I’ve always dreamt of.”

“And you can’t tell anyone.”

“Not even Genevieve?”

That reply was too quick.

“You’ve already texted her about it under the table, haven’t you?”

“We share everything, Jake! My excitement is her excitement, quite literally-”

“Yes! Yes, you can tell Genevieve anything you want, as long as you stop talking right now.”

“Fine.”

"How're the others?"

Charles stops to think.

"Gina's exactly the same. Word has it she met someone, but obviously she won't tell us who."

"Sounds just like her."

"Rosa body-tackled a perp the other day, right in the middle of the precinct. I filmed it for you."

"Oh, man, you did?!" Jake feels a surge of love for his best friend. "Show me!"

"Sure! Oh," Charles opens his phone, dismayed. "I filmed it with the front-facing camera."

Sure enough, the video he brings up is a solid forty seconds of pure shock filtering in and out of his face. Jake's convinced it may be better than any other video he's ever seen.

For the first time this evening, there’s a pause in their conversation.

“I told Amy I loved her last night.”

The words sound strange out loud, real. Now he's told Charles, last night's incident exists outside of the bubble that is the case. The bubble where it's only he and Amy that exist.

Charles’s face lights up with glee.

“WHAT?!”

“I didn’t even… I didn’t mean it like that, y’know?”

“No, I don’t know. Continue. Explain,” Charles stares at him, continuing to sip at the straw of his diet coke like a teenage girl being fed the hottest gossip she’s ever heard.

The fact of it is that he’s scared. He always loves too quickly and too hard and, if he’s being honest with himself, he’s been doomed for since the day he met her. He’s surprised he lasted this long before letting the words spill- it’s just a shame they’re not actually in a relationship, or even really sure of what they are at all. Great timing, Jake.

“I try not to say it, usually, when I’m in a relationship.” He sighs. “I realised pretty quickly that I was normally saying it too soon.”

“Adorable. You’re the king of love itself,” Charles gushes, pressing a hand against his chest. Jake shoots him a stern look. “Sorry. Continue.”

“With Amy it is romantic, but it’s more like… I care about her like family. I have… loving feelings for her. It’s not the same as being in love with her.”

“Sure.” Charles rolls his eyes.

Jake glances at his phone, tipsy and finding his own words are confusing him. It’s almost midnight.

“I bet Amy’s still in the office.”

“She stayed behind?”

“Yeah. She’s putting herself under crazy pressure.”

He wonders if she’s achieved anything. If the office is as painfully quiet as he imagines it to be. If, god forbid, she’s fallen asleep at her desk.

“Hey, I’ve only had one drink. I’ll drive you back to the office.”

“What?” Jake looks at Charles oddly. “Why would you do that?”

“Because all you’ve talked about all evening is Amy, and you just casually told me that she’s alone at work late at night, then wistfully gazed off into space for a solid ten seconds.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to. C’mon.”

And like that, Charles is leading him outside and into the car, and he’s on his way back. The journey, under the lights of the city, makes Jake realise just how tired he is. They’re a while from home- they’ll have to come all the way from the offices back to Brooklyn. Poor Amy’s not even had a break.

The offices are eerie. Half the lights are off, and the entire place is silent.

When he enters their office, he’s actually relatively relieved to see Amy passed out at her desk. Something about the office is telling him he would have found it even creepier if she was able to work in an environment like this.

“Ames?” He knocks gently on the door, standing in its frame. He doesn’t want to alarm her.

She stirs for a moment, her breathing becoming momentarily stronger, out of pace.

“Ames, wake up.”

After a moment she lifts her head, slowly at first.

“What time is it?” You can hear the exhaustion in her voice, now reduced to a croak.

“Gone midnight. C’mon, we’ll get a cab.”

“I’ll just sleep here,” Amy murmurs, but he knows she doesn’t really mean it. She might be obsessive over her work, but she hates not having a fresh pantsuit in the morning, and he knows for a fact she’s used the spare clothes she’s been keeping here. “I’ve made progress.”

“Nope. C’mon. You can tell me all about it on the way back. Or even sleep.” He’s closer now, shaking gently at her arm.

She lifts her head, looking up at him with dark, slightly reddened eyes, half-asleep. She looks beautiful, even with the small patch of hair she’s been leaning on which is now an upwards-facing scruff of bed hair. Desk hair, if you will.

“Fine. Better be a comfy-ass cab.”

He laughs lowly at this, only too aware of how ready she is to pass out. It’d be irresponsible to send her home by herself- not because she couldn’t handle herself, not in any scenario, Jake thinks- but purely because she deserves a nap.

Luckily, it doesn’t take too long to get a taxi. Admittedly, at first, the driver seems a little wary of what Jake can only assume from an outsider’s perspective appears to be a vulnerable woman passed out in the arms of a man trying to take her home.

The drive back to hers feels like a decade. Jake doesn’t mind. He savours each second, especially when she passes out on his shoulder. The radio is playing softly in the front of the car, some late-night dance station. She’s warm against him, and occasionally the scent of her hair floats upwards. He can’t get over how beautiful she looks, and so he spends the journey memorizing each detail of her face. Freckles, eyelashes, eyebrows, the cupid’s bow of her lips.

He’s beyond exhaustion. After last night’s exchange he obviously couldn’t sleep, and the worst part is that he knows it’s his fault. If he’d just been understanding maybe they could have talked it through again. But, frankly, he doesn’t regret saying the things he did. He cares about her, maybe more than anything, but while the last two months have been exciting, scary, and new, they’ve also been some of the most stressful he’s ever known. He wants her, but not with the way things are right now. She deserves better than him in this state.

She hums against his chest, and, for some reason, this is the moment at which he realises he's never, ever, felt like this about somebody. She amazes him, in every possible way, but on top of all of this, she frightens him. Amy is everything he could possibly want or need and he doesn't have the room to mess a single thing up. Maybe he already has.

Miraculously, Jake succeeds in staying awake until they reach her apartment. He can’t help but feel a little guilty as he wakes her, talking softly to her until she stirs again.

Amy doesn’t let go of him as they walk up the steps into her building, or even when they’re in the elevator on the way up. She’s not clinging, not by any means- rather, he keeps an arm over her shoulder, and, gently, she holds up her hand so she can hold his. It’s intimate, obviously, and all Jake can think of is helping her into bed and climbing in next to her, falling asleep beside her. But there’s an understanding between them, and he knows it as well as she does. If he kisses her now, he makes everything awkward and weird again for a couple of days.

Maybe this is the perfect balance, he thinks. Just being able to hold each other, let the other know they’re there. No talking. No sex. No complications. Just caring for each other when it matters the most. Maybe.

“Stay here. The blanket’s already on the couch,” she says firmly once they’re inside. He knows there’s no point in arguing, especially since it’s nearing 2 in the morning, and more practically speaking he lives a solid 15 minutes away and right now he feels like he could pass out on the spot. “I’ll get you a pillow,” she adds, wandering off towards her bedroom.

After a minute she reappears in the living area with one of her pillows, throwing it onto the couch.

“Night, Jake.”

She stands in front of him for a second, smiling tiredly, but then, out of nowhere, he finds himself being pulled into a hug. Her arms are thrown around his neck, and for a moment she’s just breathing into him. Jake takes this as permission to do the same, pulling her in, closing his eyes against the top of her head as the fatigue threatens to take him to sleep a few minutes too early. He could swear she fits into him, against him, perfectly. She's made to be there. Hours of work haven't affected the softness of her skin, or the gentle waft of her perfume, and for a moment he wishes he could fall asleep here, in her arms.

The words she says next, muffled against his chest, are little more than a whisper; if he’d been even breathing a little louder he might have missed them. Missed her. But it’s certain, and even when she pulls away and ambles slowly away to her bedroom, it echoes throughout the room. Throughout the city. The most spectacular four words Jake’s ever heard.

“I love you too.”

#hiiiiiiiiiii #sorry this took ages #again #u kno me #only motivated once in a century #I'm tryin okay #my writing #ymkm

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samanthaviolet · 7 years ago

Text

your final paper

I took a history of american television class in the spring, and after turning in my final paper, my TA emailed me with an email whose subject was “your final paper.” My heart sank as I opened an email that I was sure was going to be bad news, and she said something along the lines of how she was super impressed with it and that if I wanted to get it published, I probably could.

now, I don’t know how valid that is, nor do I care too much to go into the detail of how to achieve actual, real life publication. But, i do know that I can copy and paste it here, and that throws it out into the world and reaches the potential that Victoria saw in me.

This one’s for you, Vicki.

LADIES WHO LAUGH: Exploring Feminist Progress in Saturday Night Live

“Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” These seven words explode from the mouths of varied celebrities and comedians at 30 Rockefeller Center into the homes of millions across the nation, always at the same time each Saturday night. Saturday Night Live, the late night sketch comedy show created by Lorne Michaels and produced by NBC (commonly referred to as SNL), has been entertaining audiences since its premiere in 1975. With over thirty years of sketches, political commentary, and social spoofs, the show has been a breeding ground for discussions on representations in the world and workplace, specifically with regards to gender. Through an analysis of casting and a variety of show content, this paper will prove Saturday Night Live’s reflection of the women’s movement, effectively portraying women’s changing societal roles during the thirty-two years it has been on the air.

The format and structure of Saturday Night Live has stayed relatively in tact from the first episode to present day. Having a show primarily driven by the cast, beginning with seven members and getting all the way to sixteen by Season 42, an additional celebrity host appears on each episode. The ratio of male to female cast members is fairly close (in fact, they made it a point from the beginning for it to be equal among the genders, even though they have strayed from this ideal in recent years), but the number with regards to the hosts is startling and gives a good insight on which gender mainstream audiences. Over the forty years of SNL, there were 370 men as hosts and only 175 women (Baskin). Women have always been seen as the outcast with regards to entertainment, especially comedy, and this statistic proves that SNL was not doing much to break that. They had to give the people what they wanted in order to keep their ratings up, and instead of using their platform for good, they used their platform to perpetuate the inequality of women in entertainment.

These gender dynamics are not only seen on stage, but in the writer’s room as well. Saturday Night Live organizes the content of its show on a week-by-week basis — pitches happen on Mondays, table reads happen on Wednesdays, and material that worked from these move on to the shows on Saturdays. The weekly process weeded out all the ideas until only the best remained for the live airing on Saturday night. For sketches to proceed to the actual show, they had to be “funny in the room.” The problem is, is that most of the people in the room were men. Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad state in Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live that “a lot of the women writers’ sketches weren’t making it on the air, and the women performers were getting too many secretary and receptionist parts, written by the men” (Murphy). The gender binary was alive and well in the writing room, but of course, it was alive and well in every aspect of professional work, even in the wake of second-wave feminism. This misogynistic environment wasn't actively being worked against, either. Original SNL cast member John Belushi is often cited with his claim that “women aren’t funny.” His stunts to get women off the show included sabotaging table reads and even pressuring executive producer Lorne Michaels. He also refused to appear in the sketches written by women writers (Miller). This attitude toward women existing, as well as being tolerated by network executives, dominated for most of SNL life in the 20th century.

From the beginning of the show, the male-dominated aura of production prevailed. Women, as stated before, were cast as receptionists, nurses, makers of the household, and waitresses. Besides their actual roles on the show, they were also commonly seen solely as the objects of the male cast members. A great example of this is seen in the recurring sketch “The Festrunk Brothers,” featuring SNL greats Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin. In this sketch from the third season, debuting on September 24, 1977, the duo try to pick up two women played by fellow cast members. The lines they give to the women are outlandish and supposed to garner some laughs, but causes more of a head-turning reaction than they probably intended. After some small talk, they lead into, “You know, you American girls have such big breasts all the time! Well, I guess you must like us by now, so please give us the number of your apartment so we can go up and have sex with you right now.” The antics between the two pairs continue until the end of the sketch (Baskin). Of course, it leaves live audiences and the people at home laughing at the absolute ridiculousness of the interaction. But, why would it be acceptable to be saying that to a woman at all, especially on national television? In a textbook on arts analysis, scholar Mark Fortier defines feminist theory as “profoundly concerned with the cultural representation of women, sometimes as a strictly masculinist fantasy with no relation to real women, sometimes as the appropriation of women and women’s bodies to masculine perspectives” (Fortier 72). This sketch violated both of these ideas by simply having the women in the sketch portrayed as the object of the men’s desires. Until the turn of the century, this is what plagued the women of the highest rated comedic variety show since the inception of television. Women already have the lower hand with regards to their legitimacy on screen (in both television and film), and portraying them in this light does not lend itself to improving this situation.

By 2000, SNL was dealing with some low ratings and trying to keep the show fresh and interesting after 25 years on the air, and to combat this, they began to flip societal expectations. In 2002, Newsweek proclaimed: “For most of its 27 years, Saturday Night Live has been comedy’s premier boys club. But not anymore.” This sudden influx of women increased the amount of women performers seen on screen and the show was carried with show-stopping females. It led into the time of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Kristin Wiig, the women who have made names for themselves in the entertainment world, using SNL as a springboard. This is directly related to the increase of women and women’s power in the writing room (Murphy).

As the years went on, there was increase of women on the production side, which correlated to an increase and improvement of female representation on the performance side. While of course it wasn’t perfect, there were not only were more women included in the acts, but the way that they were represented did not always align with traditional gender roles. For the first time ever, there were sketches entirely comprised of female cast members, without leaning on the stability of a man. “The Women of SNL” parody sketch (spoofing The Real Housewives) is a 2010 special from Season 36 that premiered on November 1, 2010, featuring women cast members and alumni. Seeing a couch full of just women was a sight that was not commonly seen, and relying on each other for the comedic effect was particularly successful. The fact that this special could stand alone separate from the season speaks volumes. Even so, women had to fight to get on. For example, comedian Rachel Dratch (famous especially for her hilarious “Debbie Downer” persona) took multiple auditions to get on the show. After her first audition, she recounted that “I didn’t get it that year...they said, ‘we’re not taking any women this year. But maybe next year.” She got casted three years later (Itzkoff).

Reporters began to claim at the beginning of the 21st century that women had moved from “saucy sidekick to stand-alone stars.” Helmed as the “Tina Fey” era, this is when cast members such as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler began to be known as the faces of the show as a franchise, both on screen and off screen. Here is when sketches such as “Debbie Downer” and

“Target Lady” became recurring, and women sketches took up a bulk of the program time. Another big marker of women’s progression on Saturday Night Live was the addition of female anchors on the weekly segment “Weekend Update.” A spoof on current events, “Weekend Update” features commentary and satire in the middle of each episode, usually led by a male cast member who is presented as themselves (rather than as a character). Jane Curtin was the first female anchor in the second season of the show. While it was great that she was at the desk, the treatment she received from aforementioned John Belushi contradicted any kind of advancement that the presence of a woman created. Belushi would scream and raise fists in the air, telling Jane to calm down. Of course, the famous phrase “Jane, you ignorant slut!” proclaimed by co-star Dan Ackroyd resulted from her stint on “Weekend Update” during an episode premiering on May 26, 1979. Lorne Michaels did nothing to stop these slanderous and misogynistic ad-libs. In an interview with Curtin, she stated, “Lorne didn’t help, because that isn’t what Lorne did. Oh, it was ridiculous. It was just insane...you just have to learn to live with it, [and] plod on” (Miller). After Curtin’s departure in 1980, a woman didn’t sit behind the desk until twenty years later, with Tina Fey’s addition in 2000. In the beginning of Tina Fey’s reign as “Weekend Update” anchor (co-anchor with Jimmy Fallon), there was a part of the segment entitled “Women’s News,” in which Fey commented on issues such as reproductive rights and women’s roles in the home and at work (this is seen in a Season 28 episode from 2002). This direct dealings with issues of women was a direct result as Fey’s appointment of head writer. The progress of Tina Fey’s work on “Weekend Update” compared to Jane Curtin’s shows the amount of progress that SNL took in the women’s movement on television.

Broadly looking at television in the 1970s, the medium was struggling itself with its identity just as the female population of the United States was. As Kirsten Lentz says in her essay, “Quality versus Relevance,” “If 1970s feminism, broadly speaking, sought to champion the ‘rights’ of women, drawing attention to the inequities of gender role socialization and attempting either to revalue or to eschew femininity, 1970s television was similarly enmeshed in an attempt to resist its inferior status in relation to other media (especially cinema) and to revalue or reverse its associations with femininity... Scholars of television and feminism have tended to assume that the relation between the television industry and the feminist movement is primarily a negative one. According to this model, television has generally acted to distort, trivialize, or erase feminist issues and the women’s movement” (Lentz). However, as time goes on, to its credit, Saturday Night Live did do a lot to help progress the movement. Seeing women on TV and talking about women’s issues became a normal thing for the American household, making the feminist movement less of a political craze and more of something that every citizen can take part in. And this quality is what makes SNL so popular and a show that hasn’t gotten old for the forty plus years it has been on air —it reflects an ever changing society and challenges old- school ways of thinking.

However, that’s not to say that Saturday Night Live is perfect in the representation game by any means. Minority women, especially LGBTQ women and African American women in particular have always faced adversity in the entertainment industry, and Saturday Night Live has not properly used its platform and clout to change this. In its entire history up until 2013, there have only been four African-American women featured. After Maya Rudolph’s departure in 2007, there were none. Long-time cast member Kenan Thompson has had to cross-dress to impersonate several women, from Maya Angelou to Jennifer Hudson. In an interview with TV Guide, Thomspon made statements refusing the show’s request to portray black women, hoping that his resistance would prove to the network that advancements have to be made. Sasheer Zamata being hired was the first African American to be hired since Rudolph, and still stands as the only African American woman on the show today (Weisman).

By analyzing Saturday Night Live with a feminist lens, viewers can view the show as a program that did a lot for women in the entertainment industry, yet still is not reaching its full potential in what it can do for women as a whole. Women will always have the lower hand in regards to equality in entertainment, however, seeing the progress in the past gives hope that it will continue to improve, on Saturday Night Live and beyond.

#saturday night live #academic writing #television history #feminism

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spotlightsaga · 8 years ago

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Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews... Veep (S06E03) Georgia Airdate: April 30, 2017 @hbo @veephbo Ratings: 0.543 Million : 0.22 18-49 Demo Share Score: 8.75/10 **********SPOILERS BELOW********** If anyone needed proof that the game of politics keeps truckin' on long after terms in any office end, look no further than 'Veep's 'Georgia'. Many have been questioning how the show can move on outside of the 5 seasons that Selina Meyer (Julia Louie-Dreyfus) was either an elected official, an accidental one, or in some sort of a desperate attempt to be one, but it's easy to forget the attention an ex-president (even if it was by default) receives not just by the media, but by political figures both domestic and abroad. Albeit, Selina is most likely domestic political poison back home in the United States with such low approval ratings, but in a small country that is experimenting in a newfound 'democracy' she's literally a figurehead of power and finesse. If you have the time, take a look at the one and only IMDB review of the episode. It's clearly written by an angry Georgian 🇬🇪 viewer. When a comedy as abrasive and crass as 'Veep' can be at times, it's never to be taken so seriously... Even though there can be significant or socially relevant undertones, like silent 'shots fired' masked under the show's heavy handed comedy... But when it is taken seriously, seemingly ruffling feathers over a few silly jokes, then more than likely the show has done a damn fine job at its over-the-top satire that it's come to be so well known for. Let's get this one out of the way just as we had to do in the Netflix S2 series of 'Flaked', we all don't think everyone in Georgia is being poisoned and looks like Stephen Fry after an acid bath just for being a political figure... Although, Georgia is extremely close to Chechnya (have fun with that one, Georgians... It's a shame all those Chechnyans are so smoking hot, but so sexually repressed). With the Chechnya and President Ramzan Kadyrov getting so much attention lately with its 'LGBTQ-Cleansing' and 'Nothing to see here, look there's no bars on the windows... Never-mind the footprints I said don't exist but you've clearly noted DO exist' on camera attitude, 'Georgia' feels like more of a nod to the insanity there than it even remotely mimics the more progressive nature of the independent Country of Georgia. We love you, Georgia, you are on our mind! 😉 Really, 'Georgia' is more of an accidental setting than anything. It's close to Russia and we have good relations so it's better to draw satire from there than it would be a more controversial zone like Chechnya... We'll leave tackling those issues to the brave ones like 'Vice'. I loved the use of Ben throughout the episode as Selina and her gang constantly ran into him standing next to each political opponent, with him admitting he had some sort of shady tie to them in one way or another. Just how old is Ben (Kevin Dunn) anyway? His political career on 'Veep' suggests he's either a living human dinosaur or one of the busiest Americans in Global Politics. Mike and Gary are used well too... Becoming the dopey 'Green Thumb Duo', a somehow both men are corralled into Georgian voting booths and end up with green thumbs they were forced to hide throughout the majority of the episode. It may have not been enough to coerce Gary (Tony Hale) into letting Mike crash in hotel room, but it was enough for a comedic gold moment when both men embraced each other in a sort-of relief from the terror of hiding their shared secret that could have drew a lot of negative attention to Selina's corner. Of course, when Gary is finally caught by Selina, he immediately rats out Mike... And the comedy just literally rolls right off this episode! 'Georgia' finds success in pairing characters that have drifted apart over the course of the series. It's almost felt as if the old school magic from previous seasons had returned... And truly it did, just in a very unorthodox way. Jonah (Timothy Simons) being cast out by his fellow congressman forced him to hang out with an 'always happy to be here' Richard Splett (Sam Richardson). The two ending up at Neo-Nazi concert was another high point for the episode and a great advantage point on Jonah's bald head. Don't need cancer jokes to make this one work! 🤣 Fun fact: LA Native Metal band Endrone was the group Jonah found so 'savage' before the lights flickered on and the two figured out that they were in the midst of white supremacists. And for those that still believe that Americans think that this is really how Georgia is, or that all tourists from Germany are like the ones represented in 'Flaked'... No, Endrone are not actually white supremacists or nazis... Hell, they aren't even White Nationalists! 😂 Sorry, heavy on the pop culture Netflix references tonight! In the spirit of wrapping it up, Amy (Anna Chlumsky) looks like she may have come to an the end of her rope with Buddy Calhoun. It's a shame, because Matt Oberg, who plays Buddy, has been an excellent addition and perfect fit for the show... And he'll have some extra time on his hands now that 'The Real O'Neals' has been cancelled by ABC. Whether Amy chooses to flee or not, now that Buddy has withdrawn from the race, hopefully creator Armando Ianmucci will find a way to have him haunt her in some fashion... 'Veep' is so damn good at keeping recurring and guest starring characters cycling back again and again, which adds to the overall charm of the show. Dan (Reid Scott) may be a bad example, because he's very much a main character, but the having Catherine (Sarah Sutherland) and Marjorie (Clea DuVall) choose him for a sperm donor is exactly what I'm talking about... The constant goings-on of 'Veep' keep characters constantly in the fold with fresh story arcs and new adventures to fall into. Even in its 6th Season, 'Veep' feels as strong as ever!

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ratthewrodent · 5 years ago

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“The reason why the manor is so controversial is because nobody is saying what’s actually happening in here and that’s out of respect for the manor and myself and what we’re trying to produce here. If the people who go through the haunt want to spill all the beans and say everything that happens, they certainly could but they don’t and that makes the haters crazy because they don’t know what’s happening. That’s why you hear all the insane rumors because they’re just making things up in their mind of what is happening.” - Russ McKameyWhat is McKamey Manor?McKamey Manor, founded by Russ McKamey, is known as the most extreme “haunted attraction” in the United States. However, what separates this attraction from the rest is the fact that there are no zombies or ghosts. Rather, there are actors who are legally allowed to bind you, gag you, and push you to your mental and physical limitations. Of course, the experience isn’t for the average person. To even get the chance to experience the Manor, you would be required to be at least 21 years of age (or 18 with parent’s permission), pass a physical exam, a background check, and a drug test. The tour, which operates year-round and can last up to 10 hours, offers participants the chance to earn $20,000 upon full completion. According to McKamey, not a single participant has ever successfully endured the full 10 hours.McKamey Manor, which originated in San Diego, California, permits just a handful of patrons to enter each weekend. There is no entrance fee, though McKamey asks that participants donate a bag of dog food upon their arrival. Besides meeting the necessary qualifications, McKamey requires that his participants refrain from swearing and physically engaging with the actors. Violation of these rules would be grounds for subsequently ending the tour.McKamey Manor, now based in Summertown, Tennessee, and Huntsville, Alabama, bills itself as “an audience participation event in which YOU will live your own horror movie.” However, others describe it as a “torture chamber.” McKamey Manor has received criticism from the public, the “haunt” industry, and even some participants. Critics have branded McKamey a “psychopath” who found a “legal loophole” to fulfill his sadistic tendencies.Frequently asked questions range from “Is this legal?” to “Is this a hoax?” McKamey assures the public that not only is the attraction 100% within its legal rights of operating, it is also not a hoax.WaiverIf all goes to plan, prospective participants are required to sign a 40-page waiver prior to the tour. The waiver asks that the participant understands and agrees to:“19. Participant was warned numerous times about the intensity of MM and by the Owners and other members of the crew that YOU REALLY DON’T WANT TO DO THIS.”“20. Participant agrees and understands that your life in reality is not in danger and this is just a game.””21. Participant agrees and understands that during the Tour and Participant is in the van, they will not be secured by a seatbelt or other safety device.”“22. Participant understands and agrees that they are not being tortured and this is just a game.”“23. Participant understands and agrees that they are not being beat up, kicked, slugged, or actually physically harmed. You will be roughed up but no one is there to hurt you. Knowing that, MM is very rough and not for the meek. Participant will have bumps, bruises, possible black eyes, swelling of the face, etc.”“24. Participant understands and agrees that they are never being held against their will.”The waiver continues to stress that the experience is just “a game” several times. By number 28, the waiver starts to detail what the participant may be subjected to:“28. Participant fully understands that by signing this waiver that they are giving MM permission to keep nothing off the table (except sexual or inappropriate situations). Everything else imaginable can and will happen inside of MM. You are aware of this and are giving full permission for any action that may happen inside of MM.”“29. Participant agrees to and has full knowledge that if selected to visit the barber, Participant may leave MM completely bald, including eyebrows.”“30. Participant agrees and knowledges that mousetraps are used within the Tour which may result in bruising, cutting, or breakage of fingers.”“31. Participant agrees that if selected, they could be buried alive under 12 feet of dirt and rock to which they will have a limited amount of air and that they will have to figure out how to escape and they could possibly breathe in a significant amount of dust, dirt, or foreign objects that may cause death if Participant does not breathe properly or hold their breath at the right time.”“32. Participant agrees to partake, if selected to participate, in a height stunt that involves walking a plank 25 feet above ground without a safety net.”“33. Participant agrees that if selected they will come in contact with a variety of live poisonous animals. It is the Participant’s responsibility to not panic or agitate the animals. If Participant is bitten, it is because the Participant made a sudden movement within a confined secured environment.”The waiver continues for several more pages, the intensity increasing with each page.Consenting Participants or Victims?One San Diego participant, Amy Milligan, says that experience was more than “just a game.” According to Milligan, she suffered several injuries beyond “cuts and bruises.” Milligan was waterboarded during her tour. Milligan claims that, while exclaiming she could not breathe, actors laughed while they continued to waterboard her.“My hair is wrapping around my neck and I start freaking out. I’m telling them I can't breathe and they’re just laughing and doing it more.”Despite the “traumatic” experience, Mulligan spoke highly of the tour during her exit interview, going as far as adding that she did not feel like she had been “tortured” and treated it “as a game.”However, Mulligan claims that the only reason she left a positive review was to ensure that McKamey would upload the footage of her tour to YouTube. Mulligan had intended to use the footage as evidence of her excessive abuse. However, Mulligan found herself disappointed when she watched the video. According to Mulligan, the most distressing portion of her tour had been edited out of the footage.In an interview, Mulligan says that she begged to go home but was forced to continue to tour. “I’m like ‘I can’t do it, I can’t do it, I need to go home let me out, let me out,’ and they’re like ‘you’re not done.’” Mulligan adds, “[They] shoved my head back in the water and I was like, ‘They’re not going to let me out. I’m going to die in here.’”Another San Diego participant, Laura Hertz Brotherton, shares a story similar to that of Mulligan’s. Like Mulligan, Brotherton left the tour with more than just cuts and bruises. Prior to Brotherton’s scheduled tour, McKamey sent Brotherton tasks that she would have to complete in order to prove her loyalty to McKamey. Brotherton was required to purchase an adult onesie that she would wear on her tour and videotape her visit to a nearby Halloween store. Brotherton described her initial interactions with McKamey as “fun,” and was looking forward to the day of her tour. McKamey instructed that Brotherton upload her assignments to Facebook. While navigating McKamey Manor’s Facebook page, Brotherton became romantically involved with another fan on the other side of the country, despite the fact that they were both in, albeit estranged, relationships. To Brotherton’s surprise, her affair had struck a nerve with McKamey. So much so that upon Brotherton’s arrival to the Manor on October 23, 2016, McKamey publicly exposed Brotherton, who was in the company of her boyfriend. While Brotherton’s boyfriend was aware of the affair, her online partner’s wife was not aware.According to Brotherton, McKamey was cold to her for the remainder of the tour. Despite that Brotherton had just been humiliated, she was determined to power through. Brotherton had traveled to San Diego from Colorado and felt that it was too late to turn back. According to Brotherton, her experience was more extreme in comparison to others. Brotherton believes that McKamey was particularly harder on her. Brotherton believes that McKamey’s knowledge of her affair factored into the excessive abuse, noting that he appeared to be “personally offended” by it. Speaking of her experience, Brotherton says,“I was waterboarded, I was tased, I was whipped. I still have scars of everything they did to me. I was repeatedly hit in my face, over and over and over again. Like, open-handed, as hard as a man could hit a woman in her face…” More graphically, Brotherton adds that she was blindfolded with duct tape and submerged underwater by her ankles. According to Brotherton, she was submerged underwater for so long that her body started involuntarily thrashing. Brotherton was later forced to dig a hole in dirt with nothing other than her bare hands. Brotherton was then forced to lie in the fresh hole while they covered her and her face with dirt, giving her only a straw to breathe through. “[The dirt] started to go into my throat, and I started to swallow it. I’m coughing and I keep saying ‘I need water,’ and they would just splash water in my face. That went on for, I want to say, 20 to 30 minutes.”Brotherton repeated the safe word for several minutes before the actors finally relented. Like Mulligan, Brotherton had to record an exit video. In the video, Brotherton also spoke positively about her experience. Though according to Brotherton, it was because she was “forced” to.“Before Russ turned the camera on he said to me, if I do not say good things about McKamey Manor and I start telling what actually happened, he’s going to sue me for $50,000. I signed a waiver saying this could happen. So Russ forced me into saying all these great things, like, ‘Oh my God, my tour was so amazing, it was exhilarating,’ blah, blah, blah.”After her experience, Brotherton went to the hospital but refused to tell the hospital staff who or what caused her injuries. As a result, the hospital staff called the police. Brotherton, however, was discharged and left before the police arrived. Brotherton says that she later worked up the courage to report the incident to the police, but was told that she didn’t have a criminal case because of the waiver she signed. Brotherton took photographs to document her injures. According to journalist Megan Seling, who interviewed Brotherton for her article, Tennessee's McKamey Manor: Torture on Demand, the nature of Brotherton’s injuries included:“In one photo, Brotherton is in a neck brace and a hospital gown and her face is markedly swollen. She has scrapes on her cheeks and a lump on her forehead, her lips are red and puffy, and there are small cuts at the corner of her mouth.In another image, you can see a large, bloody wound on Brotherton’s left knee. She says that’s an old surgery scar that opened up after McKamey’s actors cut off her knee pads and made her crawl on the ground. Her legs are covered in scratches, and there’s a large purple bruise on top of her left foot. There are also two pictures of her torso, showing large purple bruises that stretch across her hip and stomach. She says X-rays showed a hairline fracture in her foot, and the inside of her mouth was so scratched up from the hitting and “fish-hooking” (“Where they take their two fingers and they put them inside your mouth and they stretch your mouth open”) that the hospital sent her home with medical mouthwash, which she had to use every two hours for three days.”According to Seling, McKamey didn’t deny Brotherton’s claims, though he did shed doubt on the fracture in her foot. McKamey also admitted to exposing her affair but claimed that it didn’t affect her tour in terms of increasing severity. Rather, according to McKamey, “Any personal information we have, we’ll use it against you in the tour.”Towards the end of the article, Seling states, “Here’s the thing: There is no $20,000. There’s no caiman named Ralphie, there’s no quicksand-like mud that will swallow you whole, and McKamey will certainly never slather your body in flame-retardant gel and lock you in an incinerator somewhere in Huntsville, Ala. None of that is real.”McKamey himself commented on the article, suggesting that Seling reported her opinions rather than facts. The comment read,“Russ here, I'm posting this FB post here because I think it's worth mentioning. There really is only one part of your story that I have an issue with. Sure the way you went on and on about Laura B. without having the real facts was to be expected. Clearly if things happened the way you suggested in the piece...I would be in jail. I can assure you, Laura's tour was no tougher then other "Chamber" tours in San Diego. If you would have spoken to other contestants who have taken multiple tours (up to 5), including the same tour that Laura took...you would have received a balanced take on the San Diego shows. I offered you their names, but you decided to go with the most salacious participant. The person who has been banned by all other extreme attractions. Why...because she causes trouble and she does not speak the truth. The bottom line Megan Seling is this. Why did you feel it was important to get one final (unsubstantiated), dig in at myself and the Manor. Would you top off a story about a magician or illusionist with a statement about what is real or nor real? But for some reason you felt it necessary to do so covering the MM story. It may have been understandable to include your final paragraph if for some reason you really felt inclined to complain because I wasn't giving away my secrets, but you did so much more then that. You left your readers with the impression that what you were saying was fact. And that's were I have a big issue with what you presented to your audience. You deceived your readers by presenting your "opinion" as a factual statement. You even admitted to other FB readers that you you knew what you did was going to upset me, but you went full steam ahead nonetheless. In hindsight, that's probably the effect you were looking for. As you and I both know, I called it from the first phone call and several hours working with you on your story, how you would eventually spin the article. And as usual in these cases deal with the media...I was correct. But let's get back to the actual statement you presented to your audience as fact...not opinion. You wrote the following: "Here’s the thing: There is no $20,000. There’s no caiman named Ralphie, there’s no quicksand-like mud that will swallow you whole, and McKamey will certainly never slather your body in flame-retardant gel and lock you in an incinerator somewhere in Huntsville, Ala. None of that is real." That is not an opinon...you're stating this as fact. I would like to offer this challenge to you publicly here in your papers comment section. I have already done so numerous times as you're well aware. Because you're so keen on exploring what is real and not real at MCKAMEY MANOR, and because you're so inclined to make that the final impression of your story, I have a very simple way to bring this to a very exciting conclusion. All you have to do Megan is to actually take the tour. I would think as a professional journalist you would be more then happy to participate in this little adventure. If for no other reason just to get the actual facts correct. Unfortunately we all know you will never do that. Instead you'll sit behind your desk in the comfort of your safe space, writing about second hand information instead of actually seeking the truth from your own experience. I understand that there are those that are "participants" in the world, and others who simple watch from the sidelines. In your case I'm offering you a chance to actually become an active player and not just a computer warrior. If you would care to sign up for the tour, I'm pretty sure you would change your statement. What do you have to loose? Don't just toss opinions out as fact. Maybe you're absolutely correct that MCKAMEY MANOR in not real in the faintest, and that nothing is what it seems. My challenge to you is to be a real real journalist and find out the facts. Imagian the great story you would have, and I know your supporters would love to see you get away from your desk and safe space to show us all what MCKAMEY MANOR is real all about. Is MM just "Smoke and Mirrors," or it it something much more exciting and magical. This would make an excellent follow on piece for your paper. Do you have what it takes Megan to actually find out the truth? If anyone would like to participate in the MM experience, please fill out the contact form at www.Mckameymanor.com. Be advise you must be able to meet all basic requirements and you must provide a doctors letter stating your mentally and physically cleared to participate in our little adventure called MCKAMEY MANOR. And no matter what you may have read in this article, the chance to win 20,000.00 is absolutely real. Do I believe that will ever happen...not on your life ladies and gentlemen. MM is looking forward to meeting each and every one of you. One final note, I'm the most transparent individual you'll ever have the opportunity to meet. If anyone one of you reading this comment have any questions for me, feel free to call me directly at (omitted by u/BubbaJoeJones). I will answer any and all questions...concerning anything. Thank you for reading my little rant :-). R/Russ McKamey”Questions and TheoriesReal, or Staged?McKamey, who is a fan of filmmaking and acting, uploads footage of participant’s tours to YouTube. Or, he used to. McKamey has since stopped uploading to YouTube, presumably because of backlash. However, McKamey hasn’t stopped uploading footage of the tours entirely. According to Facebook users who are in McKamey Manor’s private Facebook group, McKamey still privately uploads, and occasionally live streams, the tours. The tours, which resemble movies backed by professional editing, lighting, and props, raise questions as to whether or not what we’re seeing is staged.In one video, the footage shows three individuals reading the waiver aloud prior to signing. During the reading, McKamey repeats the Manor’s tagline, “You don’t really want to do this.” While the individuals are attempting to read the waiver aloud, they are having their hair pulled out of their scalps, being smacked in the face, and being choked with rope rung around their necks. Footage later shows the individuals having their eyebrows and hair shaved off (and later being forced to eat it), including other sadistic acts such as having drills forced in their nose and mouth, being locked inside a freezer, and being forced to eat raw dead animals.These acts lead some people to theorize that it’s “just a movie” and that the participants themselves are actors.People speculate that not only what is shown on camera real, neither is the alleged waiting-list. According to McKamey, there is a waiting list totaling about 27,000 prospective participants in 2015. However, there is no evidence to support the claim that there are 27,000 prospective participants on the waiting list.There are also people who question the existence of the $20,000 prize upon completion. According to McKamey’s comment, “the chance to win 20,000.00 is absolutely real.” However, some people, including Seling, find it suspicious that nobody has ever been able to claim the prize. McKamey has said on record that though the prize exists, it’s “impossible” to attain. Though, as Seling pointed out, it’s not due to being unable to complete the tour in its entirety, it’s by design. According to some participants, McKamey decides when you’re through, even if you never withdrew your consent. As a result, despite what McKamey claimed, many believe there was no $20,000 prize.How Does McKamey Afford it?One question that remains unanswered is how McKamey is able to fund the Manor. McKamey, who is a US Navy Veteran, does not profit off the Manor. As mentioned before, McKamey accepts his payment in the form of dog food, which is later donated to Operation Greyhound. Additionally, McKamey invested $500,000 out of pocket into the establishment of the Manor in San Diego. According to McKamey, he was shelling out about $250-275 a night for an on-site EMT and somewhere between $15,000-20,000 per year on specialty insurance. McKamey estimates that it cost around $500 per haunt. How is/was this experience bankrolled?Theories and rumors have ranged from believing that McKamey sells the entirety of his footage on the Dark Web, to taking a cut from a betting pool who watches the live streams from Las Vegas.Though according to McKamey, he doesn’t profit off the Manor “at all.” McKamey admitted to struggling financially after having lost his job as a Veteran’s Advocate. As a result, he found that he had to move the Manor where it would be more affordable. As a result, McKamey moved San Diego home and purchased property in Tennessee and Alabama.According to McKamey, his only source of income is his $800 monthly retirement check.Is it Legal?There has been some debate regarding the legality of operating McKamey Manor. As mentioned before, Brotherton reported the incident to the police and was told that there was nothing that can be done as she had signed a waiver. Moreover, the police were called to McKamey Manor on more than one occasion. According to Seling, police arrived to find one woman in a basement, shivering and bruised with duct tape over her mouth. When police asked the woman if the interaction was consensual, the woman said yes. Police had no option other than to leave.According to the Brent Cooper, District Attorney of Lawrence County, Tennessee, McKamey Manor is legal. Cooper says that as long as McKamey participants are there voluntarily, no crime is being committed. However, Cooper does add that a participant can withdraw consent in the state of Tennessee at any time. If McKamey were to disregard the withdrawal of consent, a participant would then be classified as a victim who is being held against their will.McKamey Manor TodayMcKamey Manor’s Tennessee location is, according to McKamey, far less physically involved than it was in San Diego. According to McKamey, the experience in Tennessee and Alabama is more of a “mental game.” Rather than being physically tortured, the participant is manipulated into believing that torture is being inflicted upon them. In response to an online petition demanding that the alleged “torture chamber” be “shut down,” McKamey clarified,“There’s no torture, there’s nothing like that, but under hypnosis if you make someone believe there’s something really scary going on, that’s just in their own mind and not reality. If you’re good enough and you’re able to get inside somebody’s noggin like the way that I can, I can make folks believe whatever I want them to believe. I’m like the most strait-laced guy you could think of, but here I run this crazy haunted house. And people twist it around in their little minds. It really is a magic act, what I do. It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors.”However, that isn’t to say people escape the Manor unscathed. McKamey stands by the possibility that one may leave with cuts and bruises, as stated in the waiver.Despite people having attempted to shut down McKamey Manor by signing petitions and filing police reports, McKamey Manor is still operating year-round in Tennessee and Alabama. According to McKamey, some people have grown so defiant to his presence that they have sent death threats and shot through his windows. Out of the hundreds of threats that McKamey has received over the years, McKamey recalls the one time that he was involved in a potentially life-threatening incident. Shortly before McKamey moved to Tennessee, a single bullet flew by his head while he was working outside in his yard. However, McKamey never reported the alleged incident to the police, claiming that he didn’t want to bring any more attention to himself.Conclusion“I’m not going to open it to the masses–I like keeping it a secret. I like the mystery of the manor. If you saw everything it’d be like any other haunted house. That’s my goal, even when I’m dead and gone, to make sure people are still talking about McKamey Manor. That’s why nobody is really going to ever see behind the wall.” - Russ McKameyTo date, little is known about what took place at McKamey Manor in San Diego. Mulligan and Brotherton maintain that they were subjected to excessive abuse, despite that they signed the waiver. As McKamey said, many of his participants choose not to detail their experiences out of respect for maintaining the mystery of the manor. Thus, there are very few accounts available on people’s experiences at the Manor. Although McKamey claims that the Manor in Tennessee and Alabama is the most “toned-down version of the Manor ever,” people continue to sign petitions in an attempt to shut the Manor down. Despite their efforts, McKamey says that he will continue to run the Manor as long as he is able to.Links:McKamey ManorAn ‘extreme’ haunted house requires a 40-page waiver. Critics say it’s a torture chamber.San Diego terror attraction McKamey Manor runs into opposition at new Tennessee home'There's a chance of death': Extreme haunted tour employee explains their terrifying 40-page waiverMcKamey Manor 'victim' speaks outTerror attraction McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego for the south via /r/UnresolvedMysteries

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rwep2014blog · 5 years ago

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The Journey Of A Decade To My Dream

So with 2020 around the corner and as I was planning and visualising what I’d like the next 10 years to look like, it got me thinking about where I was 10 years ago and everything I’ve actually accomplished over the past decade.

If you’re thinking about the year ahead and want to have a ridiculously amazing 2020, then check out our upcoming Epic 2020 Success Plan Challenge!

Click here to find out more and get an exclusive invitation to the Epic 2020 Success Plan Challenge!

With a new 10 year cycle just ahead of us, this is such a great time to get more intentional about what you want the next 10 years to look like and how you’re going to make it the best decade ever! So I wanted to share with you a timeline of the last 10 years of my life.

This is a longer post than usual (a LOT has happened in 10 years!!) but I just want to show you how radically different your life can become when you commit your heart and soul to fulfilling your dreams. So here we go…

2009: Back in 2009, I had just built a phone unlocking business (which really bored me to death!!) and even though it was successful, I was miserable, because I wasn’t passionate about what I was doing.

So I started trying to figure out what it was that I was passionate about. I knew that I loved helping other people, so I signed up as a volunteer business mentor for the Prince’s Trust. But I still felt like there was something missing in my life, like I wasn’t doing what I was meant to be doing. It got to the point where I felt so low, confused and lost.

A year before, in 2008, I’d had the idea to create a platform to inspire women in business, but kept standing in my own way and avoiding that idea because I was doubting myself. I just kept trying to do everything else and feeling so lost.

2010: At the beginning of 2010, I decided to escape to Australia in search of an epiphany. I traveled around Australia for three months and had absolutely no epiphany whatsoever! I came home feeling even more confused than before.

2011: By this time I was feeling more miserable than ever because another year had gone by and I was still as confused as ever. Luckily, I reread a brilliant book I loved, called the E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber. In this book there’s an exercise where the author gets you to imagine your funeral and pushes you to ask yourself questions like what would people think about the life you lived and the person you were.

I realized that I no longer wanted to be this miserable person who constantly felt stuck, lost and confused. I wanted to stop going round in circles year after year and I’d had enough of my own crap! I came across a quote by Tony Robbins that said, “In 10 years you’ll surely arrive, the question is where?” And whilst I had no idea where I wanted to arrive, I was ready to open myself up to going on an adventure to make the next 10 years the best 10 years.

So I decided to go on a mission I like to my “Mission Success Challenge”, and decided that I was going to challenge myself to see what would be possible if I conditioned myself for success, if I stopped the self-limitation and found out what I could achieve if I just went for it. What could I make happen if I just allowed myself to dream big and to try and live my dream life.

I bought myself a journal and began writing out my story up until that point. I had come up with the idea for FEA in 2008, so I made the decision to figure out how I was going to build it, how I was going to live my best life and how I was going to achieve incredible things. All of a sudden I had given myself permission to just go for it. I wrote:

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.

I decided that one day I was going to turn this journal into a book and publish it with Hay House. And that was part of the vision. (Hint: It happened a few years later!!)

Finally, after three years of sitting on it, I launched the website for the Female Entrepreneur Association. I built it myself on WordPress and was so proud of it! A couple of months later, I launched my first event and 60 women attended! I contacted the local media, got some press coverage and it was amazing!

And after that I just kept focusing on getting myself out there and networking like a crazy person! I’d never had the guts to put myself out there like that before – I was finally doing it and it felt so good!

That same year, The Telegraph newspaper published an article all about the Female Entrepreneur Association and this felt like such an incredible moment for me because I was finally moving in the right direction.

2012: The more momentum I started to build, the more I started dreaming big. At the beginning of 2012 I began working on a digital magazine, This Girl Means Business, and was interviewing all these amazing women and working hard on getting the message out there.

I wanted to create more awareness and build an incredible community, so I decided that I was going to start doing videos. I had no idea what I was doing and I was so petrified and when I look back they look so awful, but everyone has to start somewhere!

I was determined to figure things out, to get better and to just keep putting my message out there so I stayed consistent with it, doing one video every week. People still find and discover videos I put out there in 2012 and that’s how they’re finding me and FEA now. It’s been so powerful!

In Autumn of 2012 I was nominated for an award called the Changemakers and I was up against 26 other incredible entrepreneurs… I won and couldn’t believe it! I was presented the award and then got into a helicopter mentoring session with Lord Bilimoria, founder of Kobra beer. I had visualized this moment over and over again in the run up to the award night and it was actually happening!

A couple of months after that I totally ran out of money because I was so focused on just inspiring people, serving my audience and providing free value. I had developed this warped belief that if I started charging, I would become out of alignment with my goal and my intentions with building the platform in the first place. It’s crazy how our own money blocks hold us back!

So by the end of 2012, I realised I needed to work on this mindset and my money blocks and amazing things started to happen! I started to do joint ventures with the likes of Lewis Howes, Amy Porterfield and James Wedmore and serving more people!

2013: By 2013 I was still focused and working on getting myself out there and was gaining incredible opportunities, such as speaking at the UK House of Commons for International Women’s Day, which was again an amazing milestone.

By the end of 2013, I finally plucked up the courage to actually launch my membership site, which had been on my goal board for years but I had been too afraid to do it. Since then it has grown to over 5,000 members and has been the most phenomenal experience.

2014: In 2014 I was invited to do a TEDx talk, which had also been on my vision board! I was invited to speak in front of nearly 1,000 people and that video has now racked up nearly 7 million views on YouTube, which blows my mind!

2015: Following on from that, in 2015, I received an email from the Commissioning Editor of Hay House publishers in the UK saying that she had been following me for about six months and was interested in offering me a book deal! I couldn’t believe it, this had been on my vision board for years!

2016: I finished writing the book, She Means Business, in 2016, and in the meantime kept working on building my business, growing my audience, serving them and providing as much value as I could.

2017: My book came out in 2017 and it was just the most surreal experience walking into book shops everywhere and seeing my book on the shelf! So much of what I wrote came straight out of that journal from 2011!

2018: In 2018 I finally made my dream come true of actually creating a physical product. I launched the Carrie & Co. Perfectly Planned planner, which has been amazing to have something I’ve created that I can physically touch and hold.

And the rest is history! It has been an amazing journey and it’s insane to think of where I was back in 2009, when I was just down in the dumps, feeling so low, so lost and confused, too afraid to commit to my ideas!

That decision to give myself permission, that commitment to creating success changed my life!

So what I would say to you is, where were you 10 years ago and what has your journey looked like since then? Take some time to think about all the good stuff, as well as all of the things that didn’t really go to plan and learn from everything! Just create awareness as to why the last 10 years have gone the way they have and then start thinking about what you want the next 10 years to look like.

Just know that change will happen, but get really intentional about creating success, living your best life and building the business of your dreams. That’s what this is all about.

So take some time now to start focusing on where you want to arrive in 10 years and start creating this picture for yourself. As a start, focus on making 2020 an absolutely incredible year where you can kick off this next decade in the most magical, inspired way possible.

And if you’re ready to make the commitment to having an epic year and an epic decade to come, make sure you join me for our upcoming Epic 2020 Success Plan Challenge, where I’ll hold your hand as you create your own Mission To Success!

Click on the link below to find out more, register yourself on the waitlist and get your hands on an exclusive invitation before the challenge launches in January!

Click here to find out more and join the Epic 2020 Success Plan Challenge Waitlist!

The post The Journey Of A Decade To My Dream appeared first on Female Entrepreneur Association.

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theliberaltony · 6 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): Monday night marked the filing deadline for first-quarter political fundraising numbers. Bernie Sanders led the pack with $20.7 million,1 74 percent of which came from small donors, or those who gave $200 or less to his campaign.

And if we just look at contributions from individual donors (so excluding campaign transfers or candidates who self-fundraise), Kamala Harris came in second behind Sanders’s $18.2 million raising $12 million. By this metric, Beto O’Rourke came in third with $9.4 million and Pete Buttigieg in fourth with $7.1-million.

So what does it all mean this far out? What were some of the biggest surprises and what does it tell you about the health of some of these campaigns?

perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): If you had told me in January that Buttigieg would raise more money from individual donors than Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker and Kristen Gillibrand, I would have said that you were insane. So that’s definitely the biggest surprise to me.

natesilver (Nate Silver, editor in chief): I’d agree that Buttigieg has been the biggest upside surprise of the Democratic primary so far. And that Warren has been the biggest downside surprise, at least in terms of fundraising, because she always raised a ton of money for her Senate campaigns.

Everything else is pretty much to form. Sanders’s fundraising total is neither underwhelming nor overwhelming.

Harris and Beto’s fundraising numbers are decent but not great, which is exactly where you’d describe their standing in the polls too.

maggiekb (Maggie Koerth-Baker, senior science writer): I was doing an interview with Richard Briffault from Columbia Law School last week, and one of the things he told me was that small donations have, historically, been tied to more polarizing or extremist candidates. Which makes sense if you think about what might get someone really fired up to send in that $30 or whatever. It’s things like personality or somebody who’s pushing policies that are outside the (presumably better-funded) mainstream.

But then Briffault cited people like Buttigieg, who he called “the epitome of a non-extremist” and who is running this small-donation campaign that’s meant to appeal to middle-of-the-road voters. So he’s watching both that campaign, and O’Rourke’s, to see if they turn out to be the things that upend this conventional wisdom that campaigns that attract small donors can’t be moderate campaigns.

sarahf: Carrie, does what Maggie learned from Briffault reflect what you’ve heard in your reporting? Or how should we think about the rise of small donors?

carrie.levine (Carrie Levine, senior political reporter at the Center for Public Integrity): I’ve also heard that small-dollar donors can be more polarized than large donors. It’ll be interesting to see whether that holds true this cycle with candidates’ increased focus on expanding the small-dollar donor pool. Another question to consider about the rise of small donors is that we don’t really know how large that pool can get, or whether there’s a limit to how much they’ll give. On the Democratic side, donors are being heavily courted by multiple candidates, so now lots of strategists are watching to see if donors get exhausted before we get to November 2020.

perry: Looking at other first quarter fundraising numbers, I thought Bernie’s numbers were really strong. I’m not saying it’s surprising, but he does have a huge number of small donors, which is both a sign of intense support and a valuable resource, as those people can give multiple times before they hit the contribution limit. I was pretty sure he would be a formidable candidate in his second run, and his first quarter fundraising helped confirm that.

carrie.levine: One other interesting note on Bernie: his campaign said about 20 percent of first-quarter donors were new to his campaign, which is a sign that he’s appealing to people who didn’t necessarily give last time.

natesilver: I don’t know. Sanders was raising around $30 million a quarter in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2015. He raised $44 million within a month in March, 2016. So I don’t find his numbers all that impressive this time around. I think they’re right in line with (reasonable) expectations.

sarahf: But surely, Nate, part of the reason Bernie is bringing in less money is because this time around there are 16 other major candidates, including Bernie.

And if 20 percent of the first-quarter donors are first-time givers like the campaign says, that’s at least somewhat promising, no?

natesilver: It’s consistent with a world where Bernie is polling at 20 percent, after having received 43 percent of the vote or something in 2016. On the one hand, in a field with more than a dozen candidates, 20 percent is good enough to make you one of the frontrunners. On the other hand, it still means you’re well off your benchmarks from 2016, because some of your support has also gone to other candidates.

sarahf: Something I found staggering in the New York Times’s reporting on the first quarter numbers:

“President Trump’s re-election campaign also reported its fund-raising. The campaign brought in about $30 million in the first three months of 2019 — roughly equal to that of Mr. Sanders and Ms. Harris put together. Mr. Trump has his own powerful base of small donors. The campaign said its average donation was $34.26.”

So definitely some real downsides to the Democratic field being this large — candidates just aren’t bringing in as much money even if donors are giving to multiple candidates.

natesilver: I also think Trump’s $30 million number is pretty underwhelming.

sarahf: Nate just thinks everyone could be fundraising better.

natesilver: Well, yeah. I just don’t get why people are so impressed by any of these numbers, in an era where online fundraising has massively increased the ability for candidates to raise gargantuan sums of money in a hurry. Again, Sanders raised $44 million in a month in March, 2016.

maggiekb: If campaigns are going to be courting small donors more, they’re right to do it during the primaries. One of the big takeaways from a story we did last year on the social science around campaign fundraising was that the money you raise (or, for those playing at home, the money you donate) matters a lot more during the primary.

By the time you get to the general, the outcomes are much more driven by partisanship, and frankly most candidates are raising and spending way more than most of them actually need to get elected.

So, I guess, if you’re a small donor, burn yourself out now!

:fire:

carrie.levine: Anecdotally, I am also hearing a lot about donors spreading money among different candidates. We see some overlap in the data we have on contributors who give more than $200, but the small donor data that will be released by ActBlue, the payment platform used by all the Democratic presidential candidates, in July, will give a better picture of that.

perry: Do we think giving to multiple candidates is a sign of indecision? For instance, in 2016 I assume there were few people who gave money to Clinton AND Sanders. But are we now in a situation where people like several candidates and don’t want to choose just one?

carrie.levine: I also have heard in my reporting that the Democratic National Committee’s decision to set a grassroots fundraising criteria as a way to qualify for the first two primary dates has prompted donors to give to multiple candidates that they would like to see on the debate stage. Some candidates have even directly referenced the debate thresholds in their asks.

Here’s some language from a Gillibrand Twitter ad from March 21, for example:

Citing the debate criteria, Gillibrand is now asking for $1 pic.twitter.com/7KMTXrTvmF

— Chris Zubak-Skees (@zubakskees) March 21, 2019

perry: In other words, the emphasis on having a lot of donors is affecting the nature of the campaign. Like, $1 donations are not particularly useful for say, campaign ads, even at a fairly large scale, but are useful for qualifying for the debates.

carrie.levine: Exactly. But a lot of candidates did ask for $1 contributions, or $3 or $5.

Which, of course, also has the ancillary effect of putting the $1 donor on an email list so they can be asked repeatedly for more money. It would take a lot of $1 contributions to hit the maximum contribution. But as CPI’s data editor, Chris Zubak-Skees, points out, it’s also not free to raise those $1 contributions.

sarahf: My understanding was that part of the reason why the DNC introduced this fundraising threshold is that they saw candidates with large numbers of small donors as a good way to measure enthusiasm. Is that right? Or is this a flawed way to think about fundraising?

carrie.levine: I think a lot of people see small contributions as a proxy for support or enthusiasm, and in that statement announcing the debate criteria, DNC Chair Tom Perez specifically said they wanted to give “small-dollar donors a bigger voice in the primary than ever before.”

natesilver: Yeah, I wonder if there’s an overcorrection toward these tiny donations.

On the one hand, I suppose the theory is that once you sign someone up for any amount of money, they can contribute a lot more in the future. On the other hand, running for president is expensive, and some of these candidates haven’t raised enough money to run a full-fledged campaign, even if the donor number is impressive.

sarahf: So that brings me to my next question. I know it’s early yet, but what do these fundraising numbers tell us about the health of some of these campaigns? It might not be anything we don’t already know, i.e. John Delaney was always a bit of a long-shot candidate, but the fact that most of his money was self-raised, and he spent a lot of it … means he could be in trouble, no?

By the same token, maybe this spells trouble ahead for Warren? A good bulk of her money was transferred from her 2018 Senate campaign and she also had a pretty high burn rate.

perry: Delaney is very rich. He will be fine.

carrie.levine: I think it’s tricky to say whether someone is in trouble because some of the candidates have access to pots of money besides what they get from individual contributions. Gillibrand, Warren, Booker and Klobuchar, for example, have all transferred money from their Senate campaigns to their presidential campaigns, though that cash won’t last forever either, of course.

perry: Warren still has a lot of cash on hand ($11.2 million, second only to Sanders at $15.7 million), so now if they know they are going to have trouble raising money, her campaign can at least adjust its spending.

sarahf: Sure, but as Nate said, running a campaign is expensive! And if more and more Democratic candidates are shunning big dollar donations from corporations and PACs, and can’t win over enough small-dollar donors that will put some real strains on their staffing or campaign outreach needs.

natesilver: Goodhart’s Law states that “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Meaning, once someone caters their strategy to meet a certain statistical benchmark, it’s no longer as useful as when someone reaches it organically.

Small-donor contributions are a proxy for grassroots support, but ultimately they’re just a proxy for it and what you really want is for people to show up at the polls and vote for you.

carrie.levine: Right, dollars aren’t votes. That’s always the catch with looking at fundraising.

But, Nate, one more thing to consider is whether a boom of small-dollar donors is ever completely organic. Campaigns spend money on list acquisition, for example, and on online ads to serve up to potential supporters. Prospecting for small-dollar donors costs money, and isn’t as spontaneous as it can appear.

maggiekb: And how much of fundraising is really just about being a proxy for support, or a narrative to prove to the media that the candidate has support? There’s a lot of evidence that suggests advertising (the main thing donations get spent on) doesn’t really work all that well.

Or, at least, doesn’t create a bump that lasts long enough to affect actual votes.

natesilver: The money matters, so it’s not just a proxy. The Democratic calendar is front-loaded, so even though it’s easier for a candidate to go “viral” in the age of social media, you’re still going to have candidates who survive Iowa and New Hampshire, who need to quickly build out a ground strategy in California, Texas, Virginia and all these big, expensive states that vote on Super Tuesday. That takes resources.

However, fundraising has historically not been a super great predictor of primary outcomes. It’s generally worse than polls and worse than endorsements. It is quite a useful predictor in House elections, though, and to some extent Senate and gubernatorial elections.

But with presidential elections, less so. And that’s partly because beyond a certain point, candidates encounter diminishing returns, e.g. raising $600 million vs. $500 million probably doesn’t matter much. But, say, $10 million vs. $1 million probably matters a lot.

maggiekb: I keep feeling like I’m trapped in a pit of conflicting data when it comes to fundraising research. Or maybe not exactly conflicting, but it just feels messy. Like this stuff Nate is talking about with fundraising not being a good predictor of primary outcomes. Meanwhile, the political scientists tell me that while the biggest fundraisers tend to win the general elections, that’s not usually BECAUSE they raised the most. Like the money is a predictive factor, but not the cause.

The way Richard Lau at Rutgers put it when I spoke to him last fall was, “I think where you have to change your thinking is that money causes winning. I think it’s more that winning attracts money.”

It’s now a favorite quote of mine.

carrie.levine: The candidate raising the most money may not win the primary, but the candidate raising the least — self-funding aside — is going to have trouble competing.

sarahf: Right, so where do we see trouble? And did any of it surprised you?

natesilver: Yeah. Warren probably needs to be at least a little bit worried, because she has a well-staffed, expensive campaign with a high burn rate. The candidates in the Julian Castro/John Hickenlooper/Jay Inslee group might be a little worried.

Gillibrand, certainly.

perry: The senator-candidates, excluding Harris, should be worried that the polls and the fundraising are telling the same story — they are basically even (Warren in polls) or behind the mayor of South Bend right now.

But if I were Beto or Harris, I would be worried that another establishment, big-donor friendly candidate (Biden) is probably entering the race. It’s not that Sanders donors are suddenly going to give to Biden, but big donors might be deciding among those three.

natesilver: I wonder how much money Biden would raise. His support skews older and probably low-to-middle income, which might actually be a disadvantage from a fundraising standpoint.

perry: I tend to think he will have a lot of trouble raising small-dollar donations (I don’t know if Biden has a passionate base), so I think he will be really trying to woo the big money.

natesilver: Yeah, he might be willing to do the whole traditional rubber chicken / $2,800-to-buy-a-photo-with-the-candidate-and-a-couple-of-glasses-of-decent-Chardonnay fundraising thing, which a lot of candidates seem to be eschewing this cycle.

And he might be willing to say “fuck it, I’d love to have me a super PAC.”

carrie.levine: One question about the eschewing of the traditional rubber chicken circuit this cycle is whether it will continue past the primary. But yes, I’d be very surprised if Biden walks away from the traditional donor base that can write a $2,800 check and has supported him in the past.

perry: Are the kinds of voters attracted to Biden also the kind of people who don’t care about issues like super PACs? Maybe no voters care about super PACs, but I think Sanders and Warren in particular would face immense backlash if they had one.

natesilver: That’s part of Biden’s advantage, I think. He isn’t trying to seem “woke”, for lack of a better term. That’s not where his voters are, anyway. So he can do all sorts of stuff without taking a hit to his brand, that might be a tougher call for Warren or Beto or whomever.

carrie.levine: And online fundraising has surged in the years since Biden was last on the ballot. How he’ll do is still really an open question, even though conventional wisdom seems to be that he won’t do particularly well. We just don’t know.

perry: Good point. Maybe Biden will be a fundraising juggernaut on online. I don’t know — I’m assuming he doesn’t have a big small donor base, but I didn’t think he would be leading in the polls either.

sarahf: It’s not just Biden who faces this fundraising question. There’s already a bit of a divide in where candidates are getting their money. For instance, both Gillibrand and Booker are two candidates that still rely heavily on big dollar donations. Granted, I do think within the Democratic Party, at least, this form of fundraising is less popular.

carrie.levine: Yes, though Gillibrand has also courted new donors. For example, she has really encouraged women’s giving circles. My colleague Sarah Kleiner and I touched on that in this piece.

sarahf: OK, what should we be looking for in Q2? Do we think we can expect to see candidates’ campaigns folding because they aren’t bringing in enough cash and aren’t rising in the polls? Or do we think we’ll see more consolidation around one candidate?

What will you be keeping an eye on?

carrie.levine: I think candidates who post anemic fundraising totals for two quarters in a row will be under some pressure to get out of the race so the field can consolidate, so I’ll be looking for that.

I’m also interested in the total universe of donors giving to presidential campaigns and how big that gets, given the aggressive courting of new donors for small amounts. A growing number of unique donors engaged in giving to Democratic presidential campaigns is definitely something to watch.

perry: Harris started her campaign fairly early (Jan. 21) and raised a lot from big donors. That worked in the first quarter, but it will be interesting if she finishes second again. Warren is getting attention for releasing a lot of detailed policy proposals — but does that turn into donations? Does Mayor Pete keep up his buzz? Beto raised $6 million on the first day and fairly little afterward. Does he raise a lot in the second quarter? What does Biden raise?

And yes, I think we will see 1-3 candidates drop out, although there is a lot of incentive to stay in the race through at least June, when the first debates happen.

sarahf: Yeah, Beto is going to have a lot to prove in Q2. But who knows, he could have his Buttigieg moment!

natesilver: It’s very likely that Buttigieg and Sanders will continue to raise a lot of money in the medium term, but I’m more interested in what Beto’s bringing in on a sustained basis.

And keep in mind that we don’t have any debates until the end of Q2, which makes viral moments a bit more unlikely.

This quarter right now is going to be by far the most boring quarter of the entire primary process, in fact. NOT THAT YOU SHOULD FORGET TO CLICK ON FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.COM EVERY DAY.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #A FiveThirtyEight Chat

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chestnutpost · 6 years ago

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Amber Tamblyn Is Done Asking Powerful Men For Permission

This post was originally published on this site

Three-quarters of the way through my interview with actress, author and activist Amber Tamblyn, I realize she’s in the back of a taxi. We’ve been talking about the 2020 election, white womanhood, the memories of sexual abuse dredged up by a president who has openly bragged about sexual assault, and, of course, her new book Era of Ignition. All this is to say that the man driving Tamblyn through Manhattan has just received a surprise crash course in intersectional feminism.

“You have a good day,” I hear her say to the driver as she slides out of the car. “Thank you for listening to my feminist conversation.”

After the door slams, she returns to that feminist conversation with a wry laugh: “I’m like, sir, you just got all of that for free. All of that, I just taught you. You’re welcome.”

Tamblyn has been in the entertainment business since she was very young. She first appeared on both the big and small screens in 1995, in “Live Nude Girls” as a young version of Dana Delany’s character, and on “General Hospital,” a gig that lasted six years. But she really became a recognizable face after 2005’s “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” in which she played beloved teen lit character Tibby Rollins. She also booked the title role in the TV show “Joan of Arcadia,” which ran from 2003 to 2005 and for which she received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations. All of this happened before Tamblyn turned 23.

L. Cohen via Getty Images Alexis Bledel, Blake Lively, America Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn during the premiere after-party for “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”

As Tamblyn describes it in her book, “while other teenagers were going to school to get an education, I was going to a film studio to play a heroin addicted former model whose mother had died of cancer.”

Now, at age 35, Tamblyn exudes a different kind of hard-won confidence. She’s not here to cater to the desires of men ― not in her personal life and certainly not in her professional one. After Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss and a campaign that Tamblyn had been heavily involved in, she decided she was done “feeling secondary to the creative expansion of men in the entertainment business.”

“The only thing I had ever known how to do was channel someone else’s art, someone else’s muse, live someone else’s life,” Tamblyn writes of her experiences as a young actress.

Era of Ignition is half memoir, half activist manifesto. Tamblyn offers personal stories about her career, her political activism, her relationship with her husband David Cross, and motherhood, woven together with statistics and explicit calls to action. She discusses what it means as a white woman to be in solidarity with women of color, and does not shy away from pointing out where we white ladies have gone wrong, both historically (e.g. the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave white women suffrage) and today (e.g. every time a white woman gets immediately defensive when their blind spots are challenged). Tamblyn asks us ― and herself ― to do better. She even includes a five-point Male Ally Manifesto, which instructs men to “listen more than you assert.” (Solid advice.)

Like so many women and nonbinary people in this country, Tamblyn is angry, and this book is her answer to that anger.

“What do we do with with those feelings?” Tamblyn said when we spoke on the phone last week. She immediately answered her own question: “What has been happening in the last two years is exactly what we do with it. And that is the ignition.”

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

You write about the United States being in the midst of what you call a “crisis of character.” What is that crisis of character, and how did your own period of self-reflection and reinvention dovetail with this national moment?

Well, I don’t think it was a coincidence that these two things sort of happened at the same time. I think the nation is having this existential crisis and trying to figure out who we are and what our values are, but also what we will stand for and what we really won’t tolerate anymore. And I think that people are feeling that both in a big cultural way, but also in a very personal way. I’m sure [for] you, even as a writer, the last two years have probably been insane. Am I wrong?

The nation is having this existential crisis and trying to figure out… what we will stand for and what we really won’t tolerate anymore. Amber Tamblyn

[laughs] No, you are not.

So you know what I’m saying? Every decade or so, there is this condensed momentum. And I think we’re in one of those big ones right now. I’m not sure that without that [momentum], my own [personal] revelations would have been able to ― not just come to light ― but for me to really be able to act on them and to say, here are the things I’m going to change. Here are the things that matter to me. This is how I want to live my life. I don’t want a limit based on how people have always perceived me. I want to live it based on my own value and my own power.

I was reading Rebecca Traister’s book Good and Mad when it came out last year, and it was so inspirational because Era of Ignition was almost done. And I was like, this is so great because it’s an informational tool about the history, current and past of women’s anger. But what do we do with the anger? What do we do with with those feelings? And what has been happening in the last two years is exactly what we do with it. And that is the ignition.

You write in the book about your experience of being at the Javits Center [in New York] with the Hillary Clinton campaign on election night in 2016, being in D.C. on Inauguration Day ―

Oh, the worst!

― and for the Women’s March. I was struck by that section because I was also at Javits, and you and I were actually together on Inauguration Day. You were on a panel that I moderated.

Oh my God, how did we get through that?

Kevin Mazur via Getty Images Amber Tamblyn, left, with Amy Schumer and others at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington.

I was glad to have a distraction that day. But I know that those moments had a profound impact on me. And I’m wondering if living through those very intense days impacted your personal journey.

I know [people might] be like, “Get over it, the election was two years ago.” But I can’t. When I look at it, I think a lot of the inspiration for the rage that we feel, whether you loved [Clinton] or not, whether you thought she was an awful person or not, it cannot be denied. The negative mythologizing of Hillary Clinton as this monstrous creature, as a war criminal, as somebody that was just bordering on some sci-fi novel, it played into women’s rage and into, I think, why so many women are running [for president] and why so many women also ran for Congress and won.

Every woman, whether or not they were running for high office, has experienced what she went through, at their level, in their own personal life. And that is what made me feel like I was finished with asking for certain types of permission anymore, and finished with feeling secondary to the creative expansion of men in the entertainment business.

And I assume that was like a particularly acute feeling given that you were involved with the Clinton campaign, not just in 2016 but in 2008. It sounds like that was both a completely profound experience and also a really, really deeply painful one. Do you feel like you would throw yourself into a campaign in 2020?

I don’t know. I will say, I am very inspired and thrilled to see the unprecedented number of women who are running, and I believe that a woman will be the next president. I’m not going to do anything until the primaries [are over]. And I think one of the biggest things for me is to stay really positive and focus on the positive of all of the candidates, including Bernie Sanders. Because the most important thing to me right now is to get the current president out of the White House, period. And there are very good candidates who are running. There are people who have great policies, who are good people, who are not grabbing women by their genitalia, have not been accused by over two dozen women of sexual harassment and assault.

I think one of the biggest things for me is to stay really positive and focus on the positive of all of the [Democratic presidential] candidates, including Bernie Sanders.

In the book, you write about the moment you first heard the Trump “grab her by the pussy” tape, and how it drove you to post on Instagram about an incident of physical and sexual assault, where an ex had literally done that to you. What made you share that story publicly?

I think all women ― probably men too ― remember where they were when that news came out. I was pregnant. I was like, “My daughter could grow up to be a woman that someone does that to, and then [he] becomes the president of the United States.” [I felt the] same thing with [the confirmation of Judge Brett] Kavanaugh, when I was seeing Christine Blasey Ford. My daughter could grow up to be Christine Blasey Ford. That’s what our daughters get to look forward to. That fear. And that’s what mothers get to look forward to. That fear for their daughters.

And it was debilitating in the moment. It crushed me. And the memories flooded in very quickly. Not everybody is able to jump out of that and go, “That’s not OK.” And then you laugh them off, you just put them away. You tell yourself other versions of the stories to make it better so that you don’t have to deal with the emotional ramifications of it. There are a lot of ways in which we cope and protect ourselves, which is a natural human instinct. But for me, that [post] almost just felt like as an involuntary reflex, like a muscle just spasmed. Like, “Here’s a literal version of the time this happened to me.”

I want to talk a little bit about the moment that you first read that first New York Times piece about Harvey Weinstein.

I knew what was coming out. I knew a large amount of it. Not all of it. But I think it was just kind of surreal. But it did feel like this tidal wave that came through our small town. Hollywood and the entertainment business [are like] this small town. And after the devastation of the wave like that, you’re kind of looking around and being like, are there any survivors? And you’re just kind of waiting like, who’s going to say something? Who’s going to say something first?

You did tweet something in that moment.

Yeah. But the truth of the matter is, I’m not a big movie star. I didn’t have something to lose in a way that a lot of women really did if he had survived that article.

Something that I keep circling, given that it’s been a year and a half since this wave of Me Too kicked off, is what does restorative justice look like in these cases? Is it even possible? Does it matter? Men like Louis C.K. have already begun their “comeback” tours.

So this is always such an interesting question for me. My knee-jerk reaction [is]: “I don’t really care about their redemption right now.” To me, I’m much more interested in elevating the work and the material and the voices of people who are coming up and who are incredible and who haven’t pulled their dicks out in meetings. Awkwafina and Ali Wong and Ava DuVernay ― [who is] obviously a huge director, but she championed so many new directors that are coming up. That is where I like to put all of my energy.

What’s so frustrating about the redemption narrative is that if you want redemption, there has to be atonement. And I don’t think that these men are doing that. Their lives have been ripped from them. That’s really tough. I empathize. But there is always a path forward and to the greater good of the culture that you purport to love and care about. Especially as a comedian as brilliant as someone like Louis C.K. is. He could be actually learning and figuring out why all of this is an issue.

I’m much more interested in elevating the work and the material and the voices of people… who are incredible and who haven’t pulled their dicks out in meetings.

Before we wrap up, I’d love for you to touch a little bit on the role that race plays in this book, and in the early conversations about Time’s Up. I also found it notable that in a memoir, you included voices that weren’t your own in conversation with you.

It’s really important for white women to really not be afraid of our failures and to be open to being criticized. In the criticizing is where we will find clarity. I think it’s important to be able to own it, which is why I talk about that I’m not afraid to be called a white feminist, which I know is a term that makes white women’s skin crawl. But we have to have ownership [of] and also respect for our failures. It is OK to fuck up. It’s just not OK to not try.

To me, it was so important to put a literal dialogue in the book with [journalist] Meredith [Talusan]. And to really say, when you sit down and you talk, that’s often when you can understand someone else. And that’s often when you can hear ― and you should hear ― how you might’ve failed another person. Even the most woke-up humans have to accept the fact that we are not perfect and we fuck up and we often harm. And we can only get better if we own those parts of ourselves.

Penguin Randomhouse

The post Amber Tamblyn Is Done Asking Powerful Men For Permission appeared first on The Chestnut Post.

from The Chestnut Post https://thechestnutpost.com/news/amber-tamblyn-is-done-asking-powerful-men-for-permission/

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the-connection · 6 years ago

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders visited Wichita, Kansas, in support of congressional candidate James Thompson. Is the red state ready to turn blue?

In a dim corridor backstage, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders looked down at Kansas congressional hopeful James Thompsons denim jeans and black boots. Hey James, Sanders said without cracking a smile. Could I borrow your cowboy shoes?

Thompson took just a second to recover from the razzing.

I wear them because the shits so deep around here, he replied.

Through the thick cement walls of this downtown Wichita convention hall, we heard the roar of 4,000 Kansans awaiting speeches by Sanders, Thompson and progressive rocket ship Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in support of Thompsons run for Congress. It was Ocasio-Cortezs first political appearance outside New York after her remarkable primary win in June, when the 28-year-old democratic socialist defeated one of the most powerful House Democrats in Washington. Here in the midwest, Thompson who also has never held office has tapped into similar yearning for a representative who has more old friends at the local pub than in DC.

The choice of location for Ocasio-Cortezs debut outside New York is poetic: like Sanders, she and Thompson have refused corporate donations, and this district is home to perhaps the greatest conservative influencers in US history the Koch brothers, whose political network pledged to spend $400m on conservative candidates before the midterms.

Its one thing to push the Democratic party left in New York City. It is quite another to rabble-rouse for universal healthcare, wind energy and a livable wage in Charles Kochs backyard. Doing so takes, my friends in the north-east might say, hutzpah.

Or, as my Kansas farmer grandpa might have said: That Jim is full of piss and vinegar.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laughs backstage with congressional candidate James Thompson. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

No congressional candidate has ever done what Thompson is doing in this era of unrestricted corporate campaign donations: hold a progressive sword at the precise geographic heart of the dark-money beast. When I asked whether anyone has, say, tried to break his kneecaps, Thompson let out a big laugh.

Id like to see them try, he said. Thats one good thing about being 6ft 2.

Such humor joking in a manner that polite society might view as unseemly is the necessary roughness that millions of Americans develop to survive on job sites, in barrooms, in their own homes while the air conditioning window unit drips water on to the carpet.

It only makes sense that a progressive movement unifying the working class across lines of race, gender, age, religion and location would contain candidates like Thompson, who is both a civil rights attorney who represented detained immigrants and victims of police brutality and a former bouncer at a Wichita country-western nightclub called InCahoots.

Fight for America

A hard story often comes with hard language. During a period of homelessness, Thompson bathed, washed clothes and fished for food in a canal. He fought for emancipation from an abusive parent and attended 16 schools before finishing high school. This is a not a man who, in the face of rising authoritarianism, will be civil to please pearl-clutching political leaders on either side of the aisle.

This is precisely his appeal in southern Kansas. Thompson might be a new star for coastal reporters. But his combination of progressive ideas and unapologetically impolite language has been gaining supporters and even converting some Trump voters for a year and a half without the national Democratic party lifting a finger.

In contrast to a version of liberal America often criticized as, well, a bunch of wimps, his campaign slogan is Fight for America.

Attendees watch a short promotional video at Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center in Wichita. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

Thompson told me he was first encouraged to run for office by Republican friends who felt out of sync with a party morphing into an insanely right caricature. A pro-choice, gun-owning military veteran who supports legal weed and social security expansion, Thompson can kick dirt with farmers at rural events, walk in Wichitas recent pride and Juneteenth parades, and post a photo of himself smiling with two guys wearing bearded deplorable shirts after a long conversation about the issues.

He nearly won a special election last year. Now Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders who won the Kansas Democratic caucus for the 2016 presidential nomination two-to-one are here to make sure he gets it done in the midterms, thus flipping this district blue for the first time in 26 years.

The eager crowd, which outgrew its original venue and was relocated at the last minute to accommodate thousands more, is mostly midwesterners who loathe Trump and were long ago written off as a waste of resources by the national Democratic party. Recently governed by extreme conservative Sam Brownback for eight years, they were resisting long before it was a national movement.

In contrast to red-hatted rallies that in 2016 got far more political coverage, they are both pissed off and peaceful, both riled up for change and diverse in racial makeup.

Thompson knows that, while the progress his would-be constituents seek is toward a serene, humane society, the fire in their bellies must now be summoned.

I had to fight all the time. Literally and figuratively, Thompson will tell them from the stage, as he asks them to fight now alongside him. Thats just part of growing up in poverty. When I see people struggling and I talk about it, Im not talking about it from up on a hill somewhere.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has faced different uphill battles, carries herself with the same self-possession. She taunted on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert that the current president doesnt know how to deal with a girl from the Bronx. She and Thompson evoke the unflagging spirit of California representative Maxine Waters, who received death threats for unapologetic criticism of the corrupt Washington regime and responded: You better shoot straight.

This scrappy attitude is not the empty bluster of a fearful ego with an orange combover seeking to preserve itself. It is a knowing of ones own strength, fortified by the mortal dangers of poverty, labor, misogyny, white supremacy.

It is the Statue of Liberty looking a bully in the eye in a barroom and saying to someone standing behind her: Hold my torch.

Presence is such a basic thing to ask for

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands for the national anthem backstage. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

To back up their talk, Ocasio-Cortez and Thompson quite literally walk the walk.

The day after the Wichita event, Ocasio-Cortez told me by phone from Missouri, where she was campaigning for congressional candidate and fellow progressive Cori Bush, that physical presence both builds support and dissolves the political polarities on which so many pundits feed.

When someone actually knocks on your door or goes to your civic association meeting and you actually touch their hand, it really does change everything, said Ocasio-Cortez, who recently tweeted a photo of the shoes she wore door-to-door, holes worn through the soles, with the comment: Respect the hustle.

There are places in the Bronx and neighborhoods in Queens that look like neighborhoods in Wichita. I walked in thinking I was in for a world of hurt, she told me. There is this impulse to just abandon it. To just say, you know what, forget it its a lost cause. Its just gonna be difficult or hurtful or dangerous. But I decided to go in anyway.

What she got for her leap of faith was one of the greatest political upsets in modern history and an appreciation for the extent to which working-class voters have felt forgotten.

Her 48-hour tour of Wichita, Kansas City, Kansas, and St Louis, Missouri, confirmed this theory, recalling fellow community organizer Barack Obamas musings about his well-received travels through the rural midwest as a black liberal.

The thing that I hear over and over and over again is Thank you for coming here. Thank you for coming, she said, her tone implying incredulousness that, besides Sanders, other Democrats with national platforms hadnt deigned to visit. Presence is such a basic thing to ask for.

Sanders told me by phone from Washington, a few days after his Kansas stop, that a 50-state strategy is common sense.

It is beyond comprehension, the degree to which the Democratic party nationally has essentially abdicated half of the states in this country to rightwing Republicans, including some of the poorest states in America, those in the south, Sanders said. The reason I go to Kansas and many so-called red states is that I will do everything that I can to bring new people into the political process in states which are today conservative. I do not know how you turn those states around unless you go there and get people excited.

Bernie Sanders reviews his notes backstage before speaking at the event. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

For many in the crowd, his visit was validation of months of hard work that takes particular gumption in a place described by so many headlines as Trump country.

Since launching his first run for the seat in early 2017, Thompson says, he and his campaign have knocked on 40,000 doors and made 330,000 phone calls. Including phone bankers across the country, the effort has included 7,000 volunteers.

That hustle has already knocked 25 points off the Republican partys lead from 31 points when the current secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, won in 2014 to just six points in last years special election won by Representative Ron Estes. Before the rally with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Thompson reflected on the difference between his approach and that of opponent Estes when hes back from Washington.

[He] is either in a vehicle waving or walking down the center of the street waving, Thompson said. He had 400 individual donations in the special election. We had 29,000. As long as hes got his 400 people that are willing to donate money, and the big corporate Pacs giving money, he doesnt need to dirty his hands shaking hands with people.

On social media, Thompson has been challenging Estes to debate him in each of the districts 17 counties show up or shut up with no response. While under a very different context, its not so unlike when New York representative Joe Crowley kept failing to appear at primary debates against Ocasio-Cortez.

Thinking that you can get a job without showing up for the job interview just is wild to me, Thompson said.

This is the great irony of conservative criticism of progressive candidates. Candidates such as Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Thompson are accused of seeking handouts for lazy moochers, while evidence suggests they are the hardest workers in the fight.

I would prefer to sit down and talk. But if you wanna be an ass, all right

When Ocasio-Cortez was in fifth grade, her tough teacher in the New York City public schools was a Kansas native with a fierce love for her home state. Young Ocasio-Cortez was nervous, she told the Wichita audience, when the teacher organized a state history project and assigned her Kansas.

After reading a lot about wheat, as a 10-year-old, Ocasio-Cortez said to laughs, I learned that Kansas was founded in a struggle over the conscience of this nation.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reviews her notes backstage. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

She referenced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which charged the Kansas territory with deciding whether they would allow slavery. Abolitionists fought bloody border wars with neighboring, slave-holding Missouri sparking the civil war and Kansas was established as a free state.

That is the crucible and the soul of this state, Ocasio-Cortez said, articulating what many Kansans know but rarely see reflected in modern politics, national discussion, or the electoral college that obscures their votes.

Like Sanders and Thompson, she pointed out that persistent notions of Kansas as a deep red state didnt jibe with the large minority she was seeing on the ground. While the Wichita crowd thundered after one of Sanders remarks on stage, Ocasio-Cortez peeked out from behind the curtain with her cellphone. She tweeted the video, adding: The midwest feels pretty all right to me!

Meanwhile, leaders in the Democratic party from the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, to former senator Joe Lieberman have been critical of this excitement, saying it wont play in middle America or that moving left harms the party.

If a centrist model is what works [in Kansas] then why has that centrist model not won the past 20 years, and in fact lost by 20-30 points in every election since [1992]? Thompson asked me. The idea that we need to be more like Republicans so we can beat Republicans is asinine. We need to have a clear choice. Something to vote for instead of against.

One such thing would be Medicare for all, he said, which he acknowledged isnt feasible under the current legislature but has pledged to work toward. When describing public healthcare or other programs that have been defunded or privatized into oblivion, he put it in language working-class voters might appreciate.

Its like taking a car, taking the battery out and going, Oh, see, it doesnt run any more. So we need to get rid of it, Thompson said. Put the battery back in.

He laughed when I noted there are a lot of lawmakers who would never think of a car battery as an analogy because theyve never had to change one. Thompson explained that law school taught him to avoid legalese when addressing a jury.

[Voters] want to hear me talking about real solutions in plain language that is not mealy-mouthed and trying to play both sides of the fence, said Thompson, who walked onstage to Garth Brookss 1990 country hit Friends in Low Places. Regardless of whether they agree or not, theyre going to respect that a lot more.

Must be doing something right if Fox is talking about me

Thompson told me that he learned in the military both to be willing to have conversations with people who have different perspectives and to draw a line in the sand when someone doesnt share your openness.

You offer em a choice, Thompson said. I would prefer to sit down and talk. But if you wanna be an ass, all right.

While he does not identify as a democratic socialist like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Thompson is perceived at the national level as a party rebel for his stances on the minimum wage, healthcare and other basic assurances that all three candidates insist will summon voters regardless of location in midterm primaries and elections this year.

Theyre not radical ideas theyre commonsense ideas, Thompson told the crowd at the convention hall. They laughed when he added, Thats why we see a crowd of thousands here today when there was a MAGA rally four days ago that had 50 people at it.

But Thompson got some of the events wildest cheers when he spoke about the supposedly more divisive matters of womens reproductive rights he is a staunch defender of Roe v Wade and drug laws.

When people talk about raising money for our state? Heres an idea: legalize marijuana, he said, and the crowd exploded.

Congressional candidate James Thompson, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wave at the end of the campaign event. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

At another point, he called out false narratives about his home that might cause some to be surprised by the massive gathering at noon on a weekday, months before the election in a midterm year: When people wanna say this is Trump country, I say hell no.

Video of this statement made it on to his least favorite cable television network, later prompting Thompson to tweet with several laugh-cry emojis: Must be doing something right if Fox is talking about me and causing alt-right heads to explode.

Its a herculean undertaking to fight the forces that work against Thompsons campaign: Fox News, the Koch brothers, his own Democratic party. Where Im from, theres only one thing that might hold more sway than they do: straight talk and an authentic handshake.

Solidarity from Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and other candidates and activists across the country fortifies the progressive Kansans doing the talking and shaking.

If James wins here, Sanders said onstage, this will be not only another progressive member to the Congress. This will be a shot heard around not just this country the world.

All three candidates challenged the crowd to channel the energy of the moment into the civic action that might decide election outcomes.

Im just a figurehead, Thompson said. You are the way that we flip this district. You are the ones that can make the changes that you want. You are the ones that have the power in this country. Its not with the Koch brothers. Its not with the big corporations. Its with you.

The crowd cheered so loudly that a woman behind me plugged her ears with her fingers.

Ron Estes, I hope you look at this crowd and are shakin in your boots, Thompson said. Because were coming for you.

This article was amended on 26 July 2018 to correct the year the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed to 1854, from 1861 as an earlier version said.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

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amylanchester · 8 years ago

Text

PitchWars #PimpMyBio

Hi, I’m Amy.

This is my first ever PitchWars, and I’m hyped af.

About My Manuscript

Title: More Fierce Than Fire (title comes from here)

Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy

Word Count: 75,000

Comps: The Young Elites by Marie Lu, The Story of Owen by E. K. Johnston

Sixteen-year-old Abigail Hunter, the best healer in Grady Hospital’s Magical Trauma Ward, has a secret. Ten years ago, Abby wished her mother dead on the worst possible day—the day dragons awoke and brought magical powers to everyone in the world. Abby's angry wish became the powerful spell that ended her mother's life.

Abby has devoted her life to healing magic to atone for the sins of her past. Though she’s still afraid of losing control, she has become increasingly aware of the threat the dragons pose and frustrated that she is helpless to do anything about it. Hoping to develop the skills required to protect others, she joins a new United Nations-sponsored program which promises to give her the chance to work directly with the dragons and their victims. Training with some of the best young mages in the world, she prepares for the war to come.

And the war is coming. When a group of unregistered mages leads the dragons in a deadly attack on American cities, Abby must decide if she’s ready to join the fight against them, or if she’ll be stuck reliving the mistakes of her past forever.

A Note About Diversity

Diversity is extremely important to me in my writing. Most of the characters in my book other than my MC are POC and/or LGBTQ. I did not feel that I had the skill or experience to write a first-person perspective for a POC/LGBTQ character, so I didn’t. However, I have been fortunate to grow up in an extremely diverse place, so I’ve included a number of POC/LGBTQ characters (loosely) based on real people. I feel that authentic, thoughtful representation is important in all forms of media and am hoping to find a mentor who feels the same.

MS Pinterest Board

Novel Aesthetic (Quotes & More on My Instagram)

About Me

Let’s start this the way you did back in pre-school. My name is Amy Lanchester, and I’m twenty-eight years old. My favorite color is pink (and has been since long before millennial pink became a thing #ILikedItBeforeItWasCool). More Fierce Than Fire is my first novel.

I’m “from Atlanta” in the way that most people who say they are “from Atlanta” are “from Atlanta,” in that I actually grew up about thirty minutes away and only moved to the city as an adult. I set my book here because I feel that entirely too many books are set in NYC, London, or Chicago.

I’ve been funemployed for the past year.

I started my first “real job” before I’d even finished my master’s degree, and after working there for three years, I decided I wanted to do a few things before I’m too old/settled. So I’ve traveled Europe:

ALL

OVER

EUROPE

and the western United States:

ALL

OVER

THE

WILD

WEST

and I finally achieved a life goal in writing this book. I highly recommend taking a “gap year” to anyone who is able.

I live with my boyfriend and our beautiful asshole of a cat, Bret. We found him about two years ago at a local McDonald’s hanging out near the drive-thru. We went back the next day and lured him out with bits of hamburger, and he’s been our lovable jerk of a pet ever since.

Why You Should Mentor Me

- I am really, really serious about this. I’ve devoted an insane amount of time, energy, and research on this project in the past year and fully intend to see it through all the way. I love and believe in my work.

- I am crazy meticulous. I come from a STEM background, and I use the tools I learned there in my work. I’m a firm believer in spreadsheets, outlines, automation, and using technology to the fullest. I am a grammar nut who googles everything she isn’t sure about and spends hours nerding out reading style guides and grammar blogs.

- I take criticism well. I’m a fairly self-critical person who is realistic about her flaws and shortcomings. Though I love my work, I know it is far from perfect, and I am greatly looking forward to receiving a thoughtful critique. You won’t hurt my feelings. I want my work to be the best it can be, and I know that takes knowledge and experience I don’t have.

Writing History

I had the idea for my MS in May 2016. It was inspired by this tumblr post which made its way to reddit (a site I love and hate and spend entirely too much time on):

I decided I could write that book, and so I did. I wrote a prologue that I cut and part of the first chapter on a train from Warsaw to Berlin in September. I made an outline when I got back home in October, and I wrote the rest of the book during NaNoWriMo 2016. I did finish my 50,000 words in November, but the book wasn’t done. I had a completed (terrible) first draft of about 55,000 words by the first week of December.

My first draft was mostly just dialogue and action. I discovered that I hate writing description as much as I hate reading it. So my next several drafts mostly involved adding description to scenes, and it took forever. I cut several scenes and characters entirely during this process and added a few more scenes and characters, bringing my final word count to 75,000 words. My current draft contains very little from the original NaNoWriMo draft, and believe me, that’s for the best.

Writing Style

I am definitely a planner. I would have gotten nowhere without my outline or character spreadsheet. However, most of my character’s personalities came out through writing their dialogue. I used dialogue (that I went back and cut because it was boring and redundant) to solve plot problems and work out motivations in scenes. If I ever got stuck, I just started writing a conversation between my characters, and it solved basically all of my problems.

How I Write

I started writing in Scrivener, a program I’d gotten for free when I worked at the Apple Store back in 2010. It helped me a lot with organizing scenes and research. I transitioned to Google Docs after a save file got corrupted and I spent an evening panicking that I’d lost everything (I hadn’t, thank God). Google Docs sucks for long documents, but it saves to the cloud every few seconds, so I suffered through it.

I write at night almost exclusively. My best creative work comes after midnight, and usually once I’m already in bed.

I dread having to get back on a normal schedule because the night owl life is best for my writing.

Favorite Writing Resources

- Excel/Google Sheets

- Grammar Girl

- Chicago Manual of Style (I’m too poor to actually own this, but I use their FAQs and this hyphenation table all the time.)

- Hemingway Editor

- Grammarly

- ProWritingAid

Upcoming Projects Preview

I have so many ideas. I think of new project ideas every day, and I constantly struggle not to get distracted by my newest, shiniest concept. Here are a couple of things I’ve started planning:

- Shakespeare’s plays retold in a combined setting like into the Woods or Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles. A central, overarching series plot with individual volumes devoted to some of the plots of the original plays. I’ll be combining side characters from one show with main characters from another.

- A space opera/sci-fi series centered on a girl who rescues an alien from a hostile species at war with Earth’s space empires. The aliens have superior technology and are annihilating the space colonies, but we can’t communicate with them. My MC and her android nanny devise a method for rudimentary communication and are captured by government forces who have ulterior motives.

Stuff I Like

Books

- Harry Potter, obviously. Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite. I spent years convincing myself I was a Gryffindor like Hermione, my hero, but I’m really a Ravenclaw.

- The Young Elites by Marie Lu

- Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston

- A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

- 1984 by George Orwell

- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

TV Shows

I freaking love TV.

I’m convinced that if Ray Bradbury had lived in the Golden Age of Television that we’re living through, he would never have written Fahrenheit 451.

A short list of shows I love: Futurama, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Parks and Recreation, BoJack Horseman, Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Jessica Jones, Broadchurch, Steven Universe, Stranger Things, You’re the Worst, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Musicals

I love Broadway so much.

I’ve been in (school productions of) Once on This Island, Les Miserables, Into the Woods, and Dreamgirls. Other shows I love include Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, The Last Five Years, Aida, Phantom of the Opera, Evita, The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, and West Side Story.

Cosplay

I picked up cosplay a few years back. I didn’t own a sewing machine, didn’t know how to sew, and had limited crafting experience. I taught myself using books, online tutorials, and YouTube videos. Some of my projects:

Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones

Chell from Portal

Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter

Elsa from Frozen

Joy from Inside Out

Eleven from Stranger Things

That was entirely too long, and I’m sorry.

If you read this far, you’re probably my soulmate. Please send me a message on Twitter and let me know. :)

#pimpmybio #pitchwars #writers on tumblr

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