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sweetobseesion · 2 years

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WHY THE AUDIENCE FAILED TO UNDERSTAND HAE SOO: PART 1

*If u do not agree with my views on Hae Soo and think that she’s undeserving or not well written character , I hope you can still read this post .This is a post that is meant to analyse Hae Soo and defend her. I’m writing this based on my personal observations after seeing so much hatred and vicious name-calling against her character, so it will be a bit emotionally charged.

In part one, I will analyse the audience expectations for her character with a detailed look into the circumstances and her position in the drama to give better insight into her choices.And in part two, I might delve into analaysing her as a character

Out of every single post I’ve ever read written about Moonlovers, from the absolutely cynical to the intense emotional ones, they all seem to have one thing in common: A disdain and displeasure towards Hae Soo for seemingly not living up to their expectations: being weak, too kind, not cunning enough, being undeserving of the male leads and not “loving” or “understanding" of the male leads. I suppose the above-mentioned reasons are enough to hint to explain why I’m writing this post. Thee are so many expectations that she has been placed with that she cannot satisfy all of them, at least without breaking character consistency.

To understand where these expectations come from I think people need to look deeper into the stories and media we consume. I think if when examined, it will become apparent that most stories are set up around this epic battle that the leads are supposed to win. I believe by seeing stories like this through and through audiences easily root whoever they think are likely to come out on the winning side. The other supplementary characters are always decided if they are “good” or “bad” if they are on the heroes’ side. But the thing is, the whole story of the hero and journey to success is always skewed towards his perspective, and since he’s the winner he’s always painted as the good person. He's painted to be too good to the point that they sometimes lack flaws. The plot sometimes is designed to let them get away with anything and they always have the best lines, best timing, best entrance etc..just to get the audience to root for them.

In regards to moon lovers, in the beginning, it was touted as a show that this was a show about the fight for the throne where one would emerge the winner: The one who has it all. And Hae Soo a modern woman from the twenty-first century gets thrown into it, without a choice or resolution.

The reason I’m bringing that up is that there’s little true analysis and efforts to understand her perspective underneath and I find that it contributes to more misunderstandings of her character.

Back to my point about stories making you root for winners or those who “ potentially” seem like they have it under control, who’d win. They’re relatable and easy to root for, and do not require deep thoughts on in-depth analysis on why they make the choices they make. It’s easy entertainment.

But moon lovers is not easy entertainment. It’s a show that requires you to take a step back and look at the circumstances of each and every minor character, to fully understand the motive of their actions, as it easily spells it out like most kdramas do.

So, when one takes a step back, lets go of their anger, and takes a look at her circumstances, they realise that her actions actually make a lot of sense. Hae Soo or Ha Jin is a modern woman stuck in the tenth century and she is out there, without her consent. A lot of people call her dumb and ditzy for her antics when she first arrives in Goryeo.

But the thing is, in the case of transmigration, no Modern person will adapt to it as easily , because let’s face it, any Modern person that transmigrates back in history will have trouble adapting into those times, and they will make mistakes and they will have a hard time adapting.

No matter how smart they are, they will not appear as smart or reasonable to the people of that era, because to them their ideas wouldn’t make sense.

. This is why when Hae Soo makes mistakes by the count, it’s not unnatural or “dumb”, it’s the most realistic reaction anyone who got transported to an era thousands of years back will have. Her making mistakes is natural and is a very realistic depiction.

She tries to adjust by observing and make her time in Goryeo worthwhile by developing authentic human relationships and finding a hobby that she can develop. Which is fair enough and not a bad strategy for trying to fit in. Since the beginning she has trouble fitting in because she hasn’t grasped the social sanctions of that time, we find that she treats the experience with a sense of curiosity and fascination, which also in my opinion is quite accurate for a person who’s travelled back in time. People get frustrated yes, but the thing is for one to adjust to its surroundings they should get comfortable with it.

She takes in her Cousin’s advice and tries to fit in, finds a hobby and tries to adapt her passion for cosmetics in Goryeo society. She never intends to hurt her cousin in any way but she finds herself getting attracted to Wook because he seems kind, safe and trustworthy. She doesn’t have anyone to depend on and he seems very dependable and eager to help her settle in. Wook is very attracted to her because she seems very different from the women around him and she is very carefree and cheerful, which excites him and intrigues him.

Many people blame Hae Soo for hurting Myung Hee, but the thing is unlike Soo, Wook actually understands the social sanctions of his time and knows about his wife’s feelings very well. He knows how it affects him and he proceeds with it anyway. And he does know how dangerous it is for Hae Soo. While Hae Soo doesn’t know how dangerous it is for her reputation, she only avoids it to not hurt her cousin. The people around Hae Soo rarely give her good advice on how to deal with life in Goryeo and more focus ed on what she can offer and how she can cheer them up or play with them. Only Myung Hee cares about her as a person and for her safety.

The Princes that care for her do try to help her, but what they all do create more problems for her. They are happy to be entertained by her and play with her, but when it comes to helping her they are powerless. In some cases, where they do try to help, it always ends up backfiring and they end up digging up their own grave and in those cases, Hae Soo ends up taking the bullet for both herself and the princes. This is very clearly demonstrated when she was to be married off to the king. The princes try to help her but end up angering the king and she has to cut off her wrist to save both herself and the princes.

Notice how the King immediately forgets his anger at the princes and all the focus shifts to Hae Soo, who’s being blamed for the whole ordeal. And what’s worse is that is SHE IS WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE. This is a very important element of her character and I believe it is basically the reason why she was bought to Goryeo. So that she could be easily used and exploited. Whoever or whatever it was that brought her here, brought her here so that she could be used to influence and made to take responsibility that she is not responsible for. It/They know that Hae Soo is not the type to seek vengeance or develop greed at any given moment. A slight tug at her guilty conscience and she stops herself from doing anything she set out to do. And this sets up her circumstances and explains her actions throughout the show.

Unlike her Chinese Counterpart Ruoxi, Hae Soo is not allowed complete control of the scene and she is not given the privilege of being involved in politics and certain luxuries that Ruoxi was given. In the Cdrama, people listened to Ruoxi and took her input on many things and right from the beginning, many characters willingly gave her agency that its clear the plot is set up for her to shine. Her character is technically written to give her spotlight in many scenes and she easily fits into the “Strong female lead”. But Hae Soo on the other hand is shut down the moment she enters the Palace. Everyone from the King, Court Lady Oh to Yeonhwa is keen on reminding her to “Know her place” and focus on being a servant and to stay away from the Princes.

People expect her to change, to become the woman that can survive the throne politics and model herself around it so that she could become “queen” material and live happily with Wang So. But the thing is, to see why she never became ‘queen”, instead of solely judging her and hating her, one needs to look at her circumstance, her personality and the situations she was put in to get the full idea.

From the beginning, her life in the Palace was fraught with disasters. The only thing is unlike Wang So, she did not get all gloomy or complain about her hard her life is. Since she always is so positive, people often overlook the struggles she went through. All she wanted was a peaceful life, different from the life she’s led before and she wants to do it her own way, with independence and freedom.

The thing is the audience love to criticise her for not ‘having ambition’ but the thing is she cannot have ambition like the Royals do, precisely because, at the end of the day, she is not a Royal. She cannot openly scheme and show greed because if she did, her position will only become much worse. She will only be in even more danger if she vies for the throne while being close to the Princes while at the position of a servant. Besides, this is not a drama that is set in modern times where she can be all arrogant and sassy as she likes. If she were to act arrogant around people like Yeonhwa and Queen Yoo , then she is just giving them a reason to punish her as she lives in a time where I can be executed for offending a royal.

The entire drama goes on to Prove that the game of thrones is very much a royal game where only the Royals involved in the schemes tend to gain something.Every other servant (Chaeryung, lady that Yeonhwa bribed ) or clan member (Eun's family ) stand to lose everything by being affiliated with them and gain very little.

Bottom line is , when it comes to the choosing of a Queen, individual attributes do not matter as much as the birth status of a person (as in clan backing)which constitutes the main criteria for Queen selection because it guarantees troops and staus during emergency and power in court. It’s not just eliminating enemies at hand and taking the throne for herself. Because even if she were to become evil and eliminate Yeonhwa and Yo, she still wouldn’t be qualified to be Queen because she lost the backing of her clan when she refused Taejo and doesn’t have any other clan backing her up.

The only way she would have a fair chance at politics and become “queen material” is if she had agreed to marry Taejo and pulled a Wu Zetian, marrying his sons after his death. But then it would be a completely different drama, not to mention, it would totally distort Goryeo history.

It’s very clear that Hae Soo is put in a very dangerous and suffocating position and she has to fight for the little freedom that she can afford. Add complicated relationships and trauma on top of that, and the list is complete. The People around Hae Soo want her to play various different roles that suit them.

Besides, I highly doubt a romance of what would basically be an illicit affair between stepmom and stepson would be digestible because that's what it would be had she married Taejo.

Hae Soo& The people around her

In the show majority of the decisions she makes and the circumstances she ends up with can be directly linked to the people she cares about. As mentioned above, given her character, she always ends up taking the bullet for both herself and the princes, but her relationship with the princes is the sole reason why she gets bullied and framed.

Because of her relationship with the princes, all the forces in the palace manoeuvre against her starting from King Taejo, who deliberately kept trying to separate her from the princes. Queen Yoo, who kept trying to extort information from her, Wang Yo who used her and people like Yeonhwa, who saw her as a threat from the get-go.

But the relationship she has with each prince influences her and affects her differently.

The Princes are still very keen on maintaining a relationship that they used to have, while people like Queen Yoo are keen on using her as bait and extorting information from her, precisely due to her relationship with the Princes. While being close with the Princes does earn her some favours, it also puts her in danger and she easily becomes the target of bullying by her fellow Court Ladies.

Willingly ,she tries to help everyone and live for others. She thinks as long as she is kind, the world too will be kind to her. But inside the Palace, where everyone is out to get each other, her kindness makes her out to be the scapegoat more than anything else.

But to top that, her closeness with each prince makes her more vulnerable and stressed because each prince have their own expectations for and the role they wished her to fill. Eun, Baek Ah and Jung wanted her to play a friend, Wook wanted her to be a lover, So wanted her to be a confidante and the crown prince wanted her to cure him. And she had to balance all of it besides being a court lady.

So, to stay closer to them should she have been more ruthless? The answer is more complicated than it seems, but I think there’s more it than what appears and I think to look into why Hae Soo cannot say no to them and be ruthless, we need to look into her social standing.

Ha Soo's Position as a court lady

Like I've mentioned before, Hae Soo's chances of becoming Queen are affected by her being demoted to court lady and all it took to become a queen in those times, is to be the daughter of an influential family. It doesn't matter if she's cunning, beautiful or dumb, if her family is powerful, she can marry into the Royal family. But now that she's a court lady, she cannot marry into them and for worse, she is now their servant. What’s way Worse is, she's a servant who has powerful enemies and lovers who can not help her in any way.

If she were to scheme, like the others suggest, she has to be very alone in it because her Princes can not help her. Remember how they reacted when she was kneeling? Even Wang So can only do so much because even he has to remain in good graces with the king. She was and still is spied upon by many people, all of whom were eagerly watching her every move so it will not be easy for her to simply plot and frame someone. Because at the end of the day, to plot or scheme, you must have a powerful family and a title to back you up.

Notice that all the great schemers in the series are powerful, with a powerful family or person to support and protect them. And it’s important to take into context that Queen Yoo, Yeonhwa, Wook are all people of power, who have nothing but endless free time to sip tea, sit at the library and devote it all to their schemes.And if caught, they will never be properly punished because “reputation of the royal family”. At worse, they'll face an exile.

But Soo gets framed and she is tortured before people can confirm her part in the crime. And though there's little evidence, she is still sent to be executed.

But other than the precarious position she is in, unlike the royals she doesn't have time in her hands, because again, she is a court lady. And as a court lady, she is to fulfil tasks and duties every day and tend to the demands of those living in the palace.

The audience seems to have an extreme expectation of her but I don't blame them. After all, it's hard for them to grasp the reality of the situation because it isn't spelt out. But at the end of the day, there's only so much she can do. No one can balance the duties of being a court lady, fill the expectations of being the most devoted passionate lover while remaining an ingenious schemer who plots to end her enemies. No one has the energy, time or thinking ability to do so.

Queen Yoo and Yeonhwa can scheme so well because they have nothing but time to devote themselves to it. They live a pampered life where their every need is catered to by servants. Hence, they can dedicate all their time and energy to scheming effortlessly.

But Hae Soo already has a lot going on her plate than any other character on the show. She is a modern person stuck in medieval times, a court lady stuck between multiple princes, a court lady caught in schemes of people above her, stuck helplessly in love with people she cannot be with. Yeah, it's safe to say what she's essentially playing here is a losing game. It's a game she cannot win, nor is it a game that allows her to make any moves. Because unlike what most viewers, including myself, assumed in the beginning, things would not have changed if she became more "ruthless".

Hae Soo's position in the game of thrones

As mentioned above, her position in the game of thrones cannot be through an official position. She cannot scheme and bribe servants easily like the royals do, because, at the end of the day, she herself is a servant. From the position of a servant, she can only influence others and give her words and advice. The closest she can ever get to being a member of the Royal family is if she settles into being one of the many women of the King. She cannot become queen and she does not have the power to be a major player in schemes.

But besides that, I have to emphasise the fact she is someone who's already been framed multiple times before with spies around the corner, watching her every move. She has been a target and she still is a target under the eyes of many and is still being closely watched. So if she were to continue to stay in the palace or resort to scheming and come up with ideas and plots to destroy others what it means is, she has far fewer chances to get away with it than others. And if she were to be caught she would be subjected to far harsher punishments than the others, because she doesn't have the power or privilege to allow her to get away with it. She has far better chances of getting caught than getting away with it, and in the most realistic scenario she would just end up supplying her enemies with what they'd been hoping from her all this time: a legit reason to punish her and kick her out of the palace.

So for her , the question of what can she do is really a question of what is allowed to do with little power and freedom she is afforded. She doesn't have the power or privilege, nor does she have the freedom to pursue her own selfish desires out of her own free will like the others in the drama. Though moonlovers is a love story and drama of political intrigue, it doesn't forget the class and unequal social structure of it times and all the characters in the show either benefit from it or are affected by it. While Queen Yoo and Yeonhwa benefit from this unequal, patriarchal system that allows them to get away with it while avoiding suspicion, Soo and Court lady Oh live a life where they keep getting crushed under it. The affection they receive from the King makes them a target of the Palace women and servants alike, while affecting their reputation and making them an easy target of many. They cannot scheme when they barely have any power to protect themselves.

So the best they could do is stay relatively calm, grounded and safe while they stick to their convictions and choices. And that's exactly what Soo does, she stays calm and grounded while sticking to her convictions and choices. She never pressures anyone to doing anything and she never compromises herself in any situation. She only ever comes close to scheming and supporting someone when it comes to So, and she does it out of love.

Hae Soo the empathetic mediator

Out of everything Hae Soo has been through, being the mediator between the princes influenced her life and position the most. It was definitely a decision she made on her own accord, but it was definitely the reason she was bought all the way from the future to this place to meditate and serve as the catalyst for the things that are about to happen.

Her empathy sets her apart from the rest of the characters. Many complain about her lack of a backbone to pursue her own selfish desires, but in my opinion, I think the position she was placed in and her instinct to help and assist others contributed to the very illness that ate her sense of self and her health away. Unlike what most others think, it's not that she lacks an indomitable spirit or a sense of judgement and practicality, it's just that position she was placed on consumed her and destroyed the fiery and free spirit that she once possessed. That is why in the later parts of the drama she appears to be weak, unresponsive and almost characterless.

The weight of her position and the constant unrelenting demands it took coupled with the guilt and trauma and the blame that was always placed on her put her in a state of emotional numbness and withdrawal. I've seen people use this state of her being to cite or argue about how useless or weak she is as a character. The thing is, this is basically a trauma response to everything she's experienced in the palace. From the heartbreak, loss, bullying, torture to the constant pressure she has to face living every day in the palace, it's clear that it has taken a toll on her, causing her to burn out and break down. The weight of the burdens she has to carry is boundless, as since she is the mediator, she also has to carry the emotional burdens of others she cares about, causing her to pent up frustration to the point it becomes a life-threatening illness.

This is what Court lady Oh meant when she asked Soo if she could survive between two princes. Because being a mediator is essentially being the rope that is used in a tug of war between the princes, and she can never properly pick a side or a stance without facing the pull or force from the other side. When she picks So's side, Wook and Jung accuse her of favouritism, when she picks Jung and Wook's side So accuses her of, you guessed it, favouritism. But when she refuses to pick a side, she gets accused of not picking a side. It's pretty clear that whatever she does or chooses, she will always face consequences. For her, there are very few benefits to reap and little to gain. At the end of the day, no one can truly understand the pressure and precarious position she is in because they only see her from the outside. Her struggle is more psychological and internal. Unfortunately, this affects the relationships she has with the princes, most notably with So and Wook, as both of them perceive her mediator status as an act of betrayal.

Hae Soo the victim of royal greed and hypocricy

As I mentioned before, Hae Soo was brought her to accomplish something that people in Goryeo could not achieve. I mentioned how she's been bought here to be exploited and used. The thing is, as a modern soul involved in medieval court politics, her end was always destined to be tragic. There's a scene in ep 18 Jimong says this.

What he's essentially saying is this : Your selfishness will be the cost of everything that follows because of it.

So basically, according to Jimong, Hae Soo cannot afford to be selfish.

But the thing is, she is never acknowledged for her selfless efforts either and has nothing to gain from that too. So, she cannot be selfish but will gain nothing if she sacrifices herself for a bigger purpose.So at the end of the day, her choice is between what has the least tragic outcomes.

Based on what I've said above, from her position as a court lady to her role as a mediator, it is clear that she will never have the benefits and the privileges that other characters in the show might have most because, at the end of the day, she is a fish out of water. No one asks Yeonhwa, Yo or even So to be less selfish and "give up on things. Instead, they are encouraged to pursue their selfish interests.

But people will also never acknowledge her efforts or empathise with her struggle because doing so hurts their pride and exposes their mistreatment towards her. The people I'm referring to are of course the royals, who are keen to blame her and accuse her as the reason of everything that has happened in the palace. In both cases, both Jimong and the Royals hold her to a moral standard that they don't hold themselves to. Yeonhwa easily accuses her of warning her brother and betraying him while she literally did the same thing in a calculated manner while being fully self-aware and choosing that path. Yo willingly schemed, belittled and killed his brothers but blamed her for fixing Wang So's scar. They clearly made their own choices but they refuse to face the consequences for it. And each time it's always Hae Soo that is forced to bear the brunt of it.

And whenever she does something worthwhile it's always treated with envy and suspicion. Primarily, because the fact that a court lady is moving the palace is a threat to the social hierarchy in itself. But the fact that her mere presence and involvement in things forces them to grapple with the truth and the consequences they refuse to face is enough of a threat. So of course, they resort to blaming and lashing out at her because it's the easier thing to do.

And hence, as long as she lives in the Palace, she will fall victim to the double standards placed on her, while being constantly asked to give up things and do the maximum for the people who constantly abuse her. She will always live a life where she falls victim to the greed and hypocrisy of the royal family.

Even if she chose a more selfish and scheming life, besides being held accountable and poweless, she will probably be held to harsher standards than the others and will be blamed and punished.

This is why I think it's better for her to be selfless because while she gains nothing, she at least has a clean record. And her enemies don't have much ammunition left.

Going back to the discussion of "why the audience failed to understand her", I will say that this is not an attack or criticism against anyone of a different opinion. It's certainly a bit emotionally charged and is the result of my exasperation with the amount hate her character gets on the internet.

The thing is, her character is complex but she is not difficult to understand.To understand her character you just need to try to see things from her perspective, but as I was skimming and reading through way too many pages and blog posts dedicated to Hae Soo on the internet, I found that there were many who designated her character to be too "weak" or too "dumb" without even giving her the benefit of the doubt. The reason for titiling this post on how the "audience failed to understand her" is to analyse why many still refuse to give her the benefit of the doubt.

As I've mentioned above, most of the stories we see on screen is geared around rooting for the character who succeeds or "wins".

In those stories, there’s usually an objective and an obstacle, and the plot revolves around how the leads overcome them and “win”. They are usually given traits that are positive and make them “likable”.Especially if it’s a female character, there’s always a love line involved, which leads them to be put under the microscope and be judged for both the love line and the way they overcome the obstacles, thus having a double standard of judgement and perfection imposed on them. The bottom line is, a female character is only considered to be a “strong female lead” if she wins against the odds and achieves both love and power.

There’s this underlying expectation that asks them to play this role of a feminine, supportive lover in love and this practical, hard-headed ruthless pursuer of goals/ambition together all at once.And if the character ends up losing one of those or both, she’s quickly labelled a damsel in distress or a “weak character”.It’s like to be a “strong female lead” you have to win on both counts.But the thing is, this specific requirement , besides narrowing down the possibilities of exploring more complex characterisation, also makes it impossible for these characters to be vulnerable or flawed. Because their “strength” is linked their ability to achieve and remain undefeated.

And this pursuit of extreme perfection on both counts turns into this sort of trope and cliche and it leads to the audience having a bunch of expectations and fixed idealisms of how a “strong woman” should be, which is essentially the opposite of “weakness”. But the thing is, the concept of strength and weakness is quite abstract to begin with, and there's different strengths and weaknesses and there are different definitions and different measures of it.

But the truth is , years of commercialisation of this strong female lead trope has also led to the strong female persona becoming a trope. Usually a "strong female lead" without much substance is simply written to win and overcome a certain obstacle. She is usually "not like other girls" and is not into the typical feminine stuff, she is headstrong and brave , and is smart enough to save herself and throw in a smart punchline here and there.Besides, she very likely checks all the boxes that is considered attractive and "interesting" ,be it being funny or ambitious. What she doesn't have however is any noticeable character flaw or depth and contradictions that you would find in a real person. And though this is apparent , people find it easy to root for her because she ends up winning in the end.

The problem with these expectations, it sets a precedent in stone. Both for how characters behave in the story and how female characters are viewed in general. There's this expectation for female characters to fit into either of these two dichotomies: Either the '"strong female lead" or the naive "girl next door/damsel in distress".

This is why when characters like Hae Soo, people are so divided and she ends up being so misunderstood, with a pile of hate along her way. Hae Soo at her core is a complex individual who fits both into the definition of a strong female lead and the damsel in distress.Sure,she may not be your typical determined ,smart mouthed and organised who's effortlessly intelligent and always wins but at she's not the pliable, uncharacteristic predictable female lead who's purely a reactive figure dependent on other characters and circumstances to drive the plot and save her either.

In essence, she is a complex character with noticeable flaws, that technically posses traits of both "damsel in distress" and " strong female lead" as she's written to be real person than to fit into a wish fulfilling trope.Years of commercialisation and creating "girl boss" characters has sort of given more legitimacy to these strong female characters and have led to the assumption that these characters are infact, the true blueprint for more strong female characters to come.

However, it should be noted that this glorification of the unbeatable women is grounded in trivializing femininity and feminine traits and internalized misogyny. It focuses on simply defeating everything and becoming "stronger" , which has often allowed writers to simply write off any traumatic incident ,(be it muder, childhood trauma or most famously,sexual assault) the character goes through as some sort of initiation process they go through in order to become “stronger”.

If I were to give the audience the benefit of the doubt, there certainly should've been more than twenty episodes to explore the nuance of every character they want.

However, when it comes to analysing characters , it is also essential to take their circumstances into context. A lot of hate towards Hae Soo or other female characters in popular culture always is the result of people attempting to either put female characters into boxes or judge them based on their actions rather attempting to understand their position and perspective.

I'm not sure if its the result of internalized misogyny or the commonality of cliches and tropes in popular culture (or both) but what i've noticed is people love to put female charecters into boxes and then they hate\judge them for it.

And besides being written to fit into boxes, she is almost always written to be likable and wish fulfilling within the limits of that said trope. A good girl must be good but not too boring, a bad girl must be interesting but not crazy and smart girl must be smart but not too smart than the other characters in the show. And they must always have a love interest that they prove that they are always capable of being a loving partner. In case they dont have such a love interest, they will very likely be a side character.Without much change, for quite long, female characters on screen have always been judged and narrowly defined by their romantic pursuits and the “type” of female character they are written to be.

Also, a lot of hate towards Hae Soo also comes from the widely popular notion that she wasn’t a “good enough” partner to Wang So and blaming her for literally everything that happened in the game of thrones even though many characters are far more corrupt and complicit in the tragic outcomes of the power struggle. I believe this is because , besides not being the ideal romantic partner that stays together with the man she loves , she is also not the female character that the audience can vicariously live through to experience and express their love towards their favourite male lead. Sometimes when people like a male character too much , they put their expectations on the female characters to give them a romantic fantasy which involves her reacting to the male lead character exactly the way they would react. This is why many people complain about “not being able to understand her”.

Personally, this is why I find a character like Hae Soo to be so refreshing and likeable. To be contradictory, rather than a female character who is perfect, I quite like the idea of female character who is flawed and vulnerable. A female character who is not solely defined by an agenda or relationship, but has both of those and is complex , flawed , vulnerable and authentic is more definitive of well written , fully fleshed out character who makes her own choices, with or without regards to popular opinion.

Rather than a character who is behind her times , I think she is ahead. A lot of the hate besides internalised misogyny , biased expectations and the constant categorisation of female characters comes from the fact that she is not written to be wish-fulfilling character. A major expectation that contributes to the skewed /biased writing of female characters is the wish fulfilment attached to their likability/worth.

People expect female characters to fulfill atleast one of their wishes, be it winning or romance. A female character (like Hae Soo) who doesn’t win or achieve a happy ending is instantly casted of as worthless or “bad writing “. To them she is not a capable heroine simply because she is not worth rooting for.

This however begs the question that while she may not worth rooting for , is she however , worth the sympathy ? The reason I’ve written this tediously long post examining the circumstances that stopped her from getting what she deserved and analysing the various reasons that led to the audience hating on her hard is that when looking at many posts commenting on her character is that a lot of them fixated on hating on her without giving even the slightest benefit of the doubt. Not many posts that were critical of her tried to understand her character or circumstances and that is the thing that got me thinking .

I guess in a way it's a question of why character likability and their sympathetic outlook go hand in hand, especially for a female character, in order to gain sympathy they must be liked. Unlikable female characters are often targets for misogyny and vitriol , and it's that since they're unlikable, they can't be sympathized with.

But the thing is , unlikablity isn't limited to a particular definition. A character can be branded as unlikable under various circumstances. And sometimes it can be just that they don't act or react and make a choice that's not fan favourite, be it in romance or winning. Especially if that choice is self destructive, then it has a less chance of being forgiven,most notably in female characters. At the end of the day ,It's absolute truth that self destructive male characters will easily be forgiven more than female characters.Especially put in a romantic context with a fan favourite male lead .

This in my mind , poses as a dilemma because while I've heard people say it's up to the writer to properly flesh out a character, I think it's very likely that tropes and prejudices that we've been socialised into internalizing do influence the interpretation of characters and cause a widely different interpretations than intended.Sometimes, it can prevent us from empathising and reaching a full understanding of the character and their circumstances . So I guess the dilemma/or question that I have is , should it be to the writers or the audience to challenge this perception?

Personally I think it’s a two way street and we can’t leave it all to the writers to keep challenging the concept of a character because especially in kdramas and television, audience wish fulfillment plays a huge role as they are often taken into consideration. Even When Moonlovers was airing , many scenes were edited and scenes of Hae Soo were cut to accommodate more scenes of other characters and lead actors. So the truth is , what audience expect or react often influences the way a script is written.

And hence I think it’s possible that the reason Why many characters resemble a trope is because of the favourable reactions towards it . So when a character like Hae Soo, who isn’t written to achieve a fan favourite outcome or has self preservation as her top priority enters, people either struggle to understand her or hate her for not acting or achieving what they want or expect from her. She is new and is like a puzzle they don’t want to solve .

However , we should consider and be open to the fact that sometimes , stories aren’t meant to achieve a grand or happy ending and characters aren’t for the audience to cheer over . Sometimes we need something challenging and questionable or heartbreaking. And in stories like that, rather than rooting for the character or outcome, I think it’s better to understand , empathise and reflect on the story or characters involved. I think that’s the point of it. I always thought moonlovers was one of the stories , with the point of it being not who wins everything or gets what they wanted but rather an exploration of how people make choices and deal with them. How they reflect on it and make decisions that affect others and really, question the point of it all, from power to life.

So the point of understanding the drama is to understand the characters, not hate them or sympathise with them in a level where they seem to do no wrong. Doing this will make this drama seem more confusing and characters hard to understand because this drama unlike others is not designed to live up to expectations.

Sometimes when people say they want a character to develop, they want them to change completely and act in a way that eases their expectations. But with Hae Soo, as so many people hated on her / blamed her from the get go , I don’t see people instantly liking her character even if she changes to fill their expectations because they already hold grievances against her for not acting the way they wanted or “loving Wang So” as much “she should”. The only way to love and understand her character is to love her the way she is .

People pick sides and paint one character as good who’s so innocent and is only capable of doing the right thing / being the voice of reason while the other side is painted as evil / dumb and undeserving of the male lead and thus deserves everything bad happening to them .This at the end of the day is damaging because, especially in a relationship, no one is a saint and no one is truly a winner . Even if they leave the partner and find someone else, the personal issues that they have not fixed will crop up again .And a show like moon lovers can never be fully understood or gotten over if u don’t understand each characters struggle and view it like like it’s a good guy/ bad guy story where people win or get the “karma” they deserve.

In conclusion, I think we need to give characters the benefit of the doubt before we judge them so callously . Because sometimes such judgements can create misconceptions about the character and the story. Years of watching the same tropes play out in media have allowed us to hold certain expectations for characters and when they don't meet that expectations , it triggers a popular outcry.Especially in female characters, because for long they always have been written for wish fulfilling purposes. Most think they way treat or perceive fictional characters is harmless but the thing is, these perceptions mirror what's common in society. If we are comfortable harassing characters for failing to live up to our notions, then it means we still have a long way to go to when it comes to overcoming our own pre conceived notions in real life.And as long as we stick to the same tropes over and over and expect the same happy ending , the stories we consume will remain the same and to open up the venues for more different stories and drama, we should open our mind to the possibility that things aren’t always meant to progress the way we expect it to.

#kdrama #hae soo #mlshr #iu #moon lovers #wang so #scarlet heart ryeo #moonlovers:scarlet heart ryeo #haesoodeservedbetter #scarletheartryeo #Scarlet heart ryeo sixth anniversary #Had this in my drafts for long #just my honest take #so underrated #moon lovers scarlet heart ryeo #lee jieun

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superrman · 4 years

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I got a couple asks about my reply to an ask where I said that I acknowledge cop propaganda in procedural’s, and believe that everyone falls for it, while still acknowledging that I have enjoyed those shows. More than one ask said they are fully aware of the propaganda and so they can still watch those said shows, this is something I want to expand on because No one is above falling for propaganda.

I have loved and watched cop shows since I was 12, and I also have studied propaganda academically for half a decade, and that is why I can say with certainty you have internalized and fallen for propaganda within cop shows.

It is important to note that cop shows are designed with the aid of professional police for this exact purpose, they are insanely important to the normalization of behaviours of police, and justifying their actions, because you as an audience emotionally connect with the characters.

There are many things that have circulated around tumblr that have acknowledged certain forms of propaganda - the continuous use of violence, in a way that claims that the police must in many cases resort to violence, Trevor Noah did a great small clip showing how many cop shows do this. On top of that the villainization of internal affairs and the entire defence system, claiming public defenders are moronic and don’t defend their clients well, which in turn makes people afraid to turn to public defenders, which in turn results in people not asking for a lawyer, and at the same time paint defence attorneys as evil as well, and an impediment to justice which makes people dislike lawyers in general.

These are all important functions of the propaganda system as it justifies many actions of cops, but there are so many layers of propaganda, with hundreds of cop shows, all with police consultants, all employing underhanded tactics and specific messaging impacts you, below is a small list of things I either personally have internalized or know people have internalized. In brackets I mention just a couple shows I have seen this on, keep in mind many shows do this and they all tend to overlap

1. We as a society all agree that murder is wrong, but how many times in a cop show have you rooted for the police to get away with murder? How many times has the protagonist killed someone for personal reasons? They may find a way to kill said individual in the line of duty and that is legal, and or in many cases personally hunt them down and commit murder, and then the story line is about them getting away with murder, but at the same time many story lines in the same series say no one has a justifiable reason for murder, and they may even arrest someone for the same reason as they killed someone.

This teaches the audience that you can’t kill for abuse, country, cause, or revenge, but the police can and should kill, and if they do kill it was only for a valid reason

(NCIS, NCIS LA, The Mentalist)

2. The ‘red tape’ and intense scrutiny of police shootings is the worst, and harmful for the police, in general the scrutiny of all of the measures meant to prevent police violence and harassment of citizens is hindering the police. How many shows have you watched where the main character scoffs at the idea of mandatory counselling post a shooting, or is angry by the idea of having to justify why they took a shot and killed a man

(Rookie Blue, Cold Case, Hawaii 5-0)

3. The police are underpaid and lack the funds for the necessary policing measures. This one in particular I internalized to the extreme, I have always held the false assumption that police are underfunded like all of the other services they equate themselves too - but the police departments have more than enough funds as the protests have revealed. Yet, every cop show depicts a scene of complaining about budget cuts, lack of funds, cannot pursue a case because of budget cuts. On top of that any cop that gets caught stealing is justified because if he was paid fairly, he wouldn’t have to do that.

(Castle, Lucifer, Brooklyn Nine Nine)

4. The police can’t save ‘everyone’ in the context of the most vulnerable of society drug addicts, sex workers, the mentality ill, the sad reality is that some people ‘don’t want help’ - it says societal problems are unsolvable not that the police are not qualified or effective in solving society problems but even then there is a plucky do good cop not yet jaded that will try and try to save people, but eventually have to come to a hard realization you can’t save everyone

(Perception, Criminal Minds, Law and Order SVU)

5. The police always work with experts in the field, have the best technology and moreover, experts will want to work tirelessly for the police or the police themselves are geniuses- this is not the case, in fact in many cases police incompetence and ignoring experts leads to false convictions

(Bones, Rizzoli & Isles, all the CSI, Criminal Minds)

But the most malicious form of propaganda is the way in which police procedurals acknowledge the real world political climate and use the criticism as a way to bolster the police, by this I mean, so many cop shows will have an episode of focusing on a corrupt cop, or a civil rights activist wrongfully arrested, wrongful conviction in general, and the narrative will show outrage throughout the system, cops all banning together to undo this injustice, but with enough resistance from some bad apples to make it seem as if they acknowledge the system is not fully functional but reinforces to the audience that many cops can and do fight the system to get the wrongfully accused out of prison, to protect civil liberties and that cops do care and will willingly fight their own to do it .

Moreover, this is shown in the context of the importance of police brotherhood. Being a cop is always more than a job it’s a lifestyle, you can’t stop being a cop, and it’s a part of your identity, so its extra heroic that the protagonist challenged the corrupt cop, it’s as if he or she turned on his own family to do what is right.

There are always episodes about going after the rich and politically connected and how no matter what the protagonist will do what’s right and fight against the system to get justice for a poor, or poc , or down on their luck victim, it teaches us that even though in the news cops might not be able to stop all of the big evil rich people, Kate Beckett or Jake Peralta is out their fighting the fight, trying to take on corporations, it teaches us to go on faith that the police are separate from the corrupt system, and will try to take on politicians and corporations rather than the reality of them working for those same people

Finally, so many cop shows have minorities and women leading the charge to challenge the old guard, usually with the new era of white men, that laugh at the police brutality and incompetence of older generations. It’s hard to ignore the damage the police have done, but every show simply disregards this with a change in the vanguard, newer cops are immune to racism, classicism and agree older cops used to break the rules and where more corrupt but now that isn’t the case. It’s meant to undermine all of the arguments against police, think about how many people agree that the police during the civil rights movement of the 1960s were bad, or the police that co-operated with drug dealers were terrible but no more, cops now are much more ethical.

Propaganda is dangerous, because it is continuous and repetitive, it is subtle and seeps into your life, you internalize things because we all consume media for enjoyment not to subject it to academic rigour, and that's how they get you to sympathize and feel for cops, we constantly watch stories of brave souls putting their lives on the line for us, and of course we want to believe that this is a real life story and reflective of most cops, but we need to realize now that this is not the case in reality, and its not just a few bad apples, but a system that is broken beyond repair, who relied on the entertainment industry to spread and maintain the false face of the police industry to avoid and undermine criticism.

Just remember No one is above falling for propaganda

#police brutality #cop propaganda #propaganda #the most dangerous cop shows are the progressive ones

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curiosity-killed · 3 years

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Lang Qianqiu deserves more love goddammit: a post, unfortunately

This brought to you by the wonderful @veliseraptor & @/yuer on Twitter but also mostly out of spite and the fact that it’s preventing me from writing a very dumb poke-the-bear post abt the entire weird social media culture around The Minors

As always ✨SPOILERS!! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE✨

So first off: when I hit the scene where lqq confronts xl and screams “I will never be like you” I sat up in bed, did a little shimmy of delight, and hissed “fuck yes” at like 2 AM so. Now you have a preview of wtf this train wreck will be

1 ) lqq is a good character

We don’t get a ton of time with lqq because tgcf is 87 side characters running across stage with The Most Interesting Concept constantly one-upping each other before vanishing. But what we do get is, I think, enough to make a pretty compelling story: Lang Qianqiu is a kind and generous prince who is also the sole survivor of the bloody massacre of his entire family, committed by the people dearest to him (both in his belief that Gusohi Fangxin did it and in the reality of An Le’s involvement), who goes on to peacefully lead his fractious nation into a peaceful reign before he ascends as a powerful enough (aka beloved and worshipped enough) god to be ranked among the top heavenly generals. That’s like. Pretty fucking classic protagonist vibes right there.

And, as usual with mxtx’s characters, we get a lot more than this lovely little backstory. In his interactions in canon, lqq is capable of great grief and anger; he is willing to sacrifice himself if it means avenging his murdered family; and he simultaneously holds both great hatred and great respect for his old teacher. And, of course, he winds up raising and taking care of his enemy’s son which shows a remarkable depth of compassion and emotional messiness that I find terribly compelling. He struggles with a simplistic view of justice that is supported by lies told to “protect” him and that is uprooted by the truth and forces him to try to make sense of the world without the guardrails that others installed around him (looking at you mister fangxin sir).

Also I’m stealing my own tweets bc I’m Right but:

*pulls up single barstool to lqq is a good character table* I think it’s interesting & Says Things abt the continued relationship btwn lqq & xl that lqq *didn’t* recognize xl, implying that he left fangxin’s mask in place even when he went to kill him

Like here is the man who killed his family & best friend, who left him abandoned in bloodshed on his 17th bday—& here is also the man who saved his life, who taught him, who lqq looked up to & wanted to be like

Even when lqq *does* recognize xl, he still has so much respect for him paired with that hatred that it’s honestly rlly tragic? Like man. There’s so much grief in lqq’s repeated demands for a duel & insisting it’s fine if xl kills him as long as he doesn’t hold back

*pats lqq pompom* this bb is so sad. And so much more like his teacher than either of them seem to realize or necessarily want

Despite being a pretty minor character, lqq gets a lot of complexity and nuance! Look at this child trying to be grown up while desperately turning to his old master for guidance and “the truth”! Look at him! Be sad!!

2 ) lqq is an excellent parallel to xl

Okay stealing my own tweet again don’t look at me I yell the same shit everywhere

Xl didn’t want lqq to become like him (self-sacrificing, vengeful, alone) but lqq not only became alone, chasing vengeance, & willing to sacrifice himself for revenge—he also became kind, open-minded, & remorseful!! & he still clearly respects xl @ novel end 🙃🙃

We all know hc’s “they’re not very alike at all” and yeah sure baby go support your man but narratively, there’s a lot of importance given to cycles, parallels, and foils in mxtx’s writing and most explicitly (compared to mdzs, haven’t read svss) in tgcf. For example, *gestures at beefleaf, gestures at Xianle Trio vs Wuyogn Crew, gestures at Xie Lian & Jun Wu’s whole uh. Deal.* And while I’d argue xl and lqq are part of a triumvirate rather than a pair, we’re not including mister three-face in this conversation so just looking at xl and lqq:

Both adored and sheltered crown princes

Both taught by a guoshi who was seeking to prevent the repetition of their own tragedies and in their efforts, lied/omitted information and failed to protect their charge from tragedy

Both were betrayed* by their closest friends

Both are the last living members of their respective royal families

Both caught the interest of supernatural beings from a young age

Etc etc I’m getting v bored and distracted writing this so moving on

Most importantly to me, we have their betrayal by a very close and adored mentor and how they react. The confrontation I mention at the start of this shitshow is really imo one of the most important scenes in the novel because it a) illustrates the differences in xl and Jun Wu and b) sort of gives you a preview of how xl ultimately wins

So a) Jun Wu and Xie Lian both take a talented, marked-for ascension young prince under their wing. Jun Wu sees himself in the boy and obsesses over shaping him into Jun Wu’s own image in the belief that this will make him the perfect heir. Jun Wu pushes his chosen heir into situations where Xie Lian is repeatedly harmed in an effort to show that the common people are fickle and cruel and don’t deserve his compassion and care.

Meanwhile, Xie Lian is reluctantly roped into mentoring his prince due to his inability to stand aside when he feels he could do something to prevent hurt or injustice befalling another (simultaneously his great strength and great weakness! God I love him). Xie Lian tries to teach his student to believe in and care for the common people and not to sacrifice himself (see: flashback convo re:taking the force of the sword strike into his own body).

When Xie Lian refuses to bend in the shape Jun Wu demands, Jun Wu bashes his head into the wall. When Lang Qianqiu cries “I will never be like you!”, Xie Lian laughs and says “Good!”.

B) this of course feeds directly into foreshadowing! Like Lang Qianqiu’s bold words, xl ultimately refuses to become like his mentor and remains defiant even when it would stop him from being hurt. Xl beats lqq and says so what if I tricked you, so what if I lied, I still won. Naturally, xl beats Jun Wu not through standard swordplay but by using a trick he learned while forced to busk and wander the earth alone and unlucky for centuries.

…okay so I have fully forgotten what I was actually saying here! Anyway!

Like Xie Lian, Lang Qianqiu spends a time consumed with the need for vengeance, hunting his enemy and rejecting the heavens. And like Xie Lian, he winds up caring for his enemy’s “son” and trying to both comfort him and maintain what’s left of Qi Rong’s life force despite having previously been hellbent on destroying him—bc he sees the impact it has on another person. In the end, he even gives a gift to Xie Lian—his mentor, his role model, and the one who killed his father—that was once given to him as a symbol of unexpected kindness. Sound familiar?

But, importantly, and contradictory to what I have been yelling abt but whatever it’s 12:30 am, Lang Qianqiu is not a direct mirror of Xie Lian but a closing of a vital loop in the story. Lqq is very similar to xl (I will die on this hill!! Only I won’t bc I’m stronger than y’all and will keep swinging these pots and pans) but bc xl tries to do better and keep lqq from suffering the way xl has, lqq is able to have a gentler and more optimistic path forward. He’s proof that even a small act of kindness or even kindness to only one person still matters and has a ripple effect that can’t be seen when you’re in the middle of it—a thread started with xl giving the coral pearl to Lang Ying and closed with Lang Qianqiu returning the pearl to Xie Lian.

So I have no idea if any of this is coherent or compelling but I meant to be asleep two hours ago and the points are:

A) Lang Qianqiu is good actually

B) parallels!!!

C) look ive already started another wip about Lang Qianqiu and Xie Lian and I didn’t want this but no one else wrote it so now I have to so pls just accept this as a warning

*sort of air quotes around this for Xie Lian bc frankly Mu Qing was right & Xie Lian kicked feng xin out BUT on the other hand, it was experienced as a betrayal and we also again have all of Jun Wu’s shit so it evens out

#should I wait and proofread and edit this tomorrow? yes.#am I doing that? no <3 #idk what to tag this as #uhhh #tgcf spoilers #lang qianqiu #I don’t think this can reasonably be called meta #since I am unsure if it is even readable #tgcf #long post

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rsmrymnt-tea · 3 years

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A Rant About The Art Event

Because okay I’m surprisingly pissed off about it, what a huge missed opportunity it is for some Levi (the grand admiral otaku himself) and Satan (an art and literature connoisseur) characterization lmao

Listen as fucking thankful as I am for the lil moment with Satan and Solomon cooing over a kitten I would just like to state that I’m still really disappointed in the event. Something something it’s a wasted opportunity to see how MC gets the brothers bonding something something blah blah

It reminds me of Paws and Claws 2 where the first half felt like it was going somewhere then in the second half it’s just a while lotta ‘what???’ Because as it turns out, my flow of logic is completely different from whatever the hell the OM event writers’ is. I just wanted a Levi and Satan bonding moment gdi

The rest of the rant is under the cut because I ended up going on and on about it.

When Levi suggested a relay manga, I was fully expecting it to go a bit wild because no way would the boys’ ideas all line up. It was cute that the Purgatory boys had the mind to make something cohesive together, but in general nothing went with each other. With they option to respond like you’re tired of the way most of them were just inserting ideas without concern for overall cohesion, I genuinely thought that there would be a part where MC with the help of Levi and someone else who, idk, has spent the better part of his life reading books and shit would work together to fix up the relay manga? Even Diavolo was like ‘yeah Satan can probably fix it’ and so I thought yeah I guess we’ll be fixing the plot with Satan!! Honestly like that’s what you’d expect right???

So the flow is: we get a premise from Levi who really cares about the project because it’s a manga -> Levi makes MC the editor who then goes to the brothers for their additions to the manga -> The rest of the brothers creating a problem where the manga is going nowhere because they all have such different ideas -> Purgatory boys + Barb acknowledging the problem -> Diavolo implying that Satan can do something about the problem

So cue going to Satan and he goes yeah, this is shit, we gotta do something about it. What does a demon who’s read probably millions of books suggest we do to get everything working together? Does he suggest restructuring it so that everyone’s ideas can be included somehow? Does he suggest rounding everyone up and discussing what the plot should be?

No!! He suggests adding a cat will fix it!! Hot take, but at this point I’m actually so so so sick of the writers reducing Satan to having a single brain cell that’s shaped like a cat!!

With how the story was built up, was it so far fetched for me to believe that Satan and MC would then go to Levi to bring up the fact that the manga’s going nowhere??? Was it to much to wish that we get a passionate Levi, writer Satan, and editor MC working together to make a passable output???????

Levi and Satan could’ve absolutely been in their element!! How many Levi and Satan stans want that??? Because I wanted that and I’m not a Levi stan. Levi obviously really cares about the project so I wanted to see him take charge, put on that admiral hat, and get everyone cooperating. I wanted to see Satan use his brain and knowledge of storytelling to fix up the mess of a plot everyone’s made. Those two have consumed an incredible amount of their respective favorite media and would absolutely understand what it takes to make a decent piece of graphic literature why tf didn’t we get a wonderful bonding moment for them where they work together? It would’ve been nice for them to get the others into working together too for a lovely bonding moment between everyone while Diavolo and Lucifer coo out of pride in the distance. Like??? Do we even have any moments where Levi and Satan get to bond outside of really few chats and Devilgrams?

Instead we get Diavolo once again using his magic to fuck with everyone without their consent, sending them into some kind of new dimension where we get a weird plot out of nowhere? I understand that Satan included a cat with his actual contribution to the manga but where tf did the curse come from? There was literally nothing I can remember that was building up to the appearance of a giant devildom sea cucumber? Nothing at all that would’ve explained why there was a cursed portrait of a boy with a cat??? I don’t understand, that entire section felt like some kind of odd non-sequitur that could’ve been cut out for something else entirely. They were all there in the room, have them sit down and argue out what to do with the project! Or if they really couldn’t agree, have them all agree to do a different thing!!!

Am I an idiot for wanting a simple, but nicely executed event? I’m not asking for anything mind blowing, all I want is for some nice characterization and a glimpse into some character growth and dynamics that we otherwise wouldn’t be privy to because there’s no space for it in main story. These events could easily be snippets of the life MC and the others live that take place in the timeskips in main story where we get to see how much MC helps them all get along and shit but idk I guess that’s just too much for me to expect or want?

Tl;dr I’m pissed that we didn’t get to see Levi and Satan be editor and writer. Also I’m sick of Satan’s cat obsession overriding his brain every time he could’ve used his knowledge to help everyone out.

#obey me #obey me spoilers #self & soliloquy #let it be known that this entire rant is a show of affection from me #because I’m not about to stop wanting better for a piece of media that could easily do better #i want the two big readers bonding is that too much to ask for #my url is incredibly fitting for this post #just needed to gett this out there because i have like no one else i feel like i can turn to about it #neg #sal et suka #also am i the weird one for never really minding that there arent any kisses?#like in events #i personally dont mind #i just want some more character and world building honestly

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merakiclosed · 4 years

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Hoshi - Tired

》 Prompt: SVT dance practice. Hoshi stays over night whilst u come around like 8pm and end up falling asleep.

》 Genre: Fluff

》 Word count: 1227

》 Notes: Fem reader x Idol!Hoshi

Masterlist | Requests and messages are open

You groan as you at down on the cold wood floor of the practice room, slumping against the wall, your appearance showing in the mirror across from you. Your hair in a messy bun, emphasis on the messy there because jeez was that a mess that you couldn't be bothered with at this moment in time. You were currently wearing some black jeans and an oversized sweater that you know is Hoshi's just by the length of it. You preferred your clothes baggy anyway so that you were comfortable for your classes. All of the members nodded towards you and you even got some hello's.

You pulled your phone out and checked social media as you hadn't been able to all day since all you have been doing is studying for finals that are so close you want to cry because you are certain that you will fail. Your head shot up as you realised that you had work to do for tomorrow which was to revise for a mini quiz in class, so you slammed your phone down out of annoyance of having to more work than what you wanted and got your laptop out of your bag. Ignoring the strange looks the members gave you.

Hoshi burst in to the room with his arms full of water bottles that have probably been refiled for the millionth time this night, water droplets run down the sides of them and dropping on to the floor. His hair was stuck to his forehead as his towel hung around his neck, his blinding smile was plastered on his face as soon as he saw you in the corner of the room, your face lit up by your laptop screen. You gave him a tired smile, one that didn't fully reach your eyes. He put all of the bottles on to the table and came running towards you, his smile constant on his face. He slid across the ground to sit next you, bumping in to your shoulder.

"Wah, I can’t believe you are here, I thought you would be at your dorm. It's late, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be resting? Aren't your finals soon? Why are you here and not sleeping?" He didn't pause once so that you could answer him as his questions kept coming. You did love him, you truly did. But times like this where you just want to sleep but you can’t, you have to do work at the last minutes made you want to just shut him up. So you did.

You carefully put your laptop beside you and leaned in to his side, wrapping your arms around him. He immediately responded and wrapped his arms around you, finally shutting up.

"Wait, is that my hoodie?" He questioned as he noticed it only faintly smelt like you and more like himself. You shyly let go off him and rubbed your left hand on your right arm, your hands and fingers covered by the oversized sweater, a nervous habit that you picked up over the years.

"aha, yeah?" It sounded more like a question as you smiled nervously at him, although that soon turned in to one where it said 'you know you love me'.

He smiled, his 10:10 eyes showing "ahhh~ you look so cuteeee~" he said as he squished your cheeks together.

He searched your eyes for a moment before he stood up and clapped his hands "okay guys back to practise" he shouted, even though everyone was close together.

You put your laptop back on to your lap and opened up your work. HIT was playing in the background. Half way through your work you looked up and watched them for a while, your eyes lingering on Hoshi's figure. You loved the way his body would move to the music, his whole being was made for dance. Your eyes met in the mirror, a found smile on your face while you admired him as he winked at you and had a sly smile on his face. The duality of this man was insane. One minute he is a soft boy and you just want to wrap him up and give him all the kimchi in the world and the next minute (especially when he was dancing) he was hot af. You wasn't complaining though.

The time seemed to fly past. It consisted of you doing your work, getting distracted, bopping to the song and helping wipe sweat off of Hoshi's face and refill the water bottles. You got up and stretched from sitting down for so long as you finally finished your work and preparing for the quiz tomorrow. You looked in the corner of your laptop and saw it was around 12am and the boys still haven't finished.

You sat back down on the ground and drank from Hoshi's bottle, pulling your phone out of your pocket. The sound of feet clattering on the floor and the songs on repeat was the only thing you heard all night so far.

You covered your face as you yawned, the exhaustion finally setting in. You blinked your eyes as you tried to focus but it seemed to just get worse. Your eyes started to close as the noise around you seemed to fade out as you quickly passed out in to a deep sleep.

"uhh, Hoshi is she alright?" Jeonghan questioned out of breath as he saw your head hanging to the side, asleep, whilst your phone was sliding out of hand and in to your lap. Hoshi couldn't help but smile at your state, you looked so cute in his sweater and hair a mess. Your laptop was still as your side with all of your work on display.

He walked towards you and took your phone out of your hand and put it next to your laptop, he put his arms under your legs and back, carrying you bridal style towards the sofa and laid you down. He slowly lifted your head up and put the hoodie he was wearing under your head and kissed your forehead.

He admired you for a second before a cough from Jihoon was heard " are we going to continue or are we finished with practice?"

"yeah, you can all go home if you want" the boys quickly got ready to go home and get some sleep in as Jihoon just walked to his studio room. Hoshi sat down in front of the sofa and started to stroke your hair gently so you don't wake up. He noticed that your laptop was still on so he went over to it and saved everything that was open and left it charging with your phone so that it was ready for tomorrow.

He comes towards you once again and tries to get on to the sofa, you groan a little and open your eyes a little.

"hey" Hoshi whispers with a small smile "hi" your voice hoarse from sleep.

You notice that he was trying to get on the sofa so you moved back, your back hitting the back of the sofa. He gets on and wraps his arms around, his chin on your head and your head buried in his chest. You sighed in content as his scent consumed you, a smile prominent on both of your faces as you both go to sleep.

Enjoy!!

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arcticdementor · 3 years

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In recent years Western society has given rise to the proliferation of a novel subspecies sometimes referred to as the bugman. The microcosm of the intellectually and morally decaying contemporary technological dystopia, this bugman is mentally and physically insipid, oversocialized, and undertested, devoid of purpose and even individual character. In my capacity as a freelance cultural entomologist, I previously analyzed the figure here. Comparable to the Nietzschean Last Man, we can think of him as a debased, shriveled puppet of the neoliberal elite.

As a result of the Covid agenda, however, the bugman has mutated into something almost unrecognizable. His familiar open-mouthed smile has been muzzled by white polypropylene and the childish glee in his eyes replaced with a look of unprepared apprehension. His life is now defined by an omnipresent feeling of dread that has infiltrated his mind through the array of digital screens he switches between throughout the day. What has happened is the bugman has been patched.

The new software update includes a brain augmentation which more deeply intertwines the bugman’s synapses with the media industrial machine. What we previously called the ‘small-souled’ bugman — the term is borrowed from the Aristotelian idea of being small in mind and spirit — is now almost extinct, outcompeted by the new bugman variant. What we have now is the ‘fear-addled’ bugman, a new generation model that disrupts feelings of self-confidence and independence to extraordinary new extents.

Plugged into the feed of social media-generated news, the bugman had initially been alarmed by ominous clips showing a plague wreaking havoc in China. At first his instinctive fears were soothed when trusted sources brushed off the threat and stressed the greater threat of racism. Soon enough, however, these same sources changed their tune and cranked the bugman’s panic levels to eleven, where they have remained ever since. Facing the most extensive and pervasive psychological campaign in human history he hunkered down at home to help flatten the curve. Lockdowns weren’t so bad, he thought, working now from home in his pajamas. They had given him a chance to reflect on life and watch shows on Netflix, order overpriced fast food from Uber Eats, and toy with the gizmos in his studio apartment. As some began to recognize the virus itself was not the biggest problem, the bugman entertained himself with pure escapism. In an astonishing twist, he cheered as schools were closed, business owners had their lives destroyed, and mask compliance became total. A surveillance tech fanatic, the fear-addled bugman welcomed the announcements that the new technocratic order was intending to impose an all-consuming social credit score. Whatever keeps us safe, he said, whatever keeps us safe…

…

Demands to “get vaccinated before it’s too late!” and assertions that “we’ve always had vaccine passports” filled the bugman’s timeline as governments stripped away rights and the new normal industry ballooned into a trillion-dollar cash cow. This is perhaps the most abject thing about the fear-addled bugman. He has willingly made himself into the totalitarian state’s PR officer free of charge. He recites the official line word for word, one unthinking tendril of the great media beast that swallowed up the entire culture, and he blinks. Most strikingly, the bugman seems to be incapable of either seeing or acknowledging the vast contradictions and inconsistencies in the crumbling narrative. He seems unable or unwilling to make even the most obvious connections, interpret the most basic data, or form arguments of substance. Does he actually believe the bizarre official story or is he playing a sick political trick? He will tell you repeatedly that you are, quite simply, just plain stupid. The whole thing is so strange that we cannot rule out the possibility of it all being an elaborate revenge fantasy.

…

The bugman often felt anxiety before the roll-out of the pandemic due to his inability to exert control. Now the impudent resistance — even breezy nonchalance — of the disobedient and non-compliant provokes extraordinary rage. He does not fully grasp why they have not submitted, like he has. He finds it hard to imagine a being who cares more about liberty than being able to go to a pop music concert. Angry and humiliated, he blurts out the wish that has harbored his whole life: “Round them up, put them in a camp, segregate them from society, force it on them at gunpoint!” Afterwards he finds that he feels calm.

Of course the bugman, like all champagne socialists, never did really care about ‘equality’. That was always just a strategy for political power, which was useful at the time. But the new normal has made possible a whole new level of retribution against the strong. The fear-addled bugman has made an important contribution to the biggest and the darkest psychological experiment ever conducted on mankind. Combining a total lack of understanding with unwavering compliance reminiscent of the Milgram experiment, he will be studied in the history books for centuries to come.

It is tempting to think that the fear-addled bugmen do not exist except as Chinese bots or trolls. But they do exist, and they are growing. Physically pitiful though they are, beating them will not be easy on a battlefield on which the bugman holds all the institutional aces. But what value is a man who, rather than taking pride in protecting hearth and home, cowers before an imaginary omnipresent virus? The bugman feels his lack of worth, and his ressentiment manifests as a rejection. Whatever else, everyone else, must not be allowed to get on with their lives.

#adam winfield #im1776

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kalahamsa · 3 years

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Meaning of digital marketing and opportunities

To run a business requires creativity, flexibility and the ability to overcome challenging situations. It is the fastest way to be your boss. Making decisions here usually takes courage, forsight and determination. Then the first question which comes into mind is how can I become a successful owner? There are also many secrets to running a successful business. In this article, you will learn some of these secrets.

Expand your business with Digital Marketing As a business owner, you’ll always be in search of new ways to grow your business. There are many ways to achieve this. One of main ways to expand your business is via digital marketing. Many firms haven’t been able to engage their customers online. Considering the current situation , it is one of the most effective methods of growing your business.

Meaning of digital marketing It is the online platform for promoting your online or offline services and products.

How digital marketing works • Stay focused on your customers. • Ensure traffic acquisition and conversion optimization get found by using right. • Search engine optimize strategies. • Build your marketing strategies according to analytics. • Develop story of your brand.

Opportunities in Digital marketing

The information and communications technology (ICT) sector is looking to fill “tech-lite” roles, such as in digital marketing.

Many businessmen says that, aside from jobs that require people with tech skills, the sector also wants to tap the experience and knowledge of specific industries and sectors. The sector last year registered a strong growth in employment even amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

As at February this year, more than 13,600 job seekers were placed in ICT jobs, traineeships and attachments under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. There remain over 18,000 of such opportunities on offer.

Digital marketing jobs requires working with partners to create courses, and with companies to make available training and attachment. common misconception is that it is hard to get into the technology sector. Growing an e-commerce business can be summed up in two words—digital marketing. Companies are placing their ads where eyeballs are: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest and other platforms. Brands that have effective social media campaigns are seeing major returns. You need more than a good product to see a spike in revenue from digital advertisements. Many startups are losing money creating lackluster ads or failing to analyze their metrics to reach their target demographic.

5 tips to grow revenue through digital marketing

Use Relevant Content

Long gone are the days when companies needed big marketing dollars to produce advertisement campaigns. Today’s social ads look less like cinematic TV commercials, and more like organic content anyone could create with an iPhone and basic editing software. Large and small businesses are using customer or influencer testimonial videos or shooting videos from their phone, adding subtitles, music and uploading the content as an ad. When done right, this approach translates to customer acquisitions.

Test out different creative assets to discover what your audience responds to. Social media algorithms favor video, so that’s a good place to start. Include subtitles as most users watch on mute.

Social media has changed the way consumers speak and what they respond to. User-driven trends are here to stay, so keep up on current trends to create content consumers respond to. And a trend that goes viral on one platform (think of the rise of TikTok videos with on-screen text) will likely carry over to all social media channels.

Start Small

The last thing you want to do is go all in and spend a sizeable amount on an ad that doesn’t perform. First, identify who your potential customers are through market research, surveys and by testing out audiences through Facebook or Instagram ads. Optimize your ad spend by ROAS (return on ad spend) instead of CPA (cost per acquisition), CPC (cost per click), and others, as it is often the metric that will make the most sense for your business. If your website is user friendly, the ads are compelling and visible to your demographic, sales will come in.

Hiring Right

Two scenarios can occur when startups contact digital agencies. They discover most charge a minimum $5k a month (not including the ad budget) and can’t move forward. Or they hire an agency by cutting costs in other departments and see very little or no growth in sales. There are great agencies that do exceptional work and provide flexible pricing, but new businesses must be extra diligent, especially when cash flow is tight.

If you want to outsource, find someone who understands your industry. Choosing a marketer experienced in marketing pharmaceutical equipment but not your industry won’t provide you with critical insight on the behavior and trends of your specific audience.

Take the time to interview potential firms or individuals to find the right fit for your industry, product and customers. Call or email current or past client references to see how they performed within their specific budget and time frame.

With the job market changing due to Covid, many marketers have gone independent and are looking for new clients. If working with a freelancer is a better option for you, search for professionals on LinkedIn and Upwork to find the right candidate.

You can learn more about digital marketing by watching videos and taking online courses but consider if it’s more cost efficient to hire someone for the job. A skilled person or team allows you to focus and grow other areas of your business.

Be Involved

Outsourcing doesn’t mean handing over the reins completely. You know your business better than anyone and the vision you have for your brand. When you bring on a new person or company to help with marketing and advertising, be clear about the voice, mood and aesthetic you want, but keep an open mind and be willing to test new concepts and ideas. Remember, it is okay to say “no” to suggestions that don’t align with your vision. Even though you hire someone for their expertise, you always have the final say in what moves forward and what doesn’t.

“Founders of companies we work with are involved in the revision processes necessary to achieve the right vision and visual aesthetic for their brand. With that comes a lot of cooperation between my team and the founder. While creative chemistry between us is an important factor, I believe an exchange of ideas is key to creating a concrete marketing strategy,” says social media manager Misty Lam.

Have an Optimized Website

Startups will often cut corners with their website to save money, not realizing their site needs to be fully optimized for desktop and mobile devices. Most consumers decide whether they will stay or leave a site within the first 3 seconds. Your product or service must be clear with captivating images and copy to keep them engaged. Having a general understanding of how SEO works (Search Engine Watch provides an easy-to-follow guide to understand SEO) and hiring a specialist in Google optimization is essential.

“When reviewing our analytics, we saw 60% of our traffic comes from mobile, but 78% of revenue comes from desktop, indicating our website was not fully mobile optimized. We created more call-to-action buttons, divided our products into category-specific collections for easier and quicker navigation, and included customer reviews directly under our products. We also discovered that our website theme was slowing down our page, so we are changing that,” says Broglie Box founder Julia Broglie.

If you are currently selling or getting ready to launch a product or service, the most impactful tool to scale your online sales is through digital marketing. Look at ads and content posted by your competitors or companies in your industry to see what is resonating with their audience and what isn’t. As you review their content, read the comments. The most valuable insight is from consumers. If your ROI is positive when you start running ads, incrementally increase your ad spend on the best performing ad.

At first, testing ads, finding the right agency or freelancer and discovering what is effective is trial and error. When you find the formula that is right for your company, double down on that and you will reap the financial rewards. During the Covid-19 pandemic, e-commerce experienced a massive boom as consumers and companies did business online with greater frequency. As a result, the internet is a more crowded shopping space than ever with the global digital ad spend projected to surpass $389 billion in 2021.

But while your niche likely gets more crowded, that’s not a reason to slow down on ad spending, it’s a license to get more creative with your digital marketing.

So, there are both pros and cons in this sector. If you work properly for a client, they will definitely suggest you and make you more commited in the work.

see more at www.kalahamsa.in

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harryandmeghansussex · 4 years

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Day 18 of @defendingtheduchesses 's Meghan memories challenge.

Meghan's writing has always been one of my favourite strengths of hers. And I thought I would share one for day 18, so I picked this important one.

'What are you?' A question I get asked every week of my life, often every day. 'Well,' I say, as I begin the verbal dance I know all too well. 'I'm an actress, a writer, the Editor-in-Chief of my lifestyle brand The Tig, a pretty good cook and a firm believer in handwritten notes.' A mouthful, yes, but one that I feel paints a pretty solid picture of who I am. But here's what happens: they smile and nod politely, maybe even chuckle, before getting to their point, 'Right, but what are you? Where are your parents from?' I knew it was coming, I always do. While I could say Pennsylvania and Ohio, and continue this proverbial two-step, I instead give them what they're after: 'My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I'm half black and half white.

To describe something as being black and white means it is clearly defined. Yet when your ethnicity is black and white, the dichotomy is not that clear. In fact, it creates a grey area. Being biracial paints a blurred line that is equal parts staggering and illuminating. When I was asked by ELLE to share my story, I'll be honest, I was scared. It's easy to talk about which make-up I prefer, my favourite scene I've filmed, the rigmarole of 'a day in the life' and how much green juice I consume before a requisite Pilates class. And while I have dipped my toes into this on thetig.com, sharing small vignettes of my experiences as a biracial woman, today I am choosing to be braver, to go a bit deeper, and to share a much larger picture of that with you.

It was the late Seventies when my parents met, my dad was a lighting director for a soap opera and my mom was a temp at the studio. I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her Afro, plus their shared love of antiques. Whatever it was, they married and had me. They moved into a house in The Valley in LA, to a neighbourhood that was leafy and affordable. What it was not, however, was diverse. And there was my mom, caramel in complexion with her light-skinned baby in tow, being asked where my mother was since they assumed she was the nanny.

I was too young at the time to know what it was like for my parents, but I can tell you what it was like for me – how they crafted the world around me to make me feel like I wasn't different but special. When I was about seven, I had been fawning over a boxed set of Barbie dolls. It was called The Heart Family and included a mom doll, a dad doll, and two children. This perfect nuclear family was only sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls. I don't remember coveting one over the other, I just wanted one. On Christmas morning, swathed in glitter-flecked wrapping paper, there I found my Heart Family: a black mom doll, a white dad doll, and a child in each colour. My dad had taken the sets apart and customised my family.

Fast-forward to the seventh grade and my parents couldn't protect me as much as they could when I was younger. There was a mandatory census I had to complete in my English class – you had to check one of the boxes to indicate your ethnicity: white, black, Hispanic or Asian. There I was (my curly hair, my freckled face, my pale skin, my mixed race) looking down at these boxes, not wanting to mess up, but not knowing what to do. You could only choose one, but that would be to choose one parent over the other – and one half of myself over the other. My teacher told me to check the box for Caucasian. 'Because that's how you look, Meghan,' she said. I put down my pen. Not as an act of defiance, but rather a symptom of my confusion. I couldn't bring myself to do that, to picture the pit-in-her-belly sadness my mother would feel if she were to find out. So, I didn't tick a box. I left my identity blank – a question mark, an absolute incomplete – much like how I felt.

When I went home that night, I told my dad what had happened. He said the words that have always stayed with me: 'If that happens again, you draw your own box.'

I never saw my father angry, but in that moment I could see the blotchiness of his skin crawling from pink to red. It made the green of his eyes pop and his brow was weighted at the thought of his daughter being prey to ignorance. Growing up in a homogeneous community in Pennsylvania, the concept of marrying an African-American woman was not on the cards for my dad. But he saw beyond what was put in front of him in that small-sized (and, perhaps, small-minded) town, and he wanted me to see beyond that census placed in front of me. He wanted me to find my own truth.

And I tried. Navigating closed-mindedness to the tune of a dorm mate I met my first week at university who asked if my parents were still together. 'You said your mom is black and your dad is white, right?' she said. I smiled meekly, waiting for what could possibly come out of her pursed lips next. 'And they're divorced?' I nodded. 'Oh, well that makes sense.' To this day, I still don't fully understand what she meant by that, but I understood the implication. And I drew back: I was scared to open this Pandora's box of discrimination, so I sat stifled, swallowing my voice.

I was home in LA on a college break when my mom was called the 'N' word. We were leaving a concert and she wasn't pulling out of a parking space quickly enough for another driver. My skin rushed with heat as I looked to my mom. Her eyes welling with hateful tears, I could only breathe out a whisper of words, so hushed they were barely audible: 'It's OK, Mommy.' I was trying to temper the rage-filled air permeating our small silver Volvo. Los Angeles had been plagued with the racially charged Rodney King and Reginald Denny cases just years before, when riots had flooded our streets, filling the sky with ash that flaked down like apocalyptic snow; I shared my mom's heartache, but I wanted us to be safe. We drove home in deafening silence, her chocolate knuckles pale from gripping the wheel so tightly.

It's either ironic or apropos that in this world of not fitting in, and of harbouring my emotions so tightly under my ethnically nondescript (and not so thick) skin, that I would decide to become an actress. There couldn't possibly be a more label-driven industry than acting, seeing as every audition comes with a character breakdown: 'Beautiful, sassy, Latina, 20s'; 'African American, urban, pretty, early 30s'; 'Caucasian, blonde, modern girl next door'. Every role has a label; every casting is for something specific. But perhaps it is through this craft that I found my voice.

Being 'ethnically ambiguous', as I was pegged in the industry, meant I could audition for virtually any role. Morphing from Latina when I was dressed in red, to African American when in mustard yellow; my closet filled with fashionable frocks to make me look as racially varied as an Eighties Benetton poster. Sadly, it didn't matter: I wasn't black enough for the black roles and I wasn't white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn't book a job.

This is precisely why Suits stole my heart. It's the Goldilocks of my acting career – where finally I was just right. The series was initially conceived as a dramedy about a NY law firm flanked by two partners, one of whom navigates this glitzy world with his fraudulent degree. Enter Rachel Zane, one of the female leads and the dream girl – beautiful and confident with an encyclopedic knowledge of the law. 'Dream girl' in Hollywood terms had always been that quintessential blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty – that was the face that launched a thousand ships, not the mixed one. But the show's producers weren't looking for someone mixed, nor someone white or black for that matter. They were simply looking for Rachel. In making a choice like that, the Suits producers helped shift the way pop culture defines beauty. The choices made in these rooms trickle into how viewers see the world, whether they're aware of it or not. Some households may never have had a black person in their house as a guest, or someone biracial. Well, now there are a lot of us on your TV and in your home with you. And with Suits, specifically, you have Rachel Zane. I couldn't be prouder of that.

At the end of season two, the producers went a step further and cast the role of Rachel's father as a dark-skinned African-American man, played by the brilliant Wendell Pierce. I remember the tweets when that first episode of the Zane family aired, they ran the gamut from: 'Why would they make her dad black? She's not black' to 'Ew, she's black? I used to think she was hot.' The latter was blocked and reported. The reaction was unexpected, but speaks of the undercurrent of racism that is so prevalent, especially within America. On the heels of the racial unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore, the tensions that have long been percolating under the surface in the US have boiled over in the most deeply saddening way. And as a biracial woman, I watch in horror as both sides of a culture I define as my own become victims of spin in the media, perpetuating stereotypes and reminding us that the States has perhaps only placed bandages over the problems that have never healed at the root.

I, on the other hand, have healed from the base. While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that. To say who I am, to share where I'm from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman. That when asked to choose my ethnicity in a questionnaire as in my seventh grade class, or these days to check 'Other', I simply say: 'Sorry, world, this is not Lost and I am not one of The Others. I am enough exactly as I am.'

Just as black and white, when mixed, make grey, in many ways that's what it did to my self-identity: it created a murky area of who I was, a haze around howpeople connected with me. I was grey. And who wants to be this indifferent colour, devoid of depth and stuck in the middle? I certainly didn't. So you make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You push for colour-blind casting, you draw your own box. You introduce yourself as who you are, not what colour your parents happen to be. You cultivate your life with people who don't lead with ethnic descriptions such as, 'that black guy Tom', but rather friends who say: 'You know? Tom, who works at [blah blah] and dates [fill in the blank] girl.' You create the identity you want for yourself, just as my ancestors did when they were given their freedom. Because in 1865 (which is so shatteringly recent), when slavery was abolished in the United States, former slaves had to choose a name. A surname, to be exact.

Perhaps the closest thing to connecting me to my ever-complex family tree, my longing to know where I come from, and the commonality that links me to my bloodline, is the choice that my great-great-great grandfather made to start anew. He chose the last name Wisdom. He drew his own box.

#meg39 #meghan markle #duchess of sussex #meghan's writing

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bilalmalik921 · 3 years

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Predictions for the Financial Advice Sector in the UK

It was late November, dark and the eighties. I knocked on the door and was immediately welcomed in, offered a cup of tea and sat on the sofa. I'd never met them before, although they were expecting me and I wore a suit. And that night they were happy to sign up a Standing Order for £120 a month for the next 25 years.

As a financial adviser at the famous sistema financiero Prudential Insurance Company, I advised and sold hundreds of financial products to a myriad of customers, both rich and poor and my company serviced the vast majority of the UK's population without asking for a penny in return. We ran a commission based business with the provider paying this. All over the UK similar sales people were operating in the same model and UK consumers never lacked access to quality advice.

Naturally some of this advice was rather dubious, we know this and our regulators have slowly fixed this in a very painful but needed manner, a little bit like removing infected teeth. Witness T&C, pension scandals, PPI mis-selling, FOS.

The last wave of the flag was witnessed with the eradication of commission on wealth and pension advice which came about in 2013. The regulator's argument was that commission drove mis-selling and that accepting a fee only for the actual time spent with the adviser would produce totally impartial advice.

It did. It also reduced the number of advisers, both independent and restricted, to just over 25,600 and drove these advisers to service only the wealthiest customers who both value advice and could afford it. The rest of the population was left to wither on the vine.

Thankfully our regulators have instigated some changes called the Financial Advice Market Report or FAMR which has pretty much concluded what I said in the paragraph just before this one. But progress is being made, particularly in encouraging robo advice models and removing the litigation hurdle many firms use to avoid dealing with the mass markets.

Add this to the apprenticeship levy on firms which will encourage training of new advisers, and I do believe we're on the right roadmap. So here's my predictions on how it'll all look in 2020.

Low cost - low touch advice

Robo advice will become ubiquitous. Generation Y and older Zs, who have money to invest, will go online and enrol in advice systems that are controlled by computer algorithms. The algos will create an investment strategy based around risk issues and other needs. Investing will be mostly in passive funds - funds tracking indexes, exchange traded funds and other software based funds requiring no humans apart from coders.

Remember Gen Ys trust computers more than humans. At the dinner table last Sunday my son asked me when the Beatles released Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I said 1966, he immediately checked his phone and Google said 1967, Guess who he believed? And rightly so.

They will access their funds' performance online, pay very low annual fees, a fraction of that charged by active fund managers. The Gen Ys won't want to see an adviser unless they are willing to, and they value personal service.

For those wanting the human touch, or those who are willing to pay a little more for their advice, the paraplanner model will work well. An online meeting with a suitably qualified individual starts the process. The video meeting or virtual reality equipment will simulate the face to face meeting as well as technology will allow. The adviser would be less expensive, a paraplanner, a new adviser with less experience, maybe someone training. The key here is that they are cheaper than a fully qualified adviser. They would carry out the factfind and engage with the customer. Specific and soft needs would develop in a similar manner to a factfind carried out by a fully qualified adviser.

The planner would then transfer the results into a robo system which would then create the advice. The advice would then be delivered to the customer. An alternative model would involve the advice being vetted by a qualified adviser, and then it would be delivered.

Regular reviews would occur automatically using the same process and the qualified adviser would only be involved as and when needed.

High cost - high touch

Available to those who are willing to pay fees in a similar manner to legal and accountancy advice. Ostensibly the same model as we've seen before; a series of face to face or virtual reality meetings would evolve into personalised advice being provided. The best advisers would still use robo systems to augment their advice, these systems would do much of the crunching and administration but they would still be involved in advising and vetting the results.

Increasingly fund management would be conducted using passive methods, i.e. no active fund managers, as robo systems and algo based programmes become more and more reliable and effective. Humans will be moved on from this role except for the high end hedge funds.

The end of the face to face advising era will soon become apparent as communication via virtual and augmented reality gradually replaces personal interactions. I'll still appear in my customer's front room and be able to build rapport and trust, but I won't be able to drink a cup of tea provided by the customer, that might be around in 10 years further on.

A Peek Into 2030

2030, we're talking about a completely different model for receiving financial advice. Here's a peek.

The IFA that we know today will be doing another job. What kind of job we don't know, since it hasn't yet been created. She will be doing something mentally demanding that automated intelligent computer systems can't yet do.

Financial advice of any sort will be recognised by your personal digital assistant. This is the conduit we will all use that accesses what we currently call "Big Data"; data held in the cloud that has been collected about you since the early part of the century. Your assistant, which we'll call Lola, knows you and everything about you from the myriad of sensors that have been gaining data.

Government computer systems covering your education results, tax returns, the car you drive, your visits abroad. Retailer systems showing everything you've ever bought. Tesco showing everything you've ever eaten. Banks displaying all of your financial transactions since you were born. Bear in mind cash was abolished in 2020.

Your wearable technology screening every signal from your body - exercise routines, blood pressure, illnesses. Your car data showing every journey you've taken. Social media streams with enormous amounts of data on your life.

The list goes on. Lola knows everything about you and you rely on her as your life coach. So when you need financial advice, Lola has already picked this up and will offer it to you without you asking. She recognised the inheritance in your bank account and understands your risk attitude and your goals for the future, so she'll link to some algorithms in the cloud and provide the advice automatically. It'll just happen, you've allowed it.

She'll know when you need a mortgage from your email and social media steams and will just find one that is suitable and arrange it. No humans, just algos.

Life insurance. There'll be no such thing because Big Data will know from your genetics, wearables and DNA, how long you're going to live for anyway, so accidental life assurance will be offered at individual rates direct from the cloud. Motor insurance? No need, you won't be driving the car anymore and accidents stopped in 2022.

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walaw717 · 4 years

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“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.” ― Black Elk

I heard the phrase “you are the Indians now” over three decades ago.

I do not remember exactly who said it, I think it was in a conversation with Russel Means, if was said in a speech or to me privately, but that does not matter much. I heard it the other day in a commercial Hollywood production, “You are the Indians now” and realized that industrial colonial commercial America was finding one more way to take the strength and power out of the words we need to survive. When a phrase is taken out of human context it begins to lose its power. When a thing is commercialized it quickly become trite.

We must understand that this phrase, “you are the Indian now” actually does have meaning and power. It is a reality we all need to understand as we are demeaned, bullied , locked down and social distanced by those we have given economic, military and political authority to – what Eisenhour called “the military industrial complex”. To understand this all we need to do is look at how the authority of the military industrial complex that stretches back through American history has been used to the “profit” of the few at the expense of the many.

America was opened by the ever-expanding greed of the Euro-Asians. The Spanish who had recently broken the rule of what they considered an occupying Afro-Asian power, Islam, began to assert itself and in its assertion of its power created the voyage of Columbus not as a voyage of discovery but as a voyage of economic power and expansion. Columbus’s voyage was quickly followed by Cortez, Pizzaro and a multitude of the leaders of Spain’s military industrial complex. ( Even though this term had not been invented yet it is the appropriate shorthand for those who would rule.)

Push forward barely 300 years and South America, plundered as thoroughly as the Spanish could in their own areas of captured authority saw another economic power create a myth of shaking off the plunderers to the north, the English, and form a new “non colony” colonial power.

It was a strange combination forces that created the United States – men of considerable economic authority created an economic war but based upon human principles of freedom and self-governance. The reality is they laid the foundation a great colonial power. They used the power of myth and spirituality to unite the colonials and in time won an economic war against the mother corporation. These were smart men and oddly sincere, with possibly only Jefferson understanding the dangers inherent in the authority of economic power. Jefferson spoke strongly about not giving economic power and control to bankers, yet Hamilton did, and created the source of the force that was to colonize north America through the military industrial complex that slowly grew, in it’s need and greed for land and all the resources it contained – animal, mineral, lumber.

“So Indian policy has become institutionalized and the result has been that American people have become more dependent on government and that the American people have become more dependent on corporations.” ~ Russell Means

The devastation that followed for the American Indian nations was total and it was accomplished at first by outright war and disease and later by confinement, control of movement , isolation and most of all by breaking the power of the spiritual structures of each community that was conquered. This occurred in America while the European economic powers did the same to Africa and Asia.

It is important to understand that behind all this “colonization” were corporations – powerful economic institutions controlled mostly by men, institutions built upon the love of “growth, development, money, possession” feeding their narcissism. These were and are men (and women) who truly believed that they were creating a better world though pillage of communities around the world and breaking the local social and spiritual systems they encountered.

And today – here we are again.

The corporations are supporting political authority that use that authority to again break people to the will of the power of corporate economics.

Do not be fooled by thinking that the corporate war between Donald Trump and the Globalists is in your interest. It is a war about who will control the economy of the world. And it is not a race war – though the corporatists want you to think that. The heads of the corporations are as much Chinese, Arab and African today as they are American, French , Swiss and German. Race becomes the bait for the conflict which allows them to distract us while they remake the few institutions, we have that are foundational for us to not all become slaves to their consumer machine. And just as they did with American Indians, African and Asians, one of the fundamental tenets of corporate power is that we need to be separated from the land and from each other and the social and spiritual cohesion that healthy societies have.

Are these people knowingly evil? Not really . Well maybe some are.

They do meet together at places like Davos and the G – summits, however many are part of the economic powers at the moment and discuss how to wring the greatest “wealth” for themselves out of the earth. Do not think for a moment however that they are really concerned for your welfare other than as a commodity which they can exploit.

The activist/poet John Trudell says this well –

“It’s like there is this predator energy on this planet, and this predator energy feeds on the essence of the spirit.”

The worldwide lock downs have crushed the poor, increased domestic violence, suicide and fear. We all know this – at least those who continue to not trust a government that they understand is the hand maiden of the industrial/commercial/ colonial ruling class.

“The darkest secret of this country, I am afraid, is that too many of its citizens imagine that they belong to a much higher civilization somewhere else. That higher civilization doesn’t have to be another country. It can be the past instead—the United States as it was before it was spoiled by immigrants and the enfranchisement of the blacks. This state of mind allows too many of us to lie and cheat and steal from the rest of us, to sell us junk and addictive poisons and corrupting entertainments. What are the rest of us, after all, but sub-human aborigines?”― Kurt Vonnegut

This has played out it the media as a racist battle, but it is no longer, if it ever was, about race. It is about exploitation. It is about breaking the populations of the world into a weakened consumer serving class.

The economic authoritarians have used a broken economic theory, socialism, to create turmoil with its false promise of a new age and we, now educated by the schools they took control of fifty years ago,creating a watered down curricula that discourages thinking and enhances emotion, have used Marxism to create a fundamental break in our society. The people founding and running BLM are as much operatives for the colonial driven Chinese oligarchy as the Chinese scholar spies in our universities. But again, it is not just the Chinese nor just rich white people – it is the authority class – those who control the flow of information as well as the power of the ability to work.

We are all Indians now, and African and Asian who have felt the power of the colonial might of the corporations to lock us in our homes, to cover our faces live oppressed muslim women, to comply out of fear.

Colonialism is not new, and it is not white, though its latest historic manifestation was white beginning with the Spanish rape of central and South America. Colonialism is historic, it does not know race – it is when one people believe they have the right and the authority to use other people to gain wealth for themselves. The Mongols who swept out of Asia into Eastern Europe and India, the Muslims who charged out of Arabia and north Africa were as much colonizers as the Persian , Romans, Greeks, Egyptians. The real tool that all colonizers use is the dehumanization of other men women and children and create them as commodities either on the slave block or on the corner of the block talking about the latest phoney fad created in shoes.

When one looks at world history there seems to be a certain inevitability to this colonial oppression.

There is really only one hope and that lies in the spiritual path of turning to a larger power than all of us whether we call it god, grandfather, mother earth – and becoming fully human in our relationships. To do that means we turn away from consumerism and turn toward our relationship with all life that we share on this earth. And we fight back, we refuse to surrender our individual faces, our shared life and death and grief. Although the churches, mosques, synagogues and temples have at times been as much of the problem as the solution the fact that those in authority do not want us to gather there speaks volumes to the power of the spiritual life and the need to gather there to good purpose.

Again John Trudell - “We have power… Our power isn’t in a political system, or a religious system, or in an economic system, or in a military system; these are authoritarian systems… they have power… but it’s not reality. The power of our intelligence, individually or collectively IS the power; this is the power that any industrial ruling class truly fears: clear coherent human beings.”

#pandemic #social media #biden #donald trump #racisim #blm

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ninamontagutbordas · 4 years

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HOW CAN I KNOW WHO I AM IF SOCIAL MEDIA DICTATES WHO I SHOULD BE?

The first time I joined Facebook, I was thirteen years old. It was 2008 at the time and none of the existing social media platforms were a big thing in Spain yet. I had a total of seven facebook friends and I only used it to talk to my sister, who introduced me to the social network, while she was away during the summer. Actually, facebook was just a great solution to connect with people traveling or living abroad.

I didn’t understand the power of social media then and, to be honest, it’s still difficult for me to have an accurate understanding of how its power can affect people. It sure has affected me countless times to the point where social media was controlling the way I felt and, it still controls me sometimes.

I am about to turn twenty-five and I am very happy with who I’ve become this past decade. Obviously, I had to go through all the faces the majority of kids go through between the ages of fifteen and the mid-twenties (hopefully I’m not the only one!): I was a stupid teenager at times (to be fair, sometimes still am), there were moments were I behaved as a bad daughter, a bad sister, a bad friend, a bad girlfriend and as a bad “all the roles that a human being can possibly be”, but, still, I am very happy with who I am today and I have forgiven myself for all the damage I may have made.

During this past decade, I’ve managed to create different abilities that helped me understand a bit more how to navigate the awkward early twenties, such as pushing away toxicity, standing up for myself, accepting constructive criticism, and facing mistakes as soon as possible.

BUT, what if social media is dictating what’s toxic and what’s not, when do I need to stand up for myself and when I don’t, which criticism is constructive and which is not and which are the things I should see as mistakes and which are not?

It got me thinking.

I feel like the power of this digital “era” we are living in (is it even an era anymore or at this point is just our reality?) has brought us a lot of good, but also a lot of bad. There have been moments in my life where I found social media was actually very dangerous for me and reflecting on it now, I think my experience may be helpful to some of you as well.

At the beginning of this crazy 2020, I was in a very bad place. I had just quitted a job that was very damaging for me, I wasn’t comfortable with the way I looked, and I felt very isolated from the important things in life. I have suffered from severe anxiety since I was twelve and had to learn to manage that at a very early stage in my life, but it had never been as bad as it was in January. First world problems? Indeed. I totally agree, but it was a very dark period of time for myself and there was nothing I could do to feel better -or at least I thought so-.

I have the most amazing parents and the most amazing family, a great group of friends who have always supported me no matter what and I had a great loving boyfriend who not once made me feel non-deserving of a happiness that seemed impossible to reach at the time. My support system wasn’t the problem.

SO, why wasn’t I happy?

I knew I had to stop complaining and start doing things that would make me feel better, which would make me heel. Had I known at the time social media was a key element to get there, it would have been a lot easier.

My body had changed a lot during the past few years, I wasn’t exercising, and I handled my anxiety by eating literally my feelings. My pants didn’t fit, my body was way different than my friend’s bodies (yeah, I know, “don’t compare yourself to others” and “all bodies are beautiful” but still, we all know how it works) and I felt very insecure in general. I never have had the patience or the strength before to beat my laziness and it’s safe to say I had zero trust in myself then, but again, it was time. I had to do something.

I decided to start a severe diet.

If you know me, you know I have had a terrible habit in the past where I start things and never finish them, so of course, I didn’t think I was going to go through with an entire diet. I didn’t see myself capable.

It took me six months and nine days to finally feel healthy and good again, but I did it. (Two out of six months I was quarantined at home, which was not great neither mentally nor physically for the process I was going through). I discovered a lot of myself during that time though.

However, not everything I discovered was actually good, believe it or not. I discovered a lot of bad stuff and not necessarily was I aware of all the negative inputs I was receiving from the internet. One of those things was the social media strategies to engage with users in the wrong way and how that can control a person’s feelings. I was a victim of social media.

During the lockdown, I had to beat my anxiety in different ways so that none of them lead me up to interrupting the diet-plan my doctor had provided me. I had a commitment to myself and the more I proved myself wrong, the better I felt. I’m not a quitter and I wasn’t a quitter back then, but I just didn’t know it yet.

One of the ways to beat my anxiety, strangely enough, was sitting home to my computer and lose myself on social media, as many of us did during the quarantine. Without even noticing it, I ended up falling into a rabbit hole: Instagram food accounts.

Isn’t it so paradoxical? I was doing a diet but still, I was spending my hours looking at thousands of videos of people baking cakes, cooking pasta, and reading recipes I know I couldn’t have as long as I wanted to keep doing this.

Some said I should be proud of myself - being able to look at these videos and not once cheat or interrupt my diet is a great way “to train my strength”. I fully disagree. To me, this was not about strength, to me this was about how the channels in my brain had been educated to think this was normal behavior. It was not. Social media was tempting me.

What I’ve realized through this process is that, it wasn’t actually my choice whether to stop looking at them or not. The less I wanted to see, the more videos I had access to because of the complexity of the social media algorithms. They decided I needed to see that kind of content.

Social media was proving myself and it became an interesting yet dangerous dynamic for me, which is why I find myself writing down this essay. For months, I’ve been having conversations with my parents and my friends about the danger of social media.

BUT, where is the real danger?

In the months that followed, I was starting to feel better. Actually, I was feeling pretty good. Not just physically, but also mentally. I was better than ever and people around me started noticing the inside glow I was feeling.

The problem is that feeling good and being in charge of your own life are two very different things. I was happy but my life was not under control, quite the opposite. I wasn’t in control. Social media algorithms were controlling me.

That’s when it got tricky for me – How could I be the happiest I’ve ever been but feel so frustrated? Was I really happy? Was I pretending to be happy because everyone else seemed so happy? Was I really being myself or was I just pretending to be somebody who I wasn’t? Was social media training myself to think I was happy? Was social media LYING to me?

All of these questions were hunting me, and I just did not know what to do. I was back in shape yet all the pictures I saw on Instagram of these beautiful women in their amazing bikinis during their amazing vacations made me feel self-conscious about myself.

Why did I do this diet? Did I do it for myself or for the benefit of a social network that had thousands of pictures of myself where I could prove to people graphically I had lost a lot of weight?

Social media has an interesting way to make people feel bad and create this interesting millennial feeling of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) – the problem is, we only share 10% of what’s really going on with us. That’s why it was important to me to share this story – I wanted to use social media in a different way. Maybe I’m oversharing, but at least I’m oversharing in a true and authentic way, not in an unrealistic scenario.

A while ago, I decided I would delete all the pictures on my Instagram page and I was only going to leave there the ones that captured the moments where I was really happy and really present. From around 600 pictures I had posted over the years, I chose around 20. They could stay. Twenty-something pictures that reminded me of the important things in life, at least the important things to me. But then I said to myself: “Did I just chose when I felt happy because I deleted some Instagram pictures? This makes me so sad”.

Going through these old pictures, I could clearly tell how my body has changed “for the better” this past nine months but I realized very quickly something very unexpected - I was really happy back then. For sure I had that puffy face and a bigger body, but I was really happy and really secure. And that’s when I realized, social media was dictating what should I do and who I should be. Not because I decided to, but because I allowed it to.

The thing is that I don’t feel threatened by social media itself. I feel threatened by the way we consume digital content without even thinking of the impact this can have not only on ourselves but on others.

We get carried away because we don’t use social media in a smart way. We use it to compare ourselves and our life with others, directly or indirectly, whether we like it or not. We don’t consume media to complete ourselves with information and use it for our own profits. We consume media to fill the blanks we are missing in our journeys.

I’m scared of how fast the world is evolving and how fast digital progress is happening. Let’s see where my relationship with the internet stands in five years when my twenties are over. Until then, I’ll try to use social media for the benefit of the people around me. I feel like we all have a responsibility and, I’m going to commit to it.

The question is, are you?

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