#but a bigger part of it i think is due to the spread of purity culture

[this-is-quite-homoerotic]

Queer representation in Torchwood: the shift from the escapist/utopian paradigm to a more realistic approach and why I didn’t like it

You may have seen my original post about the tonal shift that happens between season 2 of Torchwood and CoE (here), where I first put my thoughts down on this matter, but @ultraviolet-eucatastrophe recently got an anon ask about that post that made me think about it again, and I’d like to share some further thoughts on the subject, so here is that essay I said I might write.

First of all, my thesis on that post was that there was a shift in tone between how queerness was portrayed in seasons 1 and 2 (where, much like in NuWho, it is presented as an unremarkable thing that needs no justification, i.e. following an escapist/utopian paradigm where real-life queerphobia doesn’t come up for the characters) and seasons 3 and 4 (where a more true-to-life approach is taken and the fact that queerphobia exists is brought up and included into the narrative in a way it wasn’t before).

In the post, I wrote:

CoE introduces the outside world’s view of queerness as well, with Rhiannon putting Ianto on the spot about it and then her husband walking in and making a tasteless joke about it. Then they have Clem, an otherwise likeable character who is portrayed as a victim, call Ianto “the queer” (...) Then [in Miracle Day] they decided to have Rex be the main new character, [he is] borderline if not explicitly homophobic. Suddenly Jack’s sexuality is forced into these narrow boxes it absolutely does not fit and subject to snide comments and questions that feel clunky and gauche in a universe and a series that have for years been making a point of not doing that.

I’ll also mention the whole flight-attendant scene where they keep rudely calling him gay (while he’s at work, doing his job 🙃) and the joke is that he then says “it was one time!”, implying that 1) it’s funny to loudly speculate about people’s sexuality and to call them gay while they’re at work providing a service for you if you perceive them to be queer, 2) Rex (a straight male character) can totally tell when people are queer and not only that but he can tell even when the person themself is in denial about it - a straight man knows a queer stranger’s sexuality better than themself, and/or 3) it’s funny that the guy is in denial about it when it’s “so obvious” that he’s queer to the other characters.

Now, the anon I mentioned characterises my thesis in that post to be that “throughout CoE and Miracle Day, Torchwood became more homophobic towards their characters”, which is a fair and good-faith interpretation of the point I was making, but which I don’t… actually say or agree with. (But I see how someone might think that, hence the good-faith comment. Also, can I just say, I am very grateful to anon for making me think about this more to the point where I ended up writing this essay to go over the whole thing! Thank you, anon ❤)

As I tried to pin down why that description felt wrong to me, I realised that I may not have properly explained that while I do state very clearly that I have a preference (I much preferred the approach of seasons 1-2), I did not clarify that my critique was just that, a matter of preference. I also didn’t get into why I preferred that approach to the one from the later seasons.

I did not mean to imply that the depiction of queerness in seasons 3 and 4 was homophobic. Moreover, I do not believe it to be. I think what was so rattling about it to me personally was that it was a departure from the tone set both in the bigger NuWho universe and in the first two seasons of Torchwood, and because there had been a consistency to how queerness had been portrayed so far in that universe, that created in me an expectation that the portrayal would remain consistent. The shift felt jarring to me, and it did not help that I personally really like the sci-fi/fantasy approach of doing away with queerphobia as a plot point that queer characters have to deal with, because I am a tired queer who wishes she could also do away with queerphobia and not have to deal with it.

That said, there is nothing (inherently) queerphobic or homophobic about having a queer character have to face queerphobia in a story, especially when you write queer characters who are the protagonists and the heroes of the story, and the queerphobia they face is not supported by the narrative, which I think is generally the case with Torchwood. [Sidenote: This changes slightly in Miracle Day where queerness becomes the butt of a few jokes, but even then I’d argue it wasn’t so much outright queerphobia as it was bad taste and a questionable sense of humour. I also still don’t understand what the writers were trying to do with Rex? He was meant to be the new main character, and I think they meant for him to be a sympathetic character, and then they… made him be uncomfortable with Jack’s queerness and… wrote him vaguely queerphobic lines? What? And I know that he’s a lot more accepting of his lesbian(?) coworker, but a straight man being okay/comfortable with wlw but not with mlm is… not exactly uncommon? It doesn’t actually erase the queerphobia.]

Back to my point, I don’t interpret the shift to be queerphobic so much as I argue that it was a shift and that it subverted the expectations that were created in a way I did not like. 

The thing about having a sci-fi/fantasy setting is that you can ignore certain real-life prejudices and oppression systems, and I like that, a lot. Oftentimes, oppression will still be a theme, but it will be approached through fictional analogies (like aliens symbolising immigrants, or alien civilisations that have different ‘classes’ discriminating against some of them as a thinly veiled reference to real life oppression such as misogyny, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, etc.).

I personally love this type of narrative because it allows me to approach something that I’m very interested in (oppression systems, prejudice, genocide, hatred and fear of the Other, violence against minorities, and the fight against all of these, as well as the potential to be better and do better) in a way that is not as emotionally exhausting as it can be when the fictionalised violence and hatred is directed towards real-life minorities. It is a sort of projection which allows me to enjoy the exploration of these topics by creating a little bit of distance from their real life equivalents. This doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy a more literal depiction of these, whether I do or not is very much a combination of several things: from the tone, to how explicit or violent it gets, to whether I consider it to be a tasteful/respectful depiction (which is partly a matter of opinion and might hinge on cultural sensitivities), to the genre, etc.

Genre and medium are both very important because they create expectations. If you get a fantasy novel where the main conflict is the discrimination of a whole subclass of people, you know not to expect from it the same things as you would from a philosophy treatise on discrimination and the human condition, or from a historical analysis of the discrimination of a specific minority in a given time and place, or from a youtube video of a queer activist that talks about their experience with discrimination, even if all of those might cover the same topic. Now, our previous experience with different forms of media, genres, disciplines, and so on, allows us to come into each of these with some knowledge of what we’re getting into. We might enjoy having those expectations subverted depending on whether it’s done well and on our own preferences, but those expectations exist.

My expectations regarding both queer representation in Torchwood (and the wider Whoniverse) and also regarding what Torchwood was, at its core, about (found family going on wacky alien-related adventures and protecting their city) were subverted in CoE and Miracle Day in ways I did not enjoy. This is what my first post was about. There was a narrative to seasons 1 and 2, a tone, and those were scrapped and exchanged for different ones that I didn’t like as much in seasons 3 and 4. 

So what that post brought up is both a statement of fact (there was a tonal shift) and my own subjective feelings about that (I did not like it).

I think the reason why I was so unhappy with it is mainly because of the expectations I formed in the first two seasons. My expectations were very specific, they were not born of something vague like a general genre, but rather from the established tone of a specific fictional universe and even a specific show. While I do have a preference for escapist fiction where queerphobia isn’t an issue (or where it’s wrapped up in the comfortable coat of Metaphor so the sting isn’t as sharp), this show and the fictional universe it is a part of created the expectation in me that queerness wasn’t a point of contention here (or something to make cheap jokes about, looking at you Miracle Day). It wasn’t a matter that warranted an explanation; in this universe, people like us could just be, and love, and have stories that didn’t revolve around our queerness, stories that didn’t hide or erase it but which took it as one more part of us and went on to delve into adventure, because, again, queerness didn’t define us. They created these expectations, and then they failed to deliver. 

Now, as I said, I’m sure a lot of people liked the shift, might even consider it better representation or might just like it better, which is completely fair and I respect it. I personally don’t think either type of representation is better than the other, they fill different niches, or fulfill different needs for us, and both can be good or bad.

Which brings me to my next point: I’d like to share an example of a realistic portrayal of queerphobia that I think was done so well and which I loved (spoilers for Sense8 under the cut). But before that:

tl;dr: There was a shift in how queerness was portrayed and I didn’t like it, in big part because my expectations were that the show would remain consistent in this matter: they created an expectation that queerness was not a point of contention in their narrative and then they failed to meet that expectation. However, ‘there was a shift’ + ‘I didn’t like it’ doesn’t equal ‘it was bad representation’ or ‘it was a homophobic portrayal’ and I actually think it was neither bad representation nor queerphobic.

Spoilers for Sense8 under here!

Okay, so I have already said that I prefer the escapist/utopic paradigm of queer narratives to a realistic one that forces the queer characters to deal with queerphobia. That said, I can enjoy both! And one fantastic example of the latter is Nomi’s story in Sense8. (Lito’s story was also great but I’ll use Nomi as an example here because I think it illustrates the point better.)

Nomi is a wlw trans woman who has to deal with repeated transphobia from her parents (especially her mother who consistently misgenders and deadnames her and even gets behind an attempt to lobotomise her in the hopes that it will “fix” her).

There were many moments when I got painfully uncomfortable during Nomi’s interactions with her mother (to the point that I had to pause it at several points because I couldn’t deal with how horrible it got). Despite this, I thought it was handled brilliantly. You know why? The transphobia she had to suffer at the hands of her parents is one small part of her character arc, which also includes:

in the background, we get to see Nomi’s found family who are loving and supportive, and her wonderful girlfriend who loves her and stands up for her when some TERFs try to put her down (which I thought was such a relevant and significant issue to portray because shitty transphobic rhetoric is gaining ground and so many people are forced to deal with this kind of thing!);

and in the forefront, the main plot is that Nomi is one of a set of eight protagonists who are being hunted down by a shady organisation because of the special connection they share. The only reason her mother is in the position to try to force her into a lobotomy is because this shady organisation was already trying to do that to her (and the fact that her doctor who is knowingly attempting to do this calls her by the right name and pronouns while her own mother won’t was an interesting detail to throw in there, for sure). Nomi’s story isn’t about her being trans, it’s about her escaping persecution for being part of a different, fictional minority (while also being trans), it’s about her having adventures with her girlfriend and friends all while trying to bring down a corrupt organisation and ensuring a better future not just for herself but for everyone by doing so. 

(It’s not surprising that her story was so good and handled so well when you know that the Wachowski sisters created, wrote and directed the show. Two trans women wrote this and had vetoing power over any decisions made about it.)

Now, as I’m writing this, I realise the argument could be made that, well, Ianto having that conversation with Rhiannon in CoE or the tasteless joke by Johnny afterwards, or Jack having to hear snide comments about being “gay” in Miracle Day were also just small parts of their story. The jokes about the air flight-attendant were just minor jokes about an even more minor character. They were little details thrown in and the main plot was about saving millions of children from aliens/discovering what was behind the Miracle and fixing it. And that’s a fair point.

The difference lies in the expectations surrounding each story. I didn’t go into Sense8 with the expectation that queerphobia wouldn’t be depicted or addressed in the story. I did go into CoE expecting that it would continue to adhere to the escapist/utopian paradigm where queer characters can just be, their queerness isn’t a point of contention, and they aren’t forced to deal with real-life levels of queerphobia... only to be disappointed. This was not helped by them doubling down in Miracle Day by making it not just a point of contention but also the butt of several jokes. 

I feel I’m just repeating myself at this point, so I’ll stop here, but I would love to hear any opinions on this, whether you agree with me or not! 

[shirtlesssammy]

13x21: Beat the Devil

Guys, we may have just watched Robert Beren’s last episode for Supernatural. I’m a little emotional about that, but am so excited about the possibility of Wayward Sisters.

Then:

Let’s do the time warp again!

Now:

Guys! We finally FINALLY get some domestic fluff. We’ve paid our dues and now the family is finally together, happy and whole. Sam, Dean, Cas, Mary, and Jack eating pizza and shooting the shit around the bunker’s war room table. Dean eats too much. Mary tells cute childhood stories. Cas judges his husband’s choices. My teeth rotted during these two minutes of goodness.

Alas, it’s just a dream of Sam’s. Let’s break it down --because we rarely get an inside look into Sam’s thoughts (let alone what he’s really thinking, and a dream can reveal things even he’s repressing on the outside!) He honestly has an open hostility towards Dean’s eating habits. His purity/demon blood feelings run bone deep. Ouch. He craves a homelife and Mary’s little stories about Dean’s childhood. He clearly sees Dean and Cas as domestic nuggets of love. He wants to save Mary --for her to recognize him as a hero. And Jack! Is part of the family. My heart.

Also, baby boy Sam really needs a bigger bed. If Dean can get memory foam, Sam can get a California King. Just saying.  

Well, with Gabriel on board, Team Free Bunker has all the ingredients and a witch to cast the spell to get them to AU land. Unfortunately, Gabriel doesn’t quite have the umph to produce the grace necessary for the task.

Cas makes the argument that they need archangel grace and they only have one source for it --Lucifer. Sam and Rowena are particularly distressed.

*Team Free Will Meeting in the Kitchen Alert*

Sam, Dean, and Cas meet to discuss their options. Sam is adamantly against finding Lucifer, but Cas makes it clear to him that *they* let Lucifer out and he’s *their* responsibility.

Meanwhile, Gabe is finding interesting historical materials at his local library #LOVE YOUR LIBRARIES EVERYONE

He’s also making excuses for his poor grace performance to Rowena. She wants to hear nothing of it.

So, like Boris is a complete Samwitch shipper (obv. after Saileen and Sody), but this WAS SO FUNNY. Why wouldn’t these two hook up? Gabe is all about that and Rowena deserves to get hers. But, yeah, what even is this script? Lol. Apparently Ruth and Rich ad libbed the voiceovers. I’m dying.

TFW decide that Lucifer is the best option, and they can use his grace indefinitely to keep the rift open. They run to the war room to tell Rowena and Gabe. They catch the archangel and witch in flagrante delicto. Omg, guys. Sam and Dean’s reaction is one thing, but Cas! I die.

Cut to Lucifer getting not-drunk on liquor at a bar. Harry Chapin’s Cat’s the the Cradle playing the in background (Ouch, please, please, please do not let his child turn out just like him.) The bartender is sympathetic to his complaints--- but not really! It’s Gabe! And Lucifer was drugged! And Rowena binds him so they can haul him back to the bunker for their plan to be enacted.

Once at the bunker, Rowena prepares the spell, and Cas cuts Lucifer’s neck to extract his grace. They’re going to slowly use his grace to keep the portal open longer than 24 hours.

TFW and Gabe head to the AU while Rowena stays behind to monitor (a very annoying) Lucifer.

Once in the AU they all take a bit of a tumble down a hill. Gabe ends up face first in Cas’s crotch. Awkward. And Show, why pray tell do you only cut to a reaction to --and a very interesting one --of Dean? No chill.

Cas places them about two days walk away from Dayton, Ohio, and Mary and Jack’s outpost. While walking, Cas and Gabe have an angel heart to heart. Cas asks Gabe what his next plans are. Gabe’s not sure. Cas informs him about how heaven is dying --heavily implying what Gabe’s next role might be. Sam and Dean have a heart to heart about Sam’s mood. I mean, it might be that they’re so close to finding Mary and Jack, but I think Sam’s just happy about the humidity giving his hair that extra curly bounce. On point even in a dying world. But seriously, Sam’s so happy to be so close!

Cue screaming. Hahahahahaha...nothing bad can possibly happen now!

They find a couple battling a vampire and take the monster out. The couple inform our merry travelers that there’s only two ways to get there --over the mountains via a very out of the way detour or under a tunnel where a whole nest of vamps are camped out. Samwise Gamgee gives a stirring speech and they all head for the tunnel.

And we’re back with Rowena and the archangel everyone voted as Heaven's most annoying ass (ask anyone in the garrison). Lucifer continues his serenade to Rowena. When it doesn't appear to be working he shifts his strategy, reminding her vividly how he assaulted and then killed her. Rowena can't tune that out and, to be fair, neither can I. It's so disturbing. It’s the casual taunting of a sociopath.

Rowena tells Lucifer that TFW and Gabriel are in the AU to go rescue Jack – and that they're more father to him than Lucifer will ever be. This makes Lucifer so angry that he powers up again and busts out of his cuffs. I'd roll my eyes, but this “anger power” was established earlier this season. Anyway, he grabs Rowena by the throat and pushes her up against the wall. Before he can kill her, Rowena manages a quick word of magic and casts him away. Lucifer flies across the room and straight through the rift.

Left alone, Rowena hastily packs her things and talks through her predicament. She's the only person who might be able to keep the door open but... “Au revoir, bon voyage, not my problem,” she announces saucily, ready to head out. And then she pauses, curses, and starts to dig through her book of spells for something to help with the rift. That's our girl <3

In the AU, our team heads into the creepy tunnel system. It's dingy and dark and before you know it, they find their first vampire. Sam kills it quickly and they move on, but not before another vampire catches their scent and begins to trail them. Another vampire attacks and they successfully defend against it. Guys, it's just like the Fire Swamp in the Princess Bride! They suffer a few dangers but it's nothing they can't handle, right? RIGHT? The team spreads out in a large junction of tunnels (not smart guys NOT SMART). 

As they're all split up and investigating different tunnels, a whole bunch of vampires attack. Damn it. These vamps may be feral but they don't appear to be total loners and instead hunt in a pack.

Floyd eats it in short order while everyone works to fight off the rest of the vampires. Sam gets captured by two vampires and one bites the carotid right out of Sam's throat. Blood gushes from his throat in quite a shocking manner. They must have strapped the blood cannon to his neck. The vampires drag Sam away down the corridor. Cas races after them.

Dean finishes off the last of the vampires and races after Sam, only to be stopped by Cas. To Dean's despair, Cas tells him that Sam's dead and that they've got to continue their mission. They don't have time to go after Sam. Dean is devastated and...I know this is all over Tumblr but it's SERIOUSLY HARSHING MY MELLOW to see Dean's face after this. The agony! (Curls up into a ball.)

Here, have a kitten instead.

The next morning they're hiking on the other side of the mountains and Dean is completely checked out. Maggie tries to thank him and tell him that she's sorry about his friend. He's barely responsive, lost in reliving watching his brother's death.

And so we cut to Sam. Or rather, we cut to Sam's body lying on the ground in some dead-end tunnel, his eyes wide and empty. Sam. Is. Dead. This show isn't fucking around.

The Dayton-bound team runs into angel warding, blocking Cas from going any further. Gabriel helpfully burns out the warding (nice job, man!) and human soldiers race out. It's the resistance! Mary enters the scene like a goddamn vision, greets Cas, and then heads for Dean. She pulls him into a hug and then asks after Sam.

Ugh. I'm sorry. Here, have another kitten.

And just as we're all single-man-tearing our way through our Supernatural-themed flasks (or whatever) Sam wakes up in the tunnels. He checks his throat and it's healed.

At first we're worried, thinking he's been turned into a vampire. (It's gotta be a bitch to hunt down your crazed vampire sire in the pitchdark tunnels of an apocalypse world.) But then Lucifer shows up.

Lucifer reveals that he brought Sam back to life. I'm so conflicted because it's a great explanation for how Sam might be resurrected. And yet...it's Lucifer. What a bag of dicks. Lucifer goes on to explain to a not-at-all-okay Sam that he powered up by eating a gaggle of Michael's angels. Ew. Lucifer. Not cool.

Sam's still in shock when Lucifer offers him a deal. Sam can lead Lucifer to Jack or he can stay back in the mine and die at the gaping maws of the ten or so rabid vampires who've gathered just outside the little room. “Join our monster RAVE, Sam!”

Sam considers it. I mean...he considers Lucifer’s offer. (Obviously he’s got a glow stick so he’s gonna rave a leeetle bit.) “You need me,” Lucifer tells him.

Elsewhere our heroes arrive in camp. Jack demands to know why Cas didn't bring Sam back to life. Cas isn't powerful enough – and neither is Gabe. Dean loads up on fresh water for a mission to go retrieve Sam's body when...TA DA! Sam walks into camp. He's shadowed moments later by Lucifer.

Let's get ready to rumble, I guess.

Alternative Quotaverse:

We've been avoiding dealing with him because we're afraid

The three amigos with their bro hugs, pep talks, and melodrama

I know you're trying to bait me with your seeming neanderthal misogyny. Anything to distract yourself from your profound, deeply emasculating humiliation. Sorry, Lucille, I'm not biting.

Not our world, not our problem. Right?

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[mcgrannkileigh1996]

Reiki Therapy Roanoke Va Prodigious Useful Tips

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[katherinehillbcu]

Critical Thinking Lecture

Week 1 Lifestyle changes, industrial changes and social changes have had massive impacts on the changes of the fashion industry in the past and still do now. Over the past 100 years there has been many world events that have impacted the things people have worn. Between 1870-1900′s the industrial revolution caused changes within fashion and enabled the suffragettes to use fashion to identify themselves. They used colour to their advantage, and created different meanings, ‘purple for dignity, white for purity and green for hope’. This then lead to big brands such as Liberty and Selfridges to create products using this band of 3 colours.

In the 1940′s, during the war, many things became rationed and the utility clothing scheme was started to help save fabric. Make do and mend was born. It was a booklet ‘issued by the British Ministry of information,’ and was to advise housewives on how to create clothing using old clothes and textiles, while still being stylish.  Make, do and mend is very relevant now as many people are becoming more aware of sustainability and up-cycling. Within our brand I would like to incorporate up-cycling and using recycled materials.

After the war, fashion changed again. As women weren’t needed to work any longer, they were able to care how they looked and what they were wearing again. As there were fabric shortages during the war it limited what they were able to wear, but a couple of years after we begin to see fashion changing as women were able to be feminine again as skirts became fuller, waists became smaller and hips and busts were exaggerated.   

As we moved into the 60s, music took a role on the influence of fashion. The Beatles were the most popular for this as they went from teddy boys to hippies. As they rose to fame they took advantage of reinventing their image, which then had an immediate effect on the fashion industry. Throughout their career they had many different looks, all which were adopted by their fans, these included the cuban-heeled boot and John Lennon’s round glasses.

In the 80′s power dressing became popular. One woman who had an massive influence on this was Margret Thatcher. Being the first female Prime Minster, she was seen as a strong woman. Due to this she wanted the way she dressed to create a softer image. She wore pussy bow blouses to enable this, but they then clashed with her aggressive power suits. 

Week 2  Many social factors impact on the fashion industry. These factors include sustainability, consumerism, innovation, division and wealth, social media, and politics and power. Politics and power has a massive impact on the world. Within our discussion the most powerful people, were politicians and business men. These people have a impact on the fashion industry, as they are seen by the majority of the world. The way they look impacts on their appearance as a world leader. A BBC documentary, ‘Hypernormalisation’, by Adam Curtis, looks at how governments, financiers and technology utopians, have given up on the complex ‘real world’ and built a simpler “fake world”’. This would make sense as political leaders such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, have created a persona for themselves where they appear as clowns.

Division of wealth is global inequality and the causes of poverty and social conflict. Both division of wealth and consumerism have impacted on the rise of fast fashion. Fast fashion is ‘inexpensive clothes being produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends’.  Consumerism is the need to have something and spend money. Post consumerism is how we can aim to stop consumerism and moving away from the addiction to have certain items. Innovation focuses on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how robotic intelligence is on the rise.Artificial Intelligence has a massive impact on the fashion industry. We are told what is in fashion through the internet which is operated by AI. When forecasting, AI predicts the next trends for the upcoming seasons, and many retailers use AI to keep on track with their products. 

I think in recent years, social media has had the biggest impact on the fashion industry. Social media targets a vast majority of people, and spreads information very quickly. Anyone is able to see what others are doing and can see the impact from likes and comments.  There are many positives to the fashion industry from social media. Retailers are able to target the audiences faster and quicker. Smaller businesses have also grown bigger followings through pages such as Instagram and Facebook. Fashion bloggers and vloggers have grown massively due to social media, they are able to get a large following quickly, and for bigger retailers they are now a massive part of their promotion.  However, there are many negatives to the fashion world through social media. Social media is incredibly addictive, and it has become increasingly easier to purchase products. On Instagram especially, you can see a image of a celebrity and immediately purchase their outfit, this has a massive impact on fast fashion, and people end up spending a lot of money, which is unnecessary. Body image is a massive issue within social media and affects many young people. As a result of this they are more likely to develop anxiety and depression. 

Week 3 As we have looked at how the past and the present influences fashion, we now look to how it will predict the future.

Smart textiles is the ‘development of textiles of textiles to improve everyday life’. There are two categories, one being aesthetic and the other performance enhancing. Performance enhancing textiles will be there to improve  health care and environment, whereas aesthetic textiles are more for the eye. They include wearable textiles that change colour due to movements.

In the future, smart textiles hope to have purposes to help the human generation and the environment. These include, self healing fabrics, so if something gets ribbed or damaged it will fix it self and  fabrics that can dissolve and disappear, both of these would contribute to sustainability.  We want our brand to be sustainable, so learning about how the future of fashion is largely focuses on sustainability is positive for us.         

    (Wikipedia:2019) 

(Google: 2019)                 

[cinenthusiast]

Previous Top Ten By Year lists: 1935, 1983, 1965, 1943, 1992, 1978, 1925, 1969 1930

Previous Top Ten By Year: 1949 Posts: Top Ten By Year: 1949 – Poll Results 100 Images from the Films of 1949 What I’ll Remember About the Films of 1949: A Love Letter #10. The Queen of Spades (UK/Dickinson)

Diametrically opposed visions of postwar French youth: the dreamers and the delinquents. Two unknown films by two well-known directors (Jacques Becker and Julien Duvivier). I couldn’t choose between the two; they belong together. ———————————————————————————————— Rendezvous in July (Becker) is about twenty-year old kids who can see the Eiffel Tower from their windows. It is a light spring breeze that is on-the-move, because there are places to be and dreams to achieve. We’re first introduced to a family we’ll never see again. This is a pattern that continues through the first fifteen minutes. Our main characters are all introduced alongside their parents, illustrating how markedly different these proto teeny-boppers are from their elders. Collectively, these adults cover all the bases of your standard generational gap; they have practical jobs and adhere to custom, and they mostly disapprove of the instability of artistic endeavor. But these kids are idealistic, and pretty, and talented. They are aspiring actors, playwrights, cinematographers, documentarians, and musicians. They are riding the high of the postwar Americanization boom; they wear pants, love jazz, and smoke American cigarettes (a character offers one to his dad who disdainfully replies with “Keep em”). What makes Rendezvous in July special is its intense possession of the perky energy we’d soon associate with the phenomenon of 50s teeny-bopperdom. I can’t think of an earlier film that depicts youth with the kind of modern immediacy that would become commonplace in the upcoming decades. It must have felt so new watching these characters congregate and flit from place to place, cavorting as a group entity with all the, as the Grinch would say, noise, noise, noise, noise! These kids dance fast to fast music, but Becker speeds up the frame rate all the same.

The centerpiece of the group’s carefree whimsy is the Boat-Car Shark, (because a river can’t stop these kids from getting where they need to). It is one of your rubber bath toys made life-size and fully operational, with Keith Haring-esque hieroglyphs (eyes and octopi that recur on other costumes and decor) and headlights for eyes. It floats across the Seine while passersby look on, noting that “they sure have it easy”. They drive up and out onto the cobblestone, dropping everyone off at their various classes and odd-jobs, a communal vehicle that can provide them with the shortcuts needed to keep up with their pace.

They are at an age where anything and everything is possible as long as you’ve got talent and idealism. For all the bounce in this film’s step, there is just enough space made for us to observe that the bubble is burstable. There is no place in the film for people potentially going nowhere, and no tolerance for any irreparable steps taken towards the workaday life.

Lucien (Daniel Gélin) finally gets the funding he needs for an anthropological study. He excitedly tells his film crew they are due to leave within two weeks. But the crew can no long go; they made various job commitments in order to earn steady wages. It is a deep betrayal; he becomes petulant and has what can only be described as a tantrum. He calls them, among many other things, pathetic slobs. Lucien’s disparaging plea that his friends don’t sell out so young is sympathetic — to a point. That choice is so often the point of no return, where you cross over and become just like everybody else. But the more you get to know Lucien, the more incapable he seems of registering anybody else’s feelings. I can’t tell if Becker intends (or even sees) for the character, or if it’s just apparent to me. However, Lucien’s speech to his friends goes on long enough that it settles into something purposefully ugly. But while Lucien and others take steps towards success and opportunity, a girl named Christine suffers a series of humiliations.

As much as I love Rendezvous in July, it probably wouldn’t be here without Christine. Jacques Becker sees her but her peers do not. He and Nicole Courcel (her debut film) let us see. This is a clique where identity and emotion are defined by your talent and passion. The plight of realizing you don’t have talent, and its unfortunate companion deep insecurity, is an unforgiving thing, especially with friends that don’t recognize or relate to said plight. She is seen by the group as a bit of a vindictive femme. To a degree she is, but it all stems from the fact that she sees beauty as her one sure thing.

At first we see her as her friends do:

In an early scene, she calls Therese (Brigitte Auber, also her debut) to tell her she has a part in Rousseau’s (Henri Belly) new play (her brother is the playwright, getting her in the door). Therese is disappointed about this, and it’s the exact reaction Christine was hoping for.  A smirk spreads across her face when she hangs up.

When the time comes, Christine is too nervous to audition for Rousseau; she puts his hand to her chest so he can feel her heartbeat. Sexuality is the only hand she feels she’s got to play in that moment.

She is bad in the play and she knows it. She didn’t need further proof, but during the curtain call the audience gives it to her anyways; a limp round of applause meets her when she steps forward, the opposite of Therese’s lively reception. Audience members share an exchange: “She’s pretty, eh? “Pretty, but very bad”. In the dressing room, she is chastised by Rousseau (who she lost her virginity too) for being sad: “Your dress is great. You look lovely. What more do you want?”.

Every single scene shows how thoroughly unseen this girl is. She is viewed as inferior to Lucien (her romantic interest), told she has no heart; she is even slapped. The list goes on. Some of the men also make selfish decisions (out of pure selfishness as opposed to coming from a place of pain like Christine), and then blame her for their choices. Rousseau chose to cast a girl who doesn’t cut it, only to scream at her for — guess what — not cutting it. Lucien is impulsive and proposes to Christine after making her feel like scum. When Christine is led astray after feeling worthless, just like before, it is she that receives all the disgust. That this girl feels everything is never considered. Indeed, nobody ever shows actual concern for her, or sees her very apparent sadness. A girl who acts out because she feels less than is constantly misunderstood as dumb, not worthy of Lucien, a bad actress, and heartless. Nicole Courcel pours a deep melancholy and ache into this girl looking to be valued, using the only tool she thinks she’s got (the how and who of that be damned). She is the only one with nothing at the end. I think about Christine all the time. Everybody else, with their bubbly spirits and camaraderie, will be fine by virtue of the fact that they are in this film. Except Christine. Christine has more in common with the girls of Au Royaume des Cieux.

The girls of Au Royaume des Cieux don’t have the luxury of dreams, or even hope. They are just trying to survive in the Haute-Mère reformatory. They are in a far-off and desolate landscape, a place that can only produce rain and mud (another French film from 1949, Such a Pretty Little Beach, uses a very similar landscape as its existential center). There are so many girls — all of them abused, thrown away and/or forgotten. They often huddle together and jam up the frames; it is a crowded and imprisoning space. Most have dabbled in sex work and some have murdered (viewed by society under the same criminal category). They are a rowdy bunch full of pent up lust and the nerve to still act rambunctious despite being beaten down by life.

They have rare allies in a couple of the authority figures, but that is threatened right at the start. A sudden death puts Mademoiselle Chamblas (Suzy Prim) in charge as director, a position she has craved for 20 years. She is the repressed headmistress archetype think Lili Palmer in The House that Screamed (1969)), misogynistic in nature and conception. This is a film full of transgressive streaks of eroticism; talk of same-sex exploits is a near-constant. While the lesbianism and sadism are not conflated, they are linked to establish a place that makes taboo happenings and histories part of the everyday. These girls have no hope that they can or will exist in the outside world, but at least the reformatory is a safer space than they’ve known. With Chamblas as director, all of that disappears and they are thrust into yet more worthless cruelty. But as Chamblas ascends, a girl named Maria (Suzanne Cloutier) enters. It is her purity and goodness that will gradually mobilize everyone into a revolution.

Maria hasn’t been convicted of any crimes, but pervasively unsafe living arrangements have kept her running away from various homes. Like the other girls, she is seen by society and its systems as the problem, punished for daring to endure, retaliate, or do what is needed to get by. Along the way Maria did find love. Real love. And he is coming for her. At first it seems like Au royaume des cieux is going to be about Maria and Pierre (Serge Reggiani) making their escape. Thankfully, it’s about a lot more than that (love and respect to Maria and Pierre who are sweet, but also too sweet). The couple, with their optimism, devotion, and will, come to represent hope for the girls. At first there is much animosity and infighting, but they eventually unite for a bigger cause — themselves. With their secret ingredient (resident anarchist Camille) acting as final inspiration, they riot and take control of Haute-Mère.

Duvivier’s camera singles out the girls as individuals during key moments. We get a brief reckoning glimpse of each; they get the frame to themselves, as if the camera is taking their photograph. It happens when Maria tells them about Pierre. The more she talks about him, the less it seems like a poor girl’s naivete. Some believe she’s either delusional or foolish. But most become convinced. You can see the hope breaking through on their faces. Love is possible. It’s not all manipulation and lies and violence. It happens again when the girls go on a hunger strike in retaliation of Chamblas’s new policies. Days into their starvation, the school director rolls a gigantic steaming pot of soup to the middle of the room where they all sleep, taunting them with the smell to give up their protests. The camera whip-pans back and forth, soup-to-girl, girl-to-soup, through each and every one of them. We feel the whirlwind of individual temptation and suffering, allowed to register that power lies in numbers, but that those numbers are made up of human beings pushing themselves to the brink for the rights they deserve. —————————————————————————- Diametrically opposed visions of postwar French youth: the dreamers and the delinquents. Two unknown films by two well-known directors (Jacques Becker and Julien Duvivier). I couldn’t choose between the two; they belong together.

Top Ten By Year: 1949 #9 – Rendezvous in July (Becker) & Au royaume des cieux (Duvivier) (France) Previous Top Ten By Year lists: 1935, 1983, 1965, 1943, 1992, …

[dogfohtaed-blog]

i wrote a daniel drabble. enjoy:

The night was young, back then. It had been young, and new, each passing evening when he was small. The sun would die, willfully lowering into it's own grave and allowing it's sister moon to crawl, risen from death of its own to sit atop the sky like a throne. Come to think of it, Daniel could only find it fascinating that even at such an innocent age, he was still using grim allegories and finding them beautiful... as it was. Death was, in it's nature, so god damn beautiful. The process of giving your body to the earth and fertilizing the newborn flowers and plants and allowing your empty husk to become a foundation for something so full of life. Body with earth, mind with sky, spirit with heavens... a process of rebirth, recycling. And yet, the beauty of ascension was still to be rejected for years to come, cast aside as nightmarish fever dreams. It was they, the ones who disbelieve, who were stuck firmly in a quicksand of deep naivety. Beauty could not be so very very far from their desperate grasp. No matter how much their fingers clawed, digging at the dull air for purpose... they would never take hold of anything. Harsh nothing would dance across fingernails for as long as they continued to deny truth being presented to them on silver platter. The night was young, back then, yes...  but now it was old. The sun was a bitter foe, beaten and worn from the clouds of abuse and only now set with the shaking hope that it would not rise again to meet the agony once more. The moon now did not rise from the dead as an angel re-risen, but instead dug it's way out as a demon of all layers of underground torment to forcefully claim it's crown of thorns each passing night. Lullabies from friendly music boxes turn rusted, twisted sounds of scraping metal against metal and the comfort of being tucked in nice and warm against softened sheets was now being restrained, tied with harsh rope to a bed of needles and being told to keep your balance or slide, punctured holes through the body till they protruded from the other end. The rain came down without so much as a hint of mercy on top of Daniel, pelting him in the dark with droplets that could very well have been rocks and he would not tell the difference. Not a single scar existed on him, physically... but there was something deeper. The burning pain of a defeat at the hands of a once beloved friend. The memories of poison come flooding back to him. Purple liquid traveling into his bloodstream and making his throat clog up with panic and his heart march on, march on as hard as it could until it collapsed. He remembered his shock when he awoke, lying on his back in an enclosed bed of dirt and flowers. Buried alive? No. Buried dead. Risen alive. Daniel had jutted his hand against his prison, weakened body collapsed instantly upon it's feeble attempt to escape. And thus Daniel was rendered trapped there, rotting away in a cage meant for one unable to comprehend it's horrors. He had a lot of time to think within that enclosure, and many things had occurred to him in rapid succession. The truth was what put him here. His kindness had been spit back in his face, and he had been punished for purity. The world was cruel like that, he knew...it feared perfection, feared the change they needed. Society was trapped in it's cocoon and refused to transition into beings of something bigger than this. They didn't want his caring and helping hand. They didn't want to ascend. That made him angry. The fact that he was only stuck here because he knew the truth... cold, dead lips had parted to make way for a string of silent noises. He didn't remember how to speak. How long had he been gone? Had it been long enough that his voice had since cancelled itself out due to misuse? Was it long enough that the world had already transitioned without him? Recycled while he was stuck on mortal coil? The idea struck him like cold ice, fear shuddering his form underneath the dirt. Was this punishment? What could he have done wrong to deny him a right to the ascension he preached? Daniel finally felt his voice return to him, and the first thing he did was pure animalistic impulse. He had screamed. Underneath that prison of his, muffled and utterly pointless, he had keened to the surface with conviction strong enough to win twenty wars. The scream was nigh instantly stymied by the falling dirt that filled between his teeth and onto his tongue. He had coughed, and then found that he didn't need to. Breathing didn't seem to affect him any longer, and that was a promising discovery. Now, mouth brimming with the very cage he was trapped in, he pondered. His head had been wracked with possibility after possibility of his new form, and of why he was given it... but he could not rest on an answer. So then, he turned to his next favorite subject. What would he do once he escaped it? He thought maybe he'd find his old leaders, and show them his new form. Perhaps he would reveal how worthy he is of true ascension, and perhaps they would reward him. Would there be a higher reward anymore, were this a purified form? Daniel thought then of what he wanted most in the world, and suddenly his head was filled with a single namesake. David. D a v i d. Yes, that was it, wasn't it? A grin had spread on his dirt-filled lips, and Daniel thought of David. Once upon a time, they had been friends, along with Jasper... but David forgot those days, now didn't he? That was a shame for him, wasn't it? A defeat at the hand of such innocent arrogance...how foolish he had been. But was he the fool? Or was David, now that he had come into a body that could not die? Daniel silently fantasized what he might do when he saw him again. Purify him? No. David didn't deserve that. Something in Daniel's head kept screaming at him about that. It was a voice, keeping him company in the recesses of his head. He was ready to listen to anything other than the repetitive static of dry stillness. It told him that David was his perfect opposite. A being that could not ascend, a being full of such earthly sin that the only way he could ever find rest was in some form of purgatory. He did not deserve to live. And that was the thought that rose him. His hand jutted out harder this time against the dirt, and this time had succeeded in breaking much of the dirt. He reached a second hand up, and began a crawl- almost a swim- upwards with sharpened fingernails and mouth still full. He had to close his eyes to avoid filling sockets with the same troublesome ground. Finally, he had broke unto the surface, and did not hesitate to drag himself out of the hole. Daniel had spit the cursed dirt down into the hole from his mouth, and had stumbled, as if unused to walking. After gaining his bearings...he merely observed. It was nighttime, and he found himself remembering the night of Jasper's passing. As he did so, a sensation hit him harder than any he'd ever felt. The poison... re-entering his bloodstream to attack his senses, and fill his nose with the burning of death. Desperately, he had cried out, but only the bubbling purple liquid had dripped from his tongue. Daniel took a step forward, and fell onto his knees, gripping at his throat. Again, not again...thoughts came rushing back and memories of recent times joined him. A prison of dirt, a re-awakening, a voice of vengeance, a bitter memory- the poison! Repeated, a cycle that never ended. Was this hell? Was it? Was this punishment for his crime? The taste of dirt on his tongue was familiar now, he remembered it. Time and time and time again like a cruel game of deja vu- why could he not shake that feeling? Every time he broke the surface, it dragged him back, over and over without end. He collapsed on the dirt, tears of purple streaming and staining the ground underneath. He thought of David... his lip upturned in a scowl. This was his doing. The vengeance is stuck within him, even now. That's familiar, too. It's ALL TOO FAMILIAR. THIS KEPT HAPPENING. Would it ever end? As he felt his brief deathless state fade from him, he realized he was dying (AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AN), and he gave in. There was no point to not doing so. Facedown on the ground, with hands limp at his side...he recalled the night that he had first met David; The night was young, back then. It had been young, and new, each passing evening when he was small. The sun would die, willfully lowering into it's own grave and allowing it's sister moon to crawl, risen from death of its own to sit atop the sky like a throne-

[yourbohofashionblog-blog]

The Incredible Life and Jewels of Imelda Marcos

boho jewelry  Imelda Marcos is a former Filipino first lady who is known for amassing A broad collection of sneakers and other amazing things. But tell me, who wants to be surrounded by crap?" . Her jewels have not been talked about as much as her sneakers, but are equally astonishing.

Imelda Marcos Wasn't always incredibly wealthy; her childhood was not Privileged and she lost her mom when she was just nine years old. Imelda climbed up to be a very beautiful young woman who returned to the city of her arrival; Manila, to look for out a better life. She worked in a music store and then at the Central Bank. She met politician, and future President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos in 1954 and they married after only 11 days of courtship. Throughout the twenty five years which Imelda served as First Lady, due to her glamorous look, she was in comparison to former US First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy. I need to look beautiful so that the bad Filipinos will have a star to It is stated that the First Lady employed a maid that was devoted to caring for her jewelry. During the Marcos administration from 1965 until 1986, Ms. Marcos enjoyed luxury overseas shopping trips during which she would buy valuable jewels and other comforts, including US real estate and famous works of art. It is rumored that halfway back from a trip to Rome, Imelda ordered the pilot to turn around since she'd forgot to buy cheese. Imelda would often buy a few sets of things she enjoyed, such as blouses by the dozen.

violence. Growing unrest caused a decree of martial law, and then in 1983, the assassination of opposition leader, Benigno Aquino Jr. led to another election, and that Marcos was stated to have rigged. Life in the top of the governmental ladder soon ended for Ferdinand Marcos having an uprising in 1986, when he and Imelda fled the Philippines, leaving behind their palace, a collection of over one thousand pairs of designer sneakers and a similar quantity of designer bags, mink coats and other items. A Great Deal of jewellery was Captured by the authorities and stored at the Bangko Sentral (Central Bank) of the Philippines. The collection was appreciated around twenty decades afterwards and estimated to be worth between $5 and $7 million. The government has considered auctioning the jewelry or displaying it in a museum. It's now been dusted off and appraised once more, by Christie's and Sotheby's. The astounding collection contains extremely rare gems, such as a 25-carat pink diamond thought to be out of India. If the jewelry is auctioned, both its provenance and quality would no doubt attract attention from fans all over the world.

Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos settled in Hawaii in which a subdued start soon The former president passed away in 1989. She's currently 86 years old and a member of Congress. Whether loved or hated, Imelda Marcos surely appears to be a character. She was known as the"Iron Butterfly" due to her beauty and steeliness. She's just one of a sort, which is represented in a song written about her and an adjective invented especially to explain Imelda-like ways - Imeldific.

Thailand is world-famous for its exceptional Silver and fine artisanal jewellery designs. The history behind Thailand's well-developed silver market runs deep through several generations of Thai people. Originally, the majority of Thailand's silver workmanship was for the creation of fine silverware and cosmetic items such as trays, ladles and bowls. Through modernization, the industry brought about a change in demand for finer silverwork and jewelry design.

The northern Area of Thailand is most famous for the production of fine silverwork and jewelry, although silver craft is also abundant throughout Central and Southern Thailand. Northern Thai silver is renowned for its high level of purity (often around 99.9percent ), and for its fine craftsmanship, typically featuring unique and intricate ethnic detail. The detailing of silver layouts native to Northern Thailand incorporates many techniques, encompassing influences from ancient Hindu metalworkers, as well as Burmese refugees, Shan tribes and various hilltribes of Northern Thailand and the surrounding area.

The ancient Roman Lands of Thailand were exceptionally proficient in the art of metal-crafting. Although gold was their preferred medium, the ancient Hindu civilizations had a terrific effect on Thailand's silver craft too. As Hindu traders slowly made their way from Southern and Eastern India, the techniques of skilled goldsmiths eventually spread to natives throughout Thailand. Hindu influence and methods that were previously used to style nice gold jewelry can readily be seen in some of the most astonishing pieces of modern silver jewellery fashioned by Thailand's artisans.

Following the collapse Of the Pagan (pronounced"Bagan" and to not be confused with the pre-Christian religion) Empire, many Burmese silversmiths fled into the capital of the Lanna Kingdom. For over 200 decades, Lanna was an independent nation, reaching south to Lumpang and extending north into the Shan State of Burma. Around this time, Shan tribes also started to establish themselves during Northern Thailand. The Shan tribesmen were also very skilled in the art of silver craft and many Northern Thai silver jewellery designs seen now draw their inspiration from Shan heritage.

Of the numerous The Karen tribe is actually among the biggest hilltribes in all of Southeast Asia. The Karen tribe has been hand making traditional silver jewellery for centuries, using techniques which were passed down for centuries from generation to generation. Many of the silver jewelry designs located in Chiang Mai, Thailand are handcrafted by silversmiths who are members of the Karen tribe. Many designs incorporate unusual traditional cultural symbols or designs, however nowadays, Western influences have been creeping in their silver jewelry designs, in things such as necklaces, bangles and earrings.

Since the They shared and learned many distinct designs and methods for jewelry-making artistry. The same handcrafting methods used centuries ago are still used today by lots of the world's greatest silver jewelry artisans.

Now, handmade Silver jewellery and ornaments are found throughout Thailand, in places from ritzy five-star hotel gift stores to little stores located in Thailand's many'open-air' markets. The highly developed art of silver jewelry-making has because a source of neighborhood pride, not only for the Thai people, but also for the many other ethnic groups of Thailand and the surrounding regions, including Burmese, Laotian, Chinese and the Karen and Shan tribes of Northern Thailand, most of whom have helped play an important part in the development of Thailand's fine silver jewellery and craft trade.

Cocktail rings were initially striking rings which had Large center stones and have been embellished with pavé diamonds. But nowadays any"statement" ring is generally referred to as a cocktail ring. These big rings are usually worn on any finger except for the left ring finger, and this can be earmarked for engagementand wedding rings. Whenever some jewelry fans may think about the cocktail ring to be somewhat flamboyant, others enjoy this as the entire purpose of cocktail rings. In reality, the bigger and more ostentatious, the better when it comes to cocktail rings.

In order to Enjoy the cocktail ring, so it's vital to understand its history. The history of this cocktail ring goes back to the Americanprohibition age of the 1920s. During this time, alcoholic drinks were prohibited. This caused individuals to maintain illegal drinking celebrations, such as cocktail parties. The 1920s were a period of great social change, particularly for women, who enjoyed greater freedom, most importantly, the freedom to vote. Women's freedom was expressed from the flapper fashions of the moment, which favored short hair and short skirts. Girls enjoyed smoking and drinking, the liberty of the contraceptive cap, and increased spending power. Unsurprisingly, the glamorous Art Deco jewelry worn in the 1920s represented this new-found consumerism.

During the Prohibition Era, alcohol-related crime escalated, most notoriously, bootlegging led by Al Capone's gangsters. The term"bootlegging" comes from the act of hiding alcoholic drinks in boot tops. It is understood that banning things seems to make the urge for them even greater. Really, it is thought that alcohol consumption climbed to a all-time high during the later stages of prohibition in the united states. Since stronger drinks made more gain, because of their effectiveness and easiness to manufacture, they were more widespread. Illegal alcoholic drinks were sold in establishments called"speakeasies". Ahead of the speakeasy, women didn't usually attend public bars. But during the Roaring Twenties, women both frequented and handled these drinking places.

The Strong-tasting and low excellent alcohol during prohibition resulted in creative cocktail concoctions, which left the drinks more palatable. Other cocktails contained imported alcohol and simply appealed to women. Some of the cocktails of this age include the Mary Pickford, the Gin Rickey, the Tom Collins, the Whiskey Sour and the Sidecar. "New Women" of the Jazz Age will sip these sumptuous cocktails in clandestine parties, clad in their most glamorous gear including oversize gemstone rings, which were the ultimate accessory of excess.

From the 1920s, The midi rings most precious cocktail rings showcased large diamonds or other precious gemstones such as emeralds and sapphires set in gold or gold and surrounded by pave diamonds. More intriguing designs used vibrant gemstones such as opal, or novel and abstract shapes.

Nowadays, the Possibilities for cocktail rings are limited in some ways as a result of decreasing availability of large gemstones. However, this can be solved by using different stone such as quartz, tourmaline, blue topaz or citrine. These are still available in massive sizes. In different ways, chances have grown because of advanced techniques that allow for an unlimited number of designs. By way of instance, precious metals could be shaped into just about any form and intricately set with micropavé colored stone. This means that large central stone are no more necessary, because small, closely set stones may make as dramatic a result. Cocktail ring designers may also blend colored gemstones with enameling techniques to generate various textures. Some of the very remarkable cocktail rings have been made in this way to look like natural objects, such as flowers or animals.

There has never Been such a wide array of cocktail rings, encompassing all the colours of The rainbow and virtually Every style possible. For Jewellery fans who like to make bold statements, a cocktail ring is a fantastic Addition to a jewelry collection.youtube

[theconservativebrief]

Justin Bieber may now be a family man.

The pop star and his fiancée, model Hailey Baldwin, are rumored to have gotten married in a secret civil ceremony at a New York City courthouse, People reported in September. Other sources, including TMZ, report that Bieber and Baldwin were just at City Hall to pick up a marriage license. Either way, wedding bells are in Bieber and Baldwin’s future, as they are now planning a bigger religious service and celebration, according to Vanity Fair.

Bieber’s nuptials mark yet another tentpole for the pop star’s transformation from drug-addled, womanizing bad boy to squeaky-clean, presumably monogamous husband. Central to that narrative is Bieber’s well-documented embrace of evangelical Christianity.

Since 2014, when Bieber was baptized in an NBA player’s bathtub by Pastor Carl Lentz, his relationship with the evangelical megachurch Hillsong has been an essential part of his personal brand. And with his marriage — impending or otherwise — to fellow Hillsong member Baldwin, Bieber enters a new stage of his narrative: faithful, honorable Christian husband.

Bieber and Hillsong’s relationship has been, since its inception, a symbiotic one. The wildly popular Hillsong, which boasts 100,000 weekly attendees in churches in 21 countries, came to international prominence the same way plenty of celebrities do: by creating an easily marketable persona, curating a brand custom-made for social media, and advertising an identity both accessible and aspirational.

Hillsong is the “chill” church where pastors wear skinny jeans. Showing up hungover to Sunday service is not considered the worst thing. Hillsong’s sermons, influenced by the self-help-style theology of the “prosperity gospel,” promise adherents a life full of material as well as spiritual blessings.

Bieber’s presence in the pews has ensured Hillsong and its media-friendly pastors a place in the tabloids. And in return, Hillsong has granted Bieber a rebirth both religious and reputational.

There is nothing new about Christianity providing certain pop stars a veneer of respectability, especially when they’re trying to rehabilitate a “bad boy” or “bad girl” image. As Ellis Cashmore, author of Elizabeth Taylor: A Private Life for Public Consumption and a sociologist of celebrity culture, pointed out to Vox, ’70s singer Donna Summer famously transformed her public persona from that of a “slithery sexual” siren to a “slightly too pious symbol of purity” after she was born again in the 1980s. UK pop star Cliff Richard, likewise, came to prominence as an Elvis-esque rock-and-roller in the 1950s, only to pivot to Christian music and a softer image in the mid-1960s.

“Today’s culture has a few spots open for holier-than-thou celebs,” Cashmore said. “They’re almost reassuringly pure in the midst of unbridled debauchery, degeneracy, and all-round immorality.”

But in Bieber’s case, the relationship with Hillsong is a two-way street. Each bolsters the other’s personal brand.

Justin Bieber and his fiancée, Hailey Baldwin, spotted at a delicatessen in Brooklyn on July 30, 2018. James Devaney/GC Images via Getty Images

Back in 2014, Justin Bieber was a mess: drinking too much, doing too many drugs. He was a reliable tabloid train wreck, making headlines for trying to illegally import a pet monkey and spending a night in jail for underage drag racing. He’d been raised an evangelical Christian by his mother back in Canada, but lost connection with his faith.

Enter Carl Lentz, pastor of the New York City branch of the international Hillsong megachurch. Bieber had known the young pastor since they’d met at one of his concerts in 2008, according to the New York Post. Lentz and Bieber had another pastor friend in common: Judah Smith, known for befriending celebrities. But they’d only started to get closer recently, around the time Bieber’s life started falling apart. Lentz declined to comment for this story; Bieber has not responded to requests for comment through a representative.

By 2014, Bieber was hitting rock bottom. According to celebrity lore, best recounted in this GQ story by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Bieber was desperate for a way out of his downward spiral. Lentz convinced him Jesus might be the way. And so, one night at 3 in the morning, a despondent Bieber begged Lentz to baptize him immediately. Unable to find a place safe from the prying eyes of paparazzi, Lentz ultimately baptized the pop star in the bathtub of Lentz’s friend NBA player Tyson Chandler.

Hillsong Pastor Carl Lentz and Justin Bieber talk at the 2017 Aces Charity Celebrity Basketball Game at Madison Square Garden. Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images

And just like that, Bieber was transformed. He became, as in Psalm 51, “washed clean … whiter than snow.” Now, Bieber’s Instagram feed is full of Bible verses and devotional texts, not selfies with monkeys. His personal brand and his conversion comeback are inextricable from one another.

Since then, Bieber has been both a vocal Christian and a vocal Hillsong supporter, appearing at Hillsong events and conferences, as well as frequently appearing alongside Lentz on social media.

For example, a video from April 12, posted to Bieber’s Instagram Live and later reposted to YouTube, perfectly captures the new, “purer” Bieber. At first, it seems just like any other social media post, designed to foster a celebrity’s sense of intimacy with his fans: hands tinkling piano keys; a breathy, even erotic, melancholy croon.

The lyrics, too, sound at first like a conventional love song: I breathe You in / I lean into Your love / Oh, Your love. Then Bieber gets to the point. His voice all but breaks. Drawing close / Stirred by grace / And all my heart is yours.

It’s a Hillsong United song — written by the church’s flagship band. It’s not about Baldwin, but about Jesus.

The video captures the essence of Bieber’s current celebrity persona. The boy who once sang, “Coffee table, girl, get ready, I’mma put you down / All the way down,” with disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly is now embracing a gentler, even teenybopper romantic rhetoric.

He’s safely, endearingly Christian, but he’s also not too Christian. (Tellingly, Bieber leaves out some of the song’s most explicitly Christian lyrics — You are my everything / Jesus Christ / You are my one desire.) His song is a song of religious praise, but it also doubles in its secularized reworking as an accessible, tame melody for fans who would rather imagine themselves as objects of Bieber’s love than lust. His Christianity and his reformed, “safer” public image are inseparable.

O. Alan Noble, editor-in-chief of the website Christ and Pop Culture, told me that Bieber’s approach to that song ties into a wider divide within evangelical culture over the extent to which Christians should engage with the tools of secular media, such as pop music.

“That’s the joke among evangelicals who are very critical of [pop-style] worship music,” Noble said, “that it just sounds like a love song, and that if you took out Jesus, it would just sound like any other love song.”

However, Cashmore warns that when it comes to our celebrities, at least, our culture tends to easily get bored of Bieber’s redemption narrative. Hillsong may have solidified its prominence due to its affiliation with celebrities we love, like Nick Jonas, Selena Gomez, and Hailee Steinfeld, but Cashmore argues that ultimately, we as a culture gravitate toward celebrities who titillate, not preach.

“We stay interested in celebrities because they’re mostly the opposite of pure,” he noted, “the more sullied, the better. I think celeb culture tolerates a limited number of evangelical types, but not too many or they become tiresome. We like our celebs dirty, flawed, contaminated, disgraced, tainted, and, yes, impure.”

Nonetheless, Bieber is reflective of a bigger trend, Noble says. Churches like Hillsong, and “crossover” celebrities like Bieber, are the new normal. “There’s a lot less siloing going on than there was in the early ’90s and 2000s,” Noble said, referring to the separation of Christian and secular media. Evangelical college kids these days will “listen to an artist talk about loving God, and [also] talk about going clubbing.” In general, he says, the evangelical world has moved away from a suspicion of the corrupting influence of media and pop culture, and toward a desire to engage with it.

Hillsong, and Bieber’s role within it, is perfectly representative of that trend.

Given its extraordinary spread, with branches as far afield as Kiev and Buenos Aires, and its pop culture-savvy vibe, it makes sense that Hillsong would be the church of choice for a young, evangelically minded pop star like Bieber.

The church’s wholesale adoption of what has come to be known in church circles as a “seeker-sensitive” model — maximizing outreach through feel-good rhetoric and the veneer of accessibility — combined with its “the Lord will provide” prosperity gospel, has allowed it to spread across more than 80 cities, 21 countries, and five continents, resulting in an estimated 50 million people a week singing Hillsong-branded music across the globe.

Hillsong’s ethos, while distinctive, is not unique or unprecedented. It involves an approach to worship shared by many other churches: an aesthetic characterized by intense emotional outbursts and a firm faith in the sanctity of everyday experience. Its theology is relatively, though not extremely, conservative from an evangelical perspective. And its near purpose-built appeal to younger audiences is also shared by a number of other megachurches across the world.

Hillsong is rooted in an Australian church called the Sydney Christian Life Centre, created in 1977 by Rev. Frank Houston. The church was Pentecostal, which is an umbrella term for any one of a number of evangelical movements that emphasize the direct action of the Holy Spirit in a worshipper’s life (often through acts like miracles of healing, or believers speaking in tongues). Pentecostal churches tend to stress members’ displays of extreme emotion, as well as a highly charged atmosphere — including music, dancing, and clapping — designed to foster the worshipper’s connection to God.

When Frank Houston left the church in 1999 under undisclosed circumstances (more on that later), his son Brian Houston and daughter-in-law Bobbi Houston, both pastors, folded Sydney Christian Life Centre into their own emerging church, called Hillsong.

From the beginning, Hillsong was characterized by its focus on Christian pop music as a means of attracting a younger, pop culture-savvy audience. Under the younger Houston, Hillsong had been releasing Christian music since 1992, annually producing what would come to be millions of dollars’ worth of albums and singles.

Hillsong added a healthy dose of prosperity gospel theology, adhering to the belief that spiritual purity, “positive thinking,” and expressions of unswerving faith will yield immediate material benefits for true believers.

As Brian Houston proclaimed in one sermon: “The only people who ever talk about a prosperity gospel are people who are threatened by God’s blessing in people’s lives.”

Hillsong’s services are both high-tech and minimalist, equal parts rock concert and TED talk. In services and sermons available for streaming on Hillsong’s website, with motivational titles like “Your Dream Is Your Destiny” and “Relevance: Hole-y Jeans or Holy Life?”

In one sermon, which was filmed in Hillsong’s headquarters outside Sydney, Houston appears in front of an LED-lit screen, dressed in a blue button-down shirt and jeans. “I encourage everyone here to dream a dream,” he tells listeners, “so much God-given potential perishes because of a lack of a dream!”

Later, he becomes more animated. “Never, ever discourage people and their dreams, because you know what God can do with dreams,” he exclaims, clutching the microphone. “Dreamers understand other dreamers! That’s why it’s good to come along with a church that’s filled with vision!”

Carl Lentz leads a Hillsong NYC Church service at Irving on July 14, 2013. Tina Fineberg/AP

Hillsong both holds to, and generally underplays, a conservative evangelical theology, although its leaders have in recent years generally been reluctant to speak out on hot-button issues. The church appears to have a quiet “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on LGBTQ issues, and hot-button issues like abortion and homosexuality are rarely, if ever, weighed in on from the pulpit.

Its celebrity adherents, such as Bieber and his ex, performer Selena Gomez, tend not to focus on these elements of Hillsong’s ethos when prompted. Instead, Bieber, for example, encouraged a queer fan to come to Hillsong, promising she’d be welcome at the church.

What’s striking about Hillsong, however, is less the fact that it holds conservative views — plenty of evangelical churches do — and more that it’s successfully refocused its look, feel, and rhetoric to cater specifically to the #blessed. It’s managed to market a feel-good Christianity, using the branding of progressivism to do so. And, insofar as Bieber’s Christianity has given him a solid tabloid redemption arc, he has benefited from that marketing — even if the church’s leaders haven’t been as fortunate.

Despite (or because of) its popularity, Hillsong has not been immune to scandal. As early as 1999, according to Australia’s Daily Telegraph, rumors had spread that Frank Houston had molested boys in his community. These rumors, of which Brian Houston was reportedly aware, may have contributed to the elder Houston’s abrupt retirement. A year later, Frank Houston confessed to his son that he abused a young boy 30 years prior. The matter was never formally reported to police. The elder Houston died in 2004, after having drawn a consistent pension from Hillsong since his retirement.

In 2014, an Australian police commission found that Frank Houston had molested up to nine boys. The British newspaper the Guardian reported that he offered $10,000 to one victim, saying, “I don’t want this on my head before God.” Brian Houston also failed to inform police of his discovery. He has maintained that he has always acted in the best interest of his father’s victims.

While there is no documented link whatsoever between pedophilia and homosexuality, Houston maintained this as a potential reason for his father’s acts. “I think my father was homosexual, a closet homosexual,” he later told an interviewer. “I’m no psychiatrist … but I think whatever frustrations he had, he took out on children.”

Pastor Brian Houston (right) with Bob Carr, former premier of New South Wales, during an annual Hillsong convention at the Sydney Superdome on July 4, 2005. Fairfax Media via Getty Images

Hillsong’s views on homosexuality, which mirror those of typical evangelical churches, clash with its vibe that is seemingly youthful and therefore overtly welcoming to LGBTQ people. Like many, if not most, evangelical churches, Hillsong formally holds that the only legitimate and godly sexual relationships are between married heterosexual couples.

Outside of same-sex marriage, though, the manner in which Hillsong treats its LGBTQ members is less clear.

On the one hand, Frank Houston started Exit Ministries, a so-called ex-gay ministry, which was devoted to using therapeutic methods to essentially try to make LGBTQ people straight. After that shuttered, Hillsong outsourced its conversion therapies to outside companies throughout the 2000s.

But around 2011, that changed. Brian Houston decided that a church at which young LGBTQ people did not feel they could pray was a church that could not grow, and he started distancing himself and Hillsong from conversion ministries altogether. He also started adopting more LGBTQ-sympathetic rhetoric, talking more and more about the difficulty of being LGBTQ in the church and advocating compassion for LGBTQ teens. (As an example of how LGBTQ attitudes among evangelicals are changing, 53 percent of white evangelicals ages 18 to 30 support same-sex marriage.)

Lentz has, in interviews, stressed that Hillsong does not treat homosexuality as markedly different from what evangelicals might consider other sins, including premarital sex between a man and a woman. LGBTQ issues rarely come up explicitly in the pulpit at Hillsong, though some former members report the church’s tone having “mixed messages.”

Ben Fenlon, an ex-member, described his experience at the church’s London branch for the Huffington Post: “When I first started attending I questioned those around me about how the church felt about homosexuality having read conflicting reports. The answers were always vague, telling me that God loves everyone and that everyone is welcome to come and worship. There was never a clear answer on the gay issue.”

In practice, this has created a tension within Hillsong’s pews. Often, LGBTQ members are welcomed as parishioners, but, according to ex-members, those in same-sex relationships are discouraged from seeking leadership positions. When it came out that a male church leader in the New York choir was in a same-sex relationship (something the couple says was an open secret with the church), Houston and Lentz quickly clarified the formal position of the church: that being gay is, indeed, a sin. They wrote in a 2015 blog post

Hillsong Church welcomes ALL people but does not affirm all lifestyles. Put clearly, we do not affirm a gay lifestyle and because of this we do not knowingly have actively gay people in positions of leadership, either paid or unpaid.

Celebrities affiliated with the church, including Bieber, have often tried to walk back the more politically controversial statements of Hillsong. He’s told queer fans, who’ve expressed sorrow over homophobia in other churches, that they’d be more than welcome at Hillsong: “That’s not okay. If you ever want to come to any of the [Hillsong] services, we’d love to have you in there. You’re more than welcome to come any time.”

Bieber has never commented specifically on Hillsong’s stance toward LGBTQ people. While his words to his fan were approvingly quoted in the secular press, other Christians, including former Christian rocker Trey Pearson, who is openly gay, pointed out that Hillsong is not an LGBTQ-affirming church.

Still, despite criticism, Hillsong has made itself into an astounding financial and social media success.

Central to Hillsong’s success, of course, are its high-profile ambassadors, such as Bieber.

It makes sense that Hillsong would appeal to celebrities. It demands neither vows of poverty nor renouncing the glitz-and-glamour lifestyle that characterizes the celebrity experience, even as it offers a kind of structure and meaning inherently absent from, say, a drug-fueled life on a tour bus.

It’s social media-friendly, its leaders’ impeccably curated Instagram aesthetic of self-care and self-acceptance perfectly dovetailing with the #inspirational messages of its most famous member.

Lentz has appeared, for example, on Oprah Winfrey’s show Super Soul Sunday. His highly appealing, easily marketable narrative of Christianity — though it differs in content from Oprah’s more vaguely spiritual mantras of self-care — is, like hers, accessible, consumer-friendly, and social media-savvy. The blessings it provides are a mixture of spiritual, communal, and aspirational. Who wouldn’t want to look like Carl Lentz, or have the happy marriage he seems to have?

It would be easy to be cynical about Hillsong, and the degree to which Lentz’s Instagram content informs the church’s aesthetic as a whole. But for Kelly Bollmann, 31, the aspirational nature of Hillsong’s leadership, and the way the leaders represent Hillsong’s branding, is part of its appeal. Bollmann has been involved on the volunteer creative team of Hillsong New York since the beginning, when Lentz, the pastor at Bollmann’s old nondenominational church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, left to start the New York branch of Hillsong in 2009.

“I wouldn’t be part of the church if I didn’t know the leadership was that much more of a beautiful representation of the church off-platform than just preaching it,” Bollmann told me. Hillsong’s “platform” may be its services, but its “off-platform” identity — as curated on social media and in the personas of its pastors — creates a holistic sense of Hillsong as a Christian identity that transcends Sunday morning. For Bollmann, that “off-platform” identity was enough to lead him to follow Lentz to New York and help plant Hillsong as a member of the initial creative team.

Carl Lentz prepares to lead a Hillsong church service. Tina Fineberg/AP

In this way, Hillsong is the apotheosis of both the prosperity gospel movements and the seeker-sensitive church movement. It’s a place where the language of #blessed is re-sanctified and renewed. It’s certainly possible to ask whether a church that relies as much on Instagram branding and photogenic pastors as Hillsong is a good thing. But that might be missing the point.

Hillsong, with its talk of “off-platform” pastor behavior and its curated Instagram feed, is successful precisely because it ties into an existing cultural need. It embraces a spiritual life that infuses our social media as much as our souls. It uses the language and rhetoric of the millennial experience to win millennial souls.

For Bollmann, Hillsong’s message of welcome is one that transcends the specifics of its theology. Jesus, he says, “made everybody feel welcome” — especially the sinners.

Sure, he sees plenty of Beliebers, as Bieber’s fans are known, show up at Hillsong in the hopes of catching a glimpse of their icon. But he doesn’t mind. Even if people come to church for the wrong reasons, he says, it’s still an opportunity for them to see the love that Hillsong has to offer. “You’re going to find that you love what our relationship with Jesus is all about … they’re quickly just reminded, hey, there’s people that have a certain status, but they want to just come here and praise Jesus just like you.”

For Bollmann, who grew up in a multiracial family of 11, Hillsong’s image as a diverse, young, and welcoming church is a vital part of its Christian ethos. “You see more cultures in one subway car in New York City than you do in whole cities,” he says. And Hillsong — youth-focused, informal, multiracial — reflected that diversity. “What it enabled a lot of people to do when they saw such a beautiful community come around so many people, and it’s all welcoming of any gender, color, sex, everything. And they saw there’s absolutely no judgment.”

Justin Bieber performs at Hyde Park in London on July 2, 2017. Samir Hussein/Redferns via Getty Images

It makes sense that Bieber and Hillsong would engage in a spiritual and — in effect, if not in intent — commercial partnership. Hillsong provides Bieber not only with spiritual fulfillment but with a tabloid-perfect redemption narrative. Bieber provides Hillsong with publicity.

But, viewed another way, the partnership is as natural as it is seemingly transactional. In an age in which our “on-platform” and “off-platform” selves converge, Hillsong offers something, well, holistic. The Christian identity and sense of fellowship it provides its largely young, smartphone-savvy parishioners is designed to transcend Sunday morning services. It’s designed to go on Instagram, or Snapchat, precisely because that’s where its worshippers are exploring their own identities.

While it’s certainly possible to critique the perhaps packaged nature of Hillsong’s theology — its reliance on motivational speech and prosperity gospel narratives of success, for instance — it’s also worth asking the bigger question: Why do these narratives work?

For a church to be as successful, as much of a phenomenon, as Hillsong is, does its theology have to lend itself to the rhetoric and imagery of social media? Does Christian identity have to root itself in personal identity?

After all, the most enduring Christian movements in America have allied themselves most prominently with other, more insidious, kinds of identity politics and identity formation. All across America, we’ve seen the rise of a white evangelical Christian nationalism that equates Christianity with a particular notion of whiteness, as well as with GOP party politics.

If religion and faith are as much about how we see ourselves — our identities, our personal brand — as they are about what we believe, then Hillsong has cornered the market on a particular kind of self-identification for young Christians.

It’s fair to ask whether a church as social media-engineered as Hillsong represents the “real” Christianity. But it’s also fair to ask the reverse. If it didn’t use its mass-market appeal to spread the gospel, would anybody listen?

Original Source -> Hillsong: the evangelical megachurch that helped save Justin Bieber’s soul — and image

via The Conservative Brief

[spiceukonline]

A few wise words: Why the war on drugs is changing

2015 had the highest mortality rate from drug poisonings since records began.

In particular, there were 57 deaths from ecstasy; the highest rate since records began.

Deaths from Cocaine almost tripled in 4 years, nearly quadrupled from previously ‘legal’ highs and increased five-fold for MDMA. 

All the highest since records began.

2015’s statistics on drug abuse told us one thing that we can’t ignore any longer. People are losing their lives.

How we should be fighting back against this problem is a massive conversation in the public sphere once again. The closure of clubs such as Fabric brought with it a dangerous, reactive tone of “they can’t ruin our nights out”; forgetting that people are dying whilst everyone else has fun. Now that the immediate anguish has calmed down, there are a lot of people questioning where we go from here to keep both sides happy.

The term “War on Drugs” hails from the glory days of Richard Nixon. The US’ obsession with shutting down the trade of Narcos, such as Pablo Escobar, brought with it an all consuming mentality that every illegal substance is the devil. Now I’m not saying that they should have opened to floodgates for pills and powders to take over, but by putting such a forceful prohibition into place, they did destroy most chances for any real drug education to take place. And like with a lot of things, what the US did, we followed.

We aren’t the first publication to criticise the current war on drugs

Education

In our national curriculum, we still learn about congruent triangles, photosynthesis and how many wives Henry VIII had. In no way am I saying that this should stop, but for 99% of people who do learn these ‘crucial’ facts, I highly doubt it’s ever made a life or death difference. Drugs education however, could be that important.

My plans to overhaul the educational system in one article is for another day, but this is something that has to be considered. I recently spoke to Fiona Spargo-Mabbs, the founder of the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs foundation. She set up the charity when her own son died of an MDMA overdose at an illegal rave back in 2014. It was the first time he had tried the drug and he didn’t have a clue what it would do to his body. He was just following his friends and trying to have a good time, tragically paying the ultimate price.

Fiona Spargo-Mabbs: “I think before any changes are made we need to take a proper look at what we are teaching children in schools and accept that they need to know more. Whether you think you live in a nice area or not one way or another they will come across this stuff and they need to be prepared”

Quite surprisingly, Fiona was not calling for harsher punishments on all drug users and suppliers. She understood the curiosity that young people felt, and had realised that the current tactics to get rid of them completely just wasn’t working. She now works in schools, telling young people of her own awful experiences, and bringing those tragic stories we hear so often in the news, to life.

Daniel Spargo-Mabbs was only 16 when he died

Their “Making Safer Choices” programme replaces the information that they believe should be taught throughout PSHE lessons and gives students a rounded knowledge of what experiences will greet them as they move forward. This foundation is just one of a number of education-based movements aiming to inform rather than punish those normal kids who are tempted by drugs.

Testing

Alongside these informative services, there are the more controversial, but definitely happening, drug testing centres. It has recently been announced that Preston, Lancashire, will be the first area to bring in purity centres in the new year, for clubbers to decide if they want to use their Class A’s.

Criticised by many as a red stamp saying “drugs are good”, these centres are actually common practice around Europe. Brought in by the charity, The Loop, their purpose is to prevent the maximum amount of harm and essentially save lives. Whether it reduces the risk to first-triers, says if your drugs are too strong or alerts a user of a dodgy batch; they’re doing a good job.

Fiona Measham, University of Durham professor and co-director of The Loop:  “For the first time we’ve been able to offer the testing service to individual users as part of a tailored advice and information package provided by a team of experienced drugs workers. This can help people make informed choices, raising awareness of particularly dangerous substances in circulation and reducing the chance of drug-related problems occurring.”

The Loop’s testing stations at SGP

The testing of purity is actually a very interesting part of this big debate, because what is causing the majority of these new deaths may surprise you. Many expect it’s what the drug is cut with that is poisoning the bodies of takers, but in many cases it could all be down to dosage. An increasing amount of deaths recently are occurring due to the drug containing upwards of 90% MDMA; a far too strong dosgage for the body to handle. Making someone realise that their pill of 200mg is double the necessity needed to get high could save countless lives.

Similar stations have already been used in the UK, at music festivals such as Secret Garden Party and Kendall Calling. At SGP, one in five, out of the 300 people that used the service, reportedly rejected their drugs afterwards. Who knows what could have happened to those festival-goers if they would have carried on popping those pills.

The bigger picture

And it is with this realisation that we are finally getting somewhere. Yes drugs are dangerous, they can cripple people with addiction and stop their heart in a second, but they also happen to give people a fucking good time. And unfortunately, since the dawn of time, if good things have bad side effects, the good side is still tempting. So why are we being naive and expecting to wipe out drugs completely, and why aren’t we learning ways to control it in a safe way?

As well as all this, there is the cynic inside me that says the only reason they aren’t all legal is because our governments missed the boat when taxing them. Alcohol is controlled, moderated and health checked by ministers every year to try and ensure we don’t become addicted to what is one of the world’s most harmful substances. If the government hadn’t decided it was going to tell us all cocaine was evil back in the day, who knows if that could have been the case with some of today’s class A substances.

And what about all the corruption that comes with the illegality of drugs, surely that needs to be taken into consideration. If MDMA was moderated, or at least treated as something real that we need to know about, do you really think kids like Daniel Spargo-Mabbs will be buying from someone they don’t really know? People trafficking, organised crime, extortion, kidnap, murder, addiction. Whilst drugs are illegal, criminals make billions, if it is controlled by the state, we could change a lot of people’s lives.

There are countless reasons to legalise drugs but, at the same time, there are just as many why we can’t. This does not mean the discussion should be ignored altogether and it is important that progressive ways of fighting this problem are considered and explored.

As all the people who spouted that drug abuse was “public enemy number one” slowly start to leave this earth, their opinions die too. Sorry to sound so morbid but sometimes this is the only real direction of change. As more people are taught the ways of safe drug taking, it will spread further at a faster rate and let’s hope it saves more lives in the process. This is not something that we can just change overnight but the sooner we start accepting that getting high isn’t going to go away, the sooner everyone will feel that little bit safer.

“I loved when Bush came out and said, ‘We are losing the war against drugs. You know what that implies? There’s a war being fought, and the people on drugs are winning it.”― Bill Hicks