#Really not beating the male living space allegations with that...

[blackwaxidol]

Had a nightmare, took my 10am medication at 5pm... but I finally showered, and changed my bedding... I also found a necklace I was worried I'd lost somewhere. I don't like jewellery very much but I make an exception for this because it is not particularly shiny.

It's a very unphotogenic necklace in my opinion. Sort of looks like a cursed artefact no matter how I try and capture it. Too much overhead lighting.

Copper(?), and a thing of raw kyanite. I'm too much of a knuckledragger to have recognised kyanite other than it being something I mined in Subnautica, but I like that game a lot so it was nice to see the real thing.

The weird sun... interesting story, my mother bought this necklace for me for my birthday specifically because she'd had the Sun tarot card drawn for her when she went to a reading before I was born. That, and the necklace chain is very short; I've always expressed an anxiety about losing necklaces because of how long the chains are and that the jewellery is too light to be noticed if it is missing. This necklace has a short chain and an unmistakable presence on the skin. Bueno 👍.

[bisluthq]

i think my 1st grade teacher was gay.

looking back, she does give me vibes. as does the gym teacher, which is where things get suspicious. the gym teacher Miss T and the first grade teacher Miss C were sisters. i always thought they had different last names because they had different fathers (Miss C was mixed race black and Miss T was white), but now i’m wondering if they were domestic partners and said “we’re sisters” to excuse their closeness and/or maybe excuse the fact that they lived together (i don’t know if they did or not).

furthermore, about a decade after i finished 1st grade, Miss C was fired under suspicious circumstances. she ended up fighting the “false allegation” and appealed all the way up to the archdiocese school board (it’s a catholic school btw), but her appeal was denied. (of course, back when this all was happening, we didn’t have the bostock decision protecting queer employees, and under hosanna tabor, it’s actually debatable whether bostock would apply to a private catholic school at all, even though we do receive federal grants and thus are covered by title vii and title ix)

Lmao this tracks. 

I am lucky in that I’ve had quite a few gay teachers - and it STILL took a really long time for me to figure shit out so like again, please don’t beat yourselves up about it guys.

The first I can think of for sure was my sixth grade teacher. She was OPENLY lesbian and would bring her wife to events which was pretty rad of her. I was at a day school in primary school so sex ed was done separately (girls and boys) and she got the task of doing sex ed for the girls in the grade and my ultimate moment was we had these government workbooks to work through right like basically “how to not get AIDS” because SA in the mid 2000s right and one set of pages was male and female anatomy. And she did the female anatomy with us, then looked at the other page with pure distaste and went, “Well if any of you really want to know this one day you can always find out. And that shouldn’t be soon, stay safe.” 

And I know a bunch of girlies complained to the school but the school took her side lmao (as did some progressive parents including my mom which, now that I’m typing this, is probably because my gay ass pinged from space tbh like who obsessively asks to be quizzed on Ashton Kutcher to impress their ‘friend’ like that’s fucking GAY but also she indulged me) and I LOVE THAT FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED TBH. 

Then at my high school two teachers were married and they were DADT about it but they lived together and came to school together and one was butch and one was femme even. 

And like I say if I lived in a metropolis with a HUGE gay community and gay rights enshrined into the constitution in its own separate subpoint and had OPENLY queer teachers or DADT queer teachers and parents who love me no matter what and I still found it hard I can’t imagine how hard it is for people who don’t have those things in place and so I am sending love to everyone who is out, closeted, or questioning this Pride month.

[sheathandshear]

I think there’s a certain kind of abuse pattern where the one-sided abuse is framed by the abusive party as mutual complicity in ~unhealthy relationship dynamics~. It’s not that one person is at fault; we’re both to blame! We need to work on our relationship! We need to both examine and appreciate how we’ve contributed to the situation! If we do the work on “us”, we can heal together! Except what the abusive party really means is that they’re going to bully, harangue, or trick the other party into saying that the abused party did things that they never did, and the only way to get a moment’s peace or end an “argument” is to admit and then apologize for these imaginary offenses (often at length, while providing physical/verbal/emotional comfort to the abusive party for being “hurt” by these things). And yet in this supposedly mutually unhealthy situation, the abusive party never seems to do the same. Of course they apologize when they’re wrong -- it’s just that, this time, they weren’t at fault! Actually, it was the other person’s bad behavior that caused this particular instance of conflict! They’ll loudly insist that they’ve worked hard to change for the better, that they’ve apologized many many times, and yet when you ask them to give specific examples -- well, they can’t just pull those off the top of their heads! Both parties are mutually responsible for their bad relationship in the abstract, but somehow every specific instance is always the one person’s fault. Obviously, gender does not map perfectly onto any pattern of behavior; there are always many exceptions to general rules. But from the times I’ve witnessed this in my own life, I strongly suspect that this particular abuse pattern is primarily perpetrated by people who are socialized and expected in gendered ways to be nurturing and non-aggressive and fix relationships that are broken -- women/girls, femmes, nonbinary people, transmasculine people & trans men who still carry that style of conflict resolution. And it gets especially ugly -- and difficult to identify, and easy to misinterpret -- when the abused parties are men/boys, who are expected to respond to conflict with anger, aggression, and violence, because when men are living in a exhausting environment of fear and hypervigilance and neverending non-violent abuse that they’re not socialized to recognize and are made to feel complicit in, their understandable pain and frustration occasionally erupts into violent, angry outbursts against the abusive party. (Not “beating the shit out of”, but shouting, destroying objects, shoving to get past them, whatever.) But rather than being recognized as what it is -- a victim lashing out against their abuser because they just want the abuse to stop -- it becomes proof that, at best, the relationship is “mutually abusive”, or more often, garners sympathy and support for the abusive (usually female) party because “oh my god, what an abusive piece of trash, you’re such a saint for staying with that guy!!!!!” Sometimes the abusive parties will even go around calling themselves “abuse victims/survivors” -- and genuinely believe that this is true! -- and demand legal/social consequences for their victims for displaying what was basically emotional self-defense. (And while I’ve witnessed this mostly in romantic relationships, this abuse pattern absolutely shows up in other relationships -- parent/child (usually mother/child), siblings, friends, etc.) Abuse victims/survivors are not believed by society. Male abuse victims/survivors are especially not believed by society, and super especially if their abuser was not also a man and the abuse wasn’t physically violent. All of which is to say, if you hear a person who is not a man make allegations of abuse against a male intimate partner without going into details, or providing kind of vague details, or using the language patterns of  ~relationship work~ that I talked about above -- maybe your first impulse shouldn’t be “believe them immediately without trying to get more details as best you can* and refuse to entertain any doubt or nuance”. And if your relationship sounds eerily familiar to what I’m describing... maybe your relationship isn’t “unhealthy” as much as just plain old gaslighting abuse, and you should leave if you have the ability to do so. *This doesn’t mean “demand intimate details from everyone who comes forward with an abuse claim” either, because society already does that and it’s bad and re/traumatizing as fuck for survivors. Often, there really isn’t a good way to get a good picture of a situation without making guesses or demanding details that you don’t really have a right to, and I don’t have a solution to that. But in the pendulum swing from “all allegations of abuse are false until absolutely proven true” to “believe survivors!”, I think you can and absolutely should make space for “sometimes victims lash out in ugly ways, sometimes abusers lie about being the real victim themselves, and certain categories of abusers who display certain patterns of abuse can get away with these lies more easily because the truth of their situations is inconvenient for cultural & political narratives of what ‘abuse’ looks like and how it should be responded to”.

[hwoodunlocked]

AROS KING INTERVIEW

I had a chance to sit down and have a talk with Aros King, 1/3 of King Brother. Shall I call them Kingos since no one needs Migos anymore, or are these boys male representation of Destiny’s Child? It’s up to you to decide if he’s the Beyonce out of the trio, but the talk was real. While interviewing the actor, entrepreneur, model and recording artist, my respect grew for him. Let’s be real, we all are biased towards all the celebrity kids, we assume they had everything they want and need since their birth. Turns out, Aros is far from being a spoiled one. Check the whole interview if you don’t believe my word.

Tommie: "Aros King himself, ladies and gentleman. Aros, thank you for stopping by. I would like to remind you and our Hollywoodians that our interview is not gonna be censored, and I’m looking forward for a sincere conversation. I hope you’re down for it, Aros, although you knew what we were about to do. But okay, how are you doing today? Glad to have you here today.”

Aros: "I'm doing good real good. Im glad to be here, this is the first interview I've had since I been back in LA so the feeling is likewise Tommie.”

Tommie: “It’s your first interview? Whoa, this shit right here, we serving you an exclusive, hunty, first interview by Aros King since he’s back in LA. Okay, but I’m not gonna beat around the bush. You’re here for a reason. You asked me to stop posting negative things about your brother. Negative or not but you have to agree that we never lied. Why would you want us to stop? I understand that it might throw a dark shade on your family, but hey, everyone know already that the King family is going through not the best times, I’d say.”

Aros: “I just think he’s going through and as gone through enough. It’s just that with all the negative I would like to try to focus on the positive. End of the day both my brothers are very bright individuals and are talented, and even though the times are dark I don’t want the drama and darkness to overshadow their gifts. We have younger siblings that are actively on social media, they go to school and they have their friends and I don’t want them to know everything that’s going on. I don’t want them to pay for our mistakes. Including the mistakes I’ve made in the past.”

Tommie: “I hear you, and it’s something I’ve expected to hear from you. I like how you try to keep a picture perfect and be a role model to your younglings, or, at least, you try to protect them from all the negativity that is going on around you and your family. But let’s face the fact that all of the shit that happened didn’t come out of the blue. Every decision that was made and action that had it’s play, everything has it’s aftermath. And right now, you speak on your brothers being bright individuals but we’ve seen your little fight with Xaire on live stream while you guys were in Aspen. And our readers are pretty good detectives and we’ve been getting these allegations that Xaire delivered a twitter shade once your music video came out… Doesn’t seem like you guys are on them good terms right now.”

Aros: Aros rolled his eyes and places his index finger on his lip and his thumb on his chin calculating his response. “He’s upset with me. I went on live drunk after the news got out about the charges, which I do publicly apologize for that wasn’t right. I can take my actions but not my words. And I don’t try to pay attention to social media, and to me his shade was probably thrown because he’s upset about the livestream I feel like it had nothing to do with my music. And just because we fight doesn’t mean I still won’t defend and praise them.”

Tommie: “Come on, pretty boy, I know you pay attention to social media, because who doesn’t? Okay, I’m messing with you, I do believe you, you just seem like that type of guy who googles his name or goes through the name tag on IG every five minutes. Ight, I see, you that one ‘I’m my family’s ride or die’ brother. If I’d compare you, brothers, to Migos, have you ever felt yourself like Takeoff, have you ever felt left off bad and boujee?” Tommie said in Takeoff’s interpretation. “What I mean is, you are adopted, have you ever felt like you don’t belong there? Have you ever felt not welcomed by your brothers, or sisters, or Deleon?”

Aros: Aros eyes widen at her response and he shakes his head, “A few times I have googled myself I mean I need to make sure google images doesn’t have any jacked images of me surfing around. I mean being adopted by Deleon was confusing, because technically only Xaire and my twin sisters are my siblings, but my Deleon wanted us to all look at each other as brothers so when my father wasn’t interested in being my dad, Deleon stepped up and did that. Which was confusing cause instead of one brother I have two, and biological Silas isn’t my blood, but I was raised to care for him like he was. At times I do feel left out, lets be real I don’t look like Deleon at all. I can’t do a harlem shake to shave my life, like they be doing all the time. Growing up I felt like we was all close but as we got richer things changed. Xaire and Silas have this bond that’s amazing and I just keep busy with work and when I’m not at work I’m with my twin sisters.” Aros says being completely honest with her. “It’s just when I found out my mom was divorcing Deleon and when I disowned her, she disappeared and then they just found her body in ⏤ . I came to realize family isn’t always promised and I never should have been angry at my mother for not wanting to stay in a relationship wasn’t happy with, I just really didn’t want to lose Deleon as a Dad.”

Tommie: “Growing up in a big family, it’s always hard, you know, especially when everyone know who the fuck you are and when ya’ll motherfuckers be rich as fuck. Everyone try to get in your business. Constant pressure. This shit is hard. Especially for you, but I look at you and I see a young man who knows how to handle things. I like hearing the love and respect in your voice when you talk about Deleon, and I’m sorry about your mother. I can feel your pain because I’ve been through a lot with my mom, my sisters, my brothers, but at the end of the day, family is family. Speaking of Deleon. Where he is? I just seen a Christmas picture of him and twins yet I never heard about him taking over The Deleon Dynasty. What’s up with the label?”

Aros: “Deleon is still in LA and he is at home he just locked away figuring things out. And since the summer no one as ran the label and since I’m done filming at the moment I figured why not move back to LA and help run the label, Since Silas is no longer interested in taking over the label. So the label is going through a revamp, I changing up a few contracts and trying to sign new artist so my Father will have something to come back to, Like our family as other businesses but the label is the biggest money maker. So I was thinking when all the changes are made we can do a welcome back show sometime in the New Year.”

Tommie: “Interesting, interesting. Is the ol’ man depressed or something? But what’s your vision about the label? What changes you about to make, and how you see it the nearest future? And what about the artists? I’ve heard a lot of artists have been running away like rats from a sinking ship.”

Aros: “I think he’s in shock with the attempted murder, the murders, losing money, losing big at the BET awards and everything else he just needs a moment. I want to rebrand the label and keep my father the face of the label since he is the genius behind it all. I replaced all the staff and I understand that some artist will leave but they won’t have the same support anywhere else, My father does care about his artist and the music industry. XXXTentacion benefit charity concert was a huge hit and my father planned that show in two days. Unlike these other labels we care and we let our artist express themselves freely, we get the best care we can get for our athletes signed under us. Regardless of the bullshit The King Family produces magic we are still black excellence.”

Tommie: “Long Live X. Okay, I’m all here for the black excellence. Tell me more about artists though, who’s on a label, who you’d like to sign and looking forward to work with?”

Aros: "Well I’m working on signing 6ix9ine, and I don’t know...I haven’t met all the artist I just want to give them a creative space to work in to make this money."

Tommie: “You’re trying to sign 6ix9ine? Who would’ve known. Well, I think it’s all I wanted to know. Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and vision with us. Anything else you’d like to say before you leave?”

Aros: “Make sure to check out all out success coming in 2019!! Don’t sleep on the King’s!!”

[southeastasianists]

Female activists are battling the system and rampant misogyny in the fight to have their voices heard. Southeast Asia Globe explores the challenges facing some of Malaysia’s most prominent female civil society leaders

Maria Chin Abdullah turns to an empty page in her notebook and begins to sketch an outline of her cell. She knows it was in Kuala Lumpur, but, blindfolded every time she was taken out of it, has no sense of its exact location.

The 62-year-old draws the four walls, the concrete bench where she slept, the two strip lights along the ceiling, the door with its one-way hatch and, in the corner, the shower with the air-conditioning – sometimes hot, sometimes cold – blowing directly above it.

This cell – she thinks it was probably in a basement – is where Chin was held in solitary confinement after being detained by Malaysian police on the eve of last November’s Bersih 5 protests, which called for electoral reform and an end to corruption.

In all, the Bersih leader was held for 11 days, nearly all of it under SOSMA, a law introduced to deal with terrorists. Accused of “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy”, Chin was eventually released without charge.

“It is really unjust,” she says. “You detain me under SOSMA, put me in solitary confinement, interrogate me on a daily basis over many, many hours, and yet you can’t even come up with charges. This is all part of the intimidation.”

The mother of three is perhaps contemporary Malaysia’s best-known civil rights activist, capable of convincing tens of thousands of Malaysians to take to the streets to demand free and fair elections and an end to corruption.

But Chin is not the only woman making a mark in the country’s small, but vocal, civil society. The government might be keen to talk about its initiatives to propel more women into decision-making roles in business and the public sector, but women are already at the forefront of issues from refugee and migrant rights to religion, heritage conservation and the environment.

In their work, they battle a patriarchal society where men still dominate politics – the country has been under the same central government since independence in 1957 and has never had a prime minister who wasn’t male or Malay, the majority ethnic group – as well as preconceived notions about what women should and shouldn’t do.

“I don’t really look my age, so sometimes they feel they don’t have to take me seriously,” says Yasmin Rasyid, 42, a US-trained biologist who founded the non-profit EcoKnights 12 years ago. The group spends about 80% of its time on environmental advocacy. “I’m kind of cursed in a few ways. Female is one, being not a typical image of a Muslim woman is another… In this field, I feel that I always have to prove myself.”

Cynthia Gabriel, a Malaysian of Sri Lankan ancestry who made her name in the human rights group Suaram and helped found the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) three years ago, has also felt the pressure to conform to stereotypes in her work as an activist and a councillor. Gabriel spent eight years on the Petaling Jaya council after being appointed in 2008 (there are no local elections in Malaysia).

“It’s not just being a woman,” the 44-year-old says. “In this country I’m also a minority and I’m also small [Gabriel is about 1.57m tall]. When I was on the council and had to do a lot of public engagement work, I could tell immediately when the public sees me coming they would think: ‘Oh my God, she’s a woman and she’s so tiny!’ The first impression is: how can we take her seriously? It’s daunting, but it has never stopped me from speaking my mind.”

Out of 222 seats in Malaysia’s federal parliament, women hold just 23; in the cabinet, only three of the 35 ministers are female. Few women hold seats at the state level either.

“It’s nothing to do with the individual’s ability to take up leadership roles,” says Maznah Mohamad, associate professor in the Department of Malay Studies at the National University of Singapore, who is attempting to convince parties at the state level to adopt a policy of women-only additional seats to kickstart gender representation. “It’s the other things: the networks, the money, the patronage, your links with the party. There is no shortage of capable women to run for political office, but the conditions are still not there.”

Sexism and discrimination is so common in public life that the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality, a collective of seven women’s NGOs, holds an annual awards event to highlight the worst offenders and raise awareness about the extent of the problem.

In April, one MP claimed that nine-year-old girls were “physically and spiritually” ready for marriage and that there was nothing wrong with a rapist marrying his victim. The law under debate when he made his comments – to outlaw child marriage – failed to pass.

A few months later, during discussions on domestic abuse laws, one MP claimed men suffered “abuse” when their wives criticised them, refused to have sex or didn’t let them take a second wife. Male MPs have also ridiculed women for having periods, to chortles from some of the other men in the House.

It is the kind of environment in which threats and intimidation against women thrive, and those who are most visible – the campaigners and the few politicians – are easy targets.

In the weeks leading up to Bersih 5, Chin received a death threat showing her and her sons beheaded in an Isis-style execution. C4’s Gabriel has endured numerous threats to her safety in her campaign to uncover the truth about Malaysia’s $1.2 billion purchase of two submarines from France in 2002, a deal tarnished by allegations of kickbacks and the murder of a mistress of one of the key players.

“You cannot back off in pursuit of the truth,” the 42-year-old tells Southeast Asia Globe during an interview at her office.

In July, a French judge investigating the alleged kickbacks indicted Abdul Razak Baginda, who negotiated the deal and was an advisor to Najib Razak, then the minister of defence and now Malaysia’s prime minister. Two top French executives have also been indicted. “That’s what makes you strong and resilient. You must do as much as you can, while you can,” Gabriel adds.

Earlier this month, as the sun began to set over the centre of Kuala Lumpur, about 1,000 women took to the streets in protest at what they called the country’s “toxic” politics.

“Long live women! Long live Malaysia!” they shouted as they congregated outside a shopping mall, hemmed in by elevated walkways and a small number of police separating the crowd from the traffic. Carrying bunches of purple balloons and holding hand-drawn banners aloft they walked to a cacophony of drums, stopping behind a pick-up truck transformed into a makeshift stage.

Chin was among the organisers of the event, which was in some ways a ‘who’s who’ of the most well-known women in Malaysia’s public life. C4’s Gabriel was in the crowd. Marina Mahathir, renowned for her work on HIV/Aids, stood on a truck at the front of the procession with her mother. Alongside them was Faridah Ariffin, a former ambassador and outspoken member of G25, the influential group of former civil servants calling for a more moderate Malaysia. Chin’s predecessor at Bersih, lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan, was there too. As was Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the current head of the opposition.

“We have so little power everywhere else, and this [rally] was a space to assert some kind of voice. To see a lot of women coming together like that, it renews a sense of hope”

On the street, as successive women clambered aboard the truck to rally the crowd, Maryam Lee and her friends beat their drums. The 25-year-old founding member of Projek Dialog, a group set up to encourage Malaysians to talk about issues such as religion and sexuality, which are usually batted away as ‘too sensitive’ to discuss, is one of a growing number of younger women seeking to make their mark in civil society.

“It just felt powerful,” she says of the rally. “We have so little power everywhere else, and this was a space to assert some kind of voice. To see a lot of women coming together like that, it renews a sense of hope.”

Lee, who’s been the target of vicious social media attacks, particularly around her decision to stop wearing a headscarf, says it was her time as a student that awakened her to the injustices around her and fuelled her activism. She was an undergraduate at Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia’s biggest university, which is open only to bumiputera – the official term used to describe the country’s ethnic Malay majority and other indigenous people.

“My first question was: why are there no Chinese and Indians?” she recalls during an interview at her home in an eastern suburb of Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia has significant populations of people of Chinese and Indian descent, and increasing numbers of mixed marriages.

These days Lee calls herself an “intellectual activist”, which she defines as someone who aims to shape public opinion, and is pursuing a master’s degree in development studies at the University of Malaya.

Universities, whether at home or overseas, have proved a fertile training ground for the Malaysian women now shaping civil society. Analytical chemistry may seem an unlikely degree for someone who now fights corruption, but it was the subject that introduced Gabriel to campaigning after she helped an NGO investigating suspected nuclear contamination at a village in northern Malaysia. Later, she studied for a master’s in law.

For Chin, her studies in England coincided with the Vietnam War and a political awakening across campuses in Europe and the US. Back home, too, it was a time of tension. Race riots had stunned Malaysia in 1969, leading to affirmative action in favour of the bumiputera – a policy that remains in force today – while industrialisation was creating new challenges for workers, and women.

When Chin returned to Malaysia she took up the fight for women’s causes using the skills she’d learned as a student to cajole and persuade. Gradually, her interests expanded.

While Chin has endured intimidation and harassment, she has no intention of caving in.

In detention, she was questioned every day, but stood her ground. “The same questions over and over and over, but asked differently,” she recalls. “I was asked to give names. It was like pushing me to confess to something I didn’t do.”

Bersih 5 continued without Chin and the 14 other activists who had been arrested the night before. Despite the intimidation, at least 40,000 people still filled the streets and the group’s leaders immediately announced they would hold a vigil every night until Chin was released. The Kuala Lumpur authorities soon closed off Merdeka Square in the centre of the city where they planned to hold their vigil, but people came anyway, while hundreds of women marched to parliament to show their support for the jailed civil society leader.

On 28 November, Chin was freed. She is convinced it was those public campaigns that helped secure her release.

“They don’t realise that the strength of the people who support us has always been constant, and that gives us the courage to speak out,” she says. “The fear is always there: the fear of arrest. But you know that you won’t be alone, even if you’re in solitary confinement.”

[dontshootmespence]

Fade to Black

A/N: An Elle x Reader fic of my own design shortly after Elle leaves the Bureau. Y/N is also a former law enforcement agent (though from the CIA and not the FBI). Tired of working for a system that lets certain people escape the system free of consequences, they decide to take matters into their own hands. What happened to Elle with The Fisher King remains, and the reader has a past checkered with sexual abuse. @coveofmemories @sexualemobitch @jamiemelyn @cherrybombs-and-rabbitholes

Warnings: Mention of rape

                                                             -----

“Hey, babe.” 

Plopping down on the couch, the two of you started going over the files upon files in front of you. Scouring for your next target was difficult - not because of a lack of them, but because there were too many to sift through. “How the hell are we supposed to pick who’s next?” Elle asked you. “There are so many of these fuckers out there and we can’t get them all.”

“Well,” you said, leaning your head against her shoulder, “Between us working outside the law and those working in the law, we just have to focus on the fact that less people are going to be harmed. We can’t stop them all, but someone will remain safe because of what we’ve done.” You kissed her on the cheek as she placed two files in front of you.

“You pick this time.”

Normally, you went back and forth each time, switching off on who would pick. You tended to go for the boys with money that got off scot free because of daddy’s connection - because that’s exactly what had happened to you. Though Elle hadn’t been raped, she had been violated in her own home, so when the two of you met at a bar and began talking about your pasts in veiled terms, you realized how similar you were, and your relationship, both romantic and “professional” had grown steadily from there. 

Given both of your pasts in law enforcement, it had taken you a bit of time to get used to working outside the law, but too many people fell through the cracks in the system and then went on to do the same or worse things, and you had the ability to stop it. “Michael Baker,” you said, his name rolling off the tip of your tongue. “White male. Age 25. Accused of raping and beating his ex-girlfriend. Got off because she couldn’t put herself through a rape kit and she was his ex so the local police chalked it up to rough consensual sex.” Your eyes nearly rolled all the way back. “And Kace Nelson of the famous Nelson law family,” you said, your tone dripping with disgust. “University student named Riya Solomon got picked up at a bar by Kace and woke up the next morning in a field near the school with bruises on her legs and no pants. She went through all of the rape kits and questioning and evidence retrieval only to have the allegations seemingly washed over...I think you know which one I want to go for.”

“You know this one’s going to be more difficult, right? They are a prestigious family.”

It would be more difficult. And as always, you’d do your homework, looking into the criminal to ensure that he (or on occasion she) was still offending and that it hadn’t just been a one-off. Only once had that background check proved a singular incident. Every other time, they were multiple offenders, either using the system to their advantage, or serving their time and going back to the lives they knew. “I know it will. But we’ve been meaning to switch up the MO for a while so law enforcement doesn’t catch on. Let’s start with this one.”

“Okay,” she said, gathering you to her shoulder. “Now I know you picked, but you know the deal.”

You sighed. “Yea, I know.”

Whenever you picked, it tended to be because they tugged at your heart in same way, their victims similar to you and their rapes similar to your own, and vice versa for Elle, so whoever picked, the opposite would be the “lure” bringing in the men to certain doom. Elle was the lure this time; it was easy for both of you to lure people in; they were always, unequivocally stupid, at least below the waist.

Neither of you ever disclosed the amount of people you’d targeted and eliminated, preferring to keep the number as an ambiguous thing in the back of your mind. That number wasn’t important. The number of people you saved from savagery was what mattered to you both. 

“Time to gather intel on Kace Nelson,” you said.

                                                            -----

Over the next few weeks, both you and Elle took turns gathering information on Kace, following him to bars and watching as he’d put date rape drugs in the drinks of the women he attempted to pick up. While it always made you livid beyond belief, you’d let the drugging happen if you couldn’t get to the drink without being seen, and wait until your target, in this case, Kace, walked out. Whoever was there, you or Elle, would knock them out and take the girls back home.

Kace was without a doubt a repeat offender - and he felt no shame for what he’d done to Riya, bragging about it to friends at a party. After you both felt you’d gathered enough information to focus in on him permanently, you devised a plan. ”I have an idea,” Elle said. “I am the primary target. But you’ll be there too. I’ll lure him in. Make him think he’s gonna get some and then I’ll invite you over.”

“And he’ll think he has us both,” you said with a smile. The lure of the threesome; sometimes it was too easy. Kace was going to be at a very large networking event, so although he was a “notable” person, he would amongst a sea of them and would quickly fade into the background. To be safe, you both had a fair number of disguises you switched between. “Then what?”

“We get him drunk. There’s a very thick forest right next to the gala he’s attending. We tell him to meet us out there in five minutes time for a bit of exhibition and then I’ve got this.”

When you looked down, you saw a bottle of succinylcholine, a paralytic used during surgeries that if given in large doses would kill and leave the body quickly, leaving very little trace. You’d only used “succs” once before, and it had gone well. “You gonna be able to do this one?”

“Yea, I’ve got this.”

Another scumbag off the streets. Another victim safe from harm.

                                                              -----

Later that night, you put on understated dresses, wanting to stand out to him, but not to anyone else. For the majority of the night, you flitted among the space separately, giving Elle a glance when she lured in Kace. 

Four hours passed before you got a text from Elle.

Leaving now. See you in a few.

Everything was always very quick, details discussed beforehand just in case things did lead back to you. They never did. You switched up the MO and the murder weapon too often. Though you were never under the delusion that you could never be caught.

As you approached the patch of trees, you heard Elle giggling, a strained one that told you that you were right on time. “So this is your friend?” he slurred. “Two blonde beauties.” Elle had dyed her hair instead of donning a wig this time and he was so drunk he hadn’t noticed you were a redhead and it was a wig. He turned back to Elle, kissing her neck as she motioned for you to reach around front and play with the buttons of his shirt.

For a few moments, you did, removing the shirt from his trousers as his hand rose around Elle’s neck. “Oh no way, baby,” she said, wagging her finger in his face. “I don’t do that kind of thing.”

“Oh come on,” he whined, practically collapsing into her he was so drunk. That’s when you made your move, pulling out a very thin needle and using the medication. Within minutes, he’d collapsed on the floor and with gloved hands, you checked his pulse. 

“Gone.”

It was perfect timing really. Rain had just started to fall. “Ready to go?” she asked. 

You nodded and grabbed her hand, quickly returning to the car. It would be about an hour’s drive home, and halfway there, you pulled to a campground and found a fire pit, placing your dresses and wigs into the flames, while you threw the medicine bottle and needle into the pond nearby. Once everything had been sufficiently burned, you cleaned up the ashes and tossed them out the window on the way home. 

“I think we’ve covered all bases,” you said.

Elle nodded as you pulled up to home, nearly three hours later. “Now it’s time for bed.”

                                                             -----

The next morning, you awoke to the paper. It wasn’t front-page news, but that was a good thing. The headline read, “Famed Party Animal Kace Nelson Dies After a Night of Heavy Drinking.”

A period of rest.

And then onto the next one.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

American Liberalism Should be Courting Geek Culture, Not Accusing it of Producing the Alt-Right

Right. I just read a fairly alarming allegation on this here Internet thing. According to Someone On Twitter (who seems to think they’re an authority on the subject), a lot of the neo-nazi ‘alr-right’ bullshit we’ve been seeing lately can be traced back to geek culture in general and gamers in particular. Uh... huh. That sounds fake.

To begin with, I should admit that I do take this as a personal insult. I’m a lifelong gamer, comic book fan and all-round geek. I’m also a far-left economic socialist with socially liberal views. I’m about as far away as its possible to get from the alt-right without actually mounting Leon Trotsky and riding him off the other side of the political spectrum like a big, gay, communist unicorn. But let’s discount my individual feelings of affrontery in this matter. Let’s try to be fair and look into this fairly astonishing claim as objectively as possible. It still sounds fake. Let me explain why.

Firstly, geeks and gamers aren’t a huge homogenous mass, and ‘geek culture’ doesn’t have any monolithic, politically-unifying identity. The idea that enough geeks would agree on an entire political ethos (especially an extreme and monstrous one) to boost it into popularity doesn’t really ring true. Have you fucking met us? We can’t even agree on whether Superman’s outer-layer underwear should make a comeback or not.

Secondly, most geeks became geeks because we find the real world a bewildering and deeply alarming place. Most of my home-boys just want to be left alone to reread Lord of the Rings and fap to Battleborn porn (oh fuck off- Overwatch gets enough free plugs on this site). The last thing most sane, ordinary geeks want is to be dragged back into the political sphere where they have to confront the self-same bewildering arseholes they dived into fantasy, sci-fi and weird Japanese tentactle sex-epics to get away from.

Actually, I think I’ve figured out where this idea came from. Y’see, what geeks want is to be left the fuck alone to be geeks. Consequently, most geeks hate SJWs, because they never leave anyone the fuck alone. I think its easy for people on the Internet who aren’t really paying attention to mistake this (admittedly quite vocal) distaste for SJWs for a sign of far-right sympathies. In 9/10, it isn’t. As we’ve already established, I’m very left-wing and very liberal. I agree with a lot of the causes that SJWs represent... but even I think the people themselves are aggregious, megaphoning tosspots. Attacking specific pieces of geek media for not catering to certain demographics has been a really popular past-time amongst SJWs for the past few years. I’ll agree that there’s a representation issue in some branches of geek cultural output, but that should be solved by introducing new IP, not beating existing, beloved franchises into Zee Dezignated Acceptable Form. Anyway, long story short, geeks naturally don’t appreciate having these jackoffs wandering around their cultural space picking holes in everything, for much the same reason that homeowners don’t like random pricks wandering in off the street and loudly judging their soft furnishings. We didn’t pick those floral pattern curtains/pseudo-mythic self-transceding male narrative for you, fuckface! Nobody even told us you were coming!

The point is that most geeks are probably nice, well-meaning people. Most of the ones I know are also left-leaning and/or fairly liberal. They’re not far-right bigots. They don’t object to social progress and cultural evolution. They just object to being admonished by judgmental hark-at-me-aren’t-oh-so-progressive twats.

Look, the geek community are worth courting as allies against the far right. We’re living at a time when the president of the world’s most powerful nation is a racist tangerine who wants to ostericise every demographic group in the country except his own. A sense of ostericisation and otherness is an important part of geek identity (albeit to a lesser degree than genuinely-oppressed groups). The point is, a geek’s natural inclination is to be against the forces of ostericisation, dehumanisation and otherisation. Please attend closely American Liberals: THESE PEOPLE HAVE A LOT OF CULTURAL CAPITAL AT THE MOMENT BECAUSE OF HOLLYWOOD’S SUDDEN, WEIRD OBSESSION WITH ALL THINGS NERDY. WHILE THEY REPRESENT A WIDE VARIETY OF DIFFERING POLITICAL VIEWS, MANY WILL BE NATURALLY INCLINED TO YOUR POINTS OF VIEW. THEY COULD HELP YOU.

Look folks, the situation is desparate, particularly in America. The lunatic right-wing fringe is winning. Maybe- just maybe- you shouldn’t spend so much fucking time deliberately alienating people who would probably make pretty good allies if you didn’t spend so long screaming at them and accusing them of creating a problem they have nothing to do with. Most geeks aren’t the right-wing nutbars who used GamerGate to spread their foul ideology. Most geeks are perfectly lovely people who might be tempted to help... provided you back off for five ever-shitting minutes.

[newyorkisartsyfartsy]

Arts and Culture Reporting Final Exam

By: Eliza Peppel

Question #1:

Carl Andre’s Lack of Artistic Individuality

American sculptor Carl Andre (b. 1935) is well known for his minimalist, geometric pieces. To me, these peieces are not only visually unimpressive, but lack any sort of meaning, depth, or originality. They tend to do close to nothing for the eye, and while Andre claims he tries “desperately in a world of replicas to produce things that are not replicas of anything” (quote from 1972), his pieces are reminiscent of sidewalks, flooring, or simple cubic shapes. Even he seems to, at times, be aware of when he falls short, saying, during the construction of his piece The Last Ladder, “I realized the wood was better before I cut it, than after. I did not improve it in any way” (1959).

Carl Andre is also known for being married to, and accused of the murder of, fellow artist Ana Mendieta. Mendieta was a Cuban multimedia artist whose work explored violence, sex, and death, often shocking viewers. The two were married for less than a year when Mendieta fell from their shared apartment window during an argument and was killed. Supposedly the two argued often about their success as artists and their work.

To me, Andre’s career is an excellent example of the ease with which male artists too often achieve success and vast recognition. He is an embodiment of privilege. For centuries, female artists have lived in the background of the art world, having to work twice as hard or pick up on amazing luck to be recognized as deserving of the same respect as their male counterparts. In my eyes, Andre is famous because he is a wealthy man who makes art, not because his art is impactful, or because he is intelligent. Whether or not Andre murdered Mendieta, the two married artists still tell an engaging story. Mendieta’s work drips with boundary-pushing meaning, exposing her grief, exploring death and sexuality, which took a toll on her reputation and success. Andre doesn’t seem to take any sort of risks in his work. He seems instead to live on a pedestal, basking in the grand recognition and his alleged superiority to others.

Question #2:

The Catharsis and Romance of David Bowie:

How one man raised a world full of teenagers.

When I was 14 my dad took me to the David Bowie exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on a rainy day. I knew close to nothing of Bowie, besides the memory of the Hunky Dory album cover, and the grainy image of him pulling his blonde hair back (I thought it was a woman). The exhibit focused on his costumes and clothing, including jewelry, platform shoes, wigs. I was utterly absorbed. At 14, I had a stubborn habit of hiding away, not believing most parts of myself to be potentially valuable, and not thinking of living as anything someone like me could make anything out of besides the ordinary. David Bowie made me see life as a performance, a party. While suppressing myself had become second nature, David Bowie danced his feelings, adored being the center of attention. Openly bisexual and visibly androgynous, Bowie gave sexuality a new meaning. He embraced the blur, erased the lines: Got your mother in a whirl, she’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl.

I didn’t hate my parents, but I often resented the typical expectations they stood for. I was determined not to live like I was expected to. Throughout my teens, Bowie’s music seemed to be a soundtrack to a personal revolution, one where I enjoyed myself, saw my own value. A perspective emerged in which things didn’t need to be taken so seriously. In “Space Oddity”, Bowie pokes fun at the space race, at men in suits on computers fulfilling desperate childhood astronaut dreams with a sort of disgusting solemnity. Bowie reminded us we’re children, animals even, with an inevitable wildness we cannot continue to deny.

When he died, I grieved as I would for a friend or a mentor, as much of the world seemed to. His death seemed to move the world that he helped raise, all teenagers he saved from their own respective decades. I felt like I had been left alone to fend for myself. Bowie seemed to become the “Starman” that he sang about: There's a starman waiting in the sky, He'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds. He had always been saying, as the starman does, Let all the children boogie.

As I got older and left home, entering college, his music started to become more saddening. Listening to “Five Years” while making my way through a glum crowd in the dead of New York City’s winter, I wasn’t thinking about revolution, or joy, or sexuality, I was thinking about death, about all the missed connections, wasted love, the unrequited, the end of the world, of childhood. The song wasn’t about making the most of anything anymore, it was about everything that had passed by when I wasn’t looking.

David Bowie’s unapologetically provocative existence expanded the concept music in an immeasurable way. His work is less about his voice or talent, and more about his presentation of an entire self, which he sewed to his music. To listen to a song is to listen to his desires, philosophies, and energy. He turned the world on its head.

Fun (but serious) #1: Singalong

A song I love from the class playlist is “ABC’s of New York” by Princess Nokia. I’d never heard of Princess Nokia before, and I love the song because while it’s a laid back lo-fi jam, it’s also an incredibly dense commentary on New York City culture, a detailed snapshot. The song consists of a pretty extreme list of typical New York City images (including Tompkins Sq Park, skater boys, and bodegas), played along a smooth beat and intermingled with relevant sound effects (such as a recording of the subway doors warning statement).

Princess Nokia is a New York native so it seems only natural she’d pen such a skillful love letter to her hometown. It’s a reminder of my appreciation of the city’s quirks, both pretty and ugly. New York is a polarizing place full of extremes and energy, and it’s easy to get fed up or tired out. “ABC’s of New York” is a song that brings out the city’s personality, and brings back the charm.

Fun (but serious) #2: Reflection

The only thing that’s changed is how much I appreciate Jonathan Richman. On the worksheet I mentioned him in my answer to question 5, and how my parents passed his music down to me and how much of a comfort it is. However, I’ve really come to love him more in the past months. I saw him live again and it moved me in a new way. I can’t stress the amount of carelessness he seems to carry, and how light and contagious it is. At 67 he plays live incredibly often and in concert, he improvises lyrics, sings in multiple languages, recites poetry, and dances wildly to instrumentals. His energy is unmatchable. He has a way of making any stresses seem nonexistent. To me he’s reminiscent of a prophet, handing out wisdom through song, and perpetually finding the humor and tenderness in everything. I have so much love for him and his work.