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whoreviewswho · 8 months ago

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Wokeness, Responsibility and if RTD is problematic - Introduction

Is Russell T Davies a problematic figure? Is he too woke or not aware enough? Is he doing something wrong to illicit negative responses from the progressives as well as the conservatives? Is it something in the programme, something in the marketing or is he doing nothing particularly bad at all? Well, perhaps you and I, faithful reader, can come to some sort of conclusion. Let's find out together as we take a dive into the controversial choices behind RTD2 and the mind of the man behind them.

There is an extremely telling moment in issue 599 of Doctor Who Magazine in their feature on The Giggle, specifically the climax. On page 18, the magazine printed some conversation between Benjamin Cook, Ncuti Gatwa and Russell T Davies (RTD) which you can read below;

"When you wished for it," Russell asks [Ncuti] now, "there wasn't a part of you thinking, but there's no point, it's not going to happen, because I'm black?" "Never," says Ncuti. "I love that," says Russell. "Because here I am, as a 59-year-old white man, assuming that would weigh heavily on your mind." "Yeah, no, completely," says Ncuti. "When it was announced and everyone was saying, 'He's the first black Doctor!' - that was insane. Slowly I was like, '... ohh." "Yes, it's hard to know what to do with that."

I find this to be a very revealing exchange and an invaluable insight into RTD's mind. RTD thinks. He thinks a lot. It is very clear not only that he thinks a lot and is very conscious of his decisions and responsibilities as a showrunner but also that he wants us to know that. And, you know what, perhaps he is a little too conscious. Perhaps RTD thinks too much.

But of course RTD thinks. He is a writer and a storyteller. He is, in fact, a very good storyteller and, in order to be so, one has to be continuing to engage with new art, meet new people and be connected to the world around them. This is not conjecture, this is how art works; it is a expression and representation of how the artist relates, reflects and responds to the world around them. RTD is a wickedly intelligent, queer man and you need look no further than his own work to see how passionate he has always been about depicting a diverse range of characters and stories that are firmly rooted in the political and social climate of his day. In fact, he explicitly said as much himself in a December 2023 interview for Rolling Stone;

"From my point of view, whatever I make on television, I try to embrace queerness and queer politics and that’s like breathing to me because that’s my world. That’s how I live.”

At the time I am writing (two months away from season one's debuting), RTD's second stint as show runner of Doctor Who, RTD2, as it has come to be known, has proven to be as divisive for longterm fans as his initial tenure, if not more so. No surprises there, of course, but what was unforeseen however, at least by me, was the vocal backlash from the progressive crowd.

Perhaps it shouldn't have been though. After all, we are talking about a sixty year old white cis man. As well researched and intentioned as he may be, the scope of his experiences will inevitably reach their limits regarding gender, sexuality and cultural backgrounds. Even ethically, to hold somebody of quite a different generation to the exact same standards as your own, a significantly younger or potentially older audience member, is a pretty dubious and flawed thing to put into practice.

Still, backlash from the progressives might also have been foreseen if we took more than half a glance at his original time on the show. The quality and impact of representation in 2000s Doctor Who was certainly varied, and something worth discussing in more depth in some other entry. That does not make it any less significant that it was Russell who spearheaded the first openly queer companion, its first black supporting character and then first black companion as well as the oldest leading lady to date. And these things were not simply acts of ticking boxes. Jack Harkness, Mickey Smith, Martha Jones and Donna Noble were strong, fully-realised characters who were regularly recurring across almost five years of television. One of them even led a TV show of his own for half a decade. Combine that with more than a handful of overtly political storylines across the episodes that he produced and you have a revived Doctor Who that is quickly established as one of the most progressive television programmes of its kind in the 2000s.

But mistakes were made, particularly regarding racial background. YouTuber Princess Weekes has made a particularly articulate video outlining RTD's pitfalls in representing black communities in Doctor Who a couple of months ago and I strongly encourage you to go and check that out. This article is not about the 2000s though. This is about the present day and the world surrounding RTD as he re-entered the role of showrunner in 2021. So, in order to contextualise that, let us tackle that frustratingly large elephant in the room; let's briefly discuss how Doctor Who became too woke.

This will be a very short discussion because, of course, this didn't happen. Yet, somehow, this narrative, that Doctor Who has become more occupied with pushing its progressive political agendas than telling compelling stories, is a bizarre claim that has been looming over the series for far too long now. It is a line of thinking that I first remember hearing around 2016 with the announcement of Bill Potts as the first openly lesbian companion. Y'know, because having an openly lesbian character must surely mean the Moff was out of ideas. But it really seemed to become a thorn in the fandom's side in the year following when Jodie Whittaker's casting was revealed. Together with Chris Chibnall's casting of two people-of-colour in his main cast and hiring the most diverse writers the show has ever seen to tell stories that reflect their varied life experiences and backgrounds CLEARLY indicated the show was on a downward spiral. The writing was on the wall*.

Okay, so, let's break this down for a second because obviously Doctor Who of the past seven years has not been too woke. But, even if that were the case, what does that even mean? Well, let's be blunt here, this is a form of cultural appropriation. The usage of 'woke' as a slang term for being attentive to social issues originated in African American Vernacular English. As Marriam-Webster defines it;

"In [African-American Vernacular English], awake is often rendered as woke, as in, 'I was sleeping, but now I’m woke'".

In the mid-2010s, "stay woke" became a watch word in the black community eventually becoming entwined in the BLM movement. The term has since been co-opted by conservatives, in another harmful display of white aggression, as an insulting short-hand for people and works that challenge their comfortably ignorant view of the world in really any way at all.

TLDR; to level the accusation of a television programme being "too aware of social and political injustices", especially a show with as long a history in of engaging with those sorts of ideas as Doctor Who, as if it were some kind of negative is one of the most laughable criticisms that the show has ever seen.

It is actually even more laughable when you consider that one could take less than half a glance at Chibnall's version of the show and realise that it was, in fact, doing remarkably little actual engagement with contemporary social and political issues at all. Hell, 10.96 million people tuned into the first episode of his run to learn that for themselves. But this article is not about Chris Chibnall either. This is about Russell T Davies. The man who walked into the office while Chris Chibnall was still in the job and was revealed as such before Chibnall's final season, the Flux storyline, had even gone to air. As nasty a move this was from BBC, seemingly attempting to sabotage their own show, they knew how big of a deal this was. This is Russell T Davies ! The OG showrunner !! The guy who turned a dead cult TV show into an enormous national, and eventual, international franchise !!! This will be 2008, all over again !!!! RTD was going to save Doctor Who !!!!! Praise be to Russell T !!!!!!

Of course, this did not happen.

It was a pretty dumb call from the conservative crowd to claim RTD was going to swoop in and be their champion. There was truly no reason at all to suspect that he would come back to Doctor Who and not bring his established brand of mindful, inclusive and socially charged writing to the programme. After all, in the years since writing regularly for Doctor Who, Davies produced works like Years and Years and It's a Sin, two incredibly thoughtful though quite different series, the former being a speculative work of science-fiction envisioning the next fifteen years of human history through the eyes of a single family and the latter an intimate and tragic retrospective on the UK AIDS crisis. For a certain crowd of people, this was actually the most appealing aspect of RTD's return. The man was going off the heels of some of his most acclaimed work of all-time, works that spoke to harsh realities of the world we live in and told compelling stories of any number of diverse characters. And, for some people, this was somehow a red flag.

There are longtime fans of a certain generation who have been vocal of RTD's flaws as a social-justice champion from day one. Diamanda Hagan is one such person who comes to mind. I have a great deal of respect for her and her opinions which are often much more articulate and interesting to engage with than my own. If you are unfamiliar, I encourage you seek her out. For the purposes of this article, there are two recent(ish) tweets of hers that I will be citing and the first is as follows;

"[In reference to the polarised reception to The Church on Ruby Road] I continue to be amused by people watching RTD being RTD, now disliking it and thinking that RTD or his work is the one that changed." - December 26, 2023

I would like to use this quote to springboard into a more in-depth discussion of RTD's choices onscreen (strap in, everybody 'cause this'll be more than one post) but, before I do, allow me to note that I find myself only half-agreeing with Hagan's assertion here. Onscreen, Davies' work is distinctly his own. His style has evolved, certainly, insofar as his language and the presentation but the overall package, the flavour and spirit of RTD Who, is much the same as it was from 2005-2010.

But I would insist that something has changed and that something is what Davies is saying behind the scenes and in promo material because, and this is a crucial point, regardless of how 'woke' RTD2 actually is, and we will get into it, he certainly wants you to think that it is. I do not think that this is an out of arrogance or some kind of saviour complex. I don't believe that RTD is sitting at home rubbing his hands and thinking 'hehehe look how progressive everybody thinks I am". No, I think that Russell is drawing attention to how progressive the show is in the media because he genuinely believes in making socially conscious choices and their impact and consequences. He wants audiences to be talking about disability and race and queerness and class and acceptance and bigotry. RTD is asking us to talk about the topics highlighted in his productions.

So, let's do that then....

To be continued in part one; The Regeneration Question and Davros with Legs

*The fact that Chris Chibnall's version of Doctor Who was ultimately lacking in compelling storytelling for most audiences is extremely unfortunate but obviously unrelated to his diverse cast and crew.

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ratingtheframe · 4 years ago

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Films you need to watch if you want to fit in at film school.

By now, you’re probably knee deep in your filmmaking course at film school or university and if you want to keep up with the film discussions in between classes, then here’s a list of exemplary films to watch (and flex on) whilst at school.

It’s never a fun moment when you’re sat in a group of other film buffs and everyone but you have seen one particular film. Not only that, but they continue to bang on about it, and in those 12 minutes you’re left wishing gosh, I wish I had watched that now.

I know the feeling and to make sure you don’t get caught out again, this list of films not only covers your filmmaker wannabe basics, but also a few swarve anomalies that you can throw into the discussion like a true culture vulture.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

I shouldn’t be saying this but if you haven’t seen Pulp Fiction and you made it to film school, just leave. Hand in your student ID at reception and walk out the door, watch Pulp Fiction and come back to the next day. If you haven’t seen the 90s cult classic directed by Quentin Tarantino, it’s likely you’ve had at least one person disgusted by your lack of engagement for the film. But why is it such a necessity amongst the filmmakers of today? Well after a highly successful debut of Reservoir Dogs at Cannes Films Festival in 1992, Tarantino created another world of filmmaking. What he brought to the industry was a perspective and whole landscape that had never been seen before and the release of Pulp Fiction in 1994, certainly proved that Tarantino wasn’t a one trick pony. With a stellar cast, most of which were in their early days, and an outstanding storyline, Pulp Fiction is any filmmaker's paradise. And seriously, you can’t keep avoiding it.

Fight Club (1999)

Keeping it in the 90s, is David Fincher’s Fight Club, another revolutionary film from the king of psychological thrillers. If the name David Fincher doesn’t mean anything to you, it probably should, seeing as his films have grossed over $2.1 billion at the box office globally and earnt him 30 Academy Award nominations. Story, script and cast align perfectly in all of Fincher’s films, with Fight Club being no exception. Based on the 1996 novel by Chuck Palahnuik, Fight Club follows two men (Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, enough said) who initiate in an organised fight club. Sounds pretty straight forward until you get to the end and realise Fincher has been messing with all of us the entire time. In terms of early filmmaking and story structure, Fight Club is an excellent cult classic to sink your teeth into.

Psycho (1960)

Another name to be aware of, Alfred Hitchcock laid down the foundation for thrillers for generations to come. For it’s time, Psycho was revolutionary as it broke the strict censorship and threat barriers created in the world of filmmaking in the 60s. There are some iconic scenes in Psycho, along with an unnerving score and a whopping $39.2 million profit in the box office. Hitchcock also took a gamble killing off the star of the film, Janet Leigh, 45 minutes into the film. However, Psycho just goes to show that risks can also pay off.

La Haine (1995) “The Hate”

There’s a reason why some of the most revolutionary films can be found in the 90s. The 90s was the year of filmmaking that gave two fingers to the world and most of its stories belonged to the misfits and outcasts of society. Films were violent, punchy and led by young protagonists, raking in teenage audiences and voices. La Haine is a prime and clear cut example of the injustice between races and class in Paris, winning a Best Director award at Cannes in 1995. The film was so thought provoking and hard hitting, that the Prime Minister of France at the time forced his cabinet ministers to watch it. I’m sorry, if La Haine is good enough for the Prime Minister of France, it’s good enough for anyone.

Any Bong Joon Ho Film

With the success of Parasite still looming over Hollywood, Bong Joon Ho has to be the industry’s biggest underdog. Before the 2020 Oscars, most weren’t even aware of the director’s work or how gratifying he is as a storyteller. Each film is meticulously executed, with a hard hitting political message sewn beneath the surface of the overall film. Bong Joon Ho was quoted saying that this technique isn’t intentional and the breadth of the films he makes is found once they’re completed. From Okja that explores animal cruelty to Snowpiercer which explores class division, Bong Joon Ho has a way with imbedding societal issues into his films in a stylstic and structured way that should have any filmmaker filled with envy. He’s a strong voice for Asian cinema who’s had a sharp impact on western cinema without feeling the need to have all his films in the english language.

The 400 Blows (1960) “Les Quatre Cents Coups”

Whether you’re at school, in a lecture or amongst friends GUARANTEED the 400 Blows is going to worm its way into conversation at some point. The film was part of The French New Wave movement of the last 50s that created the foundation for French Cinema for films to come. The French New Wave was a significant movement that sought out to reject traditional ways of filmmaking and introduced new, more experimental ways of telling stories on screen. Francois Truffat won Best Director at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival for his directorial debut about a young boy struggling through Paris between his teachers at school and parents at home. The film shone a light on the misunderstood youth of the late 50s and early 60s, setting off a whole co-ord of films within the same genre later on.

Moonlight (2016)

Barry Jenkins became the underdog of 2017, with his beautiful and captivating story Moonlight, following a young boy through early adolescence and adulthood. The film is impeccably shot with rich colours and seamless shots. Moonlight won big time at the 2017 Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay. The film certainly set the world of filmmaking on fire and carved out space for more black filmmakers to enter into the industry.

Hereditary (2018)

It’s easy to forget that this film was released 2 years ago as it has had some groundbreaking reception since then. Hereditary, directed by Ari Aster, sets a bar and tone within horror films that has never been touched on before. Before him, your average horrors came from low budget gimmicky films where the lead actress would be running around in her underwear by the end of the film. Hereditary keeps everyone in their clothes (for the most part) and viewers on the edge of their seats for the entirety of the film. What stands at the forefront of this film is the slow pace and artistically beautiful frames that Ari Aster has meticulously curated to create a work of art. It’s everything you wanted in a horror film but could never really ask for, due to the over saturation of the horror films on the market and predictable jump scares that come with them. I found that the jump scares in Hereditary were put in the most unpredictable places, leaving me and most people visibly shaken and disturbed.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Probably the first PG film on this list, Wes Anderson’s most iconic film The Grand Budapest Hotel, is a production designer’s paradise. Not only that, it features an insanely good cast with the likes of Jeff Goldblum, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law and Edward Norton starring in the film. Wes Anderson’s mind is like a fairy tale book; he has the ability to create other worlds filled with bright colours and characters that EVERY ACTOR are dying to be. The Grand Budapest is probably Anderson’s most ambitious film to date and features some production design techniques that are beyond real.

Amélie (2001)

Amélie is your basic starter pack in French Cinema. Seeing as every charity shop has at least one copy of Amélie for sale, you have zero excuse for not having seen it yet. Even if French Cinema isn’t your thing, it’s very likely the entirety of French Cinema will be a topic of interest within your filmmaking course and Amélie is a fine place to start. The film ties the story, soundtrack and visuals perfectly and for any indie filmmaker, it’s a good example of taking a simple story but executing it in a complex way. In terms of box office, Amélie scored pretty well, with a humble budget of $10 million and making over $173 million globally. It was also nominated for five Academy Awards in 2002 and remains as one of the best and most iconic films to come out of France.

Good Time (2017)

With a humble budget of $2 million, Good Time made double in the box office and had a Hollywood star at its forefront. In fact Good Time skyrocketed Robert Pattinson’s career and since it’s release, Pattinson has gone on to be part of some amazing projects. Seeing Pattinson in such a gritty role in Good Time, was highly refreshing and totally suited him in every way. New York based filmmakers, Josh and Benny Safdie co directed and wrote the crime thriller after having an impressive response from their previous film, Heaven Knows What. They recently completed Uncut Gems for Netflix starring Adam Sandler, which continued the crime thriller neon lights aesthetic that's come with their two previous films. Good Time is jaw droppingly good, and for those wanting to go into lighting, it is a must watch. The deeper the story goes, the more you feel the urge to gasp as Robert Pattinson feeds us with an unrecognisable performance.

8 ½ (1963)

We are getting into sophisticated territory here with Fredrico Fellini’s 8 ½ . For those Scorsese and Tarantino fans out there, Fellini is your filmmaking bread and butter as both filmmakers have admitted to being heavily inspired by the Italian’s cinematic masterpieces. Fellini had the ability to tie reality with fantasy in a personal way, depicting a lot of his own life within his films. 8 ½ is no expectation, as it details the making of the actual film in the film and the rocky relationship he had with his wife, who starred in a few of his films. Fellini is named as one of the best filmmakers of all time, for his experimental style and off the wall filmmaking techniques. No one can or could do what Fellini did and there’s yet to be anyone who measures up to him.

Get Out (2017)

You like Get Out, I like Get Out, we ALL like Get Out. The film was the first of its kind in many ways and resonated with an audience that hadn’t yet been found. Jordan Peele wrote and directed the film, which grossed 100 times more than the film’s budget at the box office. This film is the epitome of less is more, taking a somewhat simple idea and heightening the possibilities of it. Jordan Peele became world renowned for it, along with British actor Daniel Kaluuya for his performance that earned him a Best Actor nomination at the 2018 Academy Awards. Get Out stands as a film that did what no one else has done before and for that, it deserves all the praise it gets.

All Celine Sciamma films

It’s likely the first time you heard of French filmmaker Celine Sciamma was from her groundbreaking, break through film Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Premiering at Cannes 2019, the film earned the Queer Palm d’Or and Best Screenplay Award. The film is simple, gorgeously shot and significantly deep in its telling. Not only will Portrait of a Lady on fire set you on fire, but all of Sciamma’s films sit on a level of filmmaking that is praise worthy. Her past films, Waterlilies and Girlhood explore coming of age stories amongst women and are executed in a highly personal and understanding way. She is the queen of female indie filmmakers and certainly one of the best french filmmakers in the industry to date.

I, Daniel Blake (2016)

It can be hard to remove the gimmicks and big names from the stories being sold on screen and get straight to the heart of a film. Ken Loach has brought an incomparable style of filmmaking to the table that sets him apart from almost every filmmaker out there. It's easy to compare a Tarantino film to a David Fincher one, however, throw Ken Loach into the mix there's just about zero relation to either filmmaker or their styles. I, Daniel Blake won Outstanding British Film of the Year in 2017 BAFTAs and the Palm d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. It’s no wonder why the Cannes Film Festival ate this film up seeing as the realism and grittiness of I, Daniel Blake gave a voice to a large part of society that is heavily ignored. This film leaves you nodding in agreement at the reality of the way things are even if that reality is incredibly hard to bear.

The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)

For those budding screenwriters out there, the work of Noah Baumbach is necessary in understanding three dimensional characters and the dialogue that comes with them. The Meyerowitz Stories stands from Baumbach’s other films, seeing as the screenplay and actual film are completely the same. On reading the screenplay of this film, I found not one single word of dialogue was forgotten about or changed, which is a pretty incredible achievement for any filmmaker. It certainly showed the actors (Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Emma Thompson, Adam Driver) had a lot of respect for the words on the page and each one of their performances sought to lift them off it. Baumbach’s writing style is beautifully accurate to real speech; there’s interruptions, over layered conversations and a great deal of tangents. The dialogue is like music and is only elevated by the well rounded cast.

The Master (2012)

Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has this hypnotic way of arresting his audiences to invest in his films for two and a half hours, then drop them at the last second. You don’t know why you’re watching or feel so absorbed in the worlds he creates, however it’s as if something over takes your attention, forcing you to carry on watching till the end. The Master is no different with a prolific cast and slow burnt pace to it. It's hard to explain what it is about this film that makes it so great. The cast made up of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Jesse Plemons bring a top level performance and it feels like they’re always sitting on a secret. Every moment, every word, every shot is unmissable and the entirety of the film sets a bar of filmmaking that is flawless. Paul Thomas Anderson is a master (pardon the pun) of arresting his audiences and is someone to follow if you wish to do the same with your own films. For budding cinematographers, all of PTA’s films are worth a watch.

12 years a slave (2013)

Probably the best film out there that depicts slavery, 12 years a slave is a heart wrenching and moving film directed by Steve McQueen. The sensitivity and authenticity Steve McQueen brings to his films is A class, as he does an outstanding job of really transporting his audiences to a time before. There are many scenes in 12 years a slave that can be considered some of the best ever made. The cast is in-sane with the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt and even a young Storm Reid and Kelvin Harrison Junior, all joined within this story. Films with such casts are rare and it’s unquestionable why the film was nominated for Nine Academy Awards, winning three back in 2014.

The Social Network (2010)

Even though I wasn’t a fan of The Social Network, I can still appreciate the musicality behind the work of Aaron Sorkin and the screenplay he wrote for this. The collaboration between David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin on this film is something the world certainly needed, as two highly skilled masters of film came together and served us a huge slice of their talent. The Social Network is 100% the screenwriter’s film, and one to watch when trying to analyse successful dialogue within films.

Babel (2006)

Those who are into the episodic film, you are advised to look into the work of Alejandro G. Iñárritu. A name you might not be too familiar with, but you only need to have seen Birdman or The Revenant to appreciate his talents as a director and unique voice. Babel struck me as a poignant and INCREDIBLY structured film, with a satisfying 360 to it, as all the stories connect to one another in a distinct way. It’s so clear that a lot of time was put into writing such a screenplay and the production itself is to be noted, for scenes are filmed in Morocco, Tokyo, California and Mexico. That takes a LOT of money, time, effort and people, however if was certainly worth it as Babel is hands down one of the best films you’ll ever see.

The films of Xavier Dolan.

Xavier Dolan is Cannes Film Festival’s godson. The man has attended every festival for the past 10 years and each time, when in competition, he brings a personal and hard hitting perspective within his films. I have seen all but one of these films, and I suggest you do too. Xavier Dolan’s directorial debut I Hate My Mother scooped him numerous awards at the Cannes Film Festival and was made when Dolan was only 20. From then, he went on to direct several french/canadian films that won him the Jury Prize, Un Certain Regard and Queer Palm at Cannes. He’s a filmmaker who puts so much passion and devotion into his work, which is seen through the incredible acting, story and dialogue shown within his films. Two must see films of his would be Mommy and Laurence Anyways, especially for the acting. Xavier Dolan also directed the music video for Adele’s Hello music video which is one of the most watched music videos of all time, with 2.7 Billion views on YouTube.

You Were Never Really Here (2017)

Lynne Ramsay’s 2017 film starring Joaquin Phoenix is everything and more that you want from a thriller. It’s probably one of the best thrillers out there on the market and is highly underrated. Lynne Ramsay’s previous spellbinding feature We Need To Talk About Kevin sent pulses racing through the industry, giving Ramsay the recognition she deserves and even earning her a Palm d’Or nomination at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. As a female filmmaker, Lynne Ramsay is one to watch for she has a knack at creating her own original slow burning, deep stories and directing them in a seamless way.

The films of Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan’s 11th film recently hit cinemas and no one knows what the hell is going on in it. However, there are plenty of other Christopher Nolan films that don’t melt your brain or send the guy next to you at the cinema cursing throughout the film in frustration at not understanding the film. The Dark Knight is said to have one the best performances in cinema history, with the late Heath Ledger taking on the role of the Joker. Not only that, but the likes of Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway and Christian Bale are also featured alongside Ledger, creating an untouchable cast. Dunkirk also deserves an honourable mention as one of Nolan’s films, seeing as I couldn’t breathe throughout the entire film. The second Dunkirk begins, the tension builds and you’re kept in a constant state of panic for the characters on screen. As far as war films go, Dunkirk is up there and it’s cinematic qualities were recognised at the 2018 Academy Awards, picking up three awards. What we can take from Christopher Nolan and his ability to execute stories on screen is that he spends a great deal on his screenplays before production. Tenet took FIVE YEARS to write (and probably another five to understand) certainly showing his devotion and dedication to his ideas as a filmmaker.

Honorouble mentions (that u should definitely check out)

Taxi Driver (1976) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Call me by your name (2017) Her. (2017) Do the right thing (1989)

Obviously there are 100s of other films worth watching that aren’t on this list, however if you were to watch all films mentioned on this list, you’d certainly get a different perspective on the possibilities of filmmaking and the stories they tell.

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ouyangzizhensdad · 4 years ago

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It gets worse when you realize a lot of the ‘problematic’ claims about mxtx is because her characters have kinks but cql production team is praised for keeping the relationship ‘pure’ so that alone says a lot about how some groups react to the idea of gay couples liking sex and having kinks

While I am at times amazed by the narrow (or frankly naive) perspectives of some mxtx antis, I can’t say that my opinion on the question is entirely black or white. I do not think that the fact that wangxian’s sex scenes are kinky makes them automatically problematic or not-problematic [then that would mean being okay, for example, with how 50shades writes sex and intimacy because its ‘kinky’!]. I don’t think content that is considered to be bl-danmei is automatically problematic or not-problematic, the same way i wouldn’t throw under the bus an entire genre, even when someone of the issues are part of the founding blocs of the genre [romance is always sexist! fantasy is always racist! etc...]. As well, I think that it is not necessarily always evident to take a real-life concern (ie gay people have been and continue to be demonized/criminalized for engaging in gay sex and gay sex has long been framed as somehow more sexual than straight sex/lgbt people and their identity and cultures have often been reduced to sexual acts or organs, etc.) and use it as a way to say that fictional content featuring explicit gay scene is going against these stigma by refusing to desexualise/asexualise gay characters [if so I’d have to say that film blue is the warmest colour was a good thing for gay people and.... ]. At the same time, the idea that people not engaging in sex or kissing or even explicitly acknowledging their relationship out loud makes their relationship more pure is.... a lot and honestly i can’t help but be surprised by how many people hold this opinion.

Sometimes I just wish that people who hate mdzs by virtue of it being labelled bl-danmei but love the untamed understood that the show, regardless of the production team efforts and good intentions, is still rooted in profiting off queer-baiting. Sure, the politics of queer-baiting in western media is different (don’t @ at me, i fully understand that concepts used to critique western media cannot be superposed exactly unto other contexts), as a lot of it can be tied to trying to capitalise on lgbt audiences by giving them basically scraps of “representation”, but let’s not undermine that a part of it was also that some content creators/producers/executives, in the 00s and 10s especially, realised that “slash” fans were good for business and that this group fostered great fan engagement (which meant even more visibility and $$). In western media, what currently stops media company from giving actual gay content is just, you know, homophobia--the government won’t blacklist you from the industry or put you in prison for making your queerbaiting couple actually gay. In China, the trend of adapting sanitized versions of bl-danmei novels/manhua (or of adding queer-baiting same-sex relationships in original dramas) is ultimately a business tactic similar to adapting existing properties: that is, it is about making money by getting the generally very invested bl-danmei fans engaged with the show (and, by accident i suppose, lgb viewers who might crave any form of representation) while keeping mainstream appeal and respecting censorship regulations (nobody wants to get blacklisted from the industry....). The added twist here, compared with adapting other existing properties, is that companies have to toe the line between respecting censorship laws (or their own bias and homophobia lmao) and still appealing to the existing bl-danmei fans of the property. These adaptations, often tied to big media companies (even if the production companies in charge of filming are relatively small), are not about taking risks. Without that incentive ( the $$= of bl-danmei fans), adaptations of bl-danmei novels “just for the story and the relationship” would probably be otherwise void of any subtext or simply turned it into a straight romance by changing the sex of one character.

cql was not the result of a brave team that decided to go against the chinese media industry and its dogmas to give viewers a gay love story right under the nose of a repressive government: they were representative of a trend of adapting very popular bl web novels on a relatively small budget, and ultimately they only served to prove just how lucrative this practice can be if you play your cards right. While I am not saying the production team only did it for the money and never cared about how they were presenting the relationship/story, let’s just not kid ourselves that a big motivation for putting in as much subtext as they could was to please and appeal to bl-danmei fans (let’s not also kid ourselves that some people who worked on the show were bl-danmei fans themselves....). That suspicion is sort of proven with the whole “wq as a love interest” debacle. Whether or not she was really intended to be wwx’s love interest, after the backlash from bl fans following leaked photos from the set, they did change scenes (at first in cql wwx was supposed to save wq from the wen brand and not mianmian, for instance) and ultimately wq’s actual presence in the drama was not at all proportional to the size of her $$ contract.

So, yeah, actually, the reason they got this supposedly “pure” relationship in cql is because this is what the “disgusting and reprobate” bl-danmei fans were asking for, what the “digusting” bl-danmei fans who were working on the show wanted, and because some executives okay-ed the project since the bl-danmei market made a gay-subtext tv series at worst a safe investment and at best a lucrative one 😬 If there is bl-danmei DNA all over their pure and pristine ship, maybe it’s time to consider that wholesale condemning of any piece of media that falls, obliquely or not, into a genre with issues is not going to provide them with an unequivocal moral high horse...

#ask #Anonymous #people forget also that one of the reason the cql team treated the show with such respect is because they thought the novel was just good?#so sorry the level of care put into the subtext is also thanks to mxtx 🙃#mdzs meta #novel/cql discussions

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lastsonlost · 5 years ago

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A horrific act of violence takes several innocent lives, a frantic live-stream details the events, terrifying mobile footage spreads rapidly online. Then come the tweets of condemnation from world leaders, followed by an onslaught of outrage split down partisan lines.

The way that shootings, or suicide bombings, or knife attacks are politicised depending on the backgrounds of the perpetrators and the victims shows how successful these acts are in deepening the divisions in society. And that is one of the intentions that the perpetrators share, no matter their race or politics.

Tougher gun laws would certainly help, but attackers will still use knives, lorries or homemade explosives to kill and maim, if that’s what they set out to do. And while President Trump’s words have indisputably fanned the flames of hate towards marginalised and minority groups, the anger and resentment he taps into existed long before he came along.

"It’s not enough simply to call out the patriarchy, toxic masculinity or misogyny"

<Yeah because demonizing men and boys and victim-blaming male victims doesn't help!

Surely the question we need to be asking runs deeper: be it anti-Hispanic, anti-Muslim, anti-western, anti-women, anti-black, antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ, why are so many young men prone to being radicalised in this way?

I know that discussions around men and masculinity are just as politically charged as discussions around terrorism, which makes this a difficult area to address.

This is partially what led to me to make a Guardian video series on modern masculinity this year.

As a journalist, I have covered stories in male-dominated spaces, from culture and sport to knife crime and terrorism. And I’ve noticed that conversations around the relationship between masculinity and violence were often dragged into a partisan debate where “the left” seemed to demonise men, and “the right” claimed ownership over masculine identity. This discussion has become even more charged with the rise of the #MeToo movement.

Jordan Peterson, whose book 12 Rules for Life is an international bestseller and whose videos on YouTube have amassed millions of views, remains a problematic figure due to some of his ideas. He has been accused of having an “alt-right” audience, although I was surprised when I went to an event of his in Birminghamto see quite a few men in the audience who described themselves as Jeremy Corbyn supporters, “lefties” and even Marxists.

Peterson’s main tenet was that men (and women) need purpose and responsibility if they are to find meaning and direction in life. In a Fox News interview last year, Peterson was asked why young men were “shooting up schools”. “Because they’re nihilistic and desperate,” he replied. “Life can make you that way unless you have a purpose and a destiny.”

In a seemingly fractured world where organised religion is in decline, this point strikes me as an important one – especially when looking at the profiles of the men who are committing these horrific acts of violence.

Men who have grown up in disrupted families, and gone through the care or prison systems, have been more prone to radicalisation. Often they have little to no engagement with spirituality, politics or religion earlier in life, but are drawn to a vision of the caliphate, posturing on isolated interpretations of the Qur’an to legitimise murders in the name of some higher cause; or isolated white supremacists imagine a race war that paints them as brave heroes on a great mission. These are, of course, horrific extremes but it’s clear that when people feel lost and disillusioned, there’s a push to tribalism – finding belonging and purpose in a greater cause.

Anders Behring Breivik sought to give meaning to his murderous rampage. He wrote a 1,500-page manifesto railing against “the Islamisation of Europe” in July 2011 before killing 77 people in Norway. Brenton Harrison Tarrant, who shot dead 51 people in mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, this year, wrote a 74-page screed citing Breivik as an inspiration, and posted it on the web forum 8chan. And last weekend Patrick Crusius posted his own manifesto on 8chan before killing 20 people in El Paso, Texas, in an attack aimed at Hispanics.

Whatever people feel about Peterson’s politics, there is undoubtedly something in what he is saying here. People on the left tend to respond to him tribally, rather than engaging with his ideas, but there are times when this is surely counterproductive. Peterson isn’t the first to explore these questions of purpose and meaning, but the way he packages them has made him accessible to a huge audience. In turn, this has allowed him to “own” the discussion around masculinity.

His biggest critics accuse him of being a pseudo-intellectual and dismiss him as an alt-right icon. Yet few on the left offer up well-developed ideas on the crisis of masculinity and the role of men – certainly there is no one who is speaking to lost and disenfranchised males with anything like his reach. It’s not enough simply to call out the patriarchy, toxic masculinity or misogyny.

Addressing the perceived lack of purpose and meaning in these people’s lives would be a first step in engaging the worrying number of disillusioned young men whose frustration, fear and anger is currently being harnessed by hardliners, be they jihadist recruiters or Trump.

It isn’t about sympathy or excuses, it is about identifying patterns and breaking them, and offering solutions. The only way we can do that is to come off the partisan political script and ask questions about the complex issues surrounding men. Until we do that, we will be stuck in the same never-ending cycle.

• Iman Amrani is a Guardian multimedia journalist

Wow.

Could it possibly be that men and boys have issues too? Who would have guessed?

Who would have thought that demonizing men and boys and shiting on them at every turn wouldn't have positive effects?

@brett-caton @cheshireinthemiddle @siryouarebeingmocked @feminismisahatemovement

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legmanns-moved · 4 years ago

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Why I don’t interact with @gam.iru_ on Instagram

@gam.iru (idk what name they use) is a mestize puerto rican user who I have beef with because of their repeated instances of antiblack racism and racism against korean people, inappropriate sexual behavior, bullying of others, and a lot of other stuff. This post is going to act as my catch-all post explaining my reasons for no longer wishing to associate with them or their friends. I am not trying to “ruin their life” or intentionally make them look bad... they make themself look bad.

One of my main issues with them during the time that we were friends was their frequent use and defense of nonblack people, themself included, using the terms n*gga and n*gger. The first instance of the N word was in a group chat that we had back in early-mid 2018 for Cookie Run fans, where they would on occasion refer to certain individuals(cartoon characters, public figures, etc.) as "that n/gga", and then once I or another user called them out for it they'd insist that they were in the wrong headspace, failing to address the bigger issue.

To add from that, one of the things that lead to the termination of our friendship was their repeated defense of the use of the term "n/gger sugar" in a song by the band Queen, and continuing to listen to this song and mock me for it making me uncomfortable. This term is obviously racist, and there's never any reason for a nonblack person to use or defend it. From what I've been told byother users, gam.iru is claiming that they refused to listen to the song in question. I can confirm that gam.iru did not, in fact, avoid songs that contained the term n*gger. Their choosing to listen to the offending song in question was what made me first criticize the action. This first altercation (the first time I've called them out for the n word, not the first time it was used) was on April 17, 2019 at around 6 am EST, so 5 am for them.

Even if they were telling the truth with avoiding offending songs, it is still beyond inappropriate of them to try to defend or justify the use of this term by a nonblack individual, or furthermore claim that other individuals' actions are not racist because they don't think they're racist. Especially to me, a black person. Nonblack people do not get to dictate what is and is not considered antiblack racism, or try to tone police black people when speaking on antiblack racism. gam.iru did this on numerous occasions.

Another one of the things that they did was repeated racialized hateful remarks towards east asian musicians, specifically korean artists. Apparently, they've tried to justify this by citing that hating on kpop was a trend at the time, but the trend originated from racialized xenophobia and they knew that and simply didn't care. They repeatedly made comments lumping all korean people into one category, mocking korean artists, and all that, which is still racist regardless of intent. Using a racist meme doesn't excuse racism, and that was one of my problems with them. They also did this to a lesser extent with Japanese musicians who I listened to at the time, but I didn't mention that since their fixation seemed to be specifically on Korean people. They went a step further from simply "not liking" kpop to the mockery of korean people, bringing this up every single time other people in the group chat mentioned anything korean ,and making racist remarks. This was my issue.

(please note that the screenshot where I call them Jack is from 2018, before they chose the name Carlos. I don't intend to deadname them, this is just a really old message. To update, they no longer go by Carlos either, and I don’t know what their new name is.)

The idea that Western artists represent and own the concept of free expression while Asian artists are "starved" and are always forced to suffer is not only racist propaganda, but dishonest. The implication that this is merely a Korean issue, when many corporations such as Disney or Atlantic Records have had repeated issues with pedophilia, abuse, and censorship of their own stars, is therefore racist no matter how you spin it. You cannot criticize the kpop industry while actively supporting the western music industry as if there's nothing wrong, which is something gam.iru has done. The entire trend of hating kpop was something started by mostly white men to emasculate east Asian men and mock them, citing that they "look the same", and mock teenage girls for liking these stars. Gam.iru , to date, has never apologize for making comments like this, or apologized to my friend, another black user, for her art "looking like a kpop stan's", and repeatedly inserting themselves into conversations discussing her interest in korean artists. All of this was done while spamming the chat with pictures of Queen (and occasionally other offending artists), whom Sharon and I had previously denounced as being antiblack in some form. I can assure you, since I was there for all of this, that gam.iru was not speaking from a place of supposed concern for Korean artists when they made these comments, but rather simply being an ass.

To continue, the reason that their fetishization of dark skin was included in this list, is due to this being an aspect of racism. Talking about how you have a "preference" or whatever for dark skin while repeatedly engaging in antiblack racism and making comments about how hard it is to draw natural hair is disturbing. The fetishization of features associated with blackness, such as dark skin is weird as hell, and I personally take issue with it as a dark skinned person. It may not seem as significant to you, but comments like that make my skin crawl, as fetishistic racism is rather dehumanizing when you're at the receiving end of it.As someone who is dark skinned and female-presenting, I can say that the amount of sexual exploitation that dark skinned black girls go through because of this obsession with our bodies and features is incomprehensibly harmful to our psyche and self image. This fetishistic racism is also known as exoticism, which is what leads to people breeding for the aesthetic (people having mixed race children because they're "prettier") and white people adopting children of color for the Aesthetic, leading to psychologically damaged children who often times will have identity issues, be divorced from the culture, and in the case of white/poc mixed kids raised by white parents, be self hating towards the poc parent's race. This entire supposed "preference" for dark skin, juxtaposed with the fact that they have /only/ dated fairly pale white people is disturbingly fetishistic and made me and other black people who were in group chats with them violently uncomfortable.

Other racist aspects of their behavior during and after our friendship would be their frequent digital blackface and seeming mockery of mentally ill black people, as well as overuse (and misuse) of AAVE and treating black people as the punchline to many of their jokes. I can't explain what digital blackface is well in my own words, but it can be boiled down to a frequent use of black people and the black image as your way of "expressing yourself" (comments like your "inner black girl" or what have you), as a means of further commodifying the black image. Some articles/videos that explain it better than me: [X, X, X]

In regards to mentally ill people, one of gam.iru's favorite subjects of ridicule until only recently (the past 3 months) was a mentally ill black woman who goes by Peaches online. She is a victim of repeated physical and sexual abuse who achieved notoriety in 2017(?) after running away from her home and making money through creating shock videos of eating her own feces, and sex work, when she was roughly 16 years old. Since then, her behavior has become more hideous, with attempts to sell her infant daughter and incidents of public exposure in areas where there are young children, molesting and subsequently murdering a puppy, and intentionally trying to give sexual partners STI's. There are more things that she has done, but I don't wish to go into more detail. I do not in any way intend to defend Peaches' behavior, and have limited sympathy given the severity of the crimes that she has committed. Nonetheless, gam.iru , and people like them, find this behavior-what should be clear cries for help- amusing. I can't express my disgust enough.

Besides Peaches, frequent punchlines to gam.iru's bizarre humor were Wendy Williams, a talk show host whose rage and mental spiral has been played up by media for laughs, and Rick James, a musician who suffered from cocaine addiction and subsequently kidnapped, tortured, and sexually and physically assaulted women and girls on multiple occasions. Gam.iru unironically declared their being a fan of this man despite all of this on multiple occasions.(I really don't want to include every instance of them talking about rick james just trust me when I say it was a lot)

In regards to their misuse of AAVE, it would be inappropriate to call them out without acknowledging that just about every nonblack person I know also makes it a point to overuse and misuse AAVE. AAVE stands for African American Vernacular English, or alternatively BVE (Black Vernacular English). You probably know it better as internet slang or "stan twitter speak". This is another thing that gets misappropriated frequently in modern society, and I don't have the mental spoons to properly explain its history and the extent of why nonblack people using it is icky... to say the least. Being overly critical and outwardly racist towards black people while fixing your mouth to use our own dialogue for a trend is yet again another form of racism, and pretty nasty on their part. They're not the only person who does this or the last person who does it (this is a growing problem in society), but I take issue with them in particular for using AAVE as a joke while also being extremely antiblack.

There are more articles that talk about this issue in detail, but to start here's this one: http://www.dailyuw.com/opinion/columnists/article_b7318c5a-fb7b-11e9-afee-a73bf103f2db.html

Besides racism, personal grievances that I and others had with them were their being uncomfortably sexual in conversation and in sfw spaces. Frequently, when we were friends, they would send nsfw memes in inappropriate locations, or a completely sfw situation would be turned into something unacceptable. The main server that I spoke with them in at this time is a child-friendly server, where we were more than clear on the fact that since there are younger individuals and people who are uncomfortable with sexual jokes here, any subject matter of that category would have to be put in certain channels. They failed to do this, and skated heavily on the fact that they were friends with many of the mods here (myself included, I admit I was too lax with them and their behavior) to evade being temporarily kicked or banned. For personal reasons, I don't want to find images of this subject matter and will not be sending any.

Another unrelated thing that's merely personal beef at this point (so I didn't include it on my story) was their repeatedly mocking/bashing/whatever their friend group from school in my DM's. By repeatedly, I mean on a daily basis. It scaled from being critical of one friend, who they believed had bad art and calling them "ddlg" (don't know their real name) while bashing them, their interests, etc. to repeatedly sending me pictures of their ex and their art and mocking everything about this person's existence. This ranged from their relationship with gender identity to things gam.iru found wrong with their art to bragging about mistreating them during their relationship. Although some of gam.iru's problems with this person were valid, as this individual's behavior on many occasions was unacceptable (will not go into detail), I now understand that this was a form of bullying, and regret all parts that I had in it.I will say that I didn't participate in the mockery of this person's art or their appearance, but my lack of speaking up on how mean gam.iru was being did enable them and give them a platform to be hateful rather than talking out their problems like a mature person would have.

This brings me to my last thing (which kind of ties back into racism), the incident that lead to our final falling out. After a series of comments mocking Kim Seokjin, a vocalist for the kpop group BTS, on June 19, 2019, I did finally ask them to stop.

(DM in question)

After I sent my first DM, they proceeded to go invisible on Discord and leave every group chat or server that I was in. I was frustrated, but I felt that I'd said my piece, so I went to sleep. When I woke up the next morning, I was still upset, and seeing that I knew they were awake but had still failed to say anything in response (it was 11 am at this point, so they were awake), I sent another DM, being an ultimatum. At this point I'll admit I was not trying to be nice or cordial at all. I apologize for the vulgarity.

This was the last time that I made any attempt to speak to this person. About a week later, a former mutual friend (who is also more racist, ableist, and what have you but that's a whole other can of worms that I won't be getting into right now! maybe in a few hours though once I've slept) sent this message in the mod chat of the main server that we all frequented, and I responded.

That was the end of the conversation, until October 2019. In a server that I had been in that gam.iru happened to moderate, I noticed that out of the blue I had been removed from it with no warning.

^I contacted the ex mutual friend, and this is everything to be said on that issue.

As of today, June 1, 2020, they have not apologized for any of their actions to any of the parties involved. Accordingly, I will not retract any statements made about them being grossly racist and just gross in general until all other parties involved get their according apologies. If I get wind of them saying/doing shit like this again, I'll be just as vocal on how and why they're racist and gross, and will keep doing so until all other parties get their apologies. I have no interest in ever being affiliated with this individual again, because they have single handedly been responsible for half the drama in my life since 2017 and even if they do manage to grow as a person at some point, the damage has already been done and I want nothing to do with them. They're simply a nasty person and I don't believe that given their history, seeing any performative bs during a time of crisis for the black community is appropriate on their part. Do with this information what you will, and have a nice day.

UPDATE (June 7 2020)-

This user has still failed to apologize and considers all of the aforementioned issues “petty” so yeah I’m keeping this post up.

#honk #blocklist #I'm just making a post on this so I don't have to create another one in the future #long post

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ladyloveandjustice · 6 years ago

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I know this question has been asked many times before but, is it possible to analyze anime and manga from a feminist POV if someone isn't Japanese? because many things that Westerners consider feminist might not be such for Japanese people (such as several magical girl series) while things like BL are seen as feminist for many Japanese girls. Do you have any articles that get into that with more detail?

I’m by no means the go-to person for this, but it is something I’ve struggled with and thought about, so I’ll give answering a shot.

My current opinion is unproductive to try to label things “feminist” or “not feminist” on a broad level anyway. Things are usually a mix of good and bad, progressive and regressive and while there are anime that are blatantly talking about gender roles and gender politics- Revolutionary Girl Utena frex- its rare for it to be that clear cut. It’s much more valuable to acknowledge nuance and just honestly engage with what we find positive and negative. I think the presentation Is this Feminist or Not? Ways of Talking About Women in Anime hits a lot of good points.

Western fans consume anime and Western fandom is going to react to that consumption. People are impacted by the media they consume, regardless of where it comes from, regardless of how well they understand the original context. Anime fans will have anime inspire them in harmful ways and helpful ways, wherever they are. It may be perceived differently in the original cultural context and its certainly valuable to learn about that, and certainly we need to value that perspective and acknowledge the many viewpoints, and also be careful not to make uneducated assumptions about intent, etc. But to say you shouldn’t be “allowed” to engage with gender in anime as a Western fan strikes me as short sighted, because you ARE engaging with it whether you analyze and acknowledge that engagement or not. And other fans are going to engage with it whether you analyze and acknowledge it or not. If we shut up and just let the creeps in western fandom control the conversation, that helps no one.

With analysis, I think the best rule is to write from the heart, learn all you can, admit when you don’t know something, be open to other viewpoints and correction. That goes for anime analysis as well.

For articles, I think pretty much anything from animefeminist will show how good feminist anime analysis can be done. Some of it is about how a specific handling of a topic impacted the writer personally.. Some of it points out troubling trends and discusses them. They’re all well supported and often carefully avoid reductive arguments. They actively seek diverse perspectives. They also often link or feature perspectives of people from Japan. There was also a recent article on engaging with anime fandom as a black person. It’s good important stuff.

Since you mentioned BL and including the perspective of Japanese fans, Anifem featured a podcast on BL where Masaki C. Matsumoto discussed how he really connected to BL as a young queer guy in Japan. He also did a Youtube video on his channel Queer English (where he also talks a lot about social justice and queer issues in general) where he talked about it and talked about how he considers a lot of the backlash against BL to be linked to misogyny, etc. His perspective was really interesting even though i’m not really into BL. (There’s also a video called Sexist Anime is Japanese Culture? worth checking out. Pretty relevant to this topic actually as he specifically says “I don’t like it when people say they want to respect my culture and that’s why they don’t want to say anything bad about misogynist content in anime and manga.”)

So yep, Japanese people’s perspectives are gonna be varied like any people’s perspectives, obviously. I’m sure there are a lot of different opinions on BL. Same goes for magical girls.

I think “Do your best, be sincere, learn more and listen” is always the key. I think reading autobiographical manga is another thing that’s invaluable for any animanga fan wishing to think about social themes and get additional context. You’ll get perspectives on gender, lgbtq and mental health issues in Japan straight from people who are dealing with them. Recently, I really enjoyed ‘My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness’ (by Nagata Kabi, a clinically depressed lesbian, it goes really deep into her mental health issues and is painfully raw and relatable) and “The Bride was a Boy” (by Chii, a trans woman).

We might make mistakes in analysis, god knows I have, but going in with an honest intention to expand your knowledge, discuss your feelings, and listen to different perspectives counts for a lot.

#superamatista #anime #analyis #feminist analysis #ask nev #animefeminist

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kootenaygoon · 6 years ago

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So,

Until I moved to the Kootenays in 2014, I’d never been politically engaged enough to be able to make an informed vote at the municipal level. Politically I had UVic-style leftward leanings, but that didn’t mean I understood the implications of the sort of decisions a city’s mayor and council would make. What did I know about bylaws? Or taxes? I thought it was stupid that we had to buy stickers to put on our garbage bags, but beyond that I didn’t have any pressing concerns about how they were running things down at Nelson city hall.

With the election coming up, I knew I had to wrap my head around the various issues in the city and how they related to the people we were voting into power. The mental health crisis was going to be a talking point, I knew from Police Chief Wayne Holland, and there was talk the dog bylaw might finally be overturned. The most interesting element to me was weed legalization and its implications. The hottest topic was affordable housing. When Calvin assigned me to interview all of the city council and mayoral candidates, at first I felt daunted by the scope of the project — more than 10 interviews and thousands of words over the course of a few weeks. I realized pretty quick, though, it was my opportunity to deep-dive into this shit.

If I was going to be a real journalist, I would have to get into politics.

Greg was on the city hall beat at that point, and anytime Tamara, Calvin or I had a question about the election or the people involved, it was him we went to. Some of the candidates Greg knew from growing up in the area, others from covering them in previous elections, but there was nobody he couldn’t give us a multi-year rundown on. He would swivel in his chair and gesticulate with one scholarly finger in the air, opining in his radio announcer voice. The longer I worked alongside him the more I admired his encyclopedic knowledge, how relentless he was about pursuing the truth, sometimes scouring through old archives to better understand a crime that happened 100 years before he was born and other times harassing clerks to get damning documents on criminals still working their way through the court system. He was the Star’s greatest asset, and everybody understood that.

One afternoon I sat in the newsroom with Greg and talked about the elections of the past and how they influenced the one coming up. He told me Phil McMillan, the compassion club director, had run for mayor on a cannabis slate around ten years previous. And a local actor named Richard Rowberry had campaigned as the ghost of Nelson’s first mayor, John “Truth” Houston. One former mayor he spoke about with affection was Dave Elliot, who was remembered mostly in town for stopping an expansion of the local Walmart. The executives were in back-room negotiations to double the store’s size into the next lot when Elliot broke confidentiality and raised the alarm with the community. Ultimately he purchased the neighbouring land, along with a number of other Nelson families, just to stop the deal from going ahead. The property had been sitting vacant ever since — a visual testament to the Kootenay spirit of opposing development. A number of projects had tried to get off the ground there, including a condo complex, but the math just didn’t seem to be right. It was prime lakeside property, fenced off, the yard full of abandoned machines, broken concrete and waist-high grass.

Depending on who you asked, it was this move that got ultimately got Elliot ousted. Some felt he over-stepped. The right-wing types felt he was too hippy dippy, and wanted someone who would champion the small businesses on Baker Street with more diligence. Dooley was a reliably conservative city councillor at this point, and ended up taking the big seat in 2005. By the time I showed up in the Kootenays he was the longest serving Nelson mayor in history.

According to Greg, Dooley was hyper-popular and heavily favoured to win. But there were murmurings in the community about dissatisfaction. He seemed like a perfect Irish gentleman to me, polite and amiable, but apparently some felt he was a a bully in the council chambers — as evidenced by the signs stapled to telephone poles around town that read ‘Bully for Mayor’. That being said, he had a number of impressive accomplishments under his belt and had proven himself adept at finding new revenue streams for the community, whether it was from the provincial and federal governments or from organizations like the Columbia Basin Trust. Many credited his contribution for making the new skate park possible. No matter what anyone said, they couldn’t question that he loved his community deeply, and wanted to create a better future for its residents.

Then there were the cops.

“What are they going to do about that cop that punched the woman? That’s what I want to know,” Paisley asked one evening, while I was watching TV. She had come up with a plan, along with her new burlesque friends, to hold a topless protest outside the NPD station.

She carefully poured vegan muffin batter in to a baking sheet.

“I can’t believe we’ve got a proven woman-puncher just working away at the police station like nothing happened. That fucker needs to be fired.”

“He still might be. Depends on how things go with the trial.”

“What’s left to know? Didn’t he admit doing it?”

That situation was an ongoing black eye for the NPD, and they were also under scrutiny because they were requesting a $300,000 boost to their budget. Another smouldering question was how they would deal with the end of cannabis prohibition. They were still busting people routinely, whether it was for grow-ops or possession, and residents wanted to know when that would change. The new mayor would be head of the Nelson Police Board, giving them power over Holland and his force, so this was an opportunity for pot advocates to land an ally in a strategic spot. Dooley was openly hostile to cannabis, and had gone on record a few years previous vehemently opposing an anti-violence initiative related to pot decriminalization, so he clearly wasn’t the right champion. That’s why a new provincial organization called Sensible BC, represented by pot activist Dana Larsen, announced its intentions to get involved in an attempt to eject him.

They wanted someone pot-friendly running the province’s weed capital.

One afternoon I met the local Sensible BC representative, Herb Couch, who was perfectly named for his position. He wanted to see less money wasted policing cannabis, and announced his intention to quiz each candidate on their stance and instruct his followers to vote accordingly. Couch had the backing of Phil McMillan and over 1000 dispensary members, so his influence wouldn’t be insignificant. He was a chill, soft-spoken former high school teacher sporting a signature cowboy hat and a vibrant orange shirt. Relentless about his activism, to the point of annoying some, he’d also been a vocal advocate for the preservation of Red Sands Beach.

I liked him right away.

“Sharon wants to know why we’re writing so many stories about pot,” Calvin said, after the interview with Couch ran. “I don’t think she’s a fan of this Herb character.”

“So many stories? We’ve just done the one.”

“Well, and it’s come up as a topic in some of the other stories about the election. The candidate profiles, a few of them had whole sections about their views on weed.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“She says this isn’t even a relevant municipal issue. Legalization is a federal issue.”

“Right, but it has municipal implications.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like it will affect the police budget. How’s that not relevant?”

“Let’s just cool if with all the weed stuff, okay? People want to know about their taxes, about affordable housing, about all kinds of other stuff. This whole election can’t just be about marijuana.”

The moment Severyn announced his candidacy, the campaigning got ugly. Late-night vandals drove all around multiple neighbourhoods to collect his lawn signs, which featured cartoon moustaches, and dump them outside of town. He showed up at the Star office distraught, frustrated that his comrades in the police department weren’t doing more to figure out who the culprits were. (“You know how much those things cost? And that comes right out of my pocket,” Severyn lamented.) He made totally inappropriate accusations about Dooley, yelling in our foyer, and the rhetoric continued to devolve from there. It was clear to even the casual observer that the two men absolutely hated each other.

Dooley was furious that Severyn would even consider running against him, and more furious that the political dunce seemed to have hundreds of voters’ worth of support. He took it as a personal insult. During campaign events Dooley barely contained his frustration. I watched him repeatedly lose his cool.

Into this mix came Deb Kozak. Sporting a tidy grey bob and a simple pearl necklace, she had a sing-song friendliness to her voice and a fierce determination in her eyes. She’d been on council with Dooley and, though she wouldn’t say it directly, clearly had issues with his leadership. Observers believed she would’ve never been able to take Dooley on in a two-way race, but with Severyn as a wild card she stood a chance to take a strategic majority. If successful, she would be the first female elected mayor in history — a feat fellow councillor Donna Macdonald had tried and failed to accomplish twice. Deb had a maternal energy, and a general optimism about bringing people together and accomplishing positive things. It was a hopeful time in politics, with Obama in power down in the U.S., and I believed things were trending upwards. Culturally we were evolving, and our leadership reflected that, right down to the municipal level. By the end of our first interview it was clear she had my vote, whether I could admit it openly or not.

She seemed audacious.

“One thing I’ve learned as a councillor, and even before that, is I’m good at conversation. And I’m good at welcoming even difficult conversations. We have a diverse community, and sometimes that leads to conflict. I think you work through those things, and you make better decisions when all those groups are pulled together, or at least have an opportunity to share what they think about the future,” she said.

Kozak had arrived in Nelson in the 80s, just after David Thompson University and the Kootenay Forest Products plant shut down. The economic downturn was in full swing, and she’d been inspired by the ambitious moves made by the council at the time. They set out to give the downtown core a makeover, making it more attractive to tourists.

“It was a very frightening time. But it was at that time that the council of the day took a bold step forward to rejuvenate Baker. They said ‘we’re going to rip off all the old clapboards off these beautiful buildings and we’re going to go for it,” she said.

She wanted to be similarly ambitious.

“I bring to the table experience, passion, heart and mind. What I have to offer is almost fearless exploration of who we can be.”

The Kootenay Goon

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saraseo · 4 years ago

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morethanjustmediocremusings · 5 years ago

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In the Details: A Deeper Look into Euphoria’s Prom Looks

Taylor Abouzeid

California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo

Created in a social climate marked with the upheaval of traditional standards and a call to action sung by today’s ready-to-riot young adults, Euphoria came into a world ridden with daunting social issues. Amidst the reigning chaos of the real world, Euphoria followed the debatably hyper-realistic lives of modern high schoolers. This HBO series was highly regarded for its diverse cast and variety of explored topics. Furthermore, throughout the length of the premiere season, Euphoria retained attention from the press with its highly colorful and expressive use of fashion. To fully understand the weight of these garments, one must first look to the concept creation, then to the habitat through which the ideas were fostered, and finally step into the light of the underlying messages behind layers of mesh shirts and mountains of gender ambiguous dressing. Euphoria used visual clothing cues in their final episode “And Salt the Earth Behind you” to shed light on each character’s fully developed significance and purpose within the show given its highly pertinent cultural context.

Euphoria has come to represent an entire generation. The struggles that the characters face are directly out of pages in our own diaries and journals. Hunter Schafer, who plays Jules in the show, praised the reality of it all saying, “It’s the most current representation of high school” (Nissen, 2019). The current climate of teen life is reflected without the Hollywood glamour that was once acceptable with shows such as 90210 and Gossip Girl. Gone are the days of unrealistic teenage clubbing and drawn-out heartbreak between a jock and a cheerleader. Instead, audiences want to see the poignancy of reality on their screens. In a society that values honesty and vulnerability, Euphoria holds a mirror to our generation’s unique experiences without sugar coating topics of necessary discussion; however, due to the deeply embedded nature of these signals, they could easily be overlooked. By taking a magnifying glass to the distinct looks of the finale, subtle messages can be brought to light and further the identification with its’ viewers. Kenneth Burke believed that rhetoric was aimed at creating identification with an audience rather than aimed at persuading an audience (Kolodziejski, 2019, Pentadic). Furthermore, due to the show’s success, it is easy to assume that many people have come to identify with its messages. It is important to analyze and understand the messages behind these looks because they are representative of an entirety of people, marching to a silent beat of radical self-worth.

Within Euphoria the very real stories of the characters hit home for many viewers. Levinson worked rigorously to diminish any potential glamorization of drug use in the show saying “somewhere around the age of 16, I resigned myself to the idea that drugs could kill me, and there was no reason to fight it,” (Chuba, 2019). He credits this deeply personal connection to the story for the shows unfiltered persona, creating high levels of identification with the viewership. Many viewers have also found his story relatable as one in five teenagers have abused prescription drugs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). According to Burke (1950) identification is defined as a rhetorical process that leads to persuasion. Within the space of the show, it is used to create a sense of common identity between Euphoria’s audience and the accurate portrayal of characters.

The show follows the lives of a group of teenagers navigating the ups and downs of the modern century. To give some background on the show’s main squad, Rue, the main character, is a recovering drug addict, with no intention to stay sober. Jules, a transgender-icon, has just moved from an ambiguous “big city” and is feeling bored with what this small town has to offer her. Kat, a closeted One Direction fangirl-turned sensational fanfiction author, recently had sex for the first time, it was also recorded and leaked to the whole student body. Maddy has been in an on-again off-again relationship with her abusive boyfriend Nate. Cassie is trying to keep her relationship with her college-age boyfriend alive and well. Nate, the typical quarterback character with internalized homophobia stemming from finding out his Dad is gay, is now secretly experimenting with his own sexuality. This wide range of individual character plots allows for a multitude of viewers to find identification within each of their stories.

It is, of course, important to note that the creation of this show was in some part influenced by HBO’s need to stay relevant in the competitive streaming market; I would also like to believe that despite this need for high demand programming, the actions of young adults everywhere sparked a flame in the creative community that further added to the show’s exigence. The current climate directly created a collective of educated and empowered young adults who are tired of being talked over, being told to sit down, or being shamed because “back in my day…” other people had it worse. Students these days are not participating in the same high school experiences as their parents, so in order to find a place to relate, many have turned to the Internet, and the many streaming platforms within it. The HBO-exclusive show, Euphoria, has held this identification role for many young students who have never before seen their identity correctly represented on such mainstream media as the giant outlet of HBO.

With the introduction of new streaming services occurring at radical rates, the need for relevancy remains at the top of many media corporation’s to-do lists. HBO is no different. HBO has been both celebrated and condemned for their raw portrayals of characters. Chen (2019) said, “The show is frighteningly hard to watch—it didn't temper my anxiety one bit all season—but its choice to skid easy definitions around difficult topics is what makes it an important cultural engine of our time.” Although ratings wavered in its early years during the mid to late 1970s, they have maintained steady progression for the last twenty years. In 2011 they were named the most successful network, winning nineteen Emmy Awards in one year alone (Aspden, 2011). The creation of Euphoria specifically came from a need of representation, a public desire to see real reflections of life. The hype for weekly premiers was continuous. The cast posted daily updates and many behind-the-scenes videos to keep the audience engaged. This constant contact between creatives and their fans also helped to maintain the very necessary quality of authenticity that surrounded the show. The season finale, otherwise dubbed “the prom episode,” was no different. Prom in its essence is a highly-gendered, often homophobic, and very public display of tradition, but despite this, for many it marks an anticipated rite of passage. In the prom episode of Euphoria, the queer, gender-ambiguous, and non-traditional characters reconcile this tension; prom became their runway. Dressed to the nines in creative, self-expressing garments, Euphoria’s characters hit the dancefloor with confidence. The episode showed how this generational event has become more accepting and fluid now, more than ever.

The choice to focus on the squad’s prom looks in the last episode allows for a greater opportunity to show character development and emphasize the pungently individual messages hidden in the coattails. Rue, the standout tomboy of the cast, has recently come to accept her budding relationship with her female-presenting best friend, Jules. For Rue’s prom look she wore the makings of a suit, slacks and a black coat, a manifestation of her struggle with feminine expression. But underneath the presumptuous outer shell she adorned her staple converse, one of, if not the only stable things in her life, and a maroon form-fitting, lingerie-inspired slip dress from the closet of the magnificent Jules. Jules stood out in the show as possibly the most comfortable with outwardly expressing her feelings, and her iconic prom look was no let down. A lilac and lavender two-piece crop top and wide-leg pants combo made waves in the sea of traditional prom garments. She also wrapped herself in the pièce de résistance of the night: a dark green, mesh, trench, with the symbol for transgender rights stitched onto the back with ornate black beading. Kat’s bondage and almost masochistic look reflected her growth into a strong woman, while Maddy stayed true to her values of loving yourself in a sexy black sheer halter and fitted skirt combo. Unexpectedly, Cassie was understated, but her more feminine look remained through the champagne gown’s flattering neckline. Nate stayed true to his toxic masculinity and rejected any inkling of creativity; he wore a suit.

In the past there has been a severe push back against “progressive” programming, especially those with highly explicit content. But it is also important to note that these subjects are often not foreign to the audiences participating with the artifact. Sam Levinson, the director, when asked if he was nervous about parental backlash regarding the shows content responded with, “… I feel like this is a debate that goes on constantly throughout time, where people go, ‘Parents are gonna be scared,’ and you go ‘Yeah.’ And young people will be like, ‘Yeah, that’s my life.’ I’m sure certain people will be freaked out by it and other people will relate to it” (Stack, 2019). There has been a very real struggle for liberation of the LGBTQIA+ community, to which Euphoria highlighted a homosexual relationship between its two main characters. Toxic masculinity has come to the forefront of scholarly conversation, to which Euphoria highlighted the mental and physical dangers that the suppression of emotion in boys can have on not only themselves but also the world around them. Toxic relationships have become hot topics in wellness ads, to which Euphoria showed just how serious and sometimes hidden, domestic abuse can be. An acceptance of sex workers is growing amongst younger generations, to which Euphoria explored the world of camming and subjects of porn in general. Trans bodies have come into public discourse, especially regarding the legality of their existence, to which Euphoria cast a trans actress as a lead role and used the platform to spread knowledge of the injustices many people face on a daily basis. The long running war on drugs continues, to which Euphoria used the story of a high school drug addict to bring communities together and create a safe space for all identities to be heard.

I have chosen the visual rhetoric approach to better examine how all elements of the character’s prom looks may have influenced each corresponding character’s final message. Visual rhetoric criticism is aimed at understanding the intersection between rhetoric and visual elements within an artifact (Kolodziejski, 2019, Visual). Albakry & Daimin (2014) state, “analysis of visual rhetoric considers how images work alone and collaborate with other elements to create an argument designed for [a specific] audience” (pp.29). Furthermore, I will be applying the deductive approach to this criticism, meaning I will be using the existing theories and concepts and applying them to elements of the visual artifact. I partly chose this approach because I stand firmly behind its assumptions: the visual is rhetorical, what is not shown can be just as important as what is shown. Lastly, how something is shown is as important as what is shown (Kolodziejski, 2019, Visual).

Within visual rhetoric lies the concept of the semiotic triangle, a figure that shows how an artifact’s referent, sign and reference are all related. Within that, there are three types of signs. Iconic signs are representative of what they point viewers to, such as a photo of an otter being an iconic sign for an actual otter. Indexical signs point to what they represent, like smoke indicating a fire. Lastly, symbolic signs reference an arbitrary relationship, such as the branded Swoosh being a symbol for Nike as a brand (Kolodziejski, 2019, Visual). Euphoria’s prom looks are all indexical signs, meaning they point to what they represent, without directly showcasing the underlying meaning. So, the general semiotic triangle for my artifact would have the referent as the actual look itself, the sign as the nod to what it is representing, and the reference would be the meaning behind it all. As the viewers of Euphoria engage with the show, they rely on their own life experiences to decode the symbols on screen. As articulated by Foss in 1994 “The study of visual imagery from a rhetorical perspective may make contributions beyond providing a richer and more comprehensive understanding of rhetorical processes. In some cases, such study may contribute to the formulation or reconciliation of aesthetic notions…” (pp 213). Through their comprehension of these symbols, the show’s underlying messages are able to speak more powerfully and allow for further resonation between the shows viewers and the characters they are able to identify with.

I have chosen visual rhetoric because it argues that everything shown and not shown has a significant purpose within the artifact. Due to the microscopic lens I have taken to the outfits chosen for the characters, this is most fitting. I have also chosen this method to better excavate the hidden messages of the main characters. Upon first glance I, like many, missed some major hints to character expression and development in the finale. But with the fine-toothed comb I took to these garments, I left no lapel untouched and no bead under-analyzed.

(Rue’s prom look).

For Rue, the exploration of expressing gender fluidity through her clothing choices was present throughout the entire season, but subtle. There was no direct mention of the matter until the season finale. While selecting a very feminine outfit for Rue to wear to prom, Jules expresses concern for possibly altering Rue’s gender presentation. I believe that by staying in the dress for prom, and not changing into something more fitting of her stylistic history, Rue was trying to validate her trust and relationship with Jules. In this scene, Rue had let Jules pick out her prom look and rather than opting for something similar to her previous fashion choices, Jules put her in a tight and sultry, lingerie-inspired, corseted, maroon dress. The color choice of maroon was not only fitting to the color pallet of the show, but was also distinctly similar to the color of Rue’s father’s sweatshirt, which she wears daily after he passes away. This choice I believe was unintentional from Jules, but subconsciously reminds the audience of Rue’s inability to move past that time in her life. Rue also adorned a traditional men’s suit pants and coat. This is the key part in her maintenance of gender fluidity and ambiguity within the outfit. The color choice was subtle and reflective of how natural this “tomboy” style has come to her self-expression. The choice of Converse was also only visibly present for a few moments on screen, but the shoes came to represent so much within Rue’s life. So much so in fact that the actress who played her character, Zendaya, made an Instagram post paying respect to the life they lived in the show with “I’m gonna have to get some new chucks for my personal life… I guess I’ll just have them on standby for season2. Til then Rue Rue” (Zendaya, 2019). Rue initially allowed Jules to change her gender presentation via the use of a frilly dress, but later came to regret the decision, as the dress became representational of their constricting relationship. This outfit represented the fluidity of expression and the intimacy that can be shared through clothing choice.

(Jules’s prom look).

Rue’s romantic counterpart, Jules, quickly became a stand-out character on the show due to her extravagant, stylistic choices within the first few episodes, and her makeup has inspired countless other artists’ renditions of the now iconic looks. For her prom look she wore a silky lilac crop top and similarly silky lavender high-waisted wide-leg pants. To top off the look she also adorned herself with a beautiful, almost floor-length, sheer mesh, forest green, trench piece. On the back of the sheer coat was a beaded symbol for the transgender community. The entire outfit was quite the statement, but I got the feeling that she was going for that “I’m not trying, but I tried really hard to look like I’m not trying” look. Due to the casual nature of a crop top and pant combo, the pieces seem haphazardly thrown together. However, the perfect complementary colors, and the identical silky fabrics make that lackadaisical approach almost impossible. I think it is also important to mention that the outfit as a whole read a little mermaid-y. To the untrained eye this might have gone completely unnoticed, but to someone with a recent history in Women and Gender studies, namely me, this reference was another direct tie to the trans community. Popularized by the television show Life With Jazz, mermaids have become an almost superhero-like figure for many people within the trans community, and now serve as a symbol of recognition. In an interview the star spoke on their significance, “Mermaids are just the most whimsical, mystical creatures of all time. A lot of transgender individuals are attracted to mermaids and I think it’s because they don’t have any genitals, just a beautiful tail” (Jennings, 2015). Jules continued to wave her pride flag high and exuded confidence. She held the message of being proud of whoever you are.

(Kat’s prom look).

Kat, a plus-size girl surrounded by a sample-size school, went through many changes this season. After her first-time having sex not only gets recorded, but also then is virally leaked throughout campus, Kat decided to reclaim control of her body. Kat had the edgier version of the “Pretty Woman” makeover. With an entire new wardrobe of bondage-inspired pieces, sexy black and red lingerie, latex, leather, and laces, she conquered not only her sexuality but also gained a whole new world of confidence as well. Throughout this journey, she also struggled with the duality of being a grade-A bad ass and still navigating soft and cute teen romance. For her prom look she wore all red, the color most symbolic for both power and romance. With a red leather corset on top and red silk midi skirt on the bottom, she exuded confidence as a woman in control of her own body. The black lace-up detailing that became a motif in many of her previous outfits also made a cameo in the prom episode running through both the top and the skirt. These specific choices show her character’s development of self-confidence. In the beginning, she was self-conscious and afraid of intimacy, but as the season progressed, the audience was able to see her blossoming into a woman in charge. She was able to reclaim her body after the sex-tape scandal and make a name for herself by camming on PornHub, and also by gaining enough appreciation for herself to see her love for Ethan. Kat struggled with coming into herself as a sexual woman and in her final look is able to show that you can be strong and confident and still express emotion and love.

(Maddy’s prom look).

Maddy, Maddy, Maddy. Where do I even start? Without a doubt Maddy was the most confident female character on the show, but when her boyfriend abused her at the annual carnival she began to break down. Although she was aware his actions were brutally wrong, she forgave him, like a story of Stockholm syndrome. Following his release back into school, they reappeared as a couple only to break up again in the following episode. Their relationship was undeniably toxic. At prom Maddy went with her group of girlfriends, surrounding herself with positivity and love. She wore a see-through black, crystal embedded, two-piece halter top and form-fitting skirt. She also wore a veil. Maddy shone bright on the dance floor and conveyed the message that relationships aren’t everything, and in the end all she needed was support from her friends, self-love, and some serious distance from her abusive ex-boyfriend, Nate. Maddy loves herself, but by ignoring her case of domestic violence she lost a part of herself. Luckily, in the finale, Maddy surrounds herself with good friends and shows that self-worth and self-love are important and still sexy.

(Cassie’s prom look).

Cassie’s prom look showed less of a character arc than the others, but her message remained just as pungent. On the day of prom, Cassie had gotten an abortion. The pregnancy was the unintended consequence of her boyfriend McKay. They came to the decision together, but Cassie made sure that the decision was ultimately her own. Needless to say, she was not dressed as her usual provocative self. She wore a soft pink satin gown, the most traditional of all the looks, and barely-there makeup, which according to the makeup artist was a distinctive choice given the earlier abortion. The makeup artist for the shoot took to Instagram to explain her look, “As much as I wanted to give Cassie a glittering euphoric winter formal makeup look, I didn’t feel like it would help tell her story in this moment. I wanted Cassie’s total absence of makeup here to signal to the audience that she’s reached the start of a new phase of her life…”(Davy, 2019). The neckline was still flattering but she remained quiet and pensive for the rest of the evening. In the same girl group as the others, Cassie took that day to surround herself with those who could support her without their knowledge of the previous event. Cassie’s prom look said that it is okay to not always be okay, and that expressing that is perfectly fine. This message can be gathered through her soft color pallet the contrasted the otherwise bright evening, the simplicity of the silhouette, and the unexpected lack of dark eyeshadow, a typical element of Cassie’s normal look.

(Nate’s prom look).

I intentionally saved the worst for last: Nate. Nate’s look was boring, and quite frankly fell flat. It would have made more sense for him not to go at all, or maybe to show up in hand cuffs as he did for Halloween. But whatever, he did go to prom, and he did wear a suit. Given the extravagance of the rest of the characters’ prom looks, there was an unofficial standard for all the characters to express themselves creatively in some way for the event. However, I believe that Nate’s blatant lack of creativity is his statement. For his whole life he has been molded to become a superstar athlete, and at no point was he given the opportunity to outwardly express himself. We can thank both toxic and hegemonic masculinity for this lack of expression, for in their essence both of these ideas encourage the repression of emotion in boys and men. His outfit shows that when not given the opportunity to find oneself beyond the expectations of others, or not being able to to explore one’s own creative capabilities a person could become a drone, in this case one with severe anger issues. The suit further shows his acceptance and assimilation into the norms and expectations for his character. Rather than expressing himself through stylistic choices, like many of the other characters, Nate’s feelings come out in destruction and violence. He serves as a precautionary tale, of what the dangers of toxic and hegemonic masculinity can have on young men: crushing self- hatred. For many, fashion can serve as a critical outlet for self-expression. Especially for Euphoria’s teenage viewership, style can feel like the only controllable element of their life while the lack of adolescent autonomy is at its height.

As both a thoroughly engaged audience member and fan of Euphoria, there is not much the creators could have changed about the prom looks to further appease me. Throughout the entirety of the season I found that I was able to relate to every individual character within the show, admittedly even Nate. I was able to see my own life tied into bits and pieces of every character’s individual story. Maddy and Rue stuck out as the characters with which I had the most identification with, and although their characters are almost direct opposites in the show, I felt comfort in being able to compare their stories to my own. However, I feel that it is also important to acknowledge the lack of identification some of my peers felt with Euphoria’s main squad. Some have never had experiences with “hard-core” drugs, struggled with gender representation, bee involved with sex tape scandals, or instances of domestic violence, dealt with the after effects of an abortion, or emotional repression. For many of these people who struggled to find identification with the main characters, the supporting roles served as their substitute. With characters as Lexi, McKay, Gia and Fez, many other identities were explored throughout the season, although in lesser detail. I believe that if these supporting characters had also been given equal screen time, an even wider range of audiences would have been able to engage and identify with Euphoria. By digging deeper into their stories, new plot lines could have been uncovered. Many teenagers struggle with eating disorders, which were left out of the show despite alarming statistics claiming that at least 30 million people suffer from eating disorders in the United States (ANAD, 2019). Nicotine has become a significant outbreak in American teenagers with the Center for Disease Control reporting that “5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 will die early from a smoking-related illness” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). And topics of bullying were also left unexplored by the show despite its constant prevalence in teenage society. Studies have even gone to show that “Bullying was a factor in 2/3 of the 37 school shootings reviewed by the US Secret Service” (Stop Bulling Now Foundation, 2019). However, including all of these topics could have been destructive to the season as a whole, and overwhelming to audiences. Given the relevancy of these topics, they are explored elsewhere in outer outlets. Euphoria was a show intended for people who had rarely seen their identities presented on mainstream media of this scale before. So, despite the few missing teenage issues that are more commonly explored today, Euphoria was able to uniquely cover some groundbreaking material for a show of its size.

Euphoria’s characters all held distinct messages within the show. Through the use of visual clothing cues Euphoria was able to further the identification factor of these stories by visually signaling their significance. Created out of a need for representative media and birthed into a world of social unrest, Euphoria became a breakout show on HBO’s streaming platform and now has the power to unify an entire generation. In “And Salt the Earth Behind You” Rue, Jules, Kat, Maddy, Cassie, and Nate give their final send off to the show by highlighting their completed respective messages between satin finishes and starchy, pressed suits. As a result of the creative expression of the prom outfits in the finale, viewers are left with a lasting impression of self-identification closing off the season.

References

Albakry, N. S., & Daimin, G. (2014). The visual rhetoric in public awareness print advertising toward Malaysia perceptive sociolculture design. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 155, pp. 28-33.

ANAD. (2019). Eating disorder statistics. Retrieved from www.anad.org/education-and-awareness/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/.

Aspden, P. (2011, September 24). How HBO revolutionized television. Retrieved from www.slate.com/human-interest/2011/09/hbo-how-it-revolutionized-television.html

Burke, K. (1950). A rhetoric of motives. Berkley: University of California Press.

Cassie’s prom look [Digital image]. Retrieved from www.usa-grlk5lagedl.stackpathdns.com/production/usa/images/1565025651204007-66121653_654233518429076_5605336542765432610_n.jpg?w=1900&fit=crop&crop=faces&fm=pjpg&auto=compress.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010, June 3). CDC survey finds that 1 in 5 U.S. high school students have abused prescription drugs. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2010/r100603.htm.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Youth and tobacco use. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/index.htm.

Chen, E. (2019, June 6). In praise of euphoria, the perfect anti-binge TV show. Retrieved from www.wired.com/story/euphoria-anti-binge/.

Chuba, K. (2019, June 5). 'Euphoria' creator on authentic trans portrayals, mining "deeply personal" history to tackle teen drug abuse. Retrieved October 21, 2019, from www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/euphoria-creator-mining-deeply-personal-history-tackle-teen-drug-abuse-1215844.

Davy, D. [@donni.davy]. (2019, August 17). Cassie’s clean slate, episode 8, euphoria [Instagram photo]. Retrevied from www.instagram.com/p/B1SOb1EJcve/?igshid=ork83uq4xhn.

Foss, S, K. (1994). A rhetorical schema for the evaluation of visual imagery. Communication Studies, 45, pp. 213-224.

Jennings, J. (2015, June 8). Jazz Jennings: the transgender teen and wannabe mermaid the internet needs (M. Ruiz, Interviewer). Cosmopolitan. Retrieved from www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a40068/jazz-jennings-internets-most-fascinating/.

Jules’s prom look [Digital image]. Retrieved from www.usa-grlk5lagedl.stackpathdns.com/production/usa/images/1565024720966459-66659243_159635475163665_1587604092859566839_n.jpg?w=1900&fit=crop&crop=faces&fm=pjpg&auto=compress.

Kat’s prom look [Digital image]. Retrieved from www.usa-grlk5lagedl.stackpathdns.com/production/usa/images/1565025241108497-67911105_2343940372514856_2058399465206680217_n.jpg?w=1900&fit=crop&crop=faces&fm=pjpg&auto=compress.

Kolodziejski, L. (2019, October 16). Pentadic criticism overview [PowerPoint Presentation]. Retrieved from handout sheet.

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Maddy’s prom look [digital image]. Retrieved from www.usa-grlk5lagedl.stackpathdns.com/production/usa/images/1565024910235630-66213364_669264316881864_5463572260054969293_n.jpg?w=1900&fit=crop&crop=faces&fm=pjpg&auto=compress.

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Nissen, D. (2019, June 6). 'Euphoria' creator sam levinson opens up about drug addiction at premiere. Retrieved October 20, 2019, from www.variety.com/2019/scene/news/euphoria-creator-sam-levinson-opens-up-drug-addiction-1203233881/.

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deannaoutten · 7 years ago

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Dreamcrusher & TRNSGNDR/VHS

In the pits of New York City, The Glove a small venue located in the heart of Bushwick, organized by the community’s D.I.Y. artist. Held an event on Thursday, August 10th, 2017 with performances by TRNSGNDR/VHS, Dreamcrusher, Shimmer, Grisel Lopez, and special DJing by Besharam. These performances took things to a whole new level: Giving the audience a new insight and never-before experiences, within an environment where it’s encouraged to be yourself. When first entering the building, I climbed my way up to a long case of stairs, in a broken hallway, which led me to the world of LGBTQ’s underground grunge scene. I was greeted by strobe lights and loud screams from the performance of the artist Dreamcrusher.

Dreamcrusher paced around the entire place with the mic in their hand screaming, on the top of their lungs. The effect of the strobe light made it hard to see where they were throughout the entire performance. The moment you thought they were in the right corner, they’d be on the left, then the next moment, right in front of you, shouting their lyrics with a microphone and flashlight in your face. Dreamcrusher gave such a powerful performance. They engaged the audience to join them in their rage, pushing and shoving people around–– provoking the feelings of discomfort and embarrassment throughout the crowd.

Dreamcrusher took one girl in the audience and screamed their entire set, dragging her by the shoulder around the room. The amount of uneasiness in the her face, reflected how most people would’ve reacted. Being surrounded in a dark room full of strangers, not knowing what to expect from the spontaneous artist–– surfaced this sense of nervousness during their performance. The feeling in itself led me to question, why were we so afraid to have them yell in our face, if we all knew it was just the role they were playing as a part of their act?

Most shows don’t engage their audience the way that Dreamcrusher does. Usually when attending a show, you would never expect to be a part of it. The surprise element to their performance surfaced this feeling of the unknown. Therefore, keeping us all entertained with the anticipation of possibly being put in the spotlight.

The crowd was full of people that came with the expectation of acceptance among like-minded individuals. This could only mean crowd goers came with the intent of giving themselves an experience, unlike the experiences they’ve had in more conventional settings.

The interaction between the crowd and the performer didn’t end there. Shortly after Dreamcrusher’s set, TRNSGNDR/VHS gave us a performance that could never be forgotten. During her performance, she played nature sound music gravitating our subconscious minds; asking a never-been-asked-before question. The question was, “Because our scenes thrive on cultural individualism, and individualism is essential to free market capitalism, how are our scenes, subcultures, and etc. beneficial to the communities that facilitate them under capitalism, through austerity, class-ism, racism, gentrification etc?”, she then followed up by saying “If anyone in this room could answer me that question, without the use of any pronouns, meaning the words I, me, we, us cause this is about y’all. I will leave here the mic”.

She stepped away from the microphone with her arms crossed behind her back, patiently waiting for a response. The room was dead silent for a moment, until a few short minutes, a woman of color finally decided to go up. After the ice had been broken, more people began to go up and answer the question. Including those who performed. Meanwhile, other members of the audience began to exit the building. Most of which were white males. The audience became smaller and smaller. Until eventually, everyone who was in the room answered her question.

During the set, TRNSGNDR requested to have more people come answer the question, “And I know that I am breaking the rules of the game”, she said. “But I created the game, I have yet to see any responses from a white cis-gendered male. Would any white cis-gendered men like to come up to answer?”, the lead singer of the band “Show Me The Body”, Julian Cashwan Pratt (who performed with Dreamcrusher that night) decided to go up and answer. After his response was given, TRNSGNDR continues to invite people on stage.

She requested that the curators of the venue come up and give a response, “Anyone from the staff at The Glove like to come answer the question? Because I know that this venue was created by a group of white kids from, -if not upper higher-class, middle-class backgrounds”. Two male members of the staff ran up to answer. The overall responses of that night came to the conclusion, it’s important that we come together within our own communities.

The dynamic between a performer and its audience was manipulated in its traditional sense. When everyone in the room becomes a performer it creates this sense of togetherness. No one came with the expectation to connect among one another, only to connect with the artist.

TRNSGNDR’s work cuts through this illusion and has certainly made us feel that this tradition has become outdated. It made me realize, how we never take the time to connect with the people around us, yet we live in a time where communication has become so easily accessible. TRNSGNDR’s question only created more questions. I couldn’t help but ask was this discomfort felt within the room as a result of being surrounded by white males? The entirety of that experience definitely had a major influence on everyone in the room. Both artist certainly gave us a work of art. It was as if this experience was some kind of social experiment.

Noise music has a predominantly white fan base, but both Dreamcrusher and TRNSGNDR/VHS are black members of the LGBTQ community. It was funny to see what the transition of noise music to the discussion of an important issue could do to a primarily white audience.

After most of the crowd had left, an Asian, the few POC who attended the event, and the very few white people who decided to stay were mostly women. From my understanding, The Glove is a venue created in making a safe place for the artist within the LGBTQ community. Spaces like these are necessary because of the oppression that this community has to face within an industry that treats them unjustly. The Glove allows them to work in a setting amongst a crowd that places us within their space–– with this awareness, we are expected to know what this space represents. Much like entering someone else’s home. That is the exact kind of feeling The Glove gave off, that of a home.

Going back to my original thought, It was interesting to see that even though we are being given permission through this arranged environment to feel comfortable, there was still this feeling of anxiety during Dreamcrusher’s set. In any situation contrary to the environment and its policies–– that reaction typically would have been the appropriate response. Given that the environment was created with the intention to make us all feel comfortable, it was interesting to see that, those feelings of discomfort was still felt for some.

#new york #new york city #noise music #uderground #lgbtq #blacklivesmatter #grunge #writer

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deadbeth-blog · 7 years ago

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#OBGaveMe

Orphan Black is the only show I’ve never missed an episode of. From the day it premiered on March 30, 2013 after S7 of Doctor Who to tonight, it’s been with me as a support system that I can never really thank the universe enough for. OB and Clone Club has literally gotten me through life and death. Here’s my story.

When I started watching Orphan Black, I was a scared little eighth grader (I know I’m a child) with no idea who she was. I had a bad relationship with my parents, bad relationship with my friends, and a bad relationship with the world around me. I was super into Doctor Who, so I encountered the series on BBC America after the DW S7 premiere.

At the end of the hour, I was immediately in awe. I pretty much dropped Doctor Who, another show that had done a lot for me, out of my life, focusing entirely on Orphan Black. I cosplayed as Helena by painting my hair for Gallifrey One 2014, went to both Comic Con meetups, waited 9 hours in line for the Nerd HQ 2014 panel (worth it when Tatiana pointed out my costume in the audience,) and even tried to go to the NYC premiere (to no avail. I live in Los Angeles. A girl can dream.)

I was obsessed. This show became my life.

Why?

Well, for starters, I felt empowered. Orphan Black came as a ray of hope, a technicolor beauty in the expanse of poorly-written, Hollywood-catered, male-driven action/sci-fi series. It tells a different story for every person who watched it; it shows so many different sides of not only the female but the human experience. I became empowered to tell my story, to make a mark on the world, to exist beyond passivity, to scream and yell and fuck shit up but fix things and take care of each other and fight every day for the best possible world because that’s what the women on Orphan Black do.

I felt heard. When I showed up at Comic Con after S2′s Rachel Duncan eye-stabbing incident with a Neolution eye and somehow, by some stroke of luck, ran into John and Graeme on the floor, the eye ended up in S3. From #AskOB to fan panels to cast appearances at meet-ups, the cast and creators and whole team behind Orphan Black has always been there for the fans. Clone Club isn’t just the fans; it’s everyone, the whole family that has snowballed through these insane five years together. I feel like I am a part of something special, and I know how unique this feeling is.

I felt important. I struggled with my sexuality for ? 4 years ? which is not a long time in retrospect, but as a 14-year-old, that was a large portion of my life spent feeling less-than because I didn’t know who I was. Seeing characters like Cosima and Delphine be so free and unapologetic just being themselves made me feel like I was deserving of the same amount of self-love regardless of whom I loved. I actually wrote college and other admissions essays about Orphan Black and Cosima. Here’s an excerpt:

“My favorite TV show in the world is called Orphan Black. It is a show about clones. It is a show about science. It is a show about culture. But, most of all, it is a show about individuality...One refreshing part about Orphan Black is its absolutely diverse range of female leads. [The clones range from a punk rock mother who is drifting in life but has her bravery to guide her to a suburban soccer mom who relies on the fragility of the cardboard cutouts around her in order to knock them down, to a brilliant scientist who is misguided by love but overcomes it and stays herself.] I had never been exposed to this amount of female power in television in my life. The fact that a woman could be both punk rock and terrifying but also a fiercely protective, kind-hearted mother was new to me. The fact that a woman could be an intelligent, successful scientist and fight terminal illness and still be in love was inspiring to me. Orphan Black not only changed my standards for television, but it helped me realize that there wasn’t a cookie cutter for the type of person I had to be. As cheesy and superficial as that sounds, the prospect of a future of a multi-faceted personality was absolutely necessary for me at that time. Just before I started high school, I realized I was/am queer. Cosima, the scientist on Orphan Black, is also queer, and she became an important role model for me. I can be smart and queer. I can be kind and queer. I can be successful and queer. LGBTQ+ issues and identities were never really discussed with me until I reached high school; most of the knowledge I have about sexuality, gender, and sex is all self-taught. I’m not going to say that Orphan Black made me realize that I was not heterosexual, but it helped me feel more comfortable and, for the first time in a while, feel truly proud to be myself. As Cosima so concisely states, “My sexuality is not the most interesting thing about me.” This small Canadian TV show helped shape my identity in so many ways. It helped open my world beyond my stable yet invariable small town. It helped me to immerse myself in a completely different environment which, while fictional, engaged me enough to shape my identity and help me discover myself in absolutely incredible and life-changing ways.”

I felt curious. For the first time in a long time, I wanted to engage in the world around me. Orphan Black helped me find a lot of my passions—from epigenetics to costuming to fashion to writing—and pursue them without fear. Orphan Black shows people doing what they love without hesitation or even a consideration of failure. When you stop being afraid of failure, failure stops existing.

I felt loved. I spent most of my life feeling lost. My family environment has never really been a safe one, but Orphan Black really helped me connect with my dad. We would get Thai food every week and watch the show together without worrying about my parent’s divorce or my suicidal tendencies or our worsening financial situation. It was our hour and a half of peace and connection, and we really bonded in that time. My dad took me to every meet-up and every con, waited with me for the panel, was there by my side the whole time. In fact, if you met me at a con or meet-up, you probably met my dad.

My dad died nearly two years ago. It was sudden and unexpected, and OB was so integral to our relationship that I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to watch it without him. Well, I did, and I’m so, so glad I did. The support and love I always found through clone club and Orphan Black, whether intentional or unintentional, was more than I ever could have dream of. Clone club is a family I can always count on whether mine is shitty or broken or fighting or not talking or half the size it’s supposed to be.

When you feel loved, it’s a lot easier to love the world around you. Orphan Black always made me feel loved. Orphan Black is responsible for my reignited passion for life.

We make a family. We really do. And I’m so, so grateful to have found a place here.

Party on, clone club, and know you changed saved made my life.

#obgaveme #my face #obtumblr #obcosplay #farewell orphan black #orphan black #my writing #my life story idk

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equalityforher · 7 years ago

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Artist Spotlight: Palesa Kgasane

Growing up, Palesa Kgasane saw the potential of an audience. With unapologetic confidence, she would entertain her family and friends as an outlet of expressing herself. Now a rising star in the buzzing South African creative fashion world, she is rewriting the history of women of color by documenting the many faces and facets that they behold on her notable platform, Mzansi Moodboard. Inspired by her matriarchy and indelible African icons such as Miriam Makeba and Brenda Fassie, Palesa employs the flawless fashion sense of her elders to her creative direction and matchless fashion finesse. Unimpressed by labels and pop-boxes, Palesa is breaking the mould by leveraging her creative eye and expressing a hard-to-hear but necessary truth and visibility of creative WoC.

When did you realize that you were interested in fashion styling? What inspired your choice of film and photography to document your art?

I think I knew from a young age that I loved fashion, largely attributed to my mother’s great sense of style and all the glamorous women I would see when we watched TV. They seemed so confident. I think that’s what I liked about clothes, how they make people feel. Expressing myself was sort of second nature. When I was younger I just wanted to entertain, whether it was singing or writing, I always ended up taking part in things that involved entertaining people. Picking up a camera for the first time and documenting myself and my friends back in high school was something I did for fun. I remember how I insisted that we always take pictures. I edited them and put them on Facebook. That was the thing then. And now, I do it as a means of sharing my narrative with people and that of other black womyn.

What were the images of women of color that you saw growing up in South Africa? Did that observation inspire your art today?

I never saw enough images of women of colour. That was why I had to start creating them, for myself. I realised that history was not very accommodating of brown girls who aren’t thin and outspoken and who don’t fit in. Therefore, creating and writing was always an outlet for me. Solitude inspired me. That and strong womyn who also stuck it to the man; Brenda Fassie, Miriam Makeba and Lebo Mathosa.

The visual representation of queer and nonbinary femmes of color seems integral to your art. What motivates your choice of your subject matter? Why do you think it is important to create this content at this time?

The honest answer is that there isn’t enough out there. I don’t create having those labels in mind, I am not a fan of labels and boxes. I do what I do from a place of truth, I try to. But I used to try to hide who I am for a very long time, as a queer femme womyn. It has been really difficult coming to grips with my own truths, but I am grateful to have been able to be in spaces where I could come into my own. Creating is a means of surviving. It is important for me to be and exist beyond the impositions the world puts on me; whether it be as a black womyn, a queer womyn, or a ‘plus-size’ person. My subject matter is always going to be what is closest to home, intentional and also sometimes not. I’m always going to be black first and a womyn too, those are things that give me a certain primacy in the world. I hope to make something positive out of these realities.

In your direction, what are the key ingredients needed for a killer, relevant production?

Patience. I’m basically a one womyn show and the pressure to constantly be creating is overwhelming. Be patient with yourself and the people around you. Not everyone will get it but you just need to trust your gut. Be truthful and authentic. That goes with not doing things for the sake of doing them but knowing what you hope to achieve at the end of the day. For people to feel a sense of black joy and pride after engaging with my work is important for me. Nothing exists in isolation. And lastly, genuine love for what you do. That can be really difficult when you are a solo ranger like me but loving what you do is so important.

At the foundation of it all, artists create what they know; what does your art says about Palesa the person? How has your family upbringing, and your localization, influenced your views on the representation of WoC in the media?

I grew up in a small town. Home is where I return but leaving home was also the only way I was able to find myself after high-school. I went through a lot, both good and bad, which brought me to the person I am today. I owe a lot to my supportive mother, who never gave up on me and would fund every dream I had- whether it was going to record a demo for radio or taking a course guitar lessons or doing extra-curricular art classes, studying journalism – she believed in me refining my skills. And so I did. Being a South African womyn is beautiful and challenging. That story alone is one of survival, being a creative black womyn is filled with paradoxes and I’m learning to be patient with the process of coming into my own. I’m grateful for my upbringing, for being a moTswana girl, for the gift of writing, which to this day, appeases me.

Which are some of the fashion stables whose work you like? Who would you love to work with?

Locally, I love where African fashion is at right now. I have worked with some local desigenrs Imveli Designs and Merwe Mode. I would really love to do something with Anisa Mpungwa, ALC, Matte Nolim, Jenevieve Lyons and Oxosi. I also really love Imprint, Maxhosa and Droomer. Maybe they’ll read this and call me up ☺ .

How would you describe your personal style?

Comfortable, retro, easy.

How has being a native South African and being immersed in its rich and eclectic culture affected your styling direction?

I like to embrace being South African as much as I can, whether it’s wearing bangles or a head-wrap or a pair of earrings from a local designer. It’s been challenging sometimes wanting to buy local but not having enough of it around or it being unaffordable. My country is so beautiful and culturally rich and inspiring, I really want to work with more local designers. I really think they need more platforms and shows and stores. I am really proud of my Tswana, Sotho and Zulu heritage.

In Mzansi Moodboard, Taking it Black is a special space featuring iconic African forerunners. Who are your style icons?

My mom, obviously. Brenda Fassie and the womyn of the late 80s. I love the style back then and my family(mom, aunts and older cousins) have given me some amazing articles of clothing from back then that I wear now. I love Solange, and her style us an eclectic mix of Diana Ross meets Queen Patra. I think a lot of the black womyn that I grew up looking up to and listening to were inherently stylish; Letta Mbulu, Yvonne Chakachaka and Janet Jackson.

You’re well known for utilizing social media to document your process. How has social media been useful? Do you think it affects how people perceive your work?

Social media is a great tool if used properly. I sometimes overshare-in my personal capacity and that has been something I am learning to balance. Although a lot of the work that creatives do is very personal, letting emotions govern the things you put on social media can be really detrimental. This is also hard because you want to be truthful. With Mzansi Moodboard, I always think of what inspires me and what I would want to see from a platform like that. Although I really believe in harnessing the power of social media, it can also be laborious and the things we see can be redundant. However, there is also so much you can do; conversations to be part of, stories to share, voices to hear. Images are powerful, so can words and social media makes it that much easier to share with thousands of people. There’s a lot of negativity in the world, I want to be part of the happiness, the good stuff.

Going on to your seventh issue, what should we look forward to from Mzansi Moodboard?

Envelope breaking, non-binary content that is beautiful, powerful and truthful.

You describe yourself as a Creative Visual Expressionist. What fuels your creative intentions?

Being black. Learning to love my blackness, my queerness, my otherness. Womyn. Re-writing history. Visibility. Representation. Truth. Love. Beauty of the unknown, of the strange and unapologetic black girl magic.

What do you believe is the role of the modern day Black artist?

To tell your story, to share your thoughts, even when your voice trembles, even if people say it isn’t pleasant or pretty or wanted or comfortable hear. It is your duty to do everything you possibly can to live in your truth. And I would like to believe that after that you will by default inspire those who come after you.

#Artist Spotlight #South Africa #Creative #Fashion #Palesa Kgasane

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itscosplay-dontbesalty-blog · 7 years ago

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#1. Blackface, Cosplay and a Lesson on Racism

Blackface is probably the most sensitive topic in cosplay and simultaneously the most unspoken about. The reason blackface is a sensitive issue and needs to be discussed through the lens of cosplay is because it has its roots in history and its branches in politics, society and culture as a whole, not simply the cosplay community. This blog post will define blackface as a practice and engage in its origin and historical meanings. Following this, I will then discuss why blackface is controversial in society today and make aware what it means when cosplayers don the ‘blackface’. Once its meaning and consequences are clear, one can then apply Banda, Mudhai and Tettey’s (2009) theories to blackface online and what new media platforms can do with blackface in the digital space.

Varró (1996: 57) defines the act of blackface as what is known as a logonomic system. This means that blackface is understood as “a semiotic construct where message and discourse are conditioned, initiated, received and understood according to current power relations” (Gabriella Varró 1996: 57).

This means that blackface previously had certain meanings that society understood and where ways of speaking meant certain things automatically because of the power relations at the time. These logonomic systems communicate the power relations (Varró 1996:58).

In the 1800’s, blackface belonged to the entertainment known as minstrelsy (Varró 1996:58).

This type of entertainment brought across messages of white racial dominance through the interactions, routines and rules in the shows (Varró 1996:58).

It has been previously argued that minstrelsy was either ‘just entertainment’ or was ‘authentic’ to the life of a black person at the time, however the blackface mask immediately marked the character as an other (in opposition, different to because of race) and made the black character the joke or the fool in the show (Varró 1996: 59-60). This was done by making the minstrel or the character wearing the blackface mask speak in a certain way – much like black people at the time were perceived to speak – and through physical features on the mask itself (large protruding eyes and large mouths) (Varró 1996: 60).

Later, for political and economic purposes, minstrel shows incorporated routines into the shows that put the minstrel or blackface actor in an inferior position to their white counterpart (Varró 1996: 59-61).

Therefore, one can see how the act of blackface minstrelsy was a political one. It was a way of sending messages to society via entertainment to support white supremacist politics.

How does this affect cosplay online?

When someone – particularly a white person - dons the blackface mask, that is, making ones skin darker to represent a person of colour, it replays and rehearses history and the meanings that were previously embedded in the 19th century blackface. Therefore whenever a cosplayer paints their face dark to ‘represent’ a black character, it is political because it is a replay of a undeniably political history.

Gigaba (2017) wrote an article addressing cosplay and blackface, explaining that it was a tool used to mock blackness as well as give power to white supremacy.

DeLa Doll (2016) writes an interesting article about her experience with a cosplayer who donned blackface makeup in order to ‘accurately portray’ a character because she takes her cosplay more seriously, and put this picture on Facebook. DeLa Doll’s (2016) particular view on the subject is blackface make-up is racially insensitive because of the blackface history and because when one does it, the makeup turns out inaccurate and just plain ugly.

Looking at the cosplayer in question, she surprisingly justified her reasons for using blackface as a means of accuracy – much like Varró (1996: 59) states how 19th century blackface minstrelsy was done for ‘accurate representation’. This cosplayer, and other cosplayers who have done blackface, are not automatically white supremacist (DeLa Doll 2016). They may not understand the implications of blackface and how doing it in the 21st century does not make it any less political but still serves as a catalyst for white supremacist views that were coded into it in history. Gigaba (2017) argues that blackface was intentionally political, therefore when a cosplayer dons the blackface, with knowledge or not, it sends a political message.

Therefore one can see that it may not be the cosplayer’s intention to rehearse racism from history, it still happens and is insensitive to those who have suffered because of it.

Banda, Mudhai and Tettey (2009:21) argue that new media can allow society to become watchdogs and advocates for change in the world today. This means that digital platforms allow most people the ability to check and change behaviour that denies the rights of democracy, improve current political discourses and structures and increase citizen participation (Banda, Mudhai & Tettey 2009: 23-30).

DeLa Doll (2016) and Gigaba (2017) are doing just that. These two online writers are changing politics by making cosplayers, as well as non-community members, aware of what blackface means historically and what it means in a modern context. DeLa Doll (2016) also shows how social media platforms allow cosplayers to act as watchdogs by checking behaviour that is racist (accidently or not) and teaching about insensitive behaviour when commenting on a photograph and sending personal messages. DeLa Doll does this by messaging the cosplayer who wore blackface (2016). DeLa Doll uses captions on a photo to show how inaccurate blackface can actually be and describes it as offensive. She also argues in Facebook’s messenger service about how changing oneself does not make one more accurate than the other and reminds her that it is insensitive (DeLa Doll 2016).

To sum up this argument aptly, “When cosplayers and fans alike escape into these fictional worlds, they should be aware that certain representations with the purpose of appreciation, like emulating race, can never be de-politicised” (Gigaba 2017).

In conclusion, donning dark make up to represent a character of colour will always be known as blackface as the act of blackface holds racist and political meanings that can never be changed. Due to history, and how minstrelsy functions as a logonomic control system, blackface will never be appropriate regardless of how one justifies it. Digital media can therefore serve as a way to check inappropriate behaviour and explain why that behaviour is inappropriate. DeLa Doll (2016) and Gigaba (2017) show how to utilize new media in order to change political gestures and teach others what is and is not appropriate. This blog also serves as an example of how digital media can change political codes by showing how previously racist’s acts should not be repeated.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then cosplayers should imitate that which does not flatter racism and racist control mechanisms but rather imitate that which builds up that character and democratic society as a whole. As appropriately said by DeLa Doll (2016), race is not a prop, don’t use it like one.

References:

Banda, F., Mudhai, O.F., Tettey, W.J. 2009. New Media and democracy in Africa – a critical interjection. In. Banda, Mudhai and Tettey (eds.) African Media and the Digital Public Sphere. London: Palgrave.

DeLa Doll. 2016. Blackface Is Ugly, And I’m Being Harassed: A Tale Of Cosplay And Cosplayers Gone Wrong. Huffington Post. Online. Retrieved October 30, 2017 from the World Wide Web: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/blackface-is-ugly-and-im-being-harassed-a-tale-of_us_57d00f10e4b0273330ab68aa

Gigaba, A. 2017. Cosplay – A Blurred Distinction Between Appreciation and Appropriation. Huffington Post. Online. Retrieved October 30, 2017 from the World Wide Web: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/ayanda-gigaba/cosplay-a-blurred-distinction-between-appreciation-and-approp_a_22492070/

Varró, G. 1996. Blackface Minstrelsy: An Alternative Discourse on Dominance. Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies. 2(1): 57-71.

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glenmenlow · 4 years ago

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The Strategic Rise Of Female Superbranders

Late last year, thousands seized YouTube as Reese Witherspoon climbed into an oversized clothing trunk sent by Witherspoon’s BFF Beyonce and climbed out wearing Queen Bey’s new Adidas X Ivy Park Collection.

Posted on Instagram, the stunt for Beyonce’s new activewear brand was viewed by gazillions.

This is just one of the continuing stream of launches activated by female entrepreneurs over recent months.

Bottom line, it’s not enough to be (just) a music artist or actor anymore. Those gigs are just platforms upon which female stars like Rihanna, Gwyneth, Oprah, Lady Gaga, Awkwafina, Jessica Alba and others have enabled themselves to launch entire marketing and media ecosystems.

Using their celebrity as a platform, these talents have moved over, under, upside and down to touch retail, health, beauty, wellness, book clubs, skin care, fashion, baby food and at the same time, transported themselves from music to film to television and vice versa.

This is a high stakes game in which it is no longer enough simply to have a product or service — that’s simply game stakes — you have to have a YouTube (or other video) presence, pop-in store, TV show, video game, music downloads, memes, print content (book, zine, oversize, lookbook, catalog), a festival, Virtual and Augmented Reality, monogrammed private airplane — and we’ll save the rest for later.

Rihanna, for example, not only pushed out her ninth album last year, but created what The New York Times Book reviewer Hunter Harris calls, “the golden age of Rihanna.”

She became the first black woman to lead a line at L.V.M.H. (via her Savage X Fenty lingerie line), has her own fashion house, Fenty Beauty, and her book “RIHANNA” has been published by Phaidon (retails at $150).

As pop culture phenomenista, Rihanna also captured an entire issue of British fashion and culture magazine i.D. in January 2020, to allow the multi-hyphenate artist and designer to highlight notable women across fashion, art, culture, activism and more.

“For me, this very special issue of i-D represents change and culture,” Rihanna said. “It is dedicated to some of the people who are progressively reshaping the communities across fashion, music, art, and activism — creating a more inclusive and diverse future.”

Dessa, a rapper artist living in New York City, has music as her art, a hit song on the “Alexander Hamilton” Broadway soundtrack, an incredible book titled “My Own Devices,” tours with Doomtree and her group of collaborators — in addition to her blogs, Facebook and Instagram posts, various personal appearances and more. (Dessa is currently launching a new something.) And you probably still haven’t heard of her.

But now you have.

It’s Not Enough For Brand To Make Things, You Have To Spread Your Message Across Multichannels

Superbrander Gwyneth Paltrow has held the reins at her growing wellness and lifestyle superbrand goop since 2008. GP softened the viewing public in a 13-part PBS series where she rode shotgun across Spain with food critic Mark Bittman and controversial food slugger Mario Batali. Paltrow started goop as a blog for the multicurious, all the while expanding (and defending) her blog against naysayers. Paltrow has authored several books, has had multiple appearances in The New York Times and recently launched a Netflix documentary series titled, “The Goop Lab” which promises magic mushrooms, healing workshops and everything you need to know about your wonderful V.

You don’t have to be a celebrity or entertainer to make this happen. Comparatively corporate Rose Marcario, who recently stepped down from her position as Patagonia CEO, leaves behind a spectrum of lateral ventures started under her watch that include not only a legendary sustainable clothing brand, but also food group Patagonia Provisions. Tin Shed Ventures funds small, sustainable environmental actions. And a new digital platform that is “part social network, part recruiting tool” titled Action Works that connects customers with environmental activist orgs.

These efforts, in addition to Patagonia’s catalogue of books, films, and outdoor gear, expand Patagonia’s total surround.

These examples are not simply clothing, Wellness, beauty and fashion meccas. They are exhibitions of how direct to consumer and expanding networks have turned flaccid textbook marketing-by-rote on its head.

Of course, the above template is not entirely new. A hundred years ago, female aviator Amelia Earhardt broke flight records, wrote bestselling books, gave speeches, talked her way through radio appearances, and designed a luggage and clothing collection before she disappeared into the gaping vastness of the Pacific Ocean.

It’s all about loving your fans and asking them to love you back. Then expand your networks by asking fans to invite their friends. Multiplicity multiplied by multiplicity is key.

In the past, superstars like Madonna (you can pick the star of your choice) released a photo book, a shoe or clothing line, or even created a new vodka between album cycles.

Some of these efforts were random one offs, the beginner’s guide to staying relevant.

Today they are part of the punch list for social cred, legitimacy, relevance and word of mouth (“Oh say, did you see?”).

As mentioned earlier, It is no longer enough simply to be an actor, musician, artist or performer — you have to have a YouTube (or other video platform) presence, pop-in store, TV show, video game, photographs, music downloads, memes, print content (book, zine, oversize, lookbook, catalog) — in addition to the website or APP, the Out Of Home wallboards, Influencers (if you have them), conferences (if you have them), tshirts, posters, water bottles, CRM, social content and TikTok, which has over 800 million active users worldwide (Datareportal, 2020) — more than LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or Snapchat.

And make sure you have embraced TikTok, which (at over 1.5 billion downloads) is currently the most downloaded app in Apple’s iOS app store.

And also le enfant TikTok, which receives nearly as much viewing time (52 minutes) as its elders Facebook (58.5 minutes), Snapchat (49.5 minutes), or Instagram (53 minutes).

In 2020, we stand solidly in the future of media. What 20 years ago might have been considered as PR-grabbing one-offs have become standard procedure. The Big Idea, a staple of traditional marketing is probably too strident today, too dull for consumers soaked by hundreds of similar products. Nothing kills a product faster than boredom.

The magic rites today are to create bigger numbers not only by buying audiences, but by creating circles. Embrace your circle of advocates, then ask them to help create new circles by seeking out their friend’s friend’s friend or circulating among other new, lateral communities.

Decade 2020 is a mirrorball of creativity: you need many new ideas and you need them right away all the time. Look at the signs — moving creativity in-house, adding auxiliary teams (aka Influencers), spreading storytelling across spontaneous streams in social, digital and traditional media.

Superbranders Do Not Imprison Themselves In A Single Category

Raging superbranders do not imprison themselves in a single category. They build flowers with many petals. When those flowers blossom and grow, they begin to build gardens. Their enterprise transforms itself into a greenfield resplendent with flowers, topiary and rare fruit trees. After which? They start building honey farms.

The future of media will not stay stuck in the past. Modern commerce today lunges after two simple data points: First, for startups, be aware that the public is only even blandly aware of you after they have heard about you from five different places. Second, it takes 100 hours to make a friend. Five places times 100 hours equals an omnichannel media plan that will lead to relevance, resonance and meaning.

(Follow up the sequence with: Do you like us? Will you please tell others that you like us?)

These are like curative powers for performance marketers who forsake long term rewards for short-term engagement.

Trying to keep such a content machine thriving, however, requires systematic intentional content. Ergo, a media ecosystem that drives social, digital and traditional media constantly fed with equal parts relevance, empathy and passion. These wicked smart female entrepreneurs feed the monster because the monster feeds them back.

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Patrick Hanlon, Author of Primal Branding

The Blake Project Can Help: Get actionable guidance from experts on Brand, Growth and Purpose strategy.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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sinceileftyoublog · 7 years ago

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Yamantaka // Sonic Titan Interview: Celebrating What’s Gone

BY JORDAN MAINZER

From a narrative perspective, it can be hard to separate any of Yamantaka // Sonic Titan’s albums from one another. The three records from the Canadian “Noh-wave” collective all take place in the world of Pureland, derived from a strand of Chinese Buddhism by name but resembling the Iroquois story of North America by theme. Their latest album Dirt (out now via Paper Bag Records) is the one that expands on the narrative the most; it has more words on it than on their first two, the amazing Y // ST and UZU. But as founding member/leader/drummer Alaska B inferred in our Skype conversation last month, the albums--especially Dirt--can stand on their own. Musically, it’s the most expansive and hardest album yet for the band. That all band members--including new members--now live in Toronto must have led to an instrumental kinship. With singer/theatre artist Ange Loft, keyboardist Brendan Swanson, singer Joanna Delos Reyes, guitarist Hiroki Tanaka, and bassist Brandon Lim, the band is able to create straight-up noise (“Hungry Ghost”) and power pop (“Out Of Time”) alike, while continuing their embrace of indigenous culture and instruments on songs like “Beast”. Dirt is the band’s most varied and perhaps cohesive effort yet.

In our conversation about the album, the band’s future, and the world today, Alaksa B touched on fan interpretations of the band, how the live show celebrates something that’s already over, and why “nihilism to an extent,” as she says, is the best way to make a better future for longer. Read the conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.

Since I Left You: Are all of your albums going to be continuing the narrative inside Pureland?

Alaska B: I would say yes.

SILY: How do you know when that ends?

AB: When it ends, that’s when the band would end.

SILY: Really?

AB: I don’t know. I don’t see us working in any other way. We’ve done projects like Severed [a video game the band scored], where we scored another world. But as far as us, we’ll always be kind of exploring the same universe.

SILY: To what extent are your fans entrenched in the narrative ideas of the albums, and to what extent do you think they just like the instrumentation or the music? Are the two able to be separated?

AB: I think that every decision we make musically keeps those concerns in mind. Once it’s been created, it’s not my position to worry about how other people take it afterwards. If you like the song, that works for me. If you want to get more into the narrative, then by all means, get more into the lyrics. But there’s not a right way to consume it. I’m never thinking, “Oh, I’m so misunderstood. They don’t see the deeper meaning.” The truth is that’s how people experience all things. People are always looking for themselves. It doesn’t always reflect the creator. People will tell me, “This thing you wrote helped me through a hard time.” Yeah, maybe it helped me through a hard time too, but they’re not the same experience. The way they identify with the songs are not how I intended. So I’m always interested to hear what songs people like. They usually end up being the ones I don’t like.

SILY: Is that true of the new record?

AB: I don’t know yet. It hasn’t been out that long.

SILY: Do you have any favorite or least favorite songs on it?

AB: I don’t know, I feel like it changes all the time. It comes down to what I’m prioritizing at the time. The eclectic nature of our album creation--trying to be as broad as possible--there are going to be parts that work better for me narratively but maybe not as well musically, and vice versa.

SILY: Has your approach to playing these songs live changed with the new record?

AB: We’ve been playing some of these songs for a while. We’re a slightly different lineup with two guitars. This album is much more focused on songwriting. We’re engaged and busy at all times. There are less drawn out, open areas. The biggest thing performing these songs live, something Ange said to me, is it’s the most brash, fun version of us. We’re not doing as many stage theatrics. In a weird way, we’re throwing a party for something that’s already lost. The album is supposed to relate to not necessarily loss--UZU was about loss--but kind of about life in its reflection of death. The more upbeat elements of the record are about celebrating something that’s already done.

When we talk about the current sociopolitical climate and climate change, these are the questions we grapple with. How do we stop or mitigate or accept--the part we have a bigger problem with--the extinction of many of our species, the destabilization of biospheres, etc.? These are things that are too late to stop. The same way we talk about sociopolitical issues facing the black community or aboriginal communities, right now, it’s this moment that’s happening. But things have been messed up for so long, these are the way things are now. Until you address that something is broken, you can’t even begin to fix it. With climate change, things like pollution and plastics you don’t want to think about and deal with. But that’s a barrier to acceptance.

So, live, in a concert setting, when you’re trying to pull people into this communal interaction, our intent is less about live narrative spookiness or wackiness but this much more human, last-ditch party before the end of everything. We know everything is kind of screwy. So playing music together is the way we come to terms with it. When we play heavy metal music live, there’s this element of evil people are trying to get at. But right now, the real evils of the world are so much darker than anything that metal addresses in general. I’m not so worried about death and gloom as I am real practical fears of the future.

SILY: How confident are you that, overall, the best is behind us?

AB: I don’t think it was ever “best.” Things are in decline--there’s a better and a worse. What we idealize as the best is probably done. And maybe something better will come along. But that’s only through shifting our way of thinking. I don’t like to romanticize another time period. Whatever damage we’re doing to the environment has been going on for hundreds of years now. We’ve always kind of been like this. We have to come to terms with things we’re trying to screw up.

SILY: What gives you optimism?

AB: Optimism for me doesn’t come from the hope things are gonna work out. Death is the norm. All of the things we enjoy about life are this fleeting moment. Optimism for me is coming to terms with the inevitability of the end of all things. That sounds like an isolating and scary thing to most people--which it is, to me, as well--but dealing with your eventual death and the pointlessness of it all, there’s a peace you can come to. It’s not necessarily happy, but it’s better than any other emotion.

SILY: What was the inspiration behind the album title?

AB: There was always a plan for our third record to be really ugly and heavy. We were always addressing issues of sovereignty and colonization and what exactly it means to live in a politicized state--not a nation-state, but the North American continent. We decided we wanted to develop the narrative more on this one. So we imagined a sci-fi anime on an Iroquois myth. It’s the story of the creation of Turtle Island. There’s a sky woman who comes down from a sky world who has to retrieve dirt from the bottom of the ocean and spread it on a turtle’s back to create a continent. A group of marine animals swims to the bottom, and in the process, one of them dies, but they retrieve the soil. It was kind of supposed to be about the sacrifice we make to create better outcomes, but also how that drive can lead to worse outcomes. It’s kind of like how inaction is the only safe form of action.

The theme behind the dirt itself is about humanity’s obsession with soil--the control, extraction, and use of it--and in this story, where hydroponics is the only source of food in these dome cities and there are no continents, what does that mean when they redevelop the technology to explore their own ruins? They open up to the possibility of retaining humanity’s glory. But it’s meant to be critical that there’s an easy solution that will go and fix things for us.

Dirt by Yamantaka//Sonic Titan

#yamantaka // sonic titan #interviews #music #paper bag records #pureland #chinese buddhism #north america #y // st #uzu #alaska b #ange loft #brendan swanson #joanna delos reyes #hiroki tanaka #brandon lim #iroquois #turtle island

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