#i only interact w women space educators

[sisaloofafump]

i fogor that men can be space scientists

[star-anise]

Ok, I'll bite. What *is* the difference between Bridgerton and Jane Austen in relationship to their skirts?

Oh! Not in their costuming, just in their general *waves hands* everything. It's a comment I see a lot about Bridgerton: "Well, it's not much like Austen, is it?"

That's because there are 200 years of literary history between the two, and they have not been empty!

This ended up being 1.5k words, but when I put stuff under a readmore, people don't actually read it and then just yell at me because of a misread of the 1/10th of the post they did read. Press j to skip or get ready to do a lot of scrolling (It takes four generous flicks to get past on my iPhone).

First I'll say my perspective on this is hugely shaped by Sherwood Smith, who has done a lot of research on silver fork novels and the way the Regency has been remembered in the romance genre.

The Regency and Napoleonic eras stretch from basically the 1790s to 1820, and after that, it was hard to ignore the amount of social change happening in Britain and Europe. The real watershed moment is the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where 60,000 working-class people protesting for political change were attacked by a militia. The issues of poverty, class, industrialization, and social change are inescapable, and we end up with things like the 1832 Reform Act and 1834 Poor Law.

This is why later novelists, like Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell, are so concerned with the experiences of the urban poor. Gaskell's North and South has been accurately described as "Pride and Prejudice for socialists."

So almost as soon as it ended, people started to look back and mythologize the Regency as a halcyon era, back when rich people could just live their rich lives and fret about "only" having three hundred pounds a year to live on. Back when London society was the domain of hereditary landowners, when you weren't constantly meeting with jumped-up industrialists and colonials.

Jane Austen is kind of perfect for this because she comes at the very end of the long eighteenth century, and her novels show hints of the tremors that are about to completely reshape England, but still comfortably sit in the old world. ("The Musgroves, like their houses, were in a state of alteration, perhaps of improvement. The father and mother were in the old English style, and the young people in the new. Mr and Mrs Musgrove were a very good sort of people; friendly and hospitable, not much educated, and not at all elegant. Their children had more modern minds and manners.")

Sherwood Smith covers the writers who birthed the Silver Fork genre in detail, but there's one name that stands out in its history more than any other: Georgette Heyer.

Georgette Heyer basically single-handedly established the Regency Romance as we know it today. Between 1935 and 1972, she published 26 novels set in a meticulously researched version of London of the late 18th and early 19th century. She took Silver Fork settings and characters and turned them into a highly recognizable set of tropes, conventions, and types. (As Sherwood points out, her fictional Regency England isn't actually very similar to the period as it really happened; it's like Arthurian Camelot, a mythical confection with a dash of truth for zest.)

Regency Romance is an escapist genre in which a happy, prosperous married life is an attainable prize that will solve everything for you. Georgette Heyer's novels are bright, sparkling, delightful romps through a beautiful and exotic world. Her female characters have spirit and vivacity, and are allowed to have flaws and make mistakes without being puritanically punished for them. Her romances have real unique sparks to them. She's able to write a formula over and over without it becoming dull.

And.... well. The essay that introduced me to Heyer still, in my opinion, says it best:

Here's the thing about Georgette Heyer: she hates you. Or, okay, she doesn't hate you, exactly. It's just that unless you are white, English, and upper class (and hale, and hearty, and straight, and and and), she thinks you are a lesser being. [...W]ith Heyer, I knew where I stood: somewhere way below the bottom rung of humanity. Along with everyone else in the world except Prince William and four of his friends from Eton, which really took away the sting. But my point is: if you are not that white British upper-class person of good stock and hearty bluffness and a large country estate, the only question for you is which book will contain a grimly bigoted caricature of you featuring every single stereotyped trait ever associated with your particular group. (You have to decide for yourself if really wonderful female characters and great writing are worth the rest of it.)

So Heyer created the genre, but she exacerbated the flaw that was always at the heart of fiction about the Regency, was that its appeal was not having to deal with the inherent rot of the British aristocracy. I think part of why it's such a popular genre in North America specifically is that we often don't know much British history, so we can focus more on the perfume and less on the dank odor it's hiding.

And like, escapism is not a bad thing. Romance writers as a community have sat down and said: We are an escapist genre. The Romance Writers of America, one of the biggest author associations out there, back when they were good, have foundationally said: "Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." A strong part of the community argue that publishing in the genre is a "contract" between author and reader: If it's marketed as a romance book, there's a Happily Ever After. If there's no Happily Ever After, it's not romance.

It's important for people to be able to take a break from the stresses of their lives and do things that are enjoyable. But the big question the romance genre in particular has to deal with is, who should be allowed to escape? Is it really "escapist" if only white, straight, upper class, able-bodied thin cis people get to escape into it? In historical romance, this is especially an issue for POC and LGBTQ+ people. It's taken a lot of work, in a genre dominated by the Georgette Heyers of the world, to try to hew out the space for optimistic romances for people of colour or LGBTQ+ people. These are minority groups that deal with a literally damaging amount of stress in real lives; they are in especial need of sources of comfort, refuge, community, and encouragement. For brief introductions to the issue, I can give you Talia Hibbert on race, and KJ Charles on LGBTQ+ issues.

Up until the 1990s, the romance genre evolved slowly. It did evolve; Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan's Beyond Heaving Bosoms charts the demise of the "bodice-ripper" genre as it became more acceptable for women to have and enjoy sex. The historical romance genre became more accommodating to non-aristocratic heroines, or ones that weren't thin or conventionally pretty. The first Bridgerton book, The Duke and I, was published in 2000, and has that kind of vibe: Its characters are all white but not all of them are aristocrats, its heroines are frequently not conventionally beautiful and occasionally plump, and its cultivation to modern sensibility is reflected in its titles, which reference popular media of today.

This is just my impression, but I think that while traditional mainstream publishing was beginning to diversify in the 1990s, the Internet was what really made diverse romance take off. Readers, reviewers, and authors could talk more freely on the internet, which allowed books to become unlikely successes even if their publishers didn't promote them very much. Then e-publishing meant that authors could market directly to their readers without the filter of a publishing house, and things exploded. Indie ebooks proved that there was a huge untapped market.

One of my favourite books, Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown, is an example of what historical romance is like today; it's a direct callback and reclamation of Georgette Heyer, with a dash of "Fuck you and all your prejudices" on top of it. It fearlessly weaves magic into a classic Heyer plot, maintaining the essential structure while putting power into the hands of people of colour and non-Western cultures, enjoying the delights of London society while pointing out and dodging around the rot. It doesn't erase the ugliness, but imagines a Britain that is made better because its poor, its immigrants, its people of colour, and the foreign countries it interacts with have more power to make their voices heard and to enforce their wills. Another book I've loved that does the same thing is Courtney Milan's The Duke Who Didn't.

So then... Bridgerton the TV show is trying to take a book series with a very middle-of-the-road approach to diversity, differing from Heyer but not really critiquing her, and giving it a facelift to bring it up to date.

So to be honest, although it's set in the same time period as Austen, it's not in the least her literary successor. It's infinitely more "about" the past 30 years of conversation and art in the romance genre than it is about books written 200 years ago.

[cowboyjen68]

My girlfriend is bisexual, I adore her so much. What makes me sad is that I can’t call her my femme as a butch, even though I dote on her like I would dote on any femme and she dotes on me as a femme would a butch. The lesbian community is already so small. I don’t see why things can’t change to include bisexuals in butch femme culture if they truly understand the history and know it’s not just about appearances. It breaks my heart that bisexual women just want to be included in something beautiful and we exclude them from it. I don’t think it hurts lesbians for a bisexual woman to call herself femme or butch. I think that this is a change that is going to happen regardless, so instead of pushing back, we can include bisexual women with open arms and educate them on a history they were alienated from because of biphobia and bisexual erasure, I think lesbians can do better than the ones before us. And if we want to keep butch and femme culture alive, this could be a good thing to include bisexual women. These are my two cents, from a younger butch lesbian.

Hi. I understand this dilemma. I have been in love, deep love, with a bi woman who loved my butchness and made me feel handsome and loved. And I was honored to make her feel beautiful and listened to and safe. We had a wonderful dynamic and lots of passion. But being bi she did not have quite the same energy as a femme. Since she was able to have attraction to men, she was not a femme. A feminine woman? Yes. Powerful in her womanhood? For sure. Our chemistry was undeniable but, that did not make her a femme. 

There is a difference in the energy, the experience and the connection to loving women between the lesbians and bi women I have known.. Not bad or worse or better. Just different. I found it beautiful in its own way. 

Think of this. You love a woman who is capable of seeing the wonders of both men and women. She is unique and amazing in a way only bisexual woman can be. She deserves to be seen for just that. She deserves not to be erased by muddying the waters of her sexuality. She should be appreciated for who she is and using a word that that is not accurate for her will not honor her specific energy. 

I can say the woman i loved had her own special energy and way of taking up space. Of existing in a world that saw her as straight. None of that mattered when I looked in her eyes and it was just the two of us. Her power was unmistakable. 

There is not really a way I can speak about the history of butch and femme past my experience and the stories of my older friends. I have not read much theory or deeply studied much butch/femme history because I would rather speak from my own story, my own life. I don’t presume to know how others, through history, through different regions and through various socio-economic backgrounds felt or how they attached to the words butch and femme.  

Just like most of us, my opinion is formed some from what I see, hear and read on the internet or at festivals or other events. The majority of my feelings about butch/femme come from my life and the lives of my friends and community, that community being women I know in real life. They are formed from Campfire stories, drunken nights at the bar sharing past exploits and potlucks where I heard about dating, love and social interaction from before I was out. 

My opinion, and, it is my opinion, is very much based on my experience and interaction with women. Lesbians and bi women share many things but we are different. Bi women don’t have the same energy as a femme to me. It is just not the same. Different does not make it worse, or better, The difference, for me, did not make it harder for me to love, feel passion for or truly be honored by the way she loved and treated me, as a butch, as the woman she loved.

It is always ok for a specific minority to have words that belong to their culture, their unique way of existing in the world.  Butch and Femme belong to lesbian culture, both now and when I was coming out and long before was born. Sometimes we love someone so much that we want to share certain things with them, but not every one gets to fit in every where. And bi women are not butch or femme.  

 Butch and femme will not die because we don’t share. We are born and live whether others like it for not. If everyone can used the words and they become meaningless as ways to define a specific type of lesbian then the words will surely be in danger,  Love your girlfriend with all you’ve got. Revel in the way she makes you feel and be honored she loves and trusts you for who you are, for your butchness. And love her for how she is. A bi woman.  

[crescentchat]

on Sandwiches and Shells (Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction)

Jacin was everything to Winter. The blue in her veins, the space between her hollow bones, the warm color in both her irises.

But Jacin was also a dork.

Winter and Thorne both agreed on this. ----

An exploration of Winter & Thorne friendship, and Jacin & Cress. Also a deep dive into the fate of the shells after the revolution! 

Finished:07-28-2021 

Words:1861

Jacin was everything to Winter. The blue in her veins, the space between her hollow bones, the warm color in both her irises.

But Jacin was also a dork.

Winter and Thorne both agreed on this.

And with two sandwiches and a bench in a glass hallway near the ship docks, they discussed it at length.

“Then he threatened to duel me! Dueling- ” Thorne had said, bug-eyed, one cheek filled with bread. “Do Lunars duel? Is that a custom?”

The princess giggled. “Public lashings were common”

He was silent for a moment as he swallowed the rest of his lunch. “Those still aren’t legal, right?”

“No, I don’t think Cinder would let it be. She might make an exception for you maybe.”

The brunet threw his head back and laughed. “Now you’re sassy? I can’t escape it since Cinder and Scarlet started rubbing off on Cress!”

“Perhaps I learned it from Jacin,” Winter added, taking a small bite from her zesty sandwich. “He had been sentenced to public lashing one time.”

Winter smiled at the memory, not because of the gore of seeing the love of her life tied and beaten, but the things he had said to her that night. The side of him that no one else was allowed to see (but everyone knew was there because he was not good at hiding it), a man that would do anything, anything for her.

“Huh. Wish I was there.” Thorne added.

In the comfortable silence, her eyes went to a grand, marble door nearby. If Jacin were here right now, he would be standing statuesque next to it. And since Thorne was here with her, he would probably be standing even closer. Winter would offer him food, and he would decline, Thorne would have something witty to say about it, and Jacin would make a threat of violence with a deadpan face.

“Where’s your loverboy, anyways?”

“He accompanied your Cress to a shell rehabilitation meeting. Do you want to eat the rest of this?”

“Pickles? No way. And what do you mean shell rehabilitation meeting ? She’s already in therapy,” Thorne added skeptically, brushing the crumbs off his lap and standing up.

“No, no. It’s for the friends that were rescued from the labs.”

Thorne nodded and made an ‘O’ shape with his lips. “To reintroduce them into normal society? Well, as normal as moon people can be, ” he added, muttering the last part.

Shells had very limited education (being a thaumaturge telling them an intimidating version of what reproduction was like, effectively scaring them away from it), but they had made their own versions of interaction before they were put in cryo-sleep.

The shells that couldn’t find their previous families, or families that wouldn’t take them back, were offered jobs in the Artemisian palace. Winter was very fond of all of them. They would say very strange things to the aristocrats, ask the most awkward questions at the most horrible times, but they were Winter’s people .

Despite effectively being a war hero, many still thought Winter was crazy, including her close friends. But apart from Jacin, the shells were the only ones in the palace who were too different for others to swallow, swimming in their heads too often. Like she was. They understood.

Many had dreams of moving the Earth, and maybe being normal on Earth meant losing your peculiarity.

But this couldn’t be true. Cress was raised in a drastically different way than the other shells, but she was still just as weird and wistful as them.

“The friends, they really admire her,” Winter said after a moment. “They told me that Sybil Mira had taken her away one day. They were very envious because they thought she was going to the palace to be freed, but Sybil told them that she was killed instead.”

Thorne nodded. “Yeah, I remember that at the banquet. Like, all of them were sobbing. Kind of touchy, too.”

“They don’t know much better, though,” Winter said, dusting her dress off and standing as well once her sandwich was finished.

“Hence the rehabilitation!” He said proudly, already at the door holding it open. “Let’s go supervise.”

__________________________________

Jacin had made a promise to Cress, a very long time ago. That promise was that her safety would come only second to Winter’s.

But sometimes he wondered, What was he willing to put up with for her?

He already dealt with shells and their lack of personal space and emotional boundaries at the palace, but here, there were about a hund of them all in this one conference room in South Artemisia.

Despite Jacin placing himself far away from the others and staying silent, that didn’t stop people from coming up to him and asking, asking, asking, asking-  

“Why are your arms so big?” A pale, redheaded teenager asked.

“I exercise.”

“What pertains to exercise?”

“Pushups.”

“What’s a pushup?”

Jacin rolled his eyes to the sky. “Look it up. You have a portscreen, don’t you?”

The boy, Wane, scoffed. “Portscreens are so blue . I see enough blue on the faces of others.”

He fought another eye-roll, but only because the statement reminded him of something whimsical Winter might say. “I’m sure someone else can show you.”

Wane nodded nonchalantly, thanked him, and ambled away.

This queued Jacin to turn his attention to Cress, who was swiping through her portscreen, and being swarmed by a group of shell women. She looked a little flustered, but not overwhelmed by the attention.

He discreetly made his way over to the crowd and cut through so he was right behind Cress.

Ah.

He should have guessed by the squeals and giggles from the shell girls that Cress was showing them pictures of the Captain. One picture was him carrying an antidote crate, concentration etched in his eyes. Cress swiped through her photo gallery again, showing a picture of him fascinatingly watching a romantic net drama (one he claimed to hate, by the way).

“Ahem,” Jacin coughed.

The blonde turned around swiftly, as did the shells.

The shell girls hugged him immediately, all greeting him. He just about pushed them off in shock until Cress shot him a knowing yet weary smile reminding him that they don’t know much about personal space.

Wasn’t she supposed to be mentoring them on that instead of showing them pictures of her boyfriend? Jacin coughed again. “Hello, everyone. I need a word with the shortcake.”

“Hey!” A brunette yelped. “That’s mean. Crescent is short and lovely and not a cake! ”

“Ah, Callista. He’s not being mean. It’s lighthearted, a nickname.” Cress said, gently pulling her away from Jacin. By now the rest of the shells had gone somewhere else, off to another counselor to ask a thousand questions.

“No, Cress is a nickname because it is short for Crescent Moon. But shortcake has nothing to do with Crescent Moon.”

Cress sighed, “Okay, so-”

Jacin tuned it out, waiting for her to be done. Why did they ask her to explain these things when she could barely explain it herself?

It brought him to another time when a shell woman came up to Cress and kissed her on the mouth like they had been casually dating for years.

Thorne had jumped out of his chair, and when Cress was done being shocked, she stuttered, “Why did you do that?”

“Because I love you!” She exclaimed happily.

“You do not love her, you’ve known her for two days!” Thorne had interjected.

“Of course I love her. She is a hero to all our shell friends and saved us all!”

“I am a friend, then, but you don’t-  you can’t kiss people! On the face like that!” Cress swallowed.

She had placed her fingers on her chin like she  was deeply considering this. “Yes, yes. Interesting. Thank you for letting me know.”

Cress’ mildly sarcastic cough brought him back to the present. “What did you need?”

“I think it’s about time we go back to the palace.”

“Aww, why? I was having so much fun,” She whined.

“Having fun showing off Thorne?”

There was a comedic silence, before she said, “Yeah.”

Jacin rolled his eyes for maybe the hundredth time, but this time only in jest.

Cress feigned an offended gasp, and swatted at him lightly, standing up from her chair. “You would show off Winter too if put in the position!”

“She would show herself off.” He said, stopping by a door while Cress waved goodbye to the shells.

“Thorne probably would too,” She said, finally closing the door and cracking her fingers. “But I’m just getting the word out he’s mine.”

Jacin almost snorted at the sudden and unexpected possessiveness of her statement. “Sometimes I wonder if he forgets he’s yours.”

She thoughtfully shook her head. “No, it’s a lot like Winter. Kind of.”

Jacin raised his eyebrow.

“Well, like, Winter attracts people by existing, you know? She can’t help it.”

That was very true. She could swish her hair once, and twirl in her dress twice maybe, and get just about anything she wanted. But still, “Thorne can definitely help it though.”

Their footsteps echoed off the grand hallway, chatter from the shell meeting all but gone. “Maybe. I don’t know.” There was a hint of doubt in her voice.

Jacin, out of fear he offended her, added, “Not that I think he’s unfaithful. He’s obsessed with you, really.”

“In a romantic way?”

Jacin nodded.

The flush that was on her face earlier came back. “W-well, Winter’s obsessed with you!”

He decided they were far away enough for anyone to hear, so he indulged himself in a laugh. “I know, I know.”

__________________________________

“Hello, Squire Clay!” Thorne bellowed as he strutted through the ship docks, Winter trailing behind, sandwich in hand.

Cress could hear Jacin’s eye roll (he was doing a lot of those today).

“Hey you,” Thorne greeted her, voice softer and looping an arm around her waist.

“Apologies I told him about your squireship status,” Winter hooked an arm around his neck and pecked his cheek.

“Does this mean you’re a knight now or something? What’s the surname for knights-” the Captain snapped his fingers, trying to call up the knowledge. “Your Holiness?”

“I think it’s just sire,” Cress said.

Thorne purred, “Medieval knowledge. Nice. How’d it go, sire?”

Jacin held up a hand. “Don’t do that,” he grumbled as Winter snorted. “It went fine. We left early because you two have somewhere to be.” He pointed to the other couple.

Captain looked down at her with wide eyes, looking for an answer. “Ah, the outbreak in the United Kingdom. Almost forgot about that.” She said.

“Of course! In the Canadian province. How could I forget?” Thorne chirped as if he knew the whole time.

“Well, I didn’t forget. The vaccines have already been loaded into the Rampion.” The platinum blonde said, signaling to the crates in the cargo bay.

Thorne hummed. “Guess it’s time to go, then.”

“Thank you, Jacin,” Cress smiled at him, and he smiled back.

“Have fun with your Trouble, Jacin!” He yelled from the Rampion, as the ramp closed.

He scoffed, for again, probably the hundredth time that day.

__________________________________

__________________________________

Finally finished! I promised this you be finished a week ago, but I lied hehe. Thank you for @gingerale2017 for cheerleading me on! I’m really proud of this. please support on AO3! 

[furby-organist]

// I'm not gonna do a Munday meme rn bc I'm busy, but I will make a Munday post on something I feel needs regular repeating.

What we're not gonna do is take someone's personal relationship to sexuality as their sociopolitical stance on it.

This stems from the umpteenth accusations of prudishness I see directed at Alastor muses, as well as my own experiences as a sexaverse aroace trying to navigate progressive spaces.

Someone can be sex-positive as a social stance -- you know, supporting safe, sane & consenting adults doing what they want, being against the moralization of sex (e.x. no you're not immoral for doing it outside of, say, marriage), being against the moralization of virginity (particularly in young women), supporting safe sex education instead of abstinence only education, being against victim blaming, supporting sex workers' rights to a safe work environment & fair pay & other workers rights, being against the stigma sex workers face (esp when applying for other jobs), all that good stuff, w/e

while also personally not wanting sex, not wanting to interact with sexual media, not wanting to hear about their friends' sex lives, not wanting to present themselves or be viewed in a sexual manner, etc

Alexa said it already. Some people are overcorrecting and think that sexual liberation means everyone needs to be okay with everything, and with disclosing everything. Not everyone's liberation looks the same.

For some people, it looks one way, for some, it looks another. I have friends who do OF and I support it and I personally would crawl out of my skin at the thought of letting anyone view me in a sexual manner. I support my friends who have multiple consensual partners while I don't want anyone touching me. For them, their liberation looks like engaging with their sexuality and while maintaining full agency. For me, it looks like refusing to participate in the expectation that I, as a human, am sexual, or that I, as someone perceived as a woman, ought to be attractive & palatable to cishet men. Or something like that.

Anyway. I think it's really harmful for ace people, other sexaverse people, questioning people, trauma survivors, etc to be told that having personal aversions or disintrest around sex is a regressive thing.

So like. That's my RP pet peeve. If a muse is ignorant, that's fine! What I get tired of is the OOC assumption that Alexa is a prude or has moral hangups around sex. He doesn't. He's just a generally sexaverse ace who sometimes experiences sexrepulsion too. It's not an issue with what other people do.

Oh and this goes doubly bc Alexa literally spouts the stupidest shit on air, including claims that he singlehandedly fucked the divorce rate into a spike in the sixties, and that he has all sorts of fetishes from feet to electrocution, like... how y'all gonna see that and call him a prude I'm deceased

[aroceu]

this is a long pseudo sociology laden post that i made on my old discourse blog in like 2017 but i reread it and it’s good so im going to repost it here (and delete it there later when im not lazy so it cant be traced back to me shhh)

i really believe that not all experiences need a name or need to be categorized or nominally distinguished, aside from actual psychological researchers who have the knowledge/experience to explore the field.

i think a lot of what gets discussed in individualistic, identity-focused tumblr is the validity of experiences, and the feeling of otherness from what we perceive to be “normal.” i do believe that physical attraction, emotional attraction, romantic attraction, platonic attraction, sensual attraction, sexual attraction, aesthetic attraction, are real; i do believe that there are people who only experience sexual attraction after forming an emotional bond, that there are people with extremely low libidos (not the same as sexual attraction but MAY affect it), that there are people who just generally find it attractive when someone rattles off something intelligent.

my perception of all of these things, of the discourse and labeling identities however, makes it seem that we rely on categorization and social identities to identities that are not really socialized. the reason sociologically-recognized identities exist is not because we as individuals first chose to label our identity in the realm of society; but because most if not all of the time, oppressors are the ones who separate us. social identities would not matter, much less exist, if there is not someone in power to determine that some aspect of another person’s identity is important in how they should be treated.

this is, of course, an extremely loose and abstract definition of oppression. but my point is that social identities and thus labels do not exist because the INDIVIDUAL chooses to name their experience. it is because someone ELSE has decided that some either visible or materialistic aspect of another person has any factor in how they should be treated. OPPRESSORS name and label social identities. activist groups and progressive socialism reclaims the Othering in order to dismantle hierarchical capitalist power.

and i could go into what this means in the context of capitalism and materialism, etc. but my point is that social identities and labeling them do not arise from the individual’s experiences of them. experiences do not need names. why? because everyone’s experiences are going to be different. it doesn’t matter what you have in common, because everyone leads different lives, everyone processes things differently, your past experiences affect your present experiences in a way that no one else will understand, etc. all those attractions i listed exist, but there are tons more, factors and types of attractions we can’t quite name, and trying to locate and categorize all of them would have your entire life dedicated to self-psychoanalysis. experiences do not need to be distinguished if they are not reflective of a social position.

you can be validated in your experiences, you can be sure in your experiences, you can be proud in your experiences, without labeling them.

the reason label-identity politics exist in society is not because of the individual experience, but the social perception. men and women are not separated and labeled because we did not decided that there was only a binary way of experiencing and identifying gender. men and women are separated and labeled because there comes a social perception when you are a man, from your body to your strength to your interaction with other men to your work ethic etc. same goes for women. the social perception of gender identity - not how each individual interacts with their gender identity, but why it exists in the first place - comes not from the individual, internal experience one has with their gender, but externally, what it implies about your work ethic/health/intelligence etc and/or what it implies about what you can contribute to society. social labels do not exist based on the individual experience. social labels exist because we as humans have chosen to categorize human beings by their contribution to society, because western christianity is hellbent on dividing the world into good and bad, because the history and evolution of society has arbitrarily (and i mean this from a humanist perspective) categorized us.

names for identities exist because society has deemed it a requirement. not based on experience. categorization lies in a social perspective. if you have a feeling you don’t know the name of, you can still experience it and embrace it (as long as it isn’t harmful to others) without needing to give it a name. labels are only required when there is a capitalistic differentiation from others.

and i’m going to use wlw as an example, because i’m a wlw. and there are other wlw! and the reason we have this label is because not only from a shared experience, but because we are (or should be) socially recognized as women who do not strictly uphold a heteronormative standard because of our interest and love of women. but this is not an experience - it’s a social perception.

and yet, all of our experiences as wlw are different. i mean, first of all there are lesbian and bi wlw. and while wlw basically means a woman who is attracted to women, there are a lot of factors in here: a) what makes a woman attractive? her personality? her intelligence? her physicality?; b) an arbitrary quantity of attraction, but basically all wlw will have a different experience in the “amount” and “frequency” of attraction they face; c) what is desired when a wlw is attracted to a woman; d) if a wlw is currently attracted to a woman or in a relationship; e) a wlw’s individual experience of having known all along or discovered it when they were older; f) a wlw’s presentation and body image on what it means to be a wlw and to/if indicate it through social presentation; g) and what that social presentation actually entails; and so on and so forth.

all of these experiences are highly unique, because people are highly unique! and some of them are even discussed within wlw spaces!!! but they are not all named (w the exception of butch/femme lesbians, but this is due to the social perception within the lesbian community), because while some of these experiences are shared because the way wlw (and basically every other demographic) are treated in society is baseline a requirement for wlw to be distinguished in the first place and thus having common experiences, so many factors like family and education and early life and cognitive functioning and personality are still going to make each of these experiences different in some way.

my point is: discussion of experiences is fine. but experiences do not need to be named. the only reason identity labels exist is not because of shared experience, but because of social/capitalist perception of a human being regardless of their experiences

[convervative-blog]

essay preparation, Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors To Our Descendants by Elliot M. Dorff

alright buds gonna go thru this book, theres chapters and then like essay questions, so im here reading the chapters then answering the essay questions. im fucken ignorant as shit so this is all my stupid opinions that im still developing and it might change as i learn more idk. enjoy, lots of surprise-zionism in here skip if thats not ur thing

I. yes services start early morning we do prelims then shacharit torah & musaf then kiddush congregants range in ages from young to elderly (predominantly older tho) and in observance from super frum (ok like 5 of us lol) to basically secular & very pluralistic no one cares, very close-knit, "maritime personality disorder" very evident, love it

II. never studied at yeshiva or went to hebrew school, looking into doing so (u know when), actually the reason i picked up this book, im inherently drawn to like childrens resources (this is a highschool level book but u get it) bc as an adult i missed out on jewish child education, so im drawn to childrens resources to "learn from the start" so to speak

III. parents are gentiles, no jewish identity really, grandma resolutely denied being a jew though got 'mistaken' for one almost daily due to last name and appearance, 'corrected' people constantly, got bullied for it (i say grandma but its still patrilineal dont @ me), she didnt know anything about judaism and was frequently antisemitic and firmly catholic

IV. conservative judaism means that halachic rules are binding but that they should and must be interpreted via the lens of the society in which we live, in order to reduce suffering and increase overall observance (e.g. women, lgbt+, accessibility), conservative judaism also means an affordance of leniency in individualistic expressions of obligatory mitzvot

V. emancipation occurred from 1776-1880, within western europe (france holland england) during the rise of nationalism jews were considered naturalized citizens of their respective countries & not foreign outliers, allowed to serve in army etc  but had negative impact bc jews at the time began to lose their jewish identity whilst adopting goyische practices (ref. assimilation)

VI. absolutely and i fully intend on making aliyah, learning and speaking hebrew is nourishing for my soul, its an internal secret of mine that “magneto was right” u know, “does mainstreaming work?” and like, i say this not bc i believe jews should be separate (or even that jews should immigrate to israel) but in the interest of jewish protection and continuation, is mainstreaming going to contribute to jewish protection and continuation? mainstreaming needs to include existence. u cant mainstream two groups if one group is only accepted when they dont exist as themselves. “jews and gentiles can exist together! but u better show up to work on yom kippur.” jews deserve self-determination and to have the opportunity to live in their homeland which is the only safe place on earth for jews to publicly and fully express their judaism, to go to a school where they can safely and publicly express their judaism, to go to a synagogue where they can safely and publicly express their judaism, to go to a job where they can safely and publicly express their judaism. u tell me where that is, is it where u live? thats the downfall of mainstreaming, bc sure jews can assimilate but what u see is that ppl who arent jews will only interact with them if they renounce their judaism. sure u want to say jews and goyim living side by side respecting one anothers practices is the ideal, absolutely im "pro mainstreaming" for those ideals, but be practical! that shit aint never gonna happen, dont sacrifice yourself and ur family and ur friends for an academic concept that has never manifested itself in reality

VII. the advent of secularism! secularism is super appealing. movies! tv! books! music. mixed dancing as it were. all the things considered heretical bc they could curse g-d, but appealing on a neurological level. who doesnt wanna sit down and binge drop dead diva for 9 hours, its not me buds. so ofc many orthodox peeps would be drawn to it, but in the interest of maintaining their practices and beliefs, new movements would necessarily sprout up in response

VIII. assimilation occurred bc the advent of secularism drew alot of observant jews away from their practices and subsequently their identities, it was more appealing to be a citizen (a "german" not a "jew") bc it afforded them rights and privileges and goys would interact w them on an equal level, as long as they didnt express being jewish too much, or used their jewishness in a self-deprecating kind of way (alot of jewish comics got famous like this, ppl love listening to jews self-deprecate and in a downward shifting economy u gotta get it where u can get it)

IX. the differences between halacha in orthodox judaism and reform judaism? oh boy well today, because reform judaism looked totally different in the 1800s guys (most american jews were reform, which is why american jewish culture was so radically separate from european jewish culture and far more secular), but at the core orthodoxy believes halacha as it was written and interpreted (and as it continues to be interpreted and debated) is binding, no ifs ands or buts. u can find reasons why things can and cant be done but its always within the established halacha. reform judaism doesnt consider halacha binding but essentially “refers” to it as they develop their individual practices (”im a woman but im not gonna cover my hair if i get married bc blah blah blah” might be a reform opinion, its deciding not to follow the law, but its still referencing the law) and is exponentially more concerned with the idea of jewish peoplehood, identity, nationality, history, outside the world of torah. (yes? no? this is all shit i was spoonfed by 1 guy so like?) 

X. im writing a fucken essay on this man. need to chill out and condense. get my opinions in order. orthodoxy is appealing bc most ppl will believe the same shit u do and put the same weight on it, conservatism is more pluralistic/individualistic, definitely more secular, even tho i wholeheartedly agree with this & practice it in my life, the art of letting people do their own shit without judging them, the art of welcoming ppl into ur space despite their diverging belief systems, just: sometimes u can feel kind of silly when u know ppl probably dont take as literal interpretations as u do. strengths of reform individualism, pluralism, activism, diversity, influx of new opinions/thoughts, ppl talk to me about this i know very little about reform judaism dont get mad at me pls. weaknesses uhhhhhh lol am i gonna go there on tumblr.com 2day... weaknesses i guess would be that its not taken as seriously by outsiders? is that acceptable/right?

endin here for now!

[when-will-mail-come]

I wanted to translate the Animedia Magazine 2018 July Issue’s Gundam W portion like ↑ with the translation surrounding the picture with arrows, but I don’t know how to. Please be satisfied with ↓. For those that want to read the original text (that I photographed), go here.

1

37(Everyone) 450(Welcome～) to the Animedia Carnival

2

　The next legendary anime to be introduced is the following;『New Mobile Report Gundam W』. This work is one of the many『Gundam』series, and from April 1995 to March 1996 the TV series aired. In 1997 the 3 episodes OVA 『New Mobile Report Gundam W Endless Waltz』continuation was created, and in 1998 the re-edited『Special Edition』version of that was released theatrically. Even now after 20 years have passed its popularity has not waned, rerunning since February 2018 on TOKYO MX. Gathering interest even from people exposed to this work for the first time, there has been a resurgence in popularity.

　One point that needs a special mention with this work is that, it is the forerunner of a『Gundam』series that won fanatical female fans. Though 『Gundam』series are now supported by many demographics regardless of gender,『Gundam』fans before this work were mainly children and men, who the related merchandise targeted. The biggest factor behind how this work managed to capture the hearts of women, in this situation, was that the 5 main characters were prominent. Not only were the 5 main characters beautiful boys, they had strong personalities that were unable to be described in one word. Some acted calm, cool, and collected to fulfill their missions, while others took flabbergasting actions that were mind boggling. The interactions between them, and the words and deeds that exceeded the viewers’ imaginations, continued to charm fans. Especially Heero・Yuy for informing the heroine「I’ll kill you」 in episode 1, and also by blowing up his beloved mobile suit Wing Gundam, having a strong impression not seen elsewhere, with his loony¹ actions and a number of out-there¹ famous quotes, he had a presence that could only be described as peerless. The threatened gazes directed by the 5 boys who are by no means absolutely perfect, continue to capture the hearts of fans and refuses to let go even to this day.

¹loony, out-there: The magazine uses the pretty strong expression ぶっ飛んだ

3

The strongness of their PERSONALITY and GAZE is LEGEND TIER! The GUNDAM PILOTS that are RESURGING IN POPULARITY

4

450(Welcome～) Special Guest

Heero・Yuy role HIKARU MIDORIKAWA

【He・kah・rue・Me・dough・ree・kawa】Born May 2. From Tochigi Prefecture. Affiliated with Aoni Production.

——What kind of work is『New Mobile Report Gundam Wing』, to you, Mr. Midorikawa? Furthermore, if you had to choose one thing that made you happy, from your memories during the first airings, what would it be?

　My dream since I was a child was playing the main character in a serious robot work like『Mobile Suit Gundam』, so my dream came true. That made me happy, as you can imagine. Of course, plastic models of Wing Gundam that Heero rides on went on sale, so as person who was crazy about Gunpla² when I was a child, those were really happy days ♪

²Gundam plastic model = Gunpla

——With his unpredictable words and deeds and such, Heero・Yuy was a character with many sensational episodes. If there was anything that you struggled with while playing him, please do tell.

　Heero’s silent, so I think that having to impress the character on the audience within the limited few lines is difficult. However, I gained quite a lot of experience with silent characters with the role of Kaede Rukawa from『SLAM DUNK』(aired 1993～1996), so I managed to not struggle that much（^^;;

——This year marks the 20th year since the release of『New Mobile Report Gundam W Endless Waltz Special Edition』. What do you think about the fact that it’s still loved by many fans, even after over 20 years have passed?

　Maybe it’s  the fact that interesting things are interesting, no matter how many years pass? I mean it is full of holes that can be poked fun at, even though it’s by no means a gag anime (laughter). Apparently, there are also tenacious fans in America even to this day, not only limited  to Japan, so I think it’s a real amazing piece of work.

——If you were to give a message toward the following five of Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei, right now, what would the contents of the message be?

　I am truly happy, that I was able to meet you all. There is also a work that paints yourselves after the end, so if a chance presents itself, I’d love to breathe life into your grown selves. Well, I think that I’ll be indebted to all of you through games or whatnot, from now on too, so I look forward to working with you all then（^₋^）

5

◍Original Drawing/Yoshihito Hishinuma  Finishing Touch/Michie Hishinuma

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Chang・Wufei

張五飛

(Voice/Ryuzou Ishino)

Holds the belief that might is right, and dislikes the weak fighting. Takes independent action often, and uses the Shenlong Gundam which he calls「Nataku」to destroy evil.

7

Heero・Yuy

(Voice/Hikaru Midorikawa)

Pilot of the Wing Gundam. Educated to be a perfect soldier, he did not show human-like emotions in the beginning.

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Trowa・Barton

(Voice/Shigeru Nakahara)

Pilot of the Gundam Heavyarms, and was fighting in the battlefield ever since he could remember. To hide his identity, he performed as a clown at a circus troupe.

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◀The Gundam pilots in brisk summer attire. The 5, although participating in the same military operations, are not a team so there is no sense of comradeship. It is only at the end of the story that the 5 unite. These relationships were novel

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New Mobile Report Gundam Wing

◍Currently rerunning every Tuesday night at 10:29 PM on TOKYO MX

◍『New Mobile Report Gundam Wing』Blu-ray Box Limited Edition Complete 2 Volumes, now on sale by BANDAI NAMCO Arts. Each 30,240 yen (tax included)

◍『New Mobile Report Gundam W Endless Waltz』Blu-ray Box Limited Edition Complete 1 Volume, now on sale by BANDAI NAMCO Arts. 18,360 yen (tax included)

STORY〔New Mobile Report Gundam Wing〕/Humanity has constructed space colonies, determining the year they commenced space development as the year 1 A.C. (After Colony). Starting to see the indications of decline due to the increase of immigrants to the colonies, the countries of Earth form the「United Earth Sphere Alliance」, and counter the colonies. Possessing overwhelming military power, the Alliance Army oppress the colonies. Communications between each colony are cut off. Year 195 A.C.「Operation Meteor」is initiated by underground organizations of the colonies rebelling against the oppression of the Alliance. It was to have 5 Gundam units land onto Earth, and unfold subversive activity against the secret society「OZ」(Oz) that controlled the Alliance. The 5 boys, who are the agents, descend to Earth without knowing each other, and try to fulfill the mission while at times cooperating with each other, and at times rebelling against each other.

〔New Mobile Report Gundam W Endless Waltz〕/1 year after the battle　between Earth and the colonies. Although it seemed that the world was following the path to peace renouncing all military force, the mastermind of the colony organizations plots the domination of the Earth Sphere. The 5 ride the Gundams once again, and dive into battle.

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Quatre・Raberba・Winner

(Voice/Ai Orikasa)

The heir of an extremely wealthy man, as well as a boy who pilots the Gundam Sandrock. Although gentle and kind, in the later half of the story, he comes to do nothing but seek revenge for a harmed family member.

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37(Everyone) Time to Shine Famous Scene

　Episode 1 was full of iconic scenes that symbolized the person known as Heero. From trying to shoot down a civilian shuttle that was interfering with accomplishing his mission during his descent to Earth, to hijacking an ambulance that rushed over due to Relena`s report, who found him injured, it was a succession of barbarity. Moreover, he whispers「I’ll kill you」in her ear after ripping a birthday party invitation that she sent, going undercover as a transfer student at her school, all just due to the reason that「his face was seen by Relena」.

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Duo・Maxwell

(Voice/Toshihiko Seki)

A kind boy who laments the tragedies brought on by war, and understands the value of life more than anyone, despite having a perfect command of Gundam Deathscythe which is also known as「God of Death」.

14 Relena・Darlian

(Voice/Akiko Yajima)

[janiedean]

Fandom and politics, that's the topic of this message and a request for your opinion on fandom and politics. In recent days in polish fantasy fandom one of the prominent figures, a writer, asked why can't we all just talk and be fandom and leave politics behind, like in "good old days". And explained how he and the wolę fandom just doesn't like ideology pushed at him in media. (1/2)

(2/2) The problem is, what he calls ideology, is often media not being as racist, sexist or homophobic as usually (i.e. the feminist head of the team of writers of The Witcher netflix show, black Heimdall in "Thor" etc.)Or women in fandom demanding to do sth with t-shirts that was sold at one convention, with a print that goes sth along the lines of "I love burning villages and raping virgins". Because those are the prominent scandals of polish fandom.

hmmm the thing is, I think that fandom shouldn’t meddle with politics when it comes to fans period and when it comes to authors, it should but to a certain point. what I mean is:

when I say fandom shouldn’t be meddling with politics when it comes to fans I mean that whole part where you’re judged as SOMETHING just out of your fandom preferences. I mean, people saying you’re homophobic because you don’t ship the slash ship, people assuming you’re racist because you ship two white guys or the likes, people thinking you’re pro-pedophilia because you ship underaged characters and so on. that imo is a thing that regardless of the media in question should die in a fire because you cannot judge people on their fictional preferences. no one should assume I’m okay with incest in general if I ship thor and loki, no one should assume I’m racist because I like stevebucky better than stevesam and no one should assume I’m homophobic if I ship a m/f ship and so on. especially when it comes to people who ship/like problematic stuff for whichever damned reason and they get told they’re monsters when they just wanna do their thing. like that imo is a thing that has to die in a fire right now especially when it becomes a fandom-wide thing and you get people basically going like ‘if you’re white you can’t engage with a fandom with black/poc characters because you’re gonna be racist anyway’ and then complain when they get zero content. or worse, the star wars lists of problematic people that you need to avoid because they ship rey/lo and are therefore *insert problematic word here* and such things. fandom should be a place where fans are free to do whatever they like and explore whatever subjects they like without being judged for it. obviously if someone fucks up MAJORLY (see: the infamous j2 haiti fic of doom) calling them out should happen, also because it means that if they’re ignorant they’ll learn, and using fandom as a platform to learn stuff about people different from your social/ethnical background is always great, but people shouldn’t be shamed for what they do in fandom as a general rule. that is my general opinion when it comes to fans. you can’t go on and judge someone on whether they like noncon in fiction or not. like. no.

what you’re talking about instead is the media itself being more progressive, and in that case I don’t agree with the *good old days* thing because more diversity is good and honestly if someone’s problem is that heimdall is black in a marvel movie that isn’t even accurate per se because in theory thor and loki aren’t even odin’s sons then like, you need to get over yourself.

and like, one thing is having reservation over a shirt such as what you said and another is telling other women they can’t like kink or m/m porn, so like that is a kind of politics that needs to be discussed and absolutely should, but that’s not what I mean when I say I’d really like politics out of fandom space. one thing is fandom space, one thing is the original content. I’m entirely down for diverse original content of whichever kind, what I don’t think should be done is fans engaging with it just looking at the politics and judging it based on the politics only and not on the plot, and mostly judging it on whether it’s progressive enough or not and judging other people for liking it if they don’t think it’s progressive enough, not fans asking for more diverse stuff in general and/or wanting to feel included in fandom spaces, and I think creators should acknowledge that.

like, the polish fantasy writer obviously doesn’t care for diversity - but no one forces him to. but saying that FANTASY IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS WAS JUST WHITE PEOPLE is also ridiculous bc diverse fantasy has been around for ages like ffs.

what I mean is that we absolutely should have politics - if by that you mean more diversity - in the original media we consume, though I don’t think authors should be forced to do that because you get better things when the author actually wants to write them, and fandom should engage with more diverse media absolutely, but fandom can’t also judge what people in it do all the time based on how *they* engage with the content in case, because everyone will like different things and you can’t force people to engage with that specific thing just because you think it’s woke. and you also can’t trash the author for things you might perceive as problematic but actually aren’t.

examples of what I mean: I, author, write a fantasy story.

not so ideal case of politics in media: I, a white cishet female author, decided to write a fantasy story. I don’t know much stuff outside standard fantasy and I don’t feel like writing people who aren’t what I am. I write your usual standard lotr-ripoff, everyone is white, cis and hetero, there’s one romance, a couple bromances, no social or political hidden commentary. it has a good story. it’s an okay book. the fandom most likely will ship the guys in the bromances. no one feels challenged. tumblr declares me problematic for not writing diverse stuff and then ignores me.

ideal case of politics in media: I, a white cishet female author, decided to write a fantasy story. I don’t want to do the same usual lotr rehash and I know that diversity is important and I want to make a good job. I make my character list. I decide who’s white and who’s not, giving a decent balance. I make some of them non-straight. I don’t see many trans characters in fantasy, so I decide one of them is. I spend months talking to anyone belonging to the aforementioned categories asking them what they think of my approach - ie I find a number of trans people to discuss what I want with the trans character, I talk to a number of black people if I want the character to be black possibly not all from the US and I pick people from all over the place. I write my book. I make sure every character has a meaningful relationship with the others so that all their interactions are interesting. I try as much as possible to not have stereotypes. I get a bunch of betas and I change anything they find improvable. my book gets published. everyone loves it.

now, ideal fallout of the above which is what I mean with healthy fandom consumption: I get a fandom made up by diverse people because I have a diverse book. people enjoy that I gave everyone some space. they might interact with me on twitter and asking me ships headcanons. I tell them that they can ship whatever they like write whatever fic off it they want. every character gets some fic or moodboard and everyone enjoys whatever they like in whichever dynamic. not-trans people who had never run into a trans character in fantasy might go like ‘wow I hadn’t realized that’s how it felt’ and might get informed. if I based it on some specific historical period people might get informed on that. people belonging to the minority categories educate the others in fandom about what they might not know, nicely. everyone writes all the porn in the world. everything is great. if someone asks me why I have black/lgbt+/etc people in my book I reply them that minorities exist so why shouldn’t they be in my book and that’s the most twitter hate I get. life is great. my publisher wants more. that book becomes a series. rinse and repeat.

not so ideal fallout, ie what I mean with fandom shouldn’t be about politics: somehow, there’s a fanon ship that gets most fans for a reason. it happens to be idk, bisexual white guy + gay white guy who are not together in the book. they get more fic than dunno, hetero black woman with hetero asian guy. people start calling the first group problematic because they don’t ship the poc couple and THEY’RE RACIST. the trans character isn’t a stereotype/isn’t *good enough* for fandom standards so they decided that idk, feminine straight guy I put in because feminine straight guys exist is actually the only trans one because HEADCANONS and suddenly all fics with a trans character for that book are about the headcanoned character that’s actually a stereotype if you go for that, not the one I actually spent six months researching, and if you don’t agree you’re suddenly a transphobe. someone sends me a twitter message asking me what I think of HEADCANONS and I answer that I’m okay with HCs but I put canon characters that aren’t white, straight and cis for a reason and suddenly I’m THE MOST PROBLEMATIC AUTHOR EVER and people decide that my efforts aren’t good enough and that as a cis woman writing gay men is problematic and everyone in fandom who writes m/m and is a woman is shit. then people decide that shipping the black cis bisexual guy with anyone white is racist and writing porn where he’s on top is racist but then another side says that if he bottoms it’s racist (guys LOOK AT SW FANDOM I DIDN’T MAKE THIS UP), so no one ends up touching the black character out of fear of being dissed. six months after the book is out, the only thing there’s a fandom following for is a problematic as hell crackship in between two cishet white guys that hate each other and barely interacted because it’s the only fandom space where people don’t get shamed for what they like.

I, the author, look at all the hate messages I get on twitter and think fuck it, next time I’m just doing high fidelity 2.0 just with cishet white female protagonists so no one can tell me I did it wrong since I’m white, cishet, female and I hang out in record stores all the damned time or at least I used to when I was younger and they existed. I never write a diverse cast again. I never write a trans character again because that wasn’t what I wanted to do, I just wanted people to have fun and enjoy a more diverse cast of characters without fans murdering each other over it.

like, that’s what I mean with politics shouldn’t be in fandom that much, not that politics shouldn’t be in fandom spaces/in the media we consume period XD ;)

[fans-to-stans]

Kylie Kingdom

The internet is buzzing with Kylie Jenner fan pages. The largest is Kyliesnapchat on Instagram with 1.8 million people following. These pages can be described as ‘affinity spaces’, where members with similar interests gather to share ideas (Gee, 2017). Furthermore, the Kylie fan pages are a form of ‘Participatory Culture’: According to Henry Jenkins, they are ‘cultures that grow from interest-based interactions and establish norms for contributions and communication’ (Jenkins, 2007). Fans participate by sharing, representing, and expressing their admiration for their idols. For Gen Z these social media fan communities create a sense of connection as well as identity building (Jenkins, 2013; Bermudez et al. 2020). I myself participated by asking fans on the Kylie Jenner Facebook fan pages, how their idol has influenced them. Most of the answers said, she inspired them as a beauty idol, and as a businesswoman. Some fans even stated buying her products, such as user Bivy Moore: ‘I have bought things from her brand, I love her shades, especially her contour.’ Kylie capitalizes her image and fan community into business. Especially Gen Z admirers are influenced by social media celebrities in their appearance (Frangos, 2018). Kylie’s lip enhancements have caused millions of young girls to desire the same artificially shaped lips, which triggered the market demand for lip kits, the original product which Kylie sells, including lipstick and lip liner. Kylie’s use of her fanbase is brilliant: First, she creates a demand for lip augmenting products by showcasing this as the new beauty standard, then she supplies exactly the necessary products with her beauty empire Kylie Cosmetics. However, her influence is not only capitalistic but also to some extent toxic: By setting unrealistically perfect beauty standards for young women, there has been a 43% increase in lip enlargement surgery since 2000, precisely in hyaluronic acid lip fillers, the same treatment Kylie disclosed having (Frangos, 2018). Social media have also played an essential part, for example in April 2015, the #KylieJennerChallenge went viral: a lip challenge where one sucks on a glass to create a vacuum until one’s lips become as plump as Kylies. However, doing so can be dangerous, even causing long term nerve damage. This just illustrates, how far fans are willing to go to emulate their idols. Kylie’s influence is extremely superficial and mostly based on exterior appearance, which also goes hand in hand with a loss of self confidence in young women if they don’t look like the star.

One of the reasons, Kylie made the Forbes list of Americas richest self-made women (Shapiro, 2020) is also due to the smart way she uses her mostly Gen Z fanbase for marketing. On Instagram alone, the almost billionaire has 228 million followers, so it makes sense to do most of her marketing through her internet presence. By posting videos of yet-to-be-released products for example, Kylie gets immediate product feedback from her fans. Through people reposting, sharing and engaging with her posts, she can anticipate the demand and make changes to her goods (D’Arcangelo, 2019). However, using her fans for research without their awareness could also be considered free fan labor. By sharing their opinions, commentary and reviews, fans help create products that address their specific needs, which in turn will prompt them to buy more (De Kosnik, 2021).

References:

Bermudez, R., Cham, K., Galido, L., Tagacay, K. and Luis Clamor, W., 2020. The Filipino “Stan” Phenomenon and Henry Jenkins‟ Participatory Culture: The Case of Generations X and Z. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences, 7(3).

D’Arcangelo, E., 2019. What Kylie Cosmetics is Doing Right With Their Marketing. [Blog] Web Content Development, Available at: <https://www.webcontentdevelopment.com/what-kylie-cosmetics-is-doing-right-with-their-marketing/> [Accessed 17 April 2021].

De Kosnik, A., 2021. Interrogating “Free” Fan Labour. [Blog] Spreadable Media, Available at: <http://spreadablemedia.org/essays/kosnik/index.html#.YIp5gS2w2GQ> [Accessed 17 April 2021].

Frangos, D., 2018. The Kylie Jenner Phenomenon: Emerging Female Celebrity on Social Media. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Gee, J., 2017. Affinity Spaces and 21st Century Learning. Educational Technology, 57(2), pp.27-31.

Jenkins, H., 2007. Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century (Part One). Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 2(1), pp.23-33.

Jenkins, H., 2012. Textual Poachers Television Fans and Participatory Culture. 2nd ed. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.

Shapiro, A., 2020. The Richest Self-Made Women Under 40, Including Rihanna, Maria Sharapova And Kylie Jenner. Forbes, [online] Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielshapiro/2020/10/13/the-richest-self-made-women-under-40-including-rihanna-maria-sharapova-and-kylie-jenner/?sh=278c9dae36b3> [Accessed 20 May 2021].

Images:

Instagram. 2021. Kylie Jenner. [online] Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/kyliejenner/?hl=de> [Accessed 20 April 2021].

[tipsycad147]

How to Cast Spells When You’re New and Unsure

It’s no coincidence that you found this website at this moment in your life. Witches, as well as Alchemists, have always known that great Transformational Powers reach those who are prepared to benefit from them. And the wisest among the wise know that the greatest Power is the one that comes from finding self-knowledge and achieving harmony in life.

A true Witch lives a life full of freedom to Create, has a passionate sense for the mystical world and an endless love for Earth and Nature 🌏. Casting spells is an art that consists of exploring the paths of the Universe, and aims to connect with the infinite source of all ancient wisdom.

How To Cast Spells The Real Way

In this lesson, you will learn:

Introduction

8 Steps to Casting a Magic Spell

In Summary

Extra Tips

What is a Spell?

Do Spells Really Work?

I Don’t Want to be a ‘Witch’, Can I Still Cast Spells at Home?

Rules for Spellcasting

1. Your Altar

2. Safety Measures

3. Invocations and Spiritual Aids

4. Define an Intention

5. Light Your Candles

6. Transformative Meditation

7. Chants, Mantras and Prayers

8. Finishing the Spell

Introduction

What is a Spell?

The word spell is not always well understood. Many people assume that spells involve strange and obscure practices, or that they can only be cast by a few chosen people. So you might be surprised to learn that much of Modern Witchcraft is nothing but an honest, spiritual way to express our desires and intentions.

A spell is a type of ritual in which we guide our mind to achieve a specific purpose. The key to casting spells is to decide what you want to achieve and focus on the right images and words so that they will take you there. In the process of focusing on what you want, you are opening a door to a world where your wish can manifest as a reality. But your willpower and intention must be strong and consistent.

The casting of a spell can be seen as a ritual act that gives start to a movement or a change in the direction you want your life to go. Accordingly, the effort, focus, and energy that you put in casting a spell is a symbol of your dedication to achieve that goal. Like a small sacrifice, we use this moment to give thanks to our Higher Spiritual Being – or Higher Self, a connection that we all have to the Deity – for allowing change to enter our lives.

The secret to this philosophy is to find the perfect balance between your conscious will and the often hidden purposes of your Higher Self. To do this, you must be very clear about what you want. Otherwise, your spellcasting attempts will fail.

Do Spells Really Work?

Thousands of people cast Magic spells every day, not necessarily being psychic, mediums, or experts in Witchcraft. You can create a sacred space for casting spells at home, a personal space in which you will always be happy, calm and safe.

In order to cast spells that really work and change your life not only you must believe that your spells will work, but you must feel empowered to make it so. Feeling capable of fulfilling your desires is one of the most important things to master in order to become a powerful Witch (male or female).

To illustrate this, here’s a simple answer to a common question: “If anyone can get what they want through Magic and spells, then why are not all Witches rich?” 😕

Morgana Rae, author of ‘Financial Alchemy: Twelve Months of Magic and Manifestation’ explains it in simple terms:

“Most of the witches I’ve met have terrible relationships with money,”. This, according to her, is usually due to people not being properly aligned with their inner self. “Spells are worthless if they are not accompanied by inner alignment and forward action,” she adds.

In other words, spells and rituals can open many new doors in your life, but it’s still up to you to walk through those doors and take what you need. Your own confidence and efforts will pay off in the long term if you have faith and stay focused.

I Don’t Want to be a ‘Witch’, Can I Still Cast Spells at Home?

In this guide, we will focus mainly on “At Home Witchcraft”, which is one of the specialties that anyone interested can practice without belonging to a Coven or calling themselves a Witch/Warlock/Sorcerer.

Members of Covens – groups of Witches – have access to teachers, attend preparation courses and meetings, and share their knowledge with each other, constantly expanding their wisdom.

Solitary Witches, on the other hand, must resort to different options to get the same results. For example, studying, thought, prayer and experimentation at home.

Anyone that is studying experimenting with spells or Witchcraft can be called a Witch. If you have any personal beliefs against this word, read Macha NightMare’s essay on Reclaiming the “W” Word, which states:

…most Witches believe that for thousands of years in Europe, the people in a village known as “witches” were highly respected women whom everyone consulted for advice about illness, injury, childbirth, and even emotional troubles. They were mainly women, and they had special knowledge about herbs and various kinds of remedies. They were protectors of human life, and also loved, protected and respected animals and plants. Using the word “Witch,” then, reflects admiration for the role that modern Witches believe these people of ancient times played in the life of their communities and a desire to be like them.

As with any other art of craft, anyone can improve with time and practice. Some people have a natural gift or talent and they will be better at it than others. But in general, anyone can practice Magic to attract what they want into their lives. Whether you want to call yourself a Witch, Warlock, Sorcerer, Sorceress, Wizard, or just Pagan, that’s up to you.

Rules for Spellcasting

The experienced Witch has the Power to control their life and change their destiny through interaction with the Universe, in all its dimensions. To begin to understand how this wisdom works, here are some simple rules that you should know and follow from now on:

Magic is real.

Magic is at the same time an art and an experimental science.

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

Always be careful what you do and what you say.

Keep your spells a secret, or they will not work.

The work is not complete until you put away your tools and clean your space.

Do not harm anyone intentionally.

Everything you send to the Universe, good or bad, will come back to you threefold (Rule of Three).

As you can see, a true Witch should always act ethically and aim to be an educated and mentally active person. After all, it will be your mind that really does all the work, carrying and enforcing the effects of your Magic. For this, you must keep it in constant exercise, training and strengthening your mental capacity. The more you train your mind, the better you become at manifesting your goals.

https://spells8.com/lessons/how-to-cast-spells/

[prangelbaby-blog]

WikiLeaks

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The GiFiles,

Files released: 5543061

The GiFiles

Specified Search



On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

Fwd: [Fwd: [Analytical & Intelligence Comments] Critical Government Intelligence]

Released on 2012-10-19 08:00 GMT

Email-ID1696345Date1970-01-01 01:00:00Frommarko.papic@stratfor.comTobayless.parsley@stratfor.com

Fwd: [Fwd: [Analytical & Intelligence Comments] Critical Government

Intelligence]

wow

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: "Kevin Stech" <kevin.stech@stratfor.com>

To: "Marko Papic" <marko.papic@stratfor.com>, "Matthew Gertken"

<matt.gertken@stratfor.com>, "Lauren Goodrich" <goodrich@stratfor.com>,

"Reva Bhalla" <bhalla@stratfor.com>

Sent: Sunday, December 6, 2009 8:20:42 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central

Subject: [Fwd: [Analytical & Intelligence Comments] Critical Government

Intelligence]

HAHA! Check this shit out!

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: [Analytical & Intelligence Comments] Critical Government

Intelligence

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 02:22:25 -0600 (CST)

From: danroth7@gmail.com

Reply-To: Responses List <responses@stratfor.com>, Analyst List

<analysts@stratfor.com>

To: responses@stratfor.com

Dan Roth sent a message using the contact form at

https://www.stratfor.com/contact.

I think this may help you understand why this planet is scientifically,

environmentally, politically and religiously a disaster.

Several years ago after leaving the armed services I was abducted by Grey

3-6th dimension that are working with Reptilian's, "The Federation". The

Federation is, "a non human NATO type organization", of Greys , Reptilian,

Insectoid, Moth men, (recessive beings like the ones in the movies...mostly

violent and self distrurctive. There are about 42 different type species

of military males in various bases in the United States). Some of the

reptilian bases are in the USA AZ, NM and in the Middle East. You can find

more information on these Orion beings and non earth, non humans discussed in

thousands of contact books, and thousands of Internet sites, (I'm not the

only one who has been abducted). These humanoid beings lie, and manipulate

you until the point of near mental and physical breaking.

The visiting ETs force you into daily decisions that you do not like nor want

to do, by mind and body control using brain MHz control (master manipulators,

even at the point they are abducting and you can not think , i.e.. for your

own good they say). You struggle on a daily basis, they will manipulate

you into buying things you do not need, relationships which are abusive, jobs

you are not wanting, and into alcohol, sex drugs, food, and other abuses for

years, mainly in the name of god mind control by a**Goda**. A case in point

is Los Angles where many succumb through spirituality, religions, dark

recessive behaviors all controlled by the federation. The free will

violations are severe for many who understand and see how these ET societies

control many people.

These Reptilian hybrids and Greys are working with a type of 5th & 6th

dimension Ascended Brotherhood, "communally minded" hive mind society sub

space beings (frequency energy space society beings) controlling many "false"

religions and non human type religious belief systems. Why? A. for

control, so that humans do not go into space to find their ET non human ET

bases, cities and ships. B. Because of our SOULS, this is very complicated

to understand we have a "soul", the soul is a *****[frequency atomic

particle electric formation] that is part of us, but according to all legends

and some modern technology the soul can be taken with the use of high

frequency high voltage technology. The soul is a vestige of our "genetic

pasta** that was a piece in much the same way our reptilian lower brain is,

of another space ET race. There are several types of ET's that can remove

this frequency part of your body, Reptilian, Grey (FALLEN ANGLES "Devils"),

steal it and use it for longevity, for frequency energy, and for their own

race studies just like some ETs do with our DNA ovum and sperm (abduction).

Thousands of very well documented cases around the world. People choose to

ignore this because it sounds far off, this type of information is found in

thousands of mythology and factual alien abduction accounts, my account, and

in all religious texts. C. For DNA, and because DNA is a resource, life

for them, as is the soul and in many real medical ways!

The Federation, White brotherhood, Reptilian's, Grays (Fallen Angles),

Ascended Masters, Ashatar, Midwayers, Draco's, Draconian's, Raelians all of

these ET recessive demonic and dogmatic societies recruit people aggressively

from dark religions; The Art of Living, the illuminati, Jesus demonic cults,

Scientology, Raelians, Cults in general, Islamic Religions, Voodoo and

African Botanic cults and many more religions, too numerous to list, they

choose and influence people like puppets and then some, to govern us! The

Greys are some of the most hive minded and dogmatic of the societies

interacting with the earth and near space i.e. Mars!

This is important... Religion is a legend, *some are factual most are not*, a

construct written by various non human inter dimensional recessive dogmatic

ET races and by some not so well educated semi-primitive humans, it is very

misleading and troublesome. Religion does not help us solve our problems of

global warming, cancers, defense against recessive ET's, economy...instead

religion focuses on a construct which is incoherent. Jesus and god will

help,* neither can be further from the truth (the bible, Koran, Buddha Vedic

texts etc. are full of wars initiated by; ET type "gods"** non human ET"S

never helping but instead killing humans, WWII greys w/ Nazis. The earth is

in the worst condition ever as is the human race. Read the newspapers....and

neither Jesus, god nor Buddha is helping us. The churches are filled with

pedophile, (Catholic and Christian churches i.e. USA arch diocese settling

for billions of dollars and others, Evangelist Tony Alamo for raping young

girls (in the news), "THE LORD IS IN CHARGE" mind control etc. Ex-cons, dumb

human beings mind controlled people fill our religious and spiritual

organizations. Social studies, social support and human directed

initiatives are a need, and we are being blinded my mind controlling ET"S.

Many people who study history in detail will read about how the church

enslaved many cultures to kill, rape, torture and tap into banking and

world currencies. The Spaniards (grey ETs managed) in the holy conquistador

wars, the Israeli zealots against their neighboring humans, and the Nazi

(Grey) occult war of WWII, the Mormon cults (influenced by recessive greys)

hurting, raping under age girls and on and on. The majority of religious

people are good, they just do not understand and many will not listen to the

history in their own bibles, the Vatican, and teachings who all speak of

extra-terrestrials and human strife war and control. Many choose to believe

god is good, study the bible killings, war, human suffering, rapes,

destruction this is crazy stuff!

I was taken to the "Federation" caves by partial physical barely visible in

our spectrum..beings. I used infrared/spectrum lenses goggles to see them (

to detect different light frequency ETs), including a type of sub-space

being, as the attacks went on I compensated as much as I could. Regressive

Sub-Space Beings working with Greys, called the White Brotherhood are the

culprits. After my life threatening experiences of many years I learned from

the Greys themselves buy watching and studying as I was being pulled, (they

abducted me for sperm surgical removal, as they do with women's eggs all

around the world). This is what I know to be true: WE AND OUR CHILDREN MUST

BEGAIN TO ARM AND DEFEND OURSELVES AGAINST THESE BEINGS, PRAYING, RELIGIONS

AND AFRICAN VODOO ARE NOT REAL, AND SOME WHO TRY TO PRAY, IN A CRISES, TO

GOD ARE GOING TO KEEP GETTING CONTROLLED!

If you are religious why would, if god did exist harm the pontiff? Hurt

the popes by giving them parkinsonism, harm them with neurological disorders

and knock them down and fracture their arms as was done with the current

pope...these are harmful violent extra terrestrials !!

1). All extra-terrestrials are physical carbon based, silicon based,

molecular based beings, atomic frequency based (ALL), including the ones who

use magnetic field technology to cloak themselves, to travel, and as weapons

and to appear as a human. Many of the non human ET's live for 100's of years,

some sub space C=H types live for thousands of years. Many sub space

(frequency energy beings) and many space beings are capable of low MHz

telepathy 3-19 MHz and more importantly of astral body take over (soul

frequency intrusion), seen on many movies as a form of possession or

a**demonic slavery", having various levels of free will, to no free will at

all, some religious leaders are seen as having little to no movement and

lethargic speech they are in a controlled state of living! This state of

being, who some believe can be resolved with exorcism or removing the

controlling soul frequency, is associated with constant pains, muscle

spasms, body manipulations and mind control... Tazer or mild electric shocks

may force the invaders control away, RF and microwaves also have an effect,

red light therapy also works after many months. Battling these demonic ETs

is very difficult, you need brain MHz, (thinking frequency consciousness

protection) protection discussed below. a**Ghostsa** or ET beings are at a

different MHz then human beings, often they make noises to get our attention,

we do not see them at these invisible to the naked eye frequencies use

infrared and other goggles.

To clarify the a**soula**,a** frequency atomic and sub atomic

energiesa**..... The planet is processed in various energy frequency fields

measured in MHz (consciousness). We think in MHz energy, watch T.V. in MHz,

listen to music, video, Speak in MHz and live in MHz thus we are controlled

and are MHz energy too. So some very intelligent people see and believe in

ghosts, elementals, space soul beings, ETs etc. Some people get cold in

some areas or when some soul beings are around, these space MHz atomic beings

a**steala**, take your energy. Another way to understand this is, how many

times do you eat per day and why? The food is converted into energy and

heat, when you encounter a** a ghosta** [ soul frequency being], it feeds

off your energy!! Millions of people do not sleep well, get headaches,

can not concentrate...they are bathed in frequencies from hundreds of

sources, the soul, brain and body never rest. Shield yourself!

Bringers of the Dawn: a**Some entities, in the process of their own

evolution, began to discover that as they created life and put consciousness

into things through modulating the frequencies of forms of consciousness,

they could feed themselves; they could keep themselves in charge. They began

to Figure out that this is how Prime Creator nourished itself. Prime Creator

sends out others to create an electromagnetic frequency of consciousness as a

food source for itself.

The new owners of this planet had a different appetite and different

preferences than the former owners. They nourished themselves with chaos and

fear. These things fed them, stimulated them, and kept them in power. a**

Barbara Marciniak, Bringers of the Dawn. Human beings are a trapped and

stable MHz frequency being...

The Reptiliana**s (1995) are coming back to raid you again because they

don't want to starve,"the federation frequency maywaresa**. They understand

that there is "systems busting" going on through you (Pleiadian) , so they

are here to create greater havoc and fear, to fight once again for this

territory. Their food source is important to them. They are losing control

of the planet, so they are going back to their prime portal in the Middle

East through war, where their nest is located underneath the ground

(Reptilian), to create fear and chaos.....

Barbara Marciniak 1995.

The weapons I have seen people subjected too are: Mind control, frequency

signal control i.e. "the tower of babble", around the world the transmitters

are hidden in caves, and beamed in by Grey satellite. This weapon seen by

myself is difficult to describe it is a multi layer mist like carpet which

contains both chemical and magnetic frequency structures in it. This plasma

mist weapon is launched from the UFO and has electrical MHz stinging

properties to it, I noticed that high intensity fire collapses the mist

field. It has been shown by some **Crop Circle researchers that some crop

circles have similar frequency field misting technology.

Some of the "orbs", glowing ones seen are either weapons with lasers or

frequency attack projections or are recording your brains thoughts 5-80 MHz

and sending the

info. to the reptilian greys... We humans desperately need better more

advanced detection in the areas of detecting magnetic crafts in our

atmosphere ( non USA saucers), frequency control detection, field

technologies, laser detection and better weapons, better armed military, guns

do not work against some space midwayer frequency beings! High energy

chemical lasers do, **RF lasers do, some stable plasmon technologies work.

Some of these technologies can be detected with Geiger counters, and

magnetic field detectors sold "on line", directional is preferred..also

passive radar detecting magnetic changes in our atmosphere and around our

homes find the electrical devices on them, and around them in their nearby

craft. **For your homes and cars..some of the Grey and reptilian devices can

be disrupted by MHz frequency devices built at home, someone could make a

small fortune selling better portable particle, frequency, and wave detection

and disruption devices for our pockets. ** High voltage tazer weapons work

very well. Hand held powerful battery operated magnets, in close proximity

can interfere with grey technologies, the size of a cell phone, need to be

mass marketed for our protection. Magnetic shielding paint can shield a room

[sciencespies]

Who Were America's Enslaved? A New Database Humanizes the Names Behind the Numbers

https://sciencespies.com/history/who-were-americas-enslaved-a-new-database-humanizes-the-names-behind-the-numbers/

Who Were America's Enslaved? A New Database Humanizes the Names Behind the Numbers

The night before Christmas in 1836, an enslaved man named Jim made final preparations for his escape. As his enslavers, the Roberts family of Charlotte County, Virginia, celebrated the holiday, Jim fled west to Kanawha County, where his wife’s enslaver, Joseph Friend, had recently moved. Two years had passed without Jim’s capture when Thomas Roberts published a runaway ad pledging $200 (around $5,600 today) for the 38- to 40-year-old’s return.

“Jim is … six feet or upwards high, tolerably spare made, dark complexion, has rather an unpleasant countenance,” wrote Roberts in the January 5, 1839, issue of the Richmond Enquirer. “[O]ne of his legs is smaller than the other, he limps a little as he walks—he is a good blacksmith, works with his left hand to the hammer.”

In his advertisement, Roberts admits that Jim may have obtained free papers, but beyond that, Jim’s fate, and that of his wife, is lost to history.

Fragments of stories like Jim’s—of lives lived under duress, in the framework of an inhumane system whose aftershocks continue to shape the United States—are scattered across archives, libraries, museums, historical societies, databases and countless other repositories, many of which remain uncatalogued and undigitized. All too often, scholars pick up loose threads like Jim’s, incomplete narratives that struggle to be sewn together despite the wealth of information available.

Enslaved: Peoples of the Historic Slave Trade, a newly launched digital database featuring 613,458 entries (and counting), seeks to streamline the research process by placing dozens of complex datasets in conservation with each other. If, for instance, a user searches for a woman whose transport to the Americas is documented in one database but whose later life is recorded in another, the portal can connect these details and synthesize them.

“We have these data sets, which have a lot of specific information taken in a particular way, [in] fragments,” says Daryle Williams, a historian at the University of Maryland and one of the project’s principal investigators. “… [If] you put enough fragments together and you put them together by name, by place, by chronology, you begin to have pieces of lives, which were lived in a whole way, even with the violence and the disruptions and the distortions of enslavement itself. We [can] begin then to construct or at least understand a narrative life.”

“I love that [the portal] really educates people on how to read the record,” says Mary N. Elliott, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

(Enslaved.org)

Funded through a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Enslaved.org—described by its creators as a “linked open data platform” featuring information on people, events and places involved in the transatlantic slave trade—marks the culmination of almost ten years of work by Williams and fellow principal investigators Walter Hawthorne, a historian at Michigan State University, and Dean Rehberger, director of Michigan State’s Matrix Center for Digital Humanities & Social Sciences.

Originally, the team conceived Enslaved.org as a space to simply house these different datasets, from baptismal records to runaway ads, ship manifests, bills of sale and emancipation documents. But, as Rehberger explains, “It became a project about how we can get datasets to interact with one another so that you can draw broader conclusions about slavery. … We’re going in there and grabbing all that data and trying to make sense of it, not just give [users] a whole long list of things.”

The project’s first phase launched earlier this month with searchable data from seven partner portals, including Slave Voyages, the Louisiana Slave Database and Legacies of British Slave-Ownership. Another 30 databases will be added over the next year, and the team expects the site to continue to grow for years to come. Museums, libraries, archives, historical societies, genealogy groups and individuals alike are encouraged to submit relevant materials for review and potential inclusion.

***

To fulfill the “important obligation” of involving researchers of all types and education levels, the scholars made their platform “as familiar and unintimidating as possible,” according to Williams. Users who arrive without specific research goals in mind can explore records grouped by categories as ethnicity or age, browse 75 biographies of both prominent enslaved and free people and lesser-known ones, and visualize trends using a customizable dashboard. Researchers, amateur genealogists and curious members of the public, meanwhile, can use Enslaved.org to trace family histories, download peer-reviewed datasets, and craft narratives about some of the 12.5 million enslaved Africans transported to the New World between the 16th and 19th centuries.

At its core, says Rehberger, Enslaved.org is a “discovery tool. We want you to be able to find all these different records that have traditionally been out in these silos, and bring them together in the hope that people can then reconstruct what’s there.”

Albumen print of enslaved women and their children near Alexandria, Virginia, in 1861 or 1862

(Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)

Mary N. Elliott, curator of American slavery at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, emphasizes the project’s potential to help the public “understand [history] in more nuanced and personalized, humanized ways.” Reflecting on the creation of the museum’s “Slavery and Freedom” exhibition, she recalls, “One of the things that people said was ‘Oh, there’s only so much you can say about the lives of enslaved people during the early period. There’s nothing that they wrote.’” But as both Elliott and the team behind the web portal point out, archival records—when read correctly—can convey a strong sense of lived experiences.

Some of the sources featured in the database “have the enslaved person speaking, or at least someone writing down what they said, or something close to their physical presence,” Williams says. By weaving these threads of information together, he adds, contemporary observers can gain a sense of everything from enslaved people’s personal sentiments to how the official record may obscure the reality of their lived experiences.

Individuals looking for stories of their own family history may end up empty-handed (for now) but still come across records that inform their understanding of the brutal reality of enslavement. If, for instance, someone searching for their great-great uncle Harry comes across a runaway ad for Ned, an enslaved man who lived in the same area around the same time, they might dismiss it as unrelated. “But if you look at Ned’s story, you start to read the record, and you [see] that he has a scar over his eye. He ran away twice before,” Elliott says. “He’s probably running toward his loved ones. … It tells you about how he had the ability to run away twice. And is this plantation near the one my family was enslaved at? And I wonder where he got that scar.”

For people to “read the record, in a way that they understand the humanity of African Americans under the most inhumane circumstances,” is key, the curator continues. “You’re not reading it for the sake of reading. You’re really connecting with this … man who [had] something traumatic happen to him within the framework of slavery.”

***

Enslaved.org traces its origins to the 2000s, when Hawthorne was researching a book on the flow of enslaved people from two ports in West Africa. Drawing on an archive of Brazilian state inventories, which listed enslaved Africans as property whose value was based on factors such as age and skills, he created a database with demographic information on some 9,000 individuals. This broad swath of data allowed the historian to run statistical analyses about patterns of enslavement, including “Where were people coming from? … Can I zero it down to a particular place? What … were they bringing with them across the ocean? What foods did they eat? How did they worship?”

Hawthorne adds, “You begin to see people coming [to the Americas] not as generalized Africans, … but as Balanta, as Mandinka, as Fulani, as Hausa, people who come with specific cultural assumptions, with specific religious beliefs. What did they preserve from the place [where] they came? What did they have to abandon based on the conditions in the Americas?”

In 2010, Hawthorne partnered with Rehberger and historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, who had created a similar portal featuring 107,000 records of enslaved individuals in Louisiana, to build a digital repository for both datasets. Funded through a $99,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the resulting project, Slave Biographies: The Atlantic Database Network, laid the groundwork for Enslaved.org, a site capable of not only housing dozens of datasets but also placing them in interaction with each other.

Bill of sale with two transactions for an enslaved man named Joe or Joseph

(NMAAHC / Gift of the Liljenquist Family)

A decade ago, computing technology hadn’t advanced enough to interpret data on the scale used by Enslaved.org. Today, however, researchers can use semantic triples—three-part sentences that “define a particular moment,” like “Maria was baptized in 1833” or “Maria got married in 1855,” according to Rehberger—to create vast “triplestores” filled with linked information. Here, the site can parse out Maria, the religious rite (baptism or marriage), and the year as three distinct bits of data.

“I often think of … ripping apart the dataset into little bits and pieces of paper, and then taking a thread and trying to thread and bring them back together again,” Rehberger says. “That, in a sense, is what we’re trying to do.”

***

As Hawthorne notes, the team is still “in the early days of our project,” If an individual enters their family name in the search bar in the near future, they likely won’t find anything. “It’s possible that you will,” he adds, “but certainly as this project grows and expands, as more and more scholars and members of the public contribute, those possibilities [open] up.”

Enslaved.org welcomes data compiled by the public, but Williams emphasizes that the researchers aren’t “exactly crowdsourcing.” All submissions will undergo two levels of review; scholars can also submit their datasets to the portal’s peer-reviewed Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation. Another option for individuals with an interest in unearthing these kinds of hidden histories is to volunteer at local historical associations and museums, which can then collaborate directly with the Enslaved.org team.

The project’s launch earlier this month arrives at a pivotal point in the nation’s history. “We’re in a moment right now, of interest in slavery and slave histories and slave names, slave biographies,” Williams says. “It’s also a social and racial justice moment, … a family history, genealogy curiosity moment.”

One of Enslaved.org’s strengths, says Elliott, is its ability to map current events onto the past. Though the database’s focus is enslaved people, it also contains information on enslavers and individuals who participated in the historical slave trade. Slavery involved “all these different actors,” the curator explains. “And that’s vastly important, because it’s so easy for people to segregate this history. But … you cannot look at a bill of sale and [say] it’s only a black person on that document. Guess who signed it? The seller and the purchaser. [And] there’s a witness.”

By focusing on individuals rather than the overwhelming—and often unfathomable—numbers that tend to dominate discussions of slavery, the team hopes to restore once-anonymous figures’ identities and deepen the public’s understanding of the transatlantic slave trade.

“There’s a lot of power to reading about individuals as opposed to populations of people,” Hawthorne says. “If you look through the datasets, every single entry is a named individual. And there’s a lot of power to that, to thinking about Atlantic slavery, slavery in the American South, as being about individuals, about individual struggles under this incredibly violent institution.”

#History

[johanimationcastillo]

Annotated Bibliography

Anderegg, R., Ciccone, L. and Sumner, R. W. (2018) ‘Puppetphone: Puppeteering virtual characters using a smartphone’, Proceedings - MIG 2018: ACM SIGGRAPH Conference on Motion, Interaction, and Games. doi: 10.1145/3274247.3274511. This research aims to take advantage of the sensors of the portable screens, the camera, the accelerator, and the gyroscope. The researchers proposed a new interaction system called MotionBeam by which users could manipulate characters on their smartphone with orientation information in real space. A MonitionStick metaphor was used, which allowed seven types of animations: idle walk, run, idle crouched, walking crouched, get up, and mid-jump. The use of the system was demonstrated employing Augmented Reality in an iPhone X, it was implemented using Unity and various system libraries. The aforementioned research is appealing because it contributes to the ease of the animation process, not only in video games but also for puppeteering as it is simpler and affordable. I am very interested in stop motion, thus this system may be a way to reaching fast engaging animations. Carlier, A. et al. (2020) ‘DeepSVG: A Hierarchical Generative Network for Vector Graphics Animation’, (NeurIPS 2020). Available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/2007.11301. This recent study on vector graphics analyse generative models for scalable vector graphics (SVG), which could serve artists to generate, manipulate, and animate vector graphics, potentially enhancing their results. The study has contributed to discovering that it is possible to rebuild vector graphics. The study pointed out that using interpolation in keyframes helps to generate frames in-between combined with shape morphing. The study indicated that SVG graphics allows meaningful animations between complex vector animations. From my perspective, the SVG study has the potential of simplifying the animation process, in terms of 2D animation.  It useful to know that vector animation is not imprecise. To sum up, it is convenient to know that vector graphics are advantageous because as a graphic designer and animator, I use vector graphs as a shortcut in my workflow to animate.   Chansavang, A. et al. (2018) ‘Puppet animation with textured billboards’, 2018 International Workshop on Advanced Image Technology, IWAIT 2018, pp. 1–4. doi: 10.1109/IWAIT.2018.8369757. This study develops a system for keyframe flat articulated puppets focusing on intuitive animation. The system was assembled using a game engine harnessing the advantages of 3D for rendering. This system was used in an animation inspired by the Indonesian shadow puppet art of Wayang Kuilt. Shadow puppet is a form of art that uses flat articulated figures as puppets which allowed to render the film in high-resolution textures. The study indicates that the Waku system is quicker to learn than other animation systems. Consequently, animators could easily produce high-quality cut-out animations. From my perspective, the Waku system may open the boundaries in animation by allowing animators to experiment with different textures to reach faster quality animations. It is appealing how the researchers used crafted work combined with a state-of-the-art rendering engine for edition. This method matches my way of animating, persevering the quality without abandoning artistic value. Chen, S. Y. et al. (2018) ‘An investigation of the development of an animated E-book: A gender difference approach’, Computers in Human Behavior, 88(August 2017), pp. 28–36. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2018.06.018. In this double study, researchers develop a versatile animated E-book for women and men. The preliminary study was focused on how men and women reacted to the prototypes, one version contained ten pages with images combined with texts, the second contained animations that in total lasted five minutes. The results of the first study showed that there were differences in the way that both sexes interacted with the prototype of the animated E-book system (PAES). Based on the preliminary results, the animated E-Book system AES was developed, the results suggested a guide for the design and development of E-books. The aforementioned research caught my attention because it uses research and animation as tools for developing an E-book with a gender difference approach. In my animations, I always integrate scientific knowledge based on real concepts, therefore I am interested in developing educational tools with interactive uses. Chiriacescu, B. et al. (2020) ‘Whiteboard animation - A tool for teaching the special theory of relativity’, AIP Conference Proceedings, 2218(March). doi: 10.1063/5.0001535. A recent study uses whiteboard-style animations to help students understand physics and to encourage them to study it. Researchers aimed to simplify the learning and teaching of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity so that students do not feel overwhelmed by the study of physics. The whiteboard animation method according to the article is a digital instrument that uses short video to narrate a story, meanwhile, the images appear accordingly. The study claims that the conceptual approach and the use of dynamic tools for conveying information increase the interest of the students in the study of physics and leads to more effective learning. This study stood out because having previously made didactic material using different media. It is remarkable how the animators used the whiteboard technique of animation as a useful tool for educational purposes would be to know that there are effective alternatives for developing didactic material in 2D. Dvorožňák, M. et al. (2017) ‘Example-based expressive animation of 2D rigid bodies’, ACM Transactions on Graphics, 36(4). doi: 10.1145/3072959.3073611. This study sought to discover how rigid objects can be animated faster and efficiently in 2D. The study took advantage of the expressiveness of hand-drawn animation to simulate complex animations of rigid objects, such as geometric figures, without repeating the drawing process. To achieve the objective, systematic parametric algorithms were used to preserve the animation style of a traditional animator, avoiding results that lacked expressiveness, such as those obtained with computer simulators. A combination of Matlab / C ++ code and an integrated plugin within TV Paint Animation were used. The study showed a marked reduction of manual labour in the creation of 2D animations of rigid objects. This study is relevant because of the added plugins in the animation software TV Paint, these shortcuts to animate geometric figures similar to the plugins in after effects contribute to improve the workflow. As an animator is crucial to be updated on animation tools to harness their potential. Husinsky, M. and Bruckner, F. (2018) ‘Virtual Stage: Interactive Puppeteering in Mixed Reality’, 2018 IEEE 1st Workshop on Animation in Virtual and Augmented Environments, ANIVAE 2018, (March). doi: 10.1109/ANIVAE.2018.8587270. An experiment conducted in a university, mixed reality using interactive animation with standard technology, reality (VR), and depth-based cameras. The study indicates that these digital items could be implemented as a low-cost virtual stage with VR. Researchers combined character animations using natural interfaces to achieve similar effects to theatre puppets. For this study, puppets and stages were designed in a cartoon style with the purpose of reducing the level of complexity of creating 3D models. They used a digital stage controlled by a single PC computer, combining a green studio, a live recording full-HD video camera with HD-SDI output, HTC Vive Vr SYSTEM, and kINECTv2. Cut-out characters in LeapMotion were animated. The study shows the potential to create animations with real people interacting with characters with less production editing in animation, which certainly is a considerable advantage. I have never applied this technology, although I use cut-outs in my animations too.   Jain, E. et al. (2012) ‘Three-dimensional proxies for hand-drawn characters’, ACM Transactions on Graphics, 31(1). doi: 10.1145/2077341.2077349. This study stated that options for animation are miscellaneous. Nonetheless, each technique has its own benefits and disadvantages regarding creating captivating animation. Challenges exist in both 3D and 2D animation. The aforementioned author analysed and identified intermediary 3D proxies to intertwine traditional hand-drawn animation with 3D computer animation. By using these proxies in three levels and different shapes, hierarchically, it was discovered that it is possible to harness the advantages from 2D to animate a character in 3D. The contribution of 2D to polish a 3D unnatural posing (stiffness) was a significant breakthrough, which I would like to use for realistic motions. It could be argued that the use of 2D is consistent even at the present to backup 3D. However, each technique has a range of possibilities, 2D could also be integrated as part of the film which, is what I intend to do in my work. R.Lee, V. (2015) ‘Combinig High-Speed Cameras and Stop Motion Animation Software to Support Students’ Modeling of Human Body Movement’, Journal of Science Education and Technology, 24, pp. 178–191. doi: 10.1007/s. This study on human biomechanics suggests that high-speed cameras might be used as an innovative method for teaching and learning in the practices of modeling. To prove the hypothesis, an experiment was carried out in a classroom. Students worked with high-speed cameras and stop-motion software. Students were able to produce dynamic models of human movements. The experiment indicated that students improved significantly their human representations in animation by combining digital technologies with teaching support. The fact that technological devices can be used to improve perception skills in animators, was appealing to me because, although I use a camera for my animations, I have never used a high-speed camera to hone my drawing skills and to enhance my animations. Combining high-speed cameras with animation software may be effective because these cameras are able to capture movements that at first sight animators could lose.   Barnes, S. R. (2019) ‘Studies in the efficacy of motion graphics: the relation between expository motion graphics and the presence of naïve realism’, Visual Communication, 18(1), pp. 135–158. doi: 10.1177/1470357217739223. This study evaluates the efficacy of motion graphics (MG), between the relationship of expository MG and the presence of naive realism. Researchers explored how viewers interact with expository motion graphics, based on two theories, Naïve realism which focuses on interaction and people’s visual experience with an MG, and Cognitive load theory which shows how people process information when interacting with MG. Variables such as intuition and exposure were used to analyze the learning and usefulness of MG. Four MG displays were tested with a sample of eighty-two students, two high fidelity graphics, and two low fidelity. The study suggests that although clutters make MG attractive, excessive details are detrimental to the viewer's memorization. In my perspective, this study is relevant to effectively use of MG content in order to influence the viewer’s intuitions. I have never thought that less is more in animation but this research made me reflect. Sujar, A. et al. (2018) ‘Real-time animation of human characters’ anatomy’, Computers and Graphics (Pergamon), 74, pp. 268–277. doi: 10.1016/j.cag.2018.05.025. This study aims to improve 3D medical simulators so that the poses and anatomy of the 3D subject adapt better to the requirements of the practitioner in a medical procedure. The method used for the development of this 3D simulator did not follow the classic model of inserting the bones first to the 3D subject. Alternatively, the researchers used the virtual skeleton (DoFs) to compute the displacement which is employed to transform the character anatomy and internal tissue. The skeleton models were transferred to the volumetric mesh using forefront skinning techniques and transforming tetrahedrons were used to define the deformation area animating the tissue models. This study is interesting because it is at the forefront of 3D in the development of medicine digital models. In the past I have developed similar didactic content for supporting the teaching of anatomy, this research is a good indicator for what are the most recent technological innovation in animation to support medicine. So, W. C. et al. (2016) ‘Using robot animation to promote gestural skills in children with autism spectrum disorders’, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 32(6), pp. 632–646. doi: 10.1111/jcal.12159. This study sought to promote gesture skills in children with a spectrum of autism disorder. Researchers taught children with low functional ASD gestural comprehension and production using a computer-generated VM video modeling robot. Twenty Chinese-speaking children with autism were assessed in this study. The study was conducted at Hong Chi Morninghill School in three stages, each stage had a pre-test and a post-test. Daily life use gestures were taught in this intervention program while a camera placed in front of the evaluated children captured their responses and hand movements while they mimicked the movements. The study demonstrated a significant increase in the number of recognizable gestures. This article contributes to expanding the uses and knowledge of animation in other areas to develop compelling and useful animations. It was interesting to know how simple animations may represent a successful medium for teaching people with impairments. Schulz, T., Torresen, J. and Herstad, J. (2018) ‘Animation techniques in Human-Robot Interaction user studies: A systematic literature review’, arXiv, 8(2). doi: 10.1145/3317325. This research develops a program to harness the melodic information of music to create an expressive animation of a robot. The program was used in two applications. It was first applied to the robot arm and consequently to a humanoid. To apply the movement the system took the sound of inputs and outputs, in a set of instructions for the robot, the system used the tempo and the volume of the notes of a musical piece. The information was transformed into text echoed in MIDI format, the information corresponding to the song was used in XML format using an MDI converter called MuseE. Finally, the results indicated that the robot's movements were more expressive and dynamic. Although, the mentioned study was developed on a real robot, It is remarkable as it could help automate 3D and 2D animations. The information from audio in XML format may be programmed in the characters. Zhang, Y., Wu, Z. and Wang, X. (2020) ‘Dynamic disk B-spline curves’, Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds, 31(4–5), pp. 1–14. doi: 10.1002/cav.1955. A recent study proposes a method to improve the B-spline curve (DBSC) used in 2D. The method is based on the physics of dynamics which is an extension of traditional B-spline in the time domain. Researchers developed a mathematical study of equations to present a D-DBSC physics simulation system based on the finite difference method. Generally, animators use DBSC for physics-based animation, as in the case of deformation. Nevertheless, in this case, it is necessary to manually change the curve shape frame by frame to generate a realistic simulation that involves a long work. The D-DBSC method showed a significant improvement over the DBSC geometric modeling method, so it would be a useful method for 2D dynamic geometric modeling. This study could be a promising and successful tool for speeding up the workflow in 2D traditional animation. As an animator, I would like to automatize the spline curves using extensions like those available in after-effects based on my experience. Zheng, H., Branch, R. M. and Lee, H. (2019) ‘Creating Animated Videos as an Innovative Instructional Alternative to Writing Essays for Presenting Research’, pp. 533–542. This study was implemented in 17 participant students of a research project called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). The aim was to investigate the potential of animated videos as an innovative method for writing research essays and to know their impact on students. To develop this experiment, the students used a free tool called Vyond, which contains templates ready to use with scenes, backgrounds, characters, effects, and voices. Alternatively, they could use the text-to-speech technology of the program that automatically transforms texts into speeches. The study suggested that most of the students displayed a strong communicative ability to express their ideas. Nevertheless, other students faced difficulties because of a lack of experience in animation. The study is remarkable because of the assessment of the free animation software as an innovative educative tool, as an animator, it is important to be updated about the software available and its possible threats and opportunities.

[rheterophobia-blog]

i really believe that not all experiences need a name or need to be categorized or nominally distinguished, aside from actual psychological researchers who have the knowledge/experience to explore the field.

i think a lot of what gets discussed in individualistic, identity-focused tumblr is the validity of experiences, and the feeling of otherness from what we perceive to be “normal.” i do believe that physical attraction, emotional attraction, romantic attraction, platonic attraction, sensual attraction, sexual attraction, aesthetic attraction, are real; i do believe that there are people who only experience sexual attraction after forming an emotional bond, that there are people with extremely low libidos (not the same as sexual attraction but MAY affect it), that there are people who just generally find it attractive when someone rattles off something intelligent.

my perception of all of these things, of the discourse and labeling identities however, makes it seem that we rely on categorization and social identities to identities that are not really socialized. the reason sociologically-recognized identities exist is not because we as individuals first chose to label our identity in the realm of society; but because most if not all of the time, oppressors are the ones who separate us. social identities would not matter, much less exist, if there is not someone in power to determine that some aspect of another person’s identity is important in how they should be treated.

this is, of course, an extremely loose and abstract definition of oppression. but my point is that social identities and thus labels do not exist because the INDIVIDUAL chooses to name their experience. it is because someone ELSE has decided that some either visible or materialistic aspect of another person has any factor in how they should be treated. OPPRESSORS name and label social identities. activist groups and progressive socialism reclaims the Othering in order to dismantle hierarchical capitalist power.

and i could go into what this means in the context of capitalism and materialism, etc. but my point is that social identities and labeling them do not arise from the individual’s experiences of them. experiences do not need names. why? because everyone’s experiences are going to be different. it doesn’t matter what you have in common, because everyone leads different lives, everyone processes things differently, your past experiences affect your present experiences in a way that no one else will understand, etc. all those attractions i listed exist, but there are tons more, factors and types of attractions we can’t quite name, and trying to locate and categorize all of them would have your entire life dedicated to self-psychoanalysis. experiences do not need to be distinguished if they are not reflective of a social position.

you can be validated in your experiences, you can be sure in your experiences, you can be proud in your experiences, without labeling them.

the reason label-identity politics exist in society is not because of the individual experience, but the social perception. men and women are not separated and labeled because we did not decided that there was only a binary way of experiencing and identifying gender. men and women are separated and labeled because there comes a social perception when you are a man, from your body to your strength to your interaction with other men to your work ethic etc. same goes for women. the social perception of gender identity - not how each individual interacts with their gender identity, but why it exists in the first place - comes not from the individual, internal experience one has with their gender, but externally, what it implies about your work ethic/health/intelligence etc and/or what it implies about what you can contribute to society. social labels do not exist based on the individual experience. social labels exist because we as humans have chosen to categorize human beings by their contribution to society, because western christianity is hellbent on dividing the world into good and bad, because the history and evolution of society has arbitrarily (and i mean this from a humanist perspective) categorized us. 

names for identities exist because society has deemed it a requirement. not based on experience. categorization lies in a social perspective. if you have a feeling you don’t know the name of, you can still experience it and embrace it (as long as it isn’t harmful to others) without needing to give it a name. labels are only required when there is a capitalistic differentiation from others.

and i’m going to use wlw as an example, because i’m a wlw. and there are other wlw! and the reason we have this label is because not only from a shared experience, but because we are (or should be) socially recognized as women who do not strictly uphold a heteronormative standard because of our interest and love of women. but this is not an experience - it’s a social perception.

and yet, all of our experiences as wlw are different. i mean, first of all there are lesbian and bi wlw. and while wlw basically means a woman who is attracted to women, there are a lot of factors in here: a) what makes a woman attractive? her personality? her intelligence? her physicality?; b) an arbitrary quantity of attraction, but basically all wlw will have a different experience in the “amount” and “frequency” of attraction they face; c) what is desired when a wlw is attracted to a woman; d) if a wlw is currently attracted to a woman or in a relationship; e) a wlw’s individual experience of having known all along or discovered it when they were older; f) a wlw’s presentation and body image on what it means to be a wlw and to/if indicate it through social presentation; g) and what that social presentation actually entails; and so on and so forth. 

all of these experiences are highly unique, because people are highly unique! and some of them are even discussed within wlw spaces!!! but they are not all named (w the exception of butch/femme lesbians, but this is due to the social perception within the lesbian community), because while some of these experiences are shared because the way wlw (and basically every other demographic) are treated in society is baseline a requirement for wlw to be distinguished in the first place and thus having common experiences, so many factors like family and education and early life and cognitive functioning and personality are still going to make each of these experiences different in some way. 

my point is: discussion of experiences is fine. but experiences do not need to be named. the only reason identity labels exist is not because of shared experience, but because of social/capitalist perception of a human being regardless of their experiences

[beauxbutterflies-blog]

Reading 2: Introduction

Design and knowledge

By Fanni Perälä, 29.9.2019

Introduction

The subject of design and knowledge floats somewhere between perception, conscious and unconscious and cultural time and space. According to Johanna Drucker based on her text ‘Graphesis. Visual Forms of Knowledge Production’, study and understanding of the visual forms of information as independet field has developed only recently since for long time it had been seen only as a method to convey information of other fields of study. Though the systematic use of images and graphic elements have created standards and consensus for example in the fields of architecture and cartography or the aestethics of ornaments, the principles of graphics were established only in the 19th century whereas the rules of language, mathematics and music have existed thousands of years. 

Even today design is often seen as something secondary, a mere package to deliver the actual content, even though we well know how the medium, style, images etc. affect our perception and decision making. In his text ‘Man in the Middle’ C. W. Mills describes how we live in a “second-hand world“. He says “between the human consciousness and material existence stand communications and designs, patterns and values which influence decisively such consciousness as they have“. Or as James Gleick in his ‘The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood’ part called ‘Into the Meme pool’ quite frankly puts it: “We are seldom in charge of our own minds“. 

Designer is the key factor working in the midst of all this, in the unity of arts, science and learning – the cultural apparatus as C. W. Mills calls it – in a very capitalist set up. He describes the dilemma of the designers of the 50’s: “They cannot consider well their position or formulate their credo without considering both cultural and economic trends, and the shaping of the total society in which these are occurring.“ which is highly relatable for the designers of today as well, i think. Gleick describes the idea of Dawkins of these trends being devided into even smaller micro-trends called memes that spread by imitation and create these somewhat independent phenomena and by that yet another layer to the net in which the designer should navigate in. I feel Mills has kind of bleak perception of the role of a designer in between pressure of commercialism and creation as he describes designers task as “concealing the weight and quality of what is for sale; confusing the consumer’s choice and banalizing her sensibilities“. 

I guess to the point where our work is visualizing things and qualities in different media it can be also about creating an illusion. With the tools and knowledge we have we might take advantage of the unconscious associations the perceiver has in order to convey information that is not actually there. After all we can’t give ultimate facts but interpretations and perceptions, as Drucker states: “unlike language or mathematics, visual images have no finite rules“ or “visual images have not single identifiable code“. Like in all communication, it is up to receiver to interpret the message. This reminds me of the recent term “green-washing“ which basically means that  products and their brands were designed to give a feeling of ecology even if it was not the complitely true. Makes me wonder where stands the line of false advertising and “giving a feeling”?

In the imagery of our culture we can also perceive narrative and elements of meaning that are hidden or unintentional, portarying the structures of our economy and society. I guess the most obvious example of this is perceiving visuality from a feminist point of view: even today imagery for example in advertising aimed to be quite neutral might actully reinforce sterotypical and harmful views on women or minorities. 

What fascinates me in this is the relation of conscious and unconscius or sub-conscious. Which part of the canon of visual expression and the short-life memes is consciously recognized and which isn’t, and does these vary a lot depending on the demographic? What is the amount or the part of the imagery and visual information we are daily influenced by without us even noticing it and how to determinate it? Designers are of course under the influence just as anybody else but does the tools, the knowledge of graphic principles and elements we have make it easier for us to understand and notice these things? And how is this is visible in our own creative work? 

The solution to this problem of the modern designer according to C. W. Mills is the notion of craftmanship and the pride one takes on it. Although i don’t complitely agree with the description Mills gives on the craft and the craftman, i do feel the way to make sense of this tred mill is going back to the themes of authority and practice. The key, i feel, is the designers own responsibility, competence and principles – a duty to educate yourself about the problematic themes in our society and how to affect on them in a positive and forward-looking manner. As we interpret images from our point of view, the imagery and visuality we see also shapes our perception. As memes that evolve, cause new memes and are in constant interaction in and with our culture and society, it is the task of the designer to pitch in into the shaping of our culture and society for the better with the tools and knowledge we have.