#also fat chosen propaganda

[dr3am-b3an]

(Body type hcs)

sticks but in shapes other than sticks

[spicymalepolls]

ROUND THREE: POLL #2 - Semifinals

ROUND 3 ALL POLLS [HERE]

PROPAGANDA BELOW

🔞 18 + Content Ahead 🔞

Shen Qingqiu/Yuan:

*Warning! Light spoilers for the entire book!*

There are canonical, in-world, ooc hardcore rpf porn of him and his husband written by other characters, heavily featuring how sexy and domninatable he is. Shen Qingqiu has his chest stripped, causing his love interests gay awakening, his clothes torn sexily when in prison, his clothes torn and his waist caressed under house arrest, had the narrative interrupt his 'I must look like an old man' inner monolog to say he was looking fine as hell, and had an evil alternate version of his husband try to sleep with him despite looking just like that guy's childhood abuser.

Shen Qingqiu is also described as having a fat ass and long sexy legs in the explicit extras.

Image #1 (Rule 34)

Image #2 (Rule 34)

Olivine:

He's a guy from a BL porn gacha, so he quite literally exists to be lewded. Facts about him that make me feral:

- he's a big titted priest with nipple piercings, and it's all but stated that he pierced himself

- you see the outfit in the back in the official art? that's his formal preaching outfit. he preaches in that. not all the time, but that's because the outfit is, in his words, too formal.

- is a masochist. NuCa is one of those gachas that has damaged clothes portraits when characters take damage in battle, and in every single one of his variants, he has an ahegao in the max damage portrait. in all but one variant he has heart eyes with that ahegao. I have chosen my favorite from many choices to include in the image propaganda.

- one of his home screen lines is thinking out loud about how he's heard that having a dick piercing feels good, but then he realizes he's talking out loud and goes "ah! never mind, you didn't hear that..." it's adorable.

- has a scene where he gives a tit job, and cums just from giving said tit job. it was his first time giving a tit job and apparently he has a natural talent for it, and got turned on when he was praised for this.

- and also he loves sucking cock.

- and also loves being creampied.

- one time he fucked in a confessional booth. has a lot of public sex scenes, actually. he's also into exhibitionism.

I know he's going to immediately get swept because NuCa isn't /that/ well known as a game but like. Look at him. He's so submissive and breedable and incredibly lewdable

Image #1 (Official Art)

Image #2 (Danbooru)

Image #3 (Twitter)

Image #4 (Twitter)

Image #5 (Twitter)

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Rose Quartz Propaganda

"We saw her character arc in reverse!! We first saw all the good she did and then learned of her terrible actions in the past. If her story was told the other way around, it would have been a great redemption arc. Yes, she did some terrible things, but she had no choice. She did everything she could to stop the colonization of earth peacefully buy nothing worked. Blue and yellow diamond just didn't listen to her and when they did, THEY were the ones who made the zoo and shit. Rose wanted to free them but couldn't get to them after the war! And with the corruption, there's no way she could have known that'd happen. There's so many things she wanted to do but just couldn't. And with spinel, yes it was shitty to leave her alone for so long, but again, between running her court, running the rebellion, dealing with earth, she likely wasn't a very high priority and like with the zoo, there was no way to get to her after the war since the galaxy warp was destroyed. And don't forget, she was practically a child around this time. You're saying you didn't do any stupid, selfish, or harmful things as a kid? She learned from her experiences and grew, we just saw that growth in reverse, leaving us as viewers with a poor perception of her."

"Rose Quartz is Steven Universe’s dead mom. Initially, she’s set up as sort of an ethereal perfect figure who everyone misses and compares him to. Later we get to see more of her backstory and discover that she’s actually like, a person, with flaws, who has done some bad things, but she did those bad things largely in the course of trying to escape an abusive home life and save the people and planet that she fell in love with. It’s very clear that despite her flaws she was trying to do the right thing and that she deeply cared about others. Unfortunately, a woman who was not a Perfect Martyr was way too much for the Steven Universe fandom to handle. She pretty much set off the wave of SU crit blogs because these people were furious either that she had taken violent measures to solve her problems, that she hadn’t taken violent enough measures to solve her problems, or both somehow. Lots of “Why didn’t she just murder her abusive parental figures?” Lots of “She was evil for having a baby even though she knew she’d die in childbirth!” Lots of “She should’ve been able to protect everyone from a magic nuclear weapon with the power of love somehow.” Lots of “She shouldn’t have rebelled (even though not rebelling would’ve meant the destruction of Earth) because her abusers retaliated and that’s her fault.” LOTS of people drawing her as stick thin even though she was fat in the show. People treated her like she was on the same level or even worse than her abusive parental figures who were also the main villains of the show. It was unbearable to witness."

Katara Propaganda

"She's smart. She's powerful. She an eco-terrorist. She's got the ability to grow as a person. She's a victim of misogynistic fans who codify her as an annoying bitch (sadly not affectionate) cause she's the "mom character." And that's all she will ever be is "The mom character." She bested Azula and could blood bend your ass but won't cause she's chosen not to be a monster! But she's the annoying mom instead."

"if i have to hear ONE MORE *touches necklace* joke i’m gonna mcfreaking lose it"

"despite being one of the most well-written feminist characters of children’s TV, the fandom decides to define her based on her very realistic 14-year-old girl flaws. Ignoring her complex independent arcs and motivations, people love justifying their hatred towards her based on her one line directed at Sokka that he didn’t love his mother as much as she did. Which, if we’re being nitpicky, isn’t so harsh given that it was Katara who shouldered most of the burden of her death, as well as Sokka’s admittance that he doesn’t even remember his mother. Not to mention that ALL the characters make selfish mistakes given the fact that they’re all aged 12-15??? (Aang hiding Katara and Sokka’s father’s letter, anyone???) She really is an elegant breakthrough of the typical female character molds of “girl who is badass” and “girl with a crush on the mc who sits on the sidelines” and it’s so frustrating to see her get the most hate out of the Gaang"

Mabel Pines Propaganda

"[insert "i am 12 years old" comic]"

"You probably already know about this but back when the series was airing people were really pissed at Mabel because she was supposedly selfish. Yeah ok guys asking for a fucking megaphone to help a merman find his family was TOTALLY unreasonable. Dipper giving up one (1) "date" with a girl way older than him to save Mabel's pet was SO not worth it. (This is sarcasm btw. Side note a lot of these have to do with Dipper's crush on Wendy which is a whole other discussion.) And then there's the big one. Mabel causing Weirdmageddon. What people fail to realize with this is that 1) she was extremely stressed when she handed Bill the rift 2) she was tricked by Bill, a being that is A MASTER AT TRICKING PEOPLE, into thinking that she was being handed a magic solution to what felt like the end of the world to her, and 3) she was TWELVE. Not to pull out the "she is literally neurodivergent and a minor" card but do you really expect a 12 year old who's just been told that she's gonna have to face a big and difficult transition WITHOUT her brother who's been there for her all her life to make a rational decision? Y'all seriously fell for Bill's empty words in Sock Opera. Absolute bufoons. You would not survive Weirdmageddon."

"Oh wow, a preteen girl under extreme distress acts like a preteen girl under extreme distress. Whoda thunk?"

[james-vi-stan-blog]

I saw one of your ask about King James and I wanted to ask if you can elaborate/explain what you mean by “He's this person who is born visibly "different" (physically and sexually) from the society around him, but he's the king and so society has to adapt to that rather than he adapt to society.” I’m sorry if you already answered this question or something similar!

The most colorful complete description of what James was like comes from The Court and Character of King James I, which is a somewhat suspect and very anti-James and anti-Buckingham source. It has been said of the purported author, Anthony Weldon, that he was bitter over being dismissed from court and published this as a spiteful hit piece. But historians have cast some doubt on this. What is definitely true is that it was republished and circulated during the Civil War as Parliamentarian propaganda, to portray the whole Stuart dynasty as corrupt and degenerate.

In it the author says:

He was of a middle stature, more corpulent through his cloathes then in his body, yet fat enough, his cloathes ever being made large and easie, the Doublets quilted for steletto proof … He was naturally of a timorous disposition, which was the reason of his quilted doublets, his eye large, ever rowling after any stranger came in his presence, in so much, who that for shame have left the room, as being out of countenance; his Beard was very thin; his tongue too large for his mouth, which ever made him drink very uncomely, as if eating his drink, which came out into the cup of each side his mouth; his skin was soft as Taffeta Sarsnet, which felt so, because he never washt his hands … his legs were very weak, having as was thought some foul play in his youth, or rather before he was born, that he was not able to stand at seven years of age, that weakness made him ever leaning on other mens shoulders; his walk was ever circular, his fingers ever in that walk fidling about his cod-piece

This vivid image is what has been passed down to us as the dominant image of James. It is likely that this is exaggerated for propaganda effect. However, it does appear that James was physically different and more complimentary observers also noticed this. Albert Fontenay, diplomat on behalf of Mary QOS, described James as remarkably intelligent, but also that "He is never still in one place but walks continuously up and down, though his gait is erratic and wandering, and he tramps about even in his own chamber … His body is feeble and yet he is not delicate. In a word, he is an old young man." (this translation from Majestie: The King Behind the King James Bible) It seems he was always a weak and clumsy walker, and it is likely his obsession with riding and hunting may have come from the sense of freedom it gave him from his lower body weakness. But he was still a clumsy rider and fell off his horse into a river and almost drowned on two separate occasions. This was in addition to chronic health complaints (as he aged he got a LOT of issues, but his digestion was already bad from an early age).

His courtiers observed this, and they also observed his very open, lavish affection for his favorites. (One of the "James wasn't gay" arguments is that none of his contemporaries accused him of sodomy. Except, they totally did.) None of this could really be denied or covered up. This is also not just a time period where sodomy stands for absolute evil, but also one where physical beauty/"perfection" and inner goodness are equated. But, James was a divine right monarch and a steadfast proponent of the idea that the king is God's chosen representative on earth. How do you reconcile that? People of James's time had to do it, somehow. (Though later, in accounts like Weldon's, physical difference WAS leveraged to delegitimize Stuart rule.)

Although a lot of authors I've read talk about James's physical difference, I haven't yet read an analysis of James primarily and specifically through the lens of disability. Although I find most attempts to diagnose people of the past foolish (anyone who says "obviously James had cerebral palsy" gets a lot of side-eye from me; I'm not even sure anyone has adequately explained what his contemporaries meant when they said he had a "circular walk"), looking at him, we can probably call him "disabled". But to what extent was he dis-abled by his physical differences, and to what extent cushioned by his position as lifelong king? How did his tenure as king affect the popular concept of disability? I'm sure there's some great deep dive out there on this but I haven't found it yet, so if one of you knows of one I'd love to read it!

[bamf-jaskier]

The “Oh No I forgot all of Fringilla’s scenes in season 1″ Post

this post may or may not contain opinions 

Episode 2: Four Marks. 

We first see her during Yennefer's first lesson in the Greenhouse and when Tissaia is listing the ways the girls had their conduit moment, she says "Fringilla froze a cat" to which Fringilla quickly responds in an apologetic voice "On accident" (I think this is an interesting parallel to Sabrina who smirked when Tissaia said she turned her mother fat). Then Fringilla is the first one to get the incantation right in order to lift the rock but because Tissaia did not tell them they needed to use the flower's energy her hand withers and she is in immense pain. 

She is punished for being the best at channeling chaos and Tissaia purposefully did not tell her students what to do  so she could "teach them a lesson". Fringilla is in pain and Tissaia sits there refusing to help her and continues the lecture. Then during the Catch Lightening in a Bottle scene, Fringilla is the one to note that Doralis was still breathing after she failed to catch lightening in a bottle and Fringilla and Sabrina were the only ones who were able to catch lightening in a bottle. 

Episode 3: Betrayer Moon 

We see Fringilla during the ascension where she tells Istredd that Yennefer wasn't chosen for Aedirn but Nilfgaard. Then at the ball, Virfuril treats Fringilla like shit, refusing to dance with her and then condescending her in front of Tissaia by saying "An Aedirnian would surely have had better footing". Then when the King leaves to dance with Yennefer holy shit watch the scene again because Fringilla looks fucking TERRIFIED. 

Tissaia puts a hand on her arm and her uncle comes up next to her because Fringilla knows this means she is going to Nilfgaard. Remember, Yennefer said to Istredd "Can your apology save me from Nilfgaard" and the king there was known to horribly mistreat his female mages and now Fringilla is being sent there when she was one of the most promising students of her year. 

Episode 4: Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials 

We see Fringilla at the very end of the episode after Cintra has fallen. Fringilla has another mage eat Calanthe's skin and then guts him and divines from his intestines the location of Ciri. She is acting like a different person now, she is cold and quick in her words, there are no shy glances or soft phrases now. 

Episode 5: Bottled Appetites 

 We see Fringilla leading Nilfgaard to interrogate Mousesack. This is when Fringilla talks about how the White Flame made her who she is.

Episode 6: Rare Species 

Fringilla cleans Cahir's wounds after he slaughtered the village trying to find the doppler. This is where she tells Cahir "You rose up against the usurper, helped free our people from our chains". She basically hypes him up to keep hunting for Ciri. 

Episode 7: Before a Fall 

 This is the iconic mage council meeting. She gives a fun little propaganda post and pushes back against Tissaia's whole "you have rejected our way of life" schtick and also ignore's Triss' whole comments about Forbidden magic. This is fun cinematography because it's cut with scenes of Nilfgaardians slaughtering Cintrans. 

Fun thing to note: Yennefer actually sides with Fringilla and says to "burn it all down" until Tissaia begs Yennefer and convinces her to go to Sodden. 

Episode 8: Much More 

Fringilla tells a Nilfgaardian commander and Cahir that mages are fortifying the keep at Sodden and that they will fight them saying "I will personally deplete them until they are empty and powerless". 

Fringilla tells Cahir that that Cirilla is across the Yaruga and this emboldens Cahir to go to fight the mages once again in search of Ciri. Only Fringilla and Cahir seem to be in on the whole "find Ciri" thing as the Nilfgaardian general seems to just want to take over the continent. 

Then, during the seige Nilfgaardian mages are making life force bombs?? where they suck out their own life then catapult it into the shields around Sodden. Fringilla seems to be coordinating this. 

She is then able to break open the gates of Sodden from a distance with her mind ALONE so she is very powerful. She does some fighting and battles it at with Tissaia who briefly tries to convince Fringilla to "come back" and then Fringilla throws some Dimeritium at Tissaia and leaves her to rot.

[livebloggingmydescentintomadness]

Is it bad that body positivity always makes me feel worse abt myself (and therefore my body)? I feel like I'm a bad person for not liking my body, and that I'm a bad person if I try to talk about it bc I'm enforcing societal values. And it always makes me more conscious of the parts of my body I don't like.

no, hon, that’s not bad at all, that’s actually a really common experience. i personally don’t like or love my body at all, even though i support that message for others who are capable of it and find those messages inspiring.

you know the “you are not immune to propaganda” meme? well, we’re not immune to the social conditioning to hate our bodies, even when we’ve chosen to reject those messages. we’ve spent years, our whole entire lives, soaking in millions of messages that this, this, and that are terrible flaws and that ugliness is an unforgivable sin that renders us unlovable because, after all, our attractiveness is our only value. our innocent little brains have been taught that it’s better to be dead than fat since we were children. we cannot just switch all that off because we want to.

personally, i don’t feel a need to like my body anyway. i would rather just allow my body to exist without any judgments on it at all, neither of ugliness or beauty. it’s just a meat suit full of organs that walks my brain around and keeps my blood flowing and food digesting. why the fuck does that need to be beautiful? it just is. 

you are not a bad person. you’ve been taught to hate yourself, and that’s not your fault, that’s patriarchal capitalism’s fault. i would only call you a bad person if you pass the hatred on to others, if you go around telling others they’re ugly or worthless because their bodies are flawed. but you don’t seem like that kind of person to me, i think you’re doing your best and you’re just struggling with internalized fatphobia and misogyny, and all of us have to do that.

i also think you have the right to talk about your feelings, but do be careful where/how you discuss it, such as putting up a trigger warning (such as “cw: body image talk”) and trying not to veer into just beating yourself up or calling yourself names. for example, try not to reinforce negative feelings by saying things like “i’m ugly, i’m disgusting, i’m a whale, no one will ever love me.” try to use “i feel” language rather than saying these things as facts, e.g. “i feel gross, i feel like no one will ever love me, and i don’t want to have those feelings, i want to love myself, but i can’t help it sometimes.” that is perfectly fine to say, and a whole lot of people will feel exactly the same way.

in other words, talking about your feelings is a good thing, just have a care with your words and try not to pour buckets of self-hatred over your head. 

unlearning self-hatred is a journey, not a switch flip, so have some compassion for yourself, alright? this isn’t easy.

[forestwater87]

Cutting Myself on all this Edge

This post has no reason to exist, except that I keep bothering my friends with literally dozens of messages making fun of this and I need a place to keep it all.

What is “this”? Oh, just some people having some Fucking Strong Opinions about how Harry Potter is the Pied Piper (they use that comparison multiple times. It gets old fast) leading our children into the End Times with its pro-illuminati Satan-worshiping witchcraft lessons. You know, the usual.

And no, this isn’t a battle of Forest vs. the Crazy Christians; I’m like 94% sure I’m not working through any sort of religious trauma, partly because I never went deep into this kind of mentality but mostly because I’m just delighted by The Cutting Edge, a website for a very specific type of Christian (no, not you, Catholics. You’re specifically not invited to the Cutting Edge club because you worship demons) interested in the New World Order, the evils of public schools, and Satan’s favorite color.

No, really.

Satan’s favorite color is green. They don’t . . . really explain why.

This site still exists and is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Hours of fun for the whole family. I mean, look at their logo:

And look at their illustration that goes along with their particular Harry Potter series:

Are you not entertained?!

I cannot stop reading these amazing essays -- which delve surprisingly deep into Potter lore, considering they say that there is no sufficient reason for a Christian to ever read a single page of these books -- and I can’t keep harassing my friends with thousands of notifications, so here we are.

Starting small, let’s read the book review for Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s/Philosopher’s Stone. Or, as they prefer to call it:

This book chronicles Harry's first year at the Hogwart's School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.  Prepare to be shocked for the bold, blatant, and bodacious raw Satanism that underlines this story! Since "proper"Drug Use is essential in opening the centres of vision and achieving higher consciousness, we should not be surprised that First-Year students learn Drug Use, Drug creation, in a way that makes Drug use seem glorious! You will be shocked to see '666 ' in the story line, and symbols of Antichrist receiving a "fatal wound"!

That’s the entire subtitle. That’s just how they roll on

THE CUTTING EDGE

Part 1: The . . . Plot? I Guess?

This story introduces us to Harry Potter, an orphaned boy sent to live with his "horrible" Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and their fat, obnoxious son, Dudley. 

I feel very comfortable with the fact that Cutting Edge has chosen to put scare quotes around the word “horrible,” like that’s up for debate. Combined with the very normal and sane opinions expressed elsewhere on the site, this really bodes well for their ideas about parenting and childcare in general.

all through this book, any non-witch folk -- like Vernon and Petunia -- are depicting in disgusting language.  

Typo is theirs, as is the apparent offense they take to the fictional depiction of people who are very much not real. While there hasn’t been any exciting formatting going on yet in this essay, I will replicate it as much as possible, and any changes made will be clearly indicated through square brackets and ellipses.

Non-witch people are known as Muggles , and they are depicting as being "dumber than a box of rocks", of being physically obscene, and of living the most boring, unimaginative lives possible.

I was going to argue that this isn’t true, but I suppose we don’t really meet any cool Muggles in the first book. I guess I have to give them this, but I don’t feel good about it.

Witches, on the other hand, are depicted as being very smart, very "with it", of being physically normal, and of living wonderfully exciting lives

It bears repeating:

a flashback scene to the time 10 years earlier when Harry's Mom and Dad were psychically murdered by evil Lord Voldemort

Okay. Now I’m no Potterologist, and so I’m hoping any true believers will correct me if I misinterpret the holy texts,* but I don’t think Harry’s parents were psychically murdered by anyone. I’m pretty sure they were quite literally, physically made dead. Just because it’s a beam of magic doesn’t mean it’s not physical anymore, does it? Voldy didn’t Professor-X Harry’s parents and they died of three D10 psychic damage or anything; he just fucking killed them with a wizard gun. Am I wrong here?

*By which I obviously mean Harry Potter. It teaches children how to become Satanists; we’re clearly dealing with a book of immense spiritual relevance.

Skipping a little bit of plot summary, which is a combination of, well, summary of the plot, although Cutting Edge is determined to get Hogwarts’ name wrong, and a little bit of baffling End-Times(?) nonsense thrown in for funsies --

Of course, a Christian would be immediately alerted to this turn of events [in which Harry defeats Voldemort and is scarred] because soon a supernaturally powerful global leader will demand everyone on earth take some sort of a mark in exactly this place on the body.

What? 

-- and there’s some weird formatting things going on that I think are supposed to imply something sinister but really just come off as goofy:

They have Harry on a boat headed for nowhere and they had every intention of keeping Harry from ever attending Hogwarts School.  However, Harry receives supernatural assistance.

(It’s not letting me do colors on desktop, which is stupid, but that “supernatural” is supposed to be both bold and red)

There’s a long description about the difference between the Real and Fantasy worlds, which apparently Satanists try to live in both of (and so does Harry, making him also a Satanist. This is actually one of the less-stupid arguments Cutting Edge has for Harry’s Satanism, so just go with it) that’s honestly more boring than funny so I’m skipping it. Then we get to a much more fun section: why Rowling’s descriptions of Muggles are . . . teaching children to hate Jesus?

Part 2: Rowling Hates Muggles

Rowling consistently depicts people who do not practice Witchcraft in most obnoxious terms.  They are depicted as being really, really dumb, boring, and living a life not worth living .  We share these examples, below, with you so you can appreciate the truth of this statement.  Uncle Vernon was also the only Muggle quoted in the book as being really opposed to Witchcraft; therefore, when readers see how stupid, ugly, and boring Vernon is, they get the idea that all people who are opposed to Witchcraft must be as stupid, ugly, and boring as Vernon is.

... Are all people opposed to Witchcraft cowardly bullies?

I mean, you are the one going after a children’s book for daring to entertain children, so if the shoe fits . . .

"Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang ... Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader." [p. 31] How do you know your own child does not think of you in these terms?  After all, you are a non-magical Muggle.

I actually can’t complain, because this is just accurate. I 100% hate my parents and think they’re stupid because they’re not literally witches/wizards. Our relationship has never fully recovered.

"Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on." [p. 47] Remember Adolf Hitler, the most famous Black Magick wizard in modern history? He depicted Jews as Rats in his Propaganda Machinery, convincing the Germans they should extermination the "vermin".

GODWIN’S LAW HAS LANDED! 

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OR IN-BETWEEN, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY COMPARED HARRY POTTER TO HITLER!

We find it highly interesting that, later in the book, when the Evil Lord Voldemort is supposedly killing the unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, the color of the blood of the unicorn is silver! 

Okay, but like . . . why? I mean, it immediately follows a description of the Bloody Baron, who is depicted with silvery blood because he’s, like, a ghost, but I’m not sure what that has to do with unicorns or with Satan. Are unicorns associated with Satan? Is silver associated with Satan?

Is everything Satan? Am I Satan?

There’s a lot of rage at a gentleman named Chuck Colson throughout this section, who apparently made the grave error of telling parents it was okay for their children to read Harry Potter because it doesn’t involve contact with the supernatural. And I’ll admit, that seems like a pretty bad defense of the books, because if you define “supernatural” as ghosts, poltergeists, or whatever the hell Voldemort is, then there is absolutely a metric buttload of supernatural stuff in here.

Arguably, a better defense of why it’s okay for children to read these children’s books is that they are books made for children, but YMMV on that one. Probably depends on whether or not you think children are sitting in the giant metaphorical (or literal? Not sure Cutting Edge gets metaphors) lap of the Antichrist every time they pick up the books.

(A visual reminder.)

Part 3: Basically Part 2, But This Time There Are Colors

The next section is on colors, which are very important to Cutting Edge. As linked back in the very beginning of this post, there is an entire essay devoted to the demonic colors used in the Harry Potter books, but we get just a taste of it here:

Rowling makes use of vivid colors in her story line.  Some of these colors are consistent with the colors preferred by Satan and his followers in the Occult.  Rowling's use of such vivid colors also enables her to paint the Fantasy Reality of Witchcraft as THE most exciting place to live.  Wizard of Oz uses the same technique: when Dorothy is in her real world in Kansas, the color is black and white, but when she steps into her Fantasy Reality, the scene explodes in the most wonderful color.

Interesting interpretation. An alternative view is that Rowling needs to use more descriptors for things within the Wizarding World, because her readers won’t have the same frame of reference to draw from that they do with real-life objects and events in the Muggle World, and one can assume that these lovely descriptions are part of her being a, y’know, good and evocative writer, and the colors are just related to how she pictured the world she was creating.

But I mean, yours is good, too.

Actually, the citations provided by Cutting Edge don’t depict anything especially vivid; it’s not like she’s throwing massive amounts of purple prose at the descriptions of the Satanic green of Harry’s eyes. In fact, the only enhancer used is “emerald” at one point. For the most part, this essayist is just . . . noticing when the word “green” appears in the text and calling it a siren song to entice good Christian children out of the colorless world of reality and goodness and into the technicolor dreamland of magic and mayhem.

Also, please remember that Satan has a favorite color, and it’s green. For all birthdays and Christmases (or wait, whatever the Satanic version of Christmas is! Halloween?), please make sure all gifts are green or green-adjacent.

Even though Harry is nearly as powerful as a Black Magick practitioner, and could easily have decided to go over to that side, he declines to go over to the Dark Arts.  Dumbledore assures Harry that he is not evil as Lord Voldemort. However, as a symbol of the Black Arts he could perform, Rowling makes Harry's eyes green.

This observation -- and I use the term loosely -- implies that every single Slytherin and villain of the Harry Potter series would have green eyes, to demonstrate their capacity for evil. The fact that this is obviously not the case must just be a red herring.

Part . . . 4, I think?: Drugs, Magic, and Magic Drugs

Harry and his friends learn how to makedrugs, and the glory of taking them.

The fact that they don’t actually take any in this book is entirely irrelevant. (”Drugs” should also be red as well as bolded. It’s very serious business.)

The plant, wormwood, contains thujone, an hypnotic drug, banned by the FDA since 1915 [Christian News, "Latest Potter Book Meets Cautionary Response From Christians, July 17, 2000] ; further, wormwood is used to make Absinthe, a hallucinogenic liquor.  Therefore, the drug to which Rowling makes reference is very real, and is so dangerous the FDA has banned it -- to this day, it is banned!

While thujone was illegal at the time of this essay in the United States, it was actually never banned in the UK . . . you know, where these books take place and were written? I don’t think Rowling gives a solitary fuck about our FDA standards. Also, I don’t know if you could just straight-up buy wormwood on whatever the equivalent of Amazon was in 1998 (was it just Amazon?), but you sure can now. Can’t be all that scary.

You can hardly get a better description of drug use, and drug glorification than this!

I wonder why they keep using red to emphasize all these evil things . . . you’d think they’d go with Satan’s favorite color/the sign that Harry is the Antichrist to really jazz up all of the evil.

"The drug message in this book is clear. To reach your goals in life like Harry Potter, you need to know how to make drugs and take drugs in just the right way or else you are a 'dunderhead' and will never succeed." [http://www.fflibraries.org/Book_Reports/HarryPotter ; written by a physician and father who asked to remain anonymous].

The fact that this URL doesn’t lead me to that review is one of the saddest things I’ve faced all month.

The sections on spellcasting are far less interesting, reiterating a pretty simple refrain: all magic is bad, because the books say some magic is good then the books are bad, it’s all teaching children about Satanism. Rinse and repeat.

During final exams, teachers passed out special quills with which to write; these quills had been "bewitched with an Anti-Cheating spell".  The reason none of the teachers felt they could trust the honor of the students to not cheat is obvious enough; in Witchcraft, no Absolute Good and Evil exists.  All objective, eternal standards of conduct and morality have been rejected.  Therefore, teachers knew full well that all the students would cheat on their final exams if they thought they could get away with it.  It is a sad commentary that teachers had to place an Anti-Cheating spell on the quills to prevent exams cheating.  Christian parent, is this the "morality" you want your students to learn?

Now, it might just be my obvious Satanist addiction to witchcraft talking, but doesn’t it seem more likely that there’s an anti-cheating spell because sometimes . . . children cheat? And no amount of Good Wholesome Christian Teaching is going to completely eradicate the desire to cheat on a test, because of course it isn’t. 

It’s not because the school has taught the students that cheating is okay and cool and sexy or whatever -- in fact, if you want evidence that there is an absolute moral standard against cheating, it would be that the teachers are actively taking steps to prevent it! If witchcraft really was all about how there’s no such thing as good and evil . . . well, for one thing they wouldn’t teach Defense against the motherfucking Dark Arts, but they also wouldn’t care if their students cheated enough to provide anti-cheating quills, because they wouldn’t consider cheating a bad thing, because they wouldn’t consider anything a bad thing! 

Also, I’m not sure what listing all of the spells in the book and what they do really says about Satanism, except that . . . spells exist, and are used? Which I feel like you should really expect from the book about magic and wizards; if that’s an alarming surprise, then you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere way earlier down the road.

Part whatever: Seriously, Rowling is just ALL ABOUT Satan

This entire section is basically about how JKR must be a Satanist, because she apparently depicts the world of magic and the occult with perfect accuracy, and how could she do that except through being an active practicing witch herself?

Mirrors are believed to be a portal to another dimension, including Time.  Occultists believe they can go forward or backward in Time with a mirror being one of the Dimensional Portals.  Harry encounters a mirror, "magnificent ... as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet ... Harry stepped in front of it. He had to clasp his hand to his mouth to stop himself from screaming ... for he had seen, not only himself in the mirror but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him ... 'Mom?', he whispered.  'Dad?' They just looked at him, smiling ... Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life." [p. 208-9] 

Intriguing theory, except of course for the fact that the mirror isn’t a portal to jack shit; unless you count the weird trick where he can get the stone (and only the stone) through wishes or whatever the fuck these idiots do, and all it does is show someone what they want. It’s not actually reaching into the past to find Harry’s parents or whatever, just like it’s not actually reaching into a parallel dimension future where Ron is the king of everything. It’s just . . . idk, reading their subconscious and throwing up a neat visual or something. With magic. It’s complex, but it’s definitely not what Cutting Edge says it is.

Not pictured: a portal to another physical, metaphysical or temporal dimension. It’s literally . . . just a mirror, but a mirror that reflects your insides instead of your outsides. It’s clever or something.

Do you realize Rowling has just made the creator of the Sorcerer's Stone 666 years old?  Do you realize what this means?  Since the number, '666', is a symbol of Antichrist and his Mark of the Beast [Revelation 13:18] and since Rowling ties this number to the Elixir of Life, Harry Potter is teaching children that the way to achieve eternal life [Elixir of Life] is to obey the Antichrist and take his Mark of the Beast!

Fucking. Yes. I don’t even have witty commentary for this, I’m just delighted by every word in that section. I’m smiling so much. 

This is a gift and we’re reading it for free!

Wonderful! We have the forbidden practice of drinking blood in this Potter book, forbidden in Scripture [Genesis 9:4-5] but practiced regularly in Satanism. I wonder if Chuck Colson, Focus On The Family, and Christianity Today ever told their Christian followers about this?  Have they even read this book, before they issued their acceptance of Potter?

Don’t you dare try to employ sarcasm. People who believe in the Illuminati and New World Order are not allowed to be sarcastic -- even if the thought of this faceless stranger typing that little clever “Wonderful!” and smirking to themselves about how witty they are is a very, very good mental image.

Also, what the fuck did unicorns do to deserve being associated with the Antichrist? I mean, I get the color green; it’s the color of nature and the outdoors, and that shit fucking sucks. (Fuck you, trees!) But unicorns?

Unicorns have never done anything to anyone, ever. Unicorns couldn’t be Satanists if they tried.

This means evil Lord Voldemort -- whose killing curse upon Harry, his Mom, and his Dad had rebounded against him when Harry did not die -- is near death, and is seeking to drink the Unicorn's blood to stay alive long enough to finally achieve eternal life through drinking the '666' Elixir of Life.

Yes, that is -- sort of -- the plot of this book.

This is the specific New Age doctrine being taught here: people will have to draw their temporary spiritual life from The Christ until the time comes when their individual consciousness will have been raised so much they will achieve their personal godhood, and live forever!

This concept is genuine New Age, is consistent with prophecy, and Rowling depicts it very well!

Christian parents, do you want your child to be taught this New Age doctrine?  Can you see Harry Potter playing the Pied Piper and leading your children straight to the Mark of the Beast?

Pied Piper count: 1 (that’s not a lot so far, but it’s used in like every essay. It’ll come back)

I don’t know how to tackle this, because I’m not sure Cutting Edge really understands that Voldemort is the bad guy in these books. Children aren’t going to read this book and then go, “Cool! I’m gonna go stab a unicorn and drink its essence because my favorite role model You-Know-Who told me to!”

The unicorn blood thing is unilaterally portrayed as a pretty bad move. Voldemort’s goals in general are pretty obviously not great ideas. I know Cutting Edge doesn’t have the benefit of hindsight here, but Voldemort’s quest for immortality and how bad and wrong and fucked-up that is, is kind of one of the major through-lines of the entire story. It could be argued that it’s not Voldy’s desire to live forever that’s wrong so much as his whole, like, genocide thing, which is legit . . . except that all the methods to attain immortality involve killing someone, or stealing something, or otherwise being Not a Good Dude.

Voldemort is Not a Good Dude, and I don’t know how to communicate that any clearer than the books written for third graders already did.

Part 6: I don’t really know, I just wanted a chance to break this endless essay up and this seemed like a good place to do it. So let’s talk about spells some more

Many spells require both the taking of drugs and demonic possession, so it is a matter of gravest importance that Harry is actually going to learn to cast spells.  When Chuck Colson dismisses the casting of spells as innocent and of no real importance, did he know this fact?

I seem to have missed the part where Harry goes off his ass on LSD and gets possessed by B’aal. Was that in the Silmarillion? 

whenever a witch changes the physical characteristics of something, he or she is practicing very high-level witchcraft, has a high level of demonic possession, and has had to carry out human sacrifice themselves or have someone else do it for them.

“It’s fiction” is often a bullshit excuse to justify bad framing, but I feel like it applies here, because maybe in the “real” world spellcasting requires you to trip balls and summon demons, but it’s extremely obvious that it doesn’t work like that in Harry Potter! You can’t just say that’s what the books are teaching when the books aren’t actually teaching anything even close to that! 

(I’m starting to feel like my emphasis italics are having a similar effect to Cutting Edge’s red bolded letters. Fuck if I’m gonna stop using them, though.)

If Harry and his pals were wearing goat heads and putting virgins into a giant blender or something I think you might have an argument here, but when the people reading your essay have eyes and can see that the things you’re describing aren’t anywhere in the books, you’re just lying. And it’s very obvious, and I still love you, Cutting Edge, but you’re being disingenuous and it’s starting to kill my joy-boner to constantly have to point out the ways you’re misunderstanding a children’s book, especially when I think you’re kinda doing it on purpose. So how about you chill just a little bit and we’ll all read some Harry Potter together.

Magical Drafts and Potions , by Arsenius Jigger.  Some of the potions are very real, very deadly.

Wait, did Rowling publish this one, too? How do you know what’s in the book? Does the book list some real potions and how to make them, or is this another thing that’s only available in the Cutting Edge’s copy of the books? 

Students were told they could also "bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad." [p. 67]  These three creatures are important to an occultists. Satanists have always revered the cat because of its reputed "nine lives", which is a symbol of reincarnation. Cats are also symbols of a witch's familiar spirit.

They have revered the frog because his prominent bulging eyes represent the All-seeing nature of Lucifer.  Frogs are also consistently used in many of the potions witches concoct.  They revere owls as a symbol of occult wisdom and omniscience -- again because of their eyes.

So fuck cats, I guess. They’re being pretty unfair to owls and frogs too -- especially insulting their poor eyes. They can’t help it! -- but I’m a crazy cat lady and I’m not feeling this slander.

Actually . . . my cat looks pretty high right now. Maybe she is channeling Satan.

Okay, never mind. Fuck all these animals. They’re all evil. This article is entirely right, and I renounce all of my previous statements.

McGonagall has obviously mastered her Craft because she was the tabby cat seen by Uncle Vernon reading a map, back in chapter one.  Remember that any time a witch or wizard practices transfiguration, they need expert spell-casting, and demonic possession.  I bet no one ever told you that little fact, did they?

No, they didn’t, because it’s not even remotely relevant to the fictional book written for children.

Like, I’m trying very hard to not question anyone’s religious beliefs, so if you believe in the occult and magic and all that then more power to you, and maybe it’s totally valid to think that real-life magic spells requires demonic possession. That doesn’t make it true in the books, though! Stop making shit up!

Potions Class -- taught in one of the dungeons [p. 136]  How disgusting must the atmosphere for this class, and others, taught in a dungeon, which was built to torture people to death?

If only the classroom, teacher, and overall environment for the Potions classes was meant to be as viscerally unpleasant as possible. Then putting them in the dungeons would be a really good idea, to reflect the Slytherins’ backwards beliefs and the misery of their intolerance.

Like, JKR isn’t this subtle. When you name one of your antagonists “Bad Dragon,” you’re not aiming for this subconscious-symbolism bullshit.

Part 7: Did you think this book had a good moral? Fuck you!

The fundamental occult/Communist philosophy

Well, I guess we’re talking about Communism now! Because if there’s anything Harry Potter is interested in above all else, it’s Communism.

My favorite things about these essays is how they will pull in other social ills -- abortion, public schools, communism -- and slap them into their argument regardless of if it makes any semblance of sense.

Anyway, Cutting Edge actually has a legitimate argument here, although they take it about 50 steps too far:

the "Ends Justify The Means" permeates this entire book.  To achieve a goal deemed good, Harry and his friends consistently break rules, steal, and use Witchcraft against others.

It is true that Harry and his friends break the rules, lie, and otherwise do “bad” things in the service of an ultimate good, and that they suffer relatively few consequences for it. This is a legitimate point, and actual people who know things agree.

I’ve been struck speechless by this article before, but this is the first time it’s because I think they might have an actual point.

Hermione was very mildly punished [for her lie to the professors about why they were fighting the troll], but her lie cemented a friendship with Ron and Harry, leading a child to conclude that her lie served an excellent purpose, and could not be considered 'wrong'.

I mean . . . yeah? I don’t think it’s entirely reasonable to assume that children will take that lesson away, but I read it as a child and I certainly didn’t think Hermione was wrong to lie -- nor do I now, which I suppose proves just how powerful the Satanic conditioning was.

Professor Quirrell told Harry, "There is no good or evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it ." [p. 291]  This is standard Witchcraft, and standard Illuminist doctrine.  This doctrine is the guiding light to those Illuminists who are driving the world into the Kingdom of Antichrist.  This doctrine is very seductive to those immature children trying to grow up in our current culture; since a child's inherent nature is evil, he will find such philosophy more appealing than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Christian parents, beware!

Oh thank God Satan, we’re back to the bullshit. I was getting seriously weirded out by the idea that they had good points buried in here somewhere, but now we’re just faced with the argument that the bad guy says . . . bad things . . . and is defeated because his bad ideas are obviously bad and wrong . . . and this proves that the book is teaching children to believe the bad things?

No one reads these books and wants to be the bad guys, Cutting Edge. Kids aren’t buying Harry Potter wands and robes to pretend that they’re Quirrell, trying to keep people from finding out they have a Dark Lord on the back of their head. (Though now that I’ve mentioned it, that sounds like a very fun game.) 

Depicting bad things in a way that makes it clear -- to children, I must reiterate -- that they’re bad isn’t the same thing as romanticizing or promoting those bad things. This is basic stuff, CE.

Revenge Motive : "Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges:  Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying, and Much, Much More , by Vindictus Viridian." [p. 80] Throughout these books, seeking revenge and attacking your enemies is high on the priority list of Harry, his friends, and other students.  Do you want your children to adopt this most Satanic attitude?  Notice the first name of the author of this revenge book, above, is named "Vindictus, i.e., Vindictive".

Students are taught to depend upon Witchcraft for every part of their lives .  All food is conjured up rather than prepared, all the dishes are conjured clean, and even the hospital depends upon Witchcraft to get students well [p. 156].  Neville Longbottom, one of the more clumsy students, received a crystal ball from his grandmother called a Remembrall .  The ball glows scarlet if you have forgotten something you should have done. [p. 145]

That’s . . . fuck, that’s actually kind of another good point. Stop kinda making sense, goddamn it!

A lot of the criticism is just that the things wizards do are cool, which will make kids want to become witches/wizards in order to do those cool things, too. And to be fair, the stuff Harry et. al. does are cool, and I did want to be a witch when I grew up. Fortunately, I was in third grade, and so my options for witchcraft were relatively limited; by the time I was old enough to pursue the endeavor properly, I was also old enough to know that it was actually nothing like Harry Potter. If magic actually was anything like those books make it seem, we’d have a lot more witches running around, zapping shit.

Possible reference to homosexuality .  When I was first researching Harry Potter, I examined several pro-Potter websites. The author of one of the articles said that one of the probable developments she felt would occur in the latter books was the advent of homosexuality in the story theme. She said such activity was only hinted at in the first books.  

Oh dear god, Cutting Edge found the shippers. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

(I wonder if this means they’ve also read the Draco Trilogy.)

I do have to take issue with one last point in this bit about morals, where they talk about how scarring it might be to a child to see Voldemort possessing the back of Quirrell’s head:

Rowling could not have created a better description of demonic possession by a dark and powerful demon!  Christian parent, is this the type of thing you want your child to bring into their minds?

Thing is, I’ve been in a lot of Christian circles for most of my life, and this sounds exactly like the kind of dark, traumatizing thing many religious parents would be happy to put into their children’s minds.

Part Almost Done: Definitely Intentional Satanic Symbols, Really

Hey, did you know the number 11 was occultist? I didn’t, and when I Googled it, 4 of the front-page results were Christian or conspiracy groups making this claim, 2 were unclear, and 3 actually seemed to indicate some level of belief in the power of the number 11. Though I might’ve stacked the deck with the word “occult”; when I changed my search term to “magic,” I found almost exclusively positive articles about the symbolic power of the number 11, so . . . Cutting Edge isn’t necessarily wrong. 

But boy, did you know how many times the number 11 shows up in Sorcerer's Stone? Not very much, but if we stretch our credibility a little bit, we might see something spooky!

Harry was eleven (11) when he was admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  The number eleven is considered sacred to the occultist, as it is the first primary number.  Occultists will also add up numbers to get an occult number that is sacred; thus, I was highly interested when the bank vault maintained for Harry by his Mom and Dad before their death was numbered '713' [p. 73].  When you add '7 + 1 + 3 = 11'.  Then, we learn that, in the money of the Fantasy Reality, "twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle".  When you add 2 + 9 = 11.

When Harry found the wand that was meant for him, it turned out to be 11 inches long! [p. 84]

The Hogwarts Express Train left at 11 o'clock from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. [p. 91]

Oh man, that’s some convincing evidence. Evidence of what, I have no idea, but it uses math and I’m sure it’s very alarming!

" Sorcerer's Stone " is also called the "Philosopher's Stone", and is very, very Satanic!  Rosicrucianism teaches that an Initiate will pass through five stages to become the highest Adept possible, to be most proficient in exercising the power of Satanism.  They call this process the "Five Stages In The Transmutation of the Soul".  The final stage is depicted by the Phoenix Bird; the Adept is then said to have achieved the "Sorcerer's Stone".  Thus, the fact that the term, "Sorcerer's Stone" is in the title of this book suggests that the ultimate goal of all students at Hogwarts is to achieve the Sorcerer's Stone.

Wow, that sure is an interesting interpretation of the rock that shows up in the book for like 6 pages and then is immediately destroyed! Alternate theory, if you’re open to it: It’s a rock, named the Philosopher’s Stone because the Philosopher’s Stone is historically the name of a rock, called the philosopher's stone, and it's literally just a rock and doesn't mean anything Satanist because it's a fucking ROCK.

(Pictured: A rock)

There’s a really odd part right after the long discussion about how alchemy and unicorns and whatnot are Satanic Illuminati symbols, where CE just takes a moment to explain the game of Quidditch. No commentary beyond a sassy little “[Even the Quidditch balls are 'enchanted'].” Just . . . sort of letting you know how the game is played.

To be fair, this is quite a valuable service, since I don’t think anyone actually understands how Quidditch works, but I’m not sure what it’s doing sandwiched between two declarations of Harry Potter’s obvious evil.

PART THE LAST THANK GOD: WHO THE FUCK NEEDS A SUBTITLE IT’S ALMOST OVER

The first few paragraphs are standard boilerplate conclusion stuff, reiterating the rest of the story, continued misunderstanding that bad things are done by the bad guys, no there really are drugs and Illuminati propaganda in here I promise, yadda yadda. Nothing noteworthy except for the fact that I found this sentence absolutely hilarious:

But, most horribly, we see depictions of Satanism that are truly End of the Age.  We see the symbol of Antichrist, the Unicorn.

And so I leave you with this one final thought, because it’s all I can fit into the saggy mush that was once my brain:

From Genesis through Revelation, God demands His people separate themselves from the evil around them! SEPARATE!  SEPARATE!  SEPARATE!

S E P A R A T E 

[rametarin]

“pedophilia is bad.” And other nested platitudes.

Yes it is. And, fiction is not reality. Fiction does not affect reality. Individuals whom cannot tell fiction from reality, affect reality. The mentally unstable should no more affect what the mentally sound are allowed to view and experience than the toothlessness of babies dictate the rest of humanity must survive on creamed corn and mashed potatoes. Or the legless dictate that stairs are out, ramps are in.

But it’s through these weasly expression, like, “Pedohilia is bad (and thus it justifies content censorship by my chosen power structure)” that normal platitudes take on nested meanings and context. And we’re seeing a lot of this nested context in other forms of propaganda.

So they start from a subjective premise and then go on to say, “and this is why it’s okay for our group to censor and dictate and gatekeep content.” Which, inevitably, becomes them assuming a role of power and authority in media. That is not acceptable, that is not par and parcel for “pedophilia is bad.” It goes from a benign statement to a tool/weapon in one short proxy twist.

Like, “Black Lives Matter.” BLM fell apart because people started to realize it’d been co-opted from the start as a movement NOT to protest against police brutality, but as a black revolutionary force using the tragedies as a specifically black liberation related phenomenon. And for PR purposes, if you became against “Black Lives Matter,” they happily aikido flipped it into you as a caricature or stereotype of someone that apparently denied that there were racist elements in the police force.

Of course black lives matter. But black lives are not the only lives being lost with impunity due to unchecked police brutality. The proper discourse should have been addressing how the pile of black bodies is always half as tall as the pile of white bodies at the end of the year. Yes, statistically speaking, relevant and relative to the discussion of police brutality, all lives matter. But because of the Intersectional Feminist horseshit baggage, BLM only cared about the lives lost in the black community, or those that were gay, or those that were latino. Minorities. They otherwise didn’t give a shit about everybody, it was made defacto “white oppressors vs. everybody” on the basis of their philosophy and how they chose to conduct the issue as it relates to greater American society. And you cannot just remove whites from the equation because, “they aren’t a minority.” They didn’t WANT to talk about police brutality period, they wanted to take the universal topic of police brutality that’s overproduced against EVERYBODY and make it about giving greater protections/restitution for black victims specifically, and only. If they cared about more than black, gay or non-English Speaking lives, they’d also care about how people in general, not just their chosen people on the basis of race, were suffering under the brutality.

And then you have, “Trans rights are human rights.” On its face, it sounds like a harmless platitude. Except, it isn’t. Because they’re using transgendered people and their medical issues as a gateway to rant about how transgendered people deserve and require free medical care for SRS and HRT. And, in tandem, free medical care for everything else related to hormone replacement. In essence, they’re taking a backdoor to arguing for universal healthcare paid for by taxation and nationalization of medicine by using transgendered people as a shield and spear tip.

Imagine if the oil companies decided, “Trans power is human power.” And argued that big oil deserved MORE big fat government subsidies. They made a big ridiculous show about “giving” oil to struggling minority families for the winter and their cars. Paid for by government subsidization, of course. And they decided this should be universal and “free,” which means everybody should pay the government tax dollars for it. Government gets more a share, but the oil/gas industry is entitled to more money, constantly.

Except it wasn’t free, it would just marry the obligations of energy needs that modern society cannot do without to the ability of the oil industry to write its own check. So while they’re arguing oil is a “human right,” they’re still charging the government based on what it THINKS it deserves for this now inarguable service. The Oil industry swimming in even more dollars and even more indispensible and entrenched. And the price of gasoline goes UP, rather than DOWN, thanks to this forced subsidization.

You wouldn’t think it was quite so benevolent then. It’s the same with the nested argument that trans people “need” a bunch of free healthcare picked up by the state. And so, “the rest of humanity needs that, too.” Hence, even more surrendering of healthcare services to the state that handily charges you a premium for lackluster service and becomes its own monopoly.

It sounds beneficent, but it’s actually totalitarianist with a nice sounding platitude. It’s dishonest and manipulative and doesn’t actually care about morality, just pretension.

[bellsadventuresworld]

                                                 Metabolism

You’ve probably heard about a little thing called metabolism that gets a lot of hype in the weight loss world. You’ve probably also heard something along the lines of “I have trouble losing weight because I have a slow metabolism”, “My eating disorder has destroyed my metabolism so I’ll be fat forever”, or even the most cringing of all, weight loss adds boasting:  “Boost your metabolism by using this simple trick…”.

With all the propaganda and misinformation posted carelessly online, how do you know what to trust? A simple Google search on the topic can be misleading and overwhelming as research is often long, tedious and conflicting in nature. Below is a compilation of slow, methodical research from scientific journals and other sanctified, credible sources. Please note that the information in this post should never be used as a substitute for medical advice from your doctor. This is simply an attempt to evaluate the correlation between weight loss and metabolism. More specifically, this post is intended to explore what eating disorders do to the metabolism and bust some dangerous myths about increasing the rate of weight loss. Strap in my rexy friends, you’re in for the long haul with this one. Let’s educate ourselves and reach those goal weights! (If this is too long to read in one go, I get it! Book mark it for later and digest in sections)

Note that there is a lot of physiology, systems and different topics that contribute important, valid information to this particular discussion. Without writing a text book sized post I cannot possibly cover all of it. The goal of this post is to give you a brief understanding of metabolism. As I grow this blog I will break down subtopics for further explanation.  

Section A: What is metabolism?

We hear about it often but few of us know what it really is or what it actually does.  Your metabolism is defined as the sum total of all biochemical reactions that take place in the body over time. This includes basic life-sustaining functions like breathing, circulating blood (I.e. vasomotor tone, heart rate and contractility), repairing damaged cells/ mounting immune attacks on foreign bodies, halting cancerous cell production, supplying glucose to the brain in order to think, and a multitude of other cool, autonomic things your body does to keep you alive. Just like a car, In order to keep a metabolism running we have to supply the body with gas. In this case the currency is the dreaded calorie. Those autonomic functions we just talked about that allow us to laugh over memes or ogle over thinspo have a base need for calories called the basal metabolic rate. Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is the number of calories your body needs to survive everyday if you don’t do anything….seriously. All you have to do is lie in bed and stare at the ceiling and your body will burn calories. Pretty neat. Everyone’s BMR is different and is based on factors like height, weight, gender, and body fat percentage. Your personal BMR can be calculated easily online. We will get to why this is important in a bit or maybe in another post, but first we need to finish building some foundation.  Your metabolism works like this:

There are two main functions of the metabolism: anabolism and catabolism. To illustrate this, we will describe them as construction teams. Think of anabolism as the building team responsible for installing a new skyscraper. Anabolism is the process that takes protein building blocks synthesized from the food you eat to make new materials and cells to maintain your tissues. Think of catabolism as the demolition specialists. In other words, this team is responsible for breaking down the old skyscraper to make room for the new one.  Catabolism is the process that breaks down existing body fat and carbs to recycle into new energy (the bodies chosen energy source is ATP but we will discuss this topic another day as this post is already extremely long). In fact, It is estimated by some researches that as much as 10% of the calories from carbs and proteins you eat are used during digestion, meaning you don’t store those calories as body fat. One by-product of breaking molecular bonds is heat, and therefore catabolism helps regulate body temperature too (hence why most of us are freezing ALL THE TIME when heavily restricting or fasting).  So all of this is great, but what does it mean?

Let’s talk about what would happen to the skyscraper if our teams didn’t work right. If the demolition team didn’t have enough usable materials from the tower they torn down to give the building team and no new materials were provided, the new tower would never get built and the project would fail.  If there is no excess body fat to burn and no caloric input, catabolism processes begin to attack vital organs, muscle and bone in order to free energy. This is why eating disorders cause your hair to fall out, your skin to chap, become wrinkly and irritated, your bones to become brittle, your organs to die and you to live in a perpetual state of cold. You might be reading this thinking “I’m not underweight yet and I still have some of this happening”. You’re right. You probably do, so what’s going on? The body is really good at surviving on very little (thank you cave man ancestors) and has lots of safety guards in place that are very inconvenient to our disordered approach to weight loss. When we severely restrict and regulate our caloric intake, the brain sends signals to the body that sound all the alarms and we enter a state of starvation (we will talk hormones another day). Just like a chipmunk over the winter who doesn’t know the next time he will find food is, our metabolism gets greedy and stuffs its cheeks with copious amounts of calories to store. This is why long periods of fasting are proven to slow the metabolism and cause weight gain.  Other methods like intermittent fasting are more effective weight loss techniques (again we will discuss this in another post). Note that the posts you see about fasting for ten days and losing 20 pounds may be real but are dangerous and unrealistic for most people. At that point in a fast weight loss may become rapid because the body is being forced to use the last of the reserves it has to keep you breathing. Remember that these reserves are your organs and muscle tissue- the things that keep you ALIVE.

Section B: I have control issues- so how do I make metabolism my slave?

Bottom line: You don’t, you can’t, and you never will be able to…mostly.  Sorry friends, this one hurts but unfortunately your metabolism is greatly determined by your genetics, body composition, and natural sex…. All things you don’t have control over. It’s obvious we can’t change our genes or inherent sex (even if you transition into the opposite sex, you were still born with hormones and reproductive organs specific to one gender or the other. Your chromosomes don’t change even as you become who you were meant to be). Men generally have a greater proportion of muscle to body fat and therefore a faster metabolism than women. Women generally have a slower metabolism and carry a greater amount of body fat than men because we are tasked with supporting child birth. It’s also important to understand that as we age, our metabolism generally ages with us and slows down.  Now let’s chat about body composition.  When I was first putting together information for this post I refused to believe that I don’t control my body composition. I mean if exercise more and eat less I will have more muscle and less body fat right? There. I changed my body composition! Not quite… while that statement is true in some regards, that’s not the kind of composition we’re talking about here. We are talking about your frame and body size.  I am 5 ft 1in tall and labeled as “petite”. I have a set amount of muscle on my body that is very different than a person who is 6ft tall. Regardless of how good of shape I am in and the amount of muscle mass or tone I have, the 6 footer will always have one up on me. The taller you are, generally the more calories you will burn in a day because you physically have more mass (not fat) to move. The same concept applies to animals. It will take a giraffe more energy than a Chihuahua to move its body every day because the giraffe is 49 times bigger than the Chihuahua. Does this mean the Chihuahua is fat because it uses less energy and burns less calories that the giraffe? Does it mean the giraffe is fat because it needs to consume more calories than the Chihuahua just to get out of bed? Of course not! We can’t compare the two because they are inherently different, but as humans we like to compare everything about ourselves to everything about everyone else. This leads to a lot of disappointment, binges, purges and tears. Trust me, I know this first hand as I’m sure you do too.  Understanding your metabolic needs and ignoring others will help you reach that goal weight so let’s stop comparing as it just tears us down.  

Section C: Are you sure I can’t increase my metabolism?

Your metabolism can be altered for short periods of time but generally stays at a constant rate. In other words, drinking your black coffee can give you a boost in calorie burning power for an hour or so but will not add significantly to your daily caloric burn. Oh, and did I mention that when the body is used to getting certain foods or stimulants it becomes dependent on the item and it loses its super power? That’s right, not only do you have to drink coffee every morning to function, but that bitter black stuff you force yourself to drink stops boosting metabolism altogether. Win-Win right?

Contrary to popular belief, your metabolism plays only a minor role in weight loss and should not be the main focus of your journey. Instead you should focus on lifestyle choices like what you eat, when you eat and how much physical activity you are doing. At the end of the day, regardless of where our calories come from, weight loss, in a nutshell ,comes down to caloric deficit. You will not lose weight if you don’t burn more calories than you eat. Below is a list of popular ways to “increase” your metabolism as well as the truth behind them.

Myth #1: Exercise boosts your metabolism long after you stop- AKA “the after burn”

Exercise will increase your metabolism in proportion with the amount of muscle you gain. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, the faster your metabolism. The concept of after burn is a novel thought that you continue to burn calories long after your work out stops. This is only half true. Exercises that elevate heart rate like swimming, biking, running and high intensity workouts burn lots of calories while you’re doing them but not so much at rest. Metabolism is kind of like breathing. You breathe hard and fast while you’re running and for a few minutes after that but then your breathing becomes normal again. The metabolism works the same way. You may continue to burn an increased number of calories for a couple hours after your workout ends but eventually metabolism will return to a resting state. Keep in mind that your brain, heart, kidneys, liver, and lungs account for most of the energy used in a day as they never get to rest. Exercise is important but is not the main source of energy consumption.

Be sure not to overindulge in calories after a workout thinking you will burn them all off. You won’t. That being said, you do need to refuel the body with some sort of clean protein after a workout if you would like to gain the muscle you worked for.  You might be thinking “but I don’t care about the muscle….I care about the skinny!!” I’m here to tell you why you should care.

We aren’t talking muscle like the body builders and Instagram fitness models sport. We are talking lean, functional muscle that is vital for holding your bones together. More importantly, your heart is a muscle and needs to be maintained.

I personally aim to eat a light, healthy meal within an hour after my work out, especially if I trained hard that day. An example of something I might throw together post workout would be a bed of spiralized zucchini with homemade marinara sauce and broccoli (broccoli is high in protein) or a salad with a variety of fresh veggies, toasted nuts or seeds and a light vinegar dressing. If I really can’t stomach a real meal after working out I at least try to heat up a cup of green peas with salt and pepper. The salt is an electrolyte important for muscle contraction and green peas are surprisingly high in protein and low in calories: one cup of frozen peas has about 130 calories and contains 8.6 grams of protein not to mention vitamins A, C, calcium and iron. I like these options because they are low calorie, high volume so I feel full and I am able to sleep without hunger pains.

Eating after a workout also helps avoid binges (have you ever fasted and worked out like crazy? The hunger is 10,000 times harder to control). I cannot stress enough how important it is to avoid a binge, purge, restrict cycle. It wreaks absolute havoc on your metabolism. Eating disorders confuse the body and force it into a state of reduced function so we have to do our best to provide nutrients where we can.

Regular aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is the most efficient way to burn calories and includes activities such as walking, bicycling and swimming. As a general goal, include at least 30 minutes of physical activity in your daily routine.

If you want to lose weight or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to increase the time you spend on physical activity even more. If you can't set aside time for a longer workout, try 10-minute chunks of activity throughout the day. Remember, the more active you are, the greater the benefits.

Safety reminder: if you are fasting or heavily restricting (below 500 cals per day), don’t work out. If you feel the need to do something, a simple walk will suffice. You wouldn’t try to run a car without gas, don’t try to run your body without food. Be smart. Life is a balance, learn to listen to your body and hear it when it tells you how much it can take.

Strength training. Strength training exercises like weightlifting a couple times a week are really good for bone structure. You don’t have to left heavy and become bulky, but putting the bones under strain and weight is a good way to strengthen them. Over time, as you continue to lift, the body will remodel your bones and they will become physically thicker around the areas under the most stress. These areas are your joints and connection points. Strengthening and thickening the bone won’t make you appear any bigger then you are, it simply offers protection to your frame. Lifting is good for everyone but a critical consideration for my female Anna’s reading this. Women are already at a greater risk of developing osteoporosis (a painful condition where the bones become weak and brittle and break easily) and adding an eating disorder on top of that more than doubles the risk of developing early onset osteoporosis. Strength training and making sure you are consuming calcium are vital for saving yourself from a lot of pain and irreversible damage to your joints and bones.  

Lifestyle activities. Any extra movement helps burn calories. Look for ways to walk and move around a few minutes more each day than the day before. Easy things you can do that help keep you active without having to slave for hours in the gym or eat large amounts to keep up with heavy exercise are as follows.

Taking the stairs more often and parking farther away at the store are simple ways to burn more calories. Even activities such as gardening, washing your car and housework burn calories and contribute to weight loss. When you’re making food or tea, do some calf raises, stretch while reading a book. Movement is medicine. Include it however creatively you can

Myth #2: Eating certain foods can boost your metabolism.

Let me step on a soap box real quick. Friends, you have to believe me! Downing cups of apple cider vinegar, cold water and green tea really isn’t helping as much as you think! And really, who actually likes the taste of pure vinegar? Eating foods like green tea, caffeine, or hot chili peppers will not help you shed excess pounds. Some foods and drinks may provide a small boost in your metabolism that help jump start the body, but not enough to make a significant difference in your weight. Here’s the skinny on some popular metabolism boosting tricks.

Tea: Tea, namely green tea, is a popular go to for weight loss but slow down before you make tea time all the time. Below is a statistic that can be a bit confusing:

“Studies have found green tea contains a compound called epigallocatechin gallate, which may increase the calories and fat you burn. A 2011 meta-analysis published in Obesity Reviews found that consuming about 250 milligrams of epigallocatechin gallate (the amount in about three cups of green tea) helped boost metabolism enough to burn an average of 100 extra calories a day.”

This study talks about how green tea was found to increase the metabolism and aid in weight loss. 100 calories a day seems like a pretty good trade-off for drinking a few cups of hot, naturally flavored water. Buts lets break this down. First, this study was conducted with overweight individuals. The higher your starting weight, the easier it is to drop pounds quickly. Without further research, it’s hard to say if individuals staring at a normal weight or underweight would see the same results. Likely not. Second, this quote fails to reveal the sample volume that was used or discuss moderators of weight loss. In one review of multiple different studies on green tea and weight loss, it is clear that the correlation between dropping a few pounds and drinking tea is complicated by factors like the amount of caffeine in the tea and the ethnicity of the individual consuming the beverage. Caffeine is an appetite suppressant and can likely add to short term weight loss. It’s hard to say if caffeine free green tea helps burn fat as efficiently as caffeinated varieties. Then there is the issue of caffeine dependency and resistance. Just like coffee, eventually the caffeine loses its fat melting capabilities.

I’m not saying not to drink tea. I personally drink a lot of it because I simply enjoy it. I try to stay away from highly caffeinated teas and beverages because caffeine makes me personally feel pretty sick. There is a tea for everything. I do a post about it soon.

Cold Water/cold showers: Okay, let’s talk H2O and ice baths. Water is an extremely important part of life. We hear it every day- drink more water, drink cold water! Stand under a cold shower! Etc. But let’s take a closer look. The act of being cold does cause the body to generate heat which in turn does speed up the metabolism. The human body has a very narrow set of ranges it can survive in known as homeostasis. In order to maintain homeostasis, the body must stay balanced in PH, electrolyte levels, temperature etc. The reason cold water does technically increase metabolism is because the body has to actively burn calories to warm the water up to an acceptable temperature. In cases where you are not consuming the water but instead surrounded by a cold environment, the body induces shivering to mechanically warm itself. Shivering also actively burns calories because the muscles are contracting hard and fast to generate heat. The amount of calories burned by drinking cold water or submerging yourself in ice water is negligible and varies greatly from person to person and therefore is not a great or pleasant way to burn fat. Drinking cold water on an empty stomach can be really painful too, again I know because I’ve tried it. Last thing I want to mention is the danger of ice baths and eating disorders. If you are underweight it can be dangerous to make yourself really cold because your body doesn’t have the energy to keep you warm enough. The result of a core temperature that drops too low is unconsciousness, malfunction of organs and eventually death (that is if you don’t drown in the water after you pass out).

Spicy foods and cayenne pepper: The idea that spicy foods burn excess calories comes from a compound found in peppers and other hot foods called capsaicin. Studies have found capsaicin to burn around 10 additional calories per meal if consumed in high doses. Most people can’t tolerate the amount of spice needed to increase the metabolism by any significant degree, and even if you could, assuming you ate spicy food in appropriate doses at every meal, every day, it would take you about six and a half years to burn one pound of fat (math based on a healthy weight male individual).  My point is this- if you like spicy food, by all means eat it, but if you’re forcing yourself to do cayenne pepper and lemon juice shooters in the morning, stop. It’s really not worth it and can cause more harm than help- no one wants burns in their stomach or down their esophagus.

Superfoods: Be careful what you read and trust as reliable information. “Superfoods” are often packed with nutrients, antioxidants and other beneficial compounds but no one food or drink is going to make you thin….especially not overnight. We all hate to hear this but weight loss comes with consistency, clean foods and exercise. Patience is a virtue we can all learn to appreciate on this journey. The 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends cutting calories by 500 to 700 calories a day to lose 1 to 1.5 pounds (0.5 to 0.7 kilograms) a week. If you can add some physical activity to your day, you'll accomplish your weight-loss goals even faster and keep yourself out of harm’s way.

Myth #4: Eating small meals during the day increases your metabolism.

Unfortunately, there is little scientific evidence that eating small, frequent meals boosts metabolism. Even though eating small snacks instead of large meals isn’t proven to boost the metabolism, spreading your meals out may help you avoid binging. A more constant intake of food can make it easier to stop once you start eating because the body is no longer worried it won’t be feed for hours on ends. Snacks should contain mostly fruits, veggies and lean proteins. Gold fish are tasty but carry no nutritional value. How much you eat is a factor in weight loss but it also matters what you eat.

Myth #5: Getting a full night's sleep is good for your metabolism.

 A good night's sleep will NOT boost your metabolism but neglecting to sleep can trigger weight gain.  The chronically sleep-deprived in general tend to consume more calories than necessary, possibly to deal with feeling tired. Sleep deprivation can cause your body to produce too much insulin, which can lead to increased fat storage. We’ve all been there staring into the fridge at three in the morning trying to fight off the urge to binge because we can’t sleep. Sleeping with an eating disorder can be hard. I am naturally an insomniac and sleep very little, so being a hungry insomniac is even worse! The goal is seven to nine hours of sleep per night but shoot for what you can. Some things I do to help with the sleeping issue:

           -No napping during the day: If I nap, I don’t sleep period.

           -No technology 1-2 hours before bed

          -No food an hour before bed: Eating too close to bedtime leaves me                     feeling bloated and prevents me from sleeping

          - Having clean sheets and a tidy bedroom: I find it easier to sleep in a                    clean environment. I also enjoy sleeping with a weighted blanket

          -The bedroom is only for sleeping and sex. I try really hard not to do other             activities in my room including playing on my phone, watching Netflix,                   reading etc. I want my body and my mind to understand that when I slip               into bed I wish to sleep, not lie awake staring at the ceiling.

         -Daily exercise: like I said, personally I naturally have loads of energy and            have trouble sleeping. I find that when I exercise throughout the day it’s a            bit easier to catch the Z’s at night. This being said I like to meditate and                stretch before bed as well. It’s a nice peaceful way to wind down, calm                any nervous energy and banish any negative thoughts that haunt you in              your slumber.

        -Drinking hot tea: There is no research or Proof behind this one. This is                 only my observation but sipping on hot herbal tea (un-caffeinated!!) helps             me relax and wind down for the night. I like peppermint tea before bed                 because it is gentle and helps settle my stomach.

Summary:

Weight loss is a hard, frustrating journey- especially when you’re on an Anna fast track. Arming yourself with information isn’t going to make your disorder go away or make it easier to cope with but it can help you restrict safer and understand what it is you are doing to your body. If you have questions, comments concerns or topics you’d like me to discuss in further detail let me know! My inbox is always open to anyone.

As always stay safe and know that you are loved

Bell

Sources

https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2009135

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-about-metabolism

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/metabolism/art-20046508

https://www.rush.edu/health-wellness/discover-health/how-metabolism-really-works

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000893.htm

https://muscleevo.net/cold-showers-weight-loss/

[tessatechaitea]

Wonder Twins #7

I didn't realize the Wonder Twins were Gen X.

Oh yeah! Zan had just saved the world by stopping a plot that was going to save the world.

I just realized I hadn't scanned the cover yet and as I did, I noticed the Wonder Twins fist/star emblem marks a striking resemblance to a goat.se riff. Zan and Jayna get taken off of monitor duty at the Hall of Justice now that they've stopped the League of Annoyance. You'd think that doing a good job would get you a promotion but those of use who have always done spectacularly good jobs know better. While everybody else works down to the lowest common denominator (because who wants to do more work than the next guy?! A fool, that's who!), good workers just put on blinders and do the job they were hired for until the time they're being paid for is up. Sure, that sounds like I'm describing a sucker who's been completely manipulated by the man! But I'm also describing a person who fulfills their end of whatever bargain they've agreed to! So when I say Zan and Jayna wind up giving tours at the Hall of Justice because they were too good at catching criminals, you'll understand why I went into the previous digression. Maybe? I don't know. Have you seen what state the U.S. is in?! Why are you picking apart my writing style?! Mark Russell takes a few pages to shit all over hockey fans and now I hate Mark Russell with a burning passion. Even though I'd hardly call myself a hockey fan. I mean, I loved NHL '93 (unless it was '92 (or maybe '94?)) and I loved going to San Jose Sharks games when I was still living in the Bay Area (plus my friend worked equipment for the Sharks and would get us free tickets). But it's not like I follow it much anymore. I just like the feeling of being angry at somebody for writing a satirical critique of sports fans rioting because they're so happy that their team won. Although why would I be angry when I've never done that nor think Russell's wrong in his pointed and humorous critique?! Oh, who cares why! Being angry is just more fun! Oh shit! I finally understand people's attraction to Fox News! I just watched a YouTube clip of somebody's Jeremy Roenick highlights from NHL '94 set to the song "More Than a Feeling" and it was pretty awesome. Also, that was definitely the one we played nonstop back in 1993 and 94 and maybe even into 95. Roenick unstoppable down with the puck while Sharks players lay splayed out on their back all across the ice. To stop the riot, Superman calls in Repulso! He's a guy whose super power is super stink and he's kept in a locked room with a bare table and a microwave and nobody wants to be his friend because he smells like a garbage dumb that vomited on top of the diarrhea it shit out while standing on its head so the stanky muck ran down his body absorbing all of his body odor and then somebody cut up a durian and tossed it in the mix.

Superman is a dick. Get this guy some friends with no sense of smell. Or at the very least, an Xbox Gold account.

After the hockey riots, some "the end of the world" riots take place because Zan and Jayna screw up something or other. Basically what that means is that Repulso gets to be let out of his airtight containment unit again! He's a pretty optimistic guy for being sealed away by Superman (which is just Superman's way! Is somebody a problem? No problem! Put them in the Phantom Zone!). He's so happy and not bitter about his living arrangements that I feel like Zan and Jayna had better figure out a way to give him a better life before this issue ends. Because if Mark Russell fails this character he created before this issue is over and I have to face reality after snot crying about a fictional person, I'm going to be pretty upset when I continue to buy Mark Russell comic books because what other choice do I have? Am I going to stop reading DC's best written comic books because Mark Russell betrayed poor Repulso? Of course not! What am I? A person with integrity?! Repulso winds up getting his ass beat by rioters as Repulso's handlers flee the chaotic "end of the world" downtown riot scene. Luckily the Wonder Twins are headed downtown to save his life and maybe become his friend or something? Please? After Zan and Jayna save Repulso, Jayna goes to Superman to tell him everything sucks. He gives her a big speech about how being a hero is lonely work because you don't always get to fuck the hot chick at your secret identity's workplace and also fuck an Amazon warrior while also getting to fuck anybody at all whose initials are "L.L." and also have a best friend who is the coolest guy in the world with a butler who makes the best pancakes. Sometimes you're a fat jerk who smells who even Superman won't fucking give the time of day because Superman has this speech about how being a hero is lonely and that's a good thing so you should embrace your loneliness because who wants to put up with your super stink, fatty?

Jayna is a way better hero than Superman. At least in this comic book that's all about her and not Superman so of course she's going to outshine him!

Oh yeah, the ant in the above picture is Jayna. It can't smell. Wonder Twins #7 Rating: A+. I should probably be less cynical when reading Mark Russell comic books because he's as earnest and serious as he can be while also providing lots of jokes. He takes writing seriously because what else is there? If your message isn't going to matter, why bother? (is his philosophy. I think. It's not my philosophy! I don't think? Maybe it is! I just write things that matter in a much different way than Mark Russell writes things that matter.) I should probably read Superman's speech and be inspired by the idea that you don't do good because you want adulation; you do good because it's the right thing to do, even if the entire world thinks you're an asshole for doing it. Even if all of the other superheroes think you're a stinky fuck and only keep you around to use as a tool to oppress and manipulate the masses without having to use logic and reason on them (because, let's face it, the people doing terrible things don't understand logic and reason. Or they're do but they're just selfish and greedy so nothing is going to reach them anyway (which maybe is part of Superman's message?)), you're still a hero at the end of the day. You can still be proud of your stinky self. And even if the life is lonely, you should remain positive and upbeat because Superman really doesn't want to be reminded that you exist every time you complain about the lack of reasonable living conditions. Being a hero is a state of mind, says the guy who also looks great and is invulnerable and has the best wife and a cool son and doesn't have to fear death! So inspiring!

[lavieenprose]

By

Liana Finck

October 21, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE

The thing about being a woman is you always have to pretend to be interested in characters in books and movies to whom you don’t quite relate. I don’t relate 100 percent to men in suits, or men with guns, or men pining after women, or anguished male artists in paint-splattered pants, or men sailing ships, or men making money. I relate, at best, 74 percent to these men. And then I do the work, make the mental leap, bring myself the extra 26 percent so I can really enter the story.

What I can potentially relate to 100 percent is women. Women in flowing bow ties, women cleaning floors, women chopping wood, women knitting, women leading countries, women wrestling wild animals, women raising kids, women making eyes at men, women making eyes at women, women doing nothing at all. Some of the books and movies I come across are about women, but not enough. It’s fun to read books about people who are different from you, but not if your own story is so excluded that you feel erased.

Are these comics sexist? Sure they are. They depict the female stereotypes of a very sexist, very white Protestant, early sixties American society, where a woman’s highest calling—higher even than cleaning and cooking—is to attract a man by being lovely and pointy-breasted, a light dancer, an easy laugh, supportive of the man in all his pursuits, and fun without being threatening. It’s a stupid, quietly violent thing to tell a woman: that her vocation is to be pleasant to men, and her supreme goal is to be chosen, kept, erased by one reassuringly tall, clean-shaven fellow. But it’s even more of a violent thing to tell a woman indirectly, by not putting her point of view in the book at all. I’ve been told these things indirectly all my life. It’s a relief, in these comics, to hear it said out loud, said to us, so we can make of it what we will. These comics won’t turn you into a sixties housewife. They’ll remind you, with a rush of fairy-tale feeling, that you are an I. With the great power that comes with selfhood, perhaps you’ll be able to identify the sixties housewife living inside you. So you can gently thank her, and let her go.

Here’s my confession: Not only do I not mind Whitney’s romance comics, I love them. I find them touching and empowering and human. The stories are ridiculous. They have a lot of charm and are beautifully crafted, but it’s not hard to see behind the scenes and think, This is a world where everyone is a white American Protestant, and where a woman’s sole value is in her desirability to men. This is propaganda. I will take it with a grain of salt. The romance comics don’t hide their retrograde politics. They make them clear, so you can concentrate on reading, and not expend the usual energy weeding out the sexism cleverly hidden in art and pointing it out to others. I also think, by some miracle, Whitney really understands and empathizes with his female characters—Margie Tucker, the “hopelessly dumb” farm girl with a heart of gold; Nancy Wilson, the pug-nosed scientist; Roxanne Farr, ambitious president of Roxanne Frocks, Inc.; Cindy Lamb, the spunky coed; Meg Foster, the self-abnegating aunt—the way Anton Chekhov and Alfred Hitchcock (who was a terrible person, by the way) do.

By Liana Finck October 21, 2019ARTS & CULTURE

The thing about being a woman is you always have to pretend to be interested in characters in books and movies to whom you don’t quite relate. I don’t relate 100 percent to men in suits, or men with guns, or men pining after women, or anguished male artists in paint-splattered pants, or men sailing ships, or men making money. I relate, at best, 74 percent to these men. And then I do the work, make the mental leap, bring myself the extra 26 percent so I can really enter the story.

What I can potentially relate to 100 percent is women. Women in flowing bow ties, women cleaning floors, women chopping wood, women knitting, women leading countries, women wrestling wild animals, women raising kids, women making eyes at men, women making eyes at women, women doing nothing at all. Some of the books and movies I come across are about women, but not enough. It’s fun to read books about people who are different from you, but not if your own story is so excluded that you feel erased.

The women in Ogden Whitney’s comics live to find love. If they are distinguished, or distinguishable from one another, it is only in order to offer a different spin on the tried and true form of the romance story. They are vivid characters, but their vividness exists solely to attract the attention of men. Although there are plenty of talented and interesting women in the pages of Whitney’s Return to Romance, clichés still abound: if they know how to cook, that’s good. If they don’t know how to dress, that’s bad. The edgy beatnik character in “Beat Romance” turns out not to be a beatnik after all: she’s a polite, healthy coed, top of her college class—not a threat to the status quo, and therefore deserving of romance.

Our knowledge of Whitney is shadowy. He was born in 1918 in Massachusetts and later lived in the Bronx. At twenty he began working for Detective Comics, Inc., which is now DC Comics, and from there created a number of superheroes, the most famous of which was Herbie Popnecker, a fat, unhappy child who wields a magic lollipop. Whitney drew the romance comics in the early sixties, when New York comic book publishers were trying to use love stories to reach a new audience of teenage girls. Unlike most of the artists drawing romance comics in that period, however, he didn’t use stock plots but likely invented his own; their pacing and interest in social relations, even within the confines of the genre, are part of what make them worth reading today. Whitney’s life was marked by its own romance. By all accounts a lonely, withdrawn man, he married Anne Whitney in 1958 at the age of forty. (She was forty-two.) Their marriage coincided with one of the most fruitful, inventive moments in his career, and when she died in 1970, he is said to have been overtaken by alcoholism and madness.

Are these comics sexist? Sure they are. They depict the female stereotypes of a very sexist, very white Protestant, early sixties American society, where a woman’s highest calling—higher even than cleaning and cooking—is to attract a man by being lovely and pointy-breasted, a light dancer, an easy laugh, supportive of the man in all his pursuits, and fun without being threatening. It’s a stupid, quietly violent thing to tell a woman: that her vocation is to be pleasant to men, and her supreme goal is to be chosen, kept, erased by one reassuringly tall, clean-shaven fellow. But it’s even more of a violent thing to tell a woman indirectly, by not putting her point of view in the book at all. I’ve been told these things indirectly all my life. It’s a relief, in these comics, to hear it said out loud, said to us, so we can make of it what we will. These comics won’t turn you into a sixties housewife. They’ll remind you, with a rush of fairy-tale feeling, that you are an I. With the great power that comes with selfhood, perhaps you’ll be able to identify the sixties housewife living inside you. So you can gently thank her, and let her go.

Here’s my confession: Not only do I not mind Whitney’s romance comics, I love them. I find them touching and empowering and human. The stories are ridiculous. They have a lot of charm and are beautifully crafted, but it’s not hard to see behind the scenes and think, This is a world where everyone is a white American Protestant, and where a woman’s sole value is in her desirability to men. This is propaganda. I will take it with a grain of salt. The romance comics don’t hide their retrograde politics. They make them clear, so you can concentrate on reading, and not expend the usual energy weeding out the sexism cleverly hidden in art and pointing it out to others. I also think, by some miracle, Whitney really understands and empathizes with his female characters—Margie Tucker, the “hopelessly dumb” farm girl with a heart of gold; Nancy Wilson, the pug-nosed scientist; Roxanne Farr, ambitious president of Roxanne Frocks, Inc.; Cindy Lamb, the spunky coed; Meg Foster, the self-abnegating aunt—the way Anton Chekhov and Alfred Hitchcock (who was a terrible person, by the way) do.

These comics are fairy tales. They tell you that you’re chosen and precious. It’s true, they tell you, that no one notices how special you are now, but notice is within reach: all you have to do is lose a few pounds, do your hair differently, buy a new dress, and everything will be wonderful. Fairy tales were originally oral histories, told from mother to daughter. A woman, as a daughter learns from her mother, is not a full human being. A woman is a storybook character, like Prince Charming or Santa Claus. She can act only according to certain rules. She lives in fairy tales. Once your mother has told you a fairy tale, the character of the woman lives in you, too. You can’t get her out. She’s tied up with you, but she is not you. We are blessed and cursed to have her, just as we are blessed and cursed to be able to give birth to our own daughters, if we wish, and teach them these lessons, too.

What is a woman? She is all things good and lovely. Often unrecognized, and kept down by forces less incorruptible than herself, she prevails by force of sheer quietness. How, specifically, does she prevail? By winning the man: Prince Charming. Like most of the female characters in great romantic books and films—Philip Roth’s women, Junot Díaz’s women, Haruki Murakami’s women, Wes Anderson’s women, Woody Allen’s women—Prince Charming is alluring but opaque. A love object. How delicious and rare for a man to be seen in this way. For a woman to be the one watching him. Even if, ostensibly, according to the story, she’s only watching him watch her. Astrid Franklin, in the title story—who loses her dreamy husband by neglecting her looks and wins him back by changing her hair style and clothes, losing weight, and putting on makeup—is one-dimensional. But her feelings—low-level depression, then devastating loss, then blinding realization, and then triumph—are all the more relatable for it, and so gratifying. And there is so much pleasure in a happy ending: Astrid Franklin wants only one thing from life, and her wish is granted.

Fairy tales are a twisted thing. Femininity is a twisted thing. It’s a kind of religion. As for Prince Charming, I will never have him, and I don’t want him. But don’t make me give up my longing for him. Tell me about it again and again. Tell me fairy tales the rest of my life.

[an-infinity-more-again]

Dakota had a hard time believing, a peculiar trait in an angel. It was just not something that he did. Because, after all, the sky was blue until it wasn’t. It was only ever blue until it rained, until it was nightfall, until the sun rose. Likewise, he had trouble with tossing tomatoes into salads, slamming them onto burgers, and dousing pasta in their innards and still calling them a fruit. And despite the early propaganda that claimed that Corn Flakes could help him with his sinning, Dakota found that, luckily, thankfully, it didn’t hinder it at all. To be truthful, he found the frequency with which he sinned to have doubled. And that worked just fine for him. 

There was also no verity behind the old adage either; that seeing was believing. Because it just hadn’t made sense. To have chugged an entire handle of cheap gin, tossed back a small palmful of ecstasy, and snorted a fat line of cocaine off the public toilet’s stained porcelain lid and still wind up here. As cliched as the stories told, there’d been bright lights and a pearly gate. People had wings, actual feathery wings that flapped and floated. And even a conversation with the Big Man himself, the “Him” in charge of it all, hadn’t been enough to convince him. Dakota had actually laughed, spat in His face and watched the saliva trickle down His cheek before he’d accepted it. Accepted it but not believed it. 

Because at the end of the day, Dakota only believed in doubts and skepticism. There was no other reason to explain why he’d been chosen for this. Why he’d been granted wings (literal) and a halo (figurative) and they hadn’t. He couldn’t begin to understand how it could have been His plan for his wife and his son to be murdered, stabbed and tossed in the street like trash. And for what? For his wife’s purse, her watch. 

Dakota had never claimed to be a good person, never claimed to be a saint. But he found that his actions certainly hadn’t justified His. And maybe that was it. Maybe that was the catch. His wings weren’t a reward; they were a punishment. And so, that had to be the reason. The reason he was here now, the reason why it hurt so much.

“I never meant to hurt you,” she said. Vanessa. Playing the good cop. 

And Dakota had to laugh because he didn’t quite believe that either. His arms were spread apart, tied against the cold metal beams behind him. His ankles were roped so tightly together that his feet had gone numb. His face and his torso were a conglomeration of bruises, welts, and lacerations so colorful that Dakota had to laugh again, imagining himself as an assortment of chocolate truffles. A cherry red cordial slice here, a blueberry dark-chocolate ganache contusion there. He was a mess.

But his wings were his real death sentence. 

Because despite most newborn angels being born with stark white wings, his had always been a dusty gray. After all, there’d been no denying the fact that he hadn’t died a saint. And over the years, through the decades, they’d only turned dirtier, darker. But they’d never been red; now, they were a canvas of it. 

Blood smeared, splattered, and streaked across his wings. Large handfuls of his gray plumage had been stripped from them, half of his feathers laying in heaps on the cold stone floor in this cold stone room beneath the cold stone club. Each torn feather served as a reminder that he, too, was merely mortal. And if this is how his time ran out, he was ready to accept it. 

“Kota,” Vanessa whispered. “I didn’t.” 

“Oh, God, spare me,” Dakota groaned. And then laughed again. Because he knew that fucker never would. 

At this, Vanessa only drew closer, her hand poised by her side, considering. He noted the indecision in the act, her hesitancy. He gleaned the internal battle waged within her cornflower blue eyes, the reddened rim of her eyelids, and hated her all the more for it. How dare she, how dare she pretend to hurt, to care for him, to want to touch him. Even now, even as the truth unraveled. “I told you to stop,” she persisted. “I told you to run.”

“And I did,” he growled. “Right into your father’s trap.” He’d wanted the words to be loaded, weaponized. He’d wanted them to hurt but instead, they fell out broken. 

Instead of turning from him, she softly gathered his beaten face into her hands. She was so gentle, so kind, that his body almost didn’t register the touch at all without the intensity of pain, anguish, torment behind it. But it did and she continued to hold him there, held his gaze as they searched each other for unspoken answers to unasked questions. Finally, Dakota found one that stuck.

“Can you get me out of here?” he murmured, quiet, faltering.

There was a beat, a solid, tangible thing that stood between them as Vanessa’s touch stiffened, tensed. She inhaled sharply, her eyes roving over his face. For too long. Too long for a simple yes or no question. A question that Dakota already knew the answer to and wanted to hear from her nonetheless. And here it came...

“No...,” she breathed. 

Dakota roared, thrashing his head out of her grip. “Don’t,” he snarled. “Don’t fucking touch me, Vanessa...” 

Pulling away hastily, Vanessa flinched. Almost imperceptible but not quite. Between them, the moment dragged before she swallowed heavily, guiding him to another truth as she headed toward the door. His exit; his freedom.

“Anais,” she said. “My real name is Anais.”

And like that, she was gone. His Vanessa. 

No. Not his Vanessa.

The autonomous Anais. 

Lucifer’s daughter.

He was an idiot. To say he’d been played was a vast understatement. Because for a little while, he’d believed. For just a little while, he had thought that she was just another slave in the dark, vengeful, writhing, insidious club that was Tartarus. The club that chewed people up and spat out their souls into the depths of Hell. And for a bit, he thought that if he couldn’t save all of them, he could at least save her. And for just a second, he had started to believe that there maybe was room for one more in his heart, just one more after his wife’s death had left it open and shattered all those years ago. For just a moment, Dakota believed he could love her...

And Dakota was done believing. 

[septrainbow]

What is a gift umbrella?

Gift umbrella is presented to customers as gifts. As a publicity carrier, they have great fluidity, bright colors and good visual effects. The pattern design is not restricted, the structure can be chosen at will, beautiful and durable, high quality and price, etc., and become a corporate gift. An important form of propaganda. Therefore, gift umbrella customization is the best choice for corporate promotion.

Role and Value

Benefits of gift umbrella: 1. The advertising effect is good: the scope of advertising is wide, and it is necessary to use umbrellas not only on rainy days, but also on sunny days, which has all-weather advertising benefits.

2. Low input cost: The cost of gift umbrellas is low, a beautiful gift umbrella only costs about $5, and companies or customers generally can use it for more than one year.

3. Strong practicability: shelter from the wind and rain, sun and sun shade, whether it is in the city or the country, adults or children, you must use an umbrella. It is a must-have for home travel.

4. Long advertising time: The gift umbrella has a long service life! Unless damaged, the advertising role of the gift umbrella will not be invalid.

5. Beautiful appearance: The umbrella cloth has bright colors and exquisite designs. It can even be said to be a cute artwork.

Choosing a gift umbrella for advertising is equivalent to choosing the most high-quality and low-cost advertising method. Therefore, it has become an excellent choice for major corporate customers' celebration gifts, company conference gifts, company opening gifts, and advertising promotions.

Material The fabrics of gift umbrellas are diversified, mainly including satin cloth, silver tape, pearl tape, pearl cloth, plain cloth, fat and thin silk. The most common types of umbrella fabrics in the apparel industry are called "polyester spinning" and "pongee spinning". "Polyester spinning" is treated with waterproof coating, usually PVC glue is applied, and it becomes a waterproof fabric, which extends into the "polyester cloth" (coating only) and "printing fabric" (printing and dyeing after coating) in the umbrella industry. Checkered lines), "pearlescent cloth" (coating + pearl powder), "silver tape" (coating + silver glue). After coating the base fabric of "Pong Yafang", it has become the "pongee fabric" and "pongee with silver glue" in the umbrella industry.

How to distinguish the quality of gift umbrellas? The quality of gift umbrellas mainly depends on the density of the base fabric. Generally, the umbrella industry uses 170T, better ones use 190T, and high-end ultra-thin fabrics are also useful 210T and 300T.

[phgq]

Joint military-police ops neutralize over 5K Reds

#PHnews: Joint military-police ops neutralize over 5K Reds

MANILA – Operations conducted by military and police units have so far neutralized 5,164 New People's Army (NPA) members and supporters for the first nine months of the year, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Sunday.

 This can be broken down into 169 communist terrorists killed in focused military operations, 4,777 former rebels who have chosen to abandon the insurgency movement, and 218 who were arrested by security forces.  

 "Our recent successes in combating the communist scourge would not have been possible without our strong partnership with our counterparts in the Philippine National Police (PNP)," AFP chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay said in a statement.

 Last Sept. 24, the AFP and the PNP concluded the National Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Center meeting, which has so far been successful in instilling the joint operations concept between military and police units nationwide.

 The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

 "We have once again convened to ensure the continuous synchronization of our respective efforts in winning the peace, intensifying security, and bringing to justice those who have caused chaos and spread terror in their attempt to corrupt the peace and democracy that we all have been preserving," Gapay said.

 Recent joint operations have resulted in the neutralization of notorious communist leaders nationwide, including a certain "Mitchel Fat," who was killed after resisting government forces serving arrest warrants late in August in Ilog, Negros Occidental.

 He was believed to have masterminded the killing of four policemen in Ayungon, Negros Oriental in July 2019.

 Meanwhile, elements of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion and the 1st Police Mobile Force Company in Surigao Del Sur also apprehended during a checkpoint operation, Sarvina Rivas Quijano, a finance staff of the communist terrorist group in northeastern Mindanao.

 She was accosted and found carrying two improvised explosive devices (IED) along with other IED paraphernalia.

 Also, combined forces of 81st Infantry Battalion and Ilocos Sur Provincial Police Office  also arrested the top ranking NPA leader operating in Abra identified as Joel Sibalo Banganan and Ranny Velle Urbis, an NPA leader operating in Ilocos Sur last Aug. 14 in Barangay Damacuag, Santa Lucia, Ilocos Sur.

 Mario Caraig, an NPA leader operating in the Southern Tagalog region, was also killed by AFP-PNP forces in Kalayaan, Laguna on Aug. 7.

 Aside from the neutralization of high-value targets, the AFP and the PNP also confirmed the dismantling of eight so-called guerrilla fronts this year.

 The dismantling involves the destruction of communists' fighting force and its support and propaganda systems, rendering them incapable of staging attacks, recruiting new members, and generating funds.

 The AFP said three of the dismantled terrorist cells were from Luzon, two were from Visayas, and three were from Mindanao.

 "Combined together, the AFP and the PNP is a formidable force that the communist terrorist group should fear when we meet on the ground. As we further improve our lines of cooperation, and with the cooperation of different stakeholders in peace and security, we are confident that we can meet our target of ending the communist scourge by 2022," Gapay said.

 He also thanked PNP chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan for continuing to be a reliable partner in the operations against the communist terrorists.

 Both agencies also committed to support the National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict, which has so far been successful in uniting national and local government agencies to achieve a complete victory against the CPP-NPA-National Democratic Front.

 The AFP and the PNP are members of the Peace, Law Enforcement, and Development Support cluster of NTF ELCAC, alongside the Philippine Coast Guard and the National Bureau of Investigation. (PNA)

    ***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Joint military-police ops neutralize over 5K Reds." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1116732 (accessed September 27, 2020 at 09:18PM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Joint military-police ops neutralize over 5K Reds." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1116732 (archived).

[garp20-liambull]

Circus as Multimodal Discourse Performance, Meaning, and Ritual

Chapters 1 and 11

Paul Bouissac London : Bloomsbury Publishing 2012PublisherLondon : Bloomsbury PublishingCreation Date2012Format1 online resource (225 p.).LanguageEnglish SourceLJMU Library Catalogue

Chapter 1

Circus Perfomances as Ritual: Participative Ethnography The opening chapter opens with the role of the traditional circus and how this has developed into online advertising. I talks about the alluring qualities in which the circus showcases such as music, banners, painted panels and loudspeakers to entice an audience.

A key point to note is it says that each circus is an organisation with its own social identity and symbolic character. Something it says a lot of journalistic reports miss.

There is nothing fancy in the phonetics and semantics with respect to the languages of the countries they work it. The value of these acts are established in the memory of the spectators who went ad seen their acts over several generations.

Example - Circus BureauIt has a rather bland name but was held in high regard for the older generations that romanticise the stories of the circus. It creates an established image that people hold in high regard. It was endowed in glamour. It had blue and yellow tents and trucks which became iconic to its brand This is similar to what most circuses do as they need to establish their identity as a brand. The driect impact of a circus depends on its ability to stand out from a dull background. It was important for the to distinguish themselves from their competitors. To this day, traditions companies display bold, vibrant colours and patterns on their tents and trucks. The chromatic combinations invokes ancient coat of arms communicate the brand.

The WebsiteThis way of advertisement has been transferred onto an online presence for the circuses.The website is a semiotic gesture towards the audience. By combing images,textx and music, it provides a virtual sample of the goods it is offering.The websites convey the rich iconography of the circus by displaying crucial information two an audience. It first allows to show their identity and style through the colours of costumes, props and animal decorations. Secondly, the website displays content of the acts which the circus have chosen themselves to represent what they have to offer. The want to provide a glimpse into their artistic identity without disclosing the full content of what they have to offer.

The circus as a ritualCircuses qualify as a form of secular ritual. The term ritual has often been used in a metaphorical sense in modern sociological literature to designate forms of interaction which follow a set of patterns and convey meaning. Example include ‘how are you?’ And ‘have a nice day.’ Accompanied by a stereotypical hand gesture. It does not imply that the person cares about someone else day. It is rather a quasiautomic maintenance of the functionality of a network. It is engrained into our culture to do so. A handshake in some cultures can make a contract effective. It can also be a form of greeting and a visual display to show that two people are friends or acquaintances. That they are linked together as a network. It is a physical acknowledgement that you have become part of a group and people who stay in touch, literally. In animals, rituals mean a display of courtship, threat or submission.

In religion terms, a ritual is described as a performance involving an action, gesture, objects or words with the purpose to interact with supernatural entities. Extreme cases of this are a human sacrifice. Sacrificing a human life in order to establish a deal or agreement with a supernatural force. Typically for protection. This is  seen in Voodoo and Tantric Hinduis.

To be a ritual the action needs to set apart, remain unquestioned and require a radical suspension of disbelief. The actions follow a compulsory pattern. There is no practical rationale for them except that they must be obeyed for the ritual to be effective. They carry the symbolic seal of a transcendent order.

Bringing it back to circuses. In India, crises there use animals to perform rituals and religious acts such as elephants. Now as elephants, monkeys and cows are scared in hinduism, it is clear to see how the circus makes itself compatible with the accomplishment of a religious ritual and of the culture.  We can clearly see that circuses too, include the formal properties of rituals. The displays o circuses themselves are repetitive. Horses are included in acts that vary little, cage acts include lions, tigers, leopards or bears where the core action of the act is down to the same training techniques and displays. The acts of clowns are based on only a small number of gags. All these actions are executed with a formality and highly predictive manner. A circus can show heroes, like willing victims of a sacrifice for no other reason than the act itself. The themes of purification, survival, redemption, life and death is consistent in both religious rituals and the circus. Subtle actions of acrobats kissing their medals or wearing a talisman before performing an act or tilting their head towards the sky with a hand gesture gratitude retroactively endows their actions with a religious significance.

Chapter 11

Ideology and Politics in the Circus RingIt is explained that circus acrobatics often immtate there p[oses based on greek, renaissance and modern marble icons. The music score involved is typically synched to match the acrobatic style of the performance.

There is an element of voyeristic language to their performances. Erotisim is in the eye of the beholder. There is nothing pornographic as to the perfromnacer of the acrobatic performance. However with the elements of intimate body movement, costume and eye contact with the audience, it can be why some audience may feel this way.

The intimate dancing of the acrobats does have its constraints in some cultures. One of these being India. In the last century male and female performers were segregated in the ring. This contrasts to major circuses in America and European circuses which establish a variety of performers male and female which are in close contact with one another. Now this kind of intimacy would have been unacceptable in India in context to their culture which enforces norms of incompatibility.

Another example is in western civilisation and the taboo of homosexuality. Until the gay liberation movement, two acrobats on a single trapeze would of had to have been a man and woman. Despite this, having two woman on a trapeze was acceptable but only if it where stated that they where sisters and the emphasis was on the gracefulness of their acrobatics rather than the undertones of erotism.

Later when circuses such as the Zirkus Roncalli introduced program acts of two men displaying daring acrobatic seats it was perceived as a strong statement of sexual politics. 1983 “The Lindors” Martin Ener and Walter Joss performed and by how they displayed an unapologetically romantic between two men was loved by audiences in Germany and Holland. However no circus in Southern Europe would try this as Homophobia was still the social norm in there cultures. “Eric er Amelie” was an example of the progression of the male and female roles in the acrobats. Their performance was based “passion of perfect yet unspoken communication”. The performance displayed signs of mutual respect as the woman was also the bearer, balancing the man on her hands. A small detail which was insatiably noticed by the audience. This was due to the rise in sexual politics, men and women where becoming more equal.

The article explains how circuses included “Gay Circus Night” where the erotism is unleashed to the audience, examples being drag queens, erotic dancing and bear skin showing. However despite this being perceived by a naive audience as maybe being a pornographic show. It is intact sexual politics expressed through the language of the circus.

The language of the circus can be used metaphorically to convey political propaganda and ideologies. This can result from spontaneous representations of ethos of a culture. Examples include the idea of the American Dream, how we as individuals strive for excellence and to risk it all which is reflected in the lone acrobat who surpasses everybody else by showing self reliance and courage. This ranged differnent from Soviet Union circuses of the 50s and 60s which had the ideology of a communist culture which empathised the human concern as apposed to the recklessness of the American circus. Acrobats performing daring feats in a much more controlled manner with a safety net beneath them as to let a person injure or kill themselves in the pursuit of entertainment for a crowd was cruel and a symptom of the cruel capitalist culture.

Circus acts are loaded with political significance. From portraying the stereotypes of social classes such as fat priests, intellectuals of high class represented in attire and props such as books, men and women and their relation to one another. The language of the circus articulates its own multimodal texts which produce a deep meaning for its audience. “Circus is a well ordered microcosm that reflect harmonious society I which everybody works at the place which God has assigned to them.”

[corseque]

Oh man, I just had a horrible thought and had to share. Obviously the Evenauris still had many worshippers, high priests/priestesses, people devoted to them both in true belief that they were gods but also those who had personal power because of the status they were given by their chosen god...What if the demonization of Fen'harel was done on purpose? What if they were purposefully corrupting his spirit, so when he dies he'll come back as a monster as punishment for taking away their gods?

Yeah, it’s still just a theory of mine, but it’s just such a nice one, isn’t it? 

The Information/Misinformation War in Trespasser was exactly what made me start looking really hard at Dragon Age and suspecting that worship is something like a Tulpa (or beings created through thought-form) in this universe. Like, the Demon of Fear in the Fade fed off the fear of the Blight from the waking world, and became powerful because of it. Elves and spirits are brethren of the air, with the same properties. Elves could create things from their imaginations.

So the Evanuris could have become powerful through worship.

“Worship makes you more,” says Cole in Trespasser.

The Rebellion was strangely a War of Propaganda, where Solas was trying to convince everyone to think of the Evanuris as mortals - if people think of them that way, that’s what they will become. And it’s interesting that their response to his rebellion was the same kind of propaganda as well - telling stories of the evil, traitorous nature of Fen’Harel. 

The pages of this book-memory?-warn of a terrible danger, a wolf with slavering black jaws and pits for eyes. The Evanuris-the elven gods-stand in a ring around it, as if preventing it from attacking.

“Beware the forms of Fen'Harel! The Dread Wolf comes in humble guises, a wanderer who knows much of the People and their spirits. He will offer advice that seems fair, but turns slowly to poison. Remember the price of treason, and keep in your heart the mercy of your gods.”

I mean, this possibility is really cool - a war of Propaganda between gods who had been made powerful through worship. One man who just wanted to stop being a god, stop being worshiped, stop all the worship, let no one take slaves anymore - and the Evanuris, who still slathered at the mouth for worship. 

The only way to fight against someone like that is to stop people from worshiping them and sacrificing to them. The only way for the Evanuris to stop Solas was to tell people to stop worshiping him because he’s a traitor who will lead them astray. You could be right, they could have been trying to corrupt his spirit through their worshipers’ collective thought-form.

And powerful ideas (and the spirits that rise from ideas) can never really die in Dragon Age - the Avvar bring them back to life through ritual worship all the time, so the idea of Fen’Harel (some terrible version, at least) is immortal as long as the Dalish pray to him out of fear. (and they do pray to Fen’Harel, there’s a part in Origins where they pray to him by name, and Clan Lavellan honors him more neutrally)

And the Evanuris (like Mythal) (we’ve seen it happen with her before) are immortal as long as an elf like Merrill is willing to do a ritual and pray to them (like Merrill did in DA2 on Sundermount, bringing Mythal back to life, though not exactly the way she was before). It’s the same thing the Avvar do if any of their spirit-gods die in battle.

So it’s a theory, but I don’t even think it’s that far-fetched. If Solas dies, some terrible negative version of Fen’Harel is going to come back to life, because (according to Solas in his personal quest) idea-spirits that old and powerful can’t die. It’s just like the spirit-god Hakkon Winterbreath was given a “good re-birthing” in Jaws of Hakkon.

I think there’s a reason why Jaws of Hakkon, and all the stuff about the rebirth of spirit-gods, was included in Inquisition.The idea of literal demonization, thinking of a god as evil and therefore making him an evil god, is very interesting. People feeding their fears of the Blight to a huge spider-spirit in the Fade, and the spider growing fat and powerful…

So yeah, the possibility of there being a giant wolf-god boss fight is very real imo.