#it's GREAT. I have the power to have the most incoherent gender known to man and it makes SENSE TO ME

[sirenium]

The moment I discovered xenogenders the possibility of having a normal identity was shattered

[suechoiart]

Captain Marvel (2019) and Demolition Man (1993)

I am marinating the portions of Dada’s Boys that I’ve read over the weekend. In the meantime, I wanted to practice some writing and ramble about two movies I’ve watched over the weekend.

Captain Marvel (2019), and

Demolition Man (1993) 

((If anyone has a high-res copy of the poster...I’d be eternally grateful)) 

Incoherent rambling ahead

Summary: Captain Marvel wasn’t a good  great movie (it was a fine movie); Carol Danvers is pretty cool but very similar to Cpt America’s character; looking forward to the second half of Infinity War; Demolition Man does a *lot* of things a *lot* better than Captain Marvel. Was Captain Marvel feminist? Lessons from good action movies. 

I don’t explicitly mention plot points but /educated readers/ could probably deduce some spoilers both movies. (I’m being sarcastic. I definitely mention movie details without any regard to spoilers.) 

I have a soft spot for both Marvel Studio movies and fun, cheesy, action flicks. I love the behemoth that MCU has become, something they could not have known when Iron Man was created 10 years ago... and I love the purity of action films - of good guys ‘beating up’ bad guys - and the heart actors and directors bring to it shown in movies like Die Hard. Some of the Marvel movies are right in that spot - and their strength shines more in the ‘character interaction’ department; whereas pure-action-comedy movies like Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong productions and The Matrix have great characters but the action sequences, where the actors themselves have to train at significant amounts, shine the most. 

The more I think about Captain Marvel, honestly the more disappointed I am. Frankly for the big breaking International Women’s Day release it was not rich enough. I thought Black Panther had done marvelously (I still tear up thinking about the themes of disaphora in BP), nor was a pure comedic genius like Thor: Ragnorak .... It was a very, very, very average Marvel film. The first Ant Man is better than CM; the second Ant Man is not as good as CM. 

Which is to say that CM is not a bad film, but unfortunately disappointing for what it was ‘supposed to be.’ I don’t feel bad thinking this way, because BP was a great success in my heart; it spoke to a universal theme while championing a targeted audience (of race and origin). As I am an immigrant, although I cannot associate with Black History Month, I can still relate to it deeply in terms of diasphora and displacement. (Wakanda forever!)

I’m urged to clarify again that CM was not a bad movie, but I think it failed because it placated a lot of the villains and conflict in favor of ~Carol Danvers~. 

So, good parts of CM: Carol Danvers is pretty darn awesome. I really think that she brings hope to the Avengers, -- she symbolizes what the humans have better than any of the outer-Earth lives that are out their in the MCU: she gets back up. No matter what she’s told, whom she’s told by... She always gets back up. I did tear up here. I really did like that notion that she, and her humanity, is how the Avengers will win. 

So.... That falls pale in her co-cast:

Nick Fury, who spends 75% of screentime cooing over a cat, and apparently too young to be the badass Fury that we know and love;

Kree mentor who tells her “u ahve 2 much emoshuns 2 be a gr8 kree” 

Best friend whose character is only to tell Carol how great she is 

Cat, saves the day probably more than she does 

Somewhere between those lackluster sidekicks and Carol Danvers’ overpowered ‘superpower’ ... You basically get women are cool and funny and get over it as the central theme of the movie. 

I think the “Carol Danvers gets back up” is problematic, because I read it in a very gender-neutral language (see above: I’m framing that as the HUMANITY’S reason to win, not WOMEN’s) -- potentially because this movie is situated in a world where the Avengers lost half of total lives in the universe... But also because the wOmyN aRe StRonG idea was so, SO obtuse, especially as response to CD’s Kree mentor (played by Jude Law) -- who, again, emphasizes how much weak Carol is because she lets emotions control her. Except it’s not about emotions. Emotions are not why Carol Danvers gains strength! (It’s her humanity!)  

I think the emotion thing *could have* worked, had Carol not been very, I’d say extremely level-headed in spite of a lot of the weird stuff that happened through the movie. She never broke down, never threw a tantrum.... She was just a very secure person with a sense of humor that Fury even enjoyed. 

So then, what was Jude Law even talking about? I find the “emotional is bad, logical is good” construct very gendered and extremely problematic, especially in our political/internet-driven social climate. In words of misogynists and keyboard warriors(who tend to be young males), being logical and rational is obviously superior; and emotional bad; and as a consequence many women (or emotional men) suffer through invalidation of their experiences. When Carol Danvers, as seen in the film, does *not* have issues controlling her emotions.... why does he even say that? Why is that even written in the script? 

In short, .... Considering that this is supposedly Marvel’s stake on feminism (yikes, it didn’t even register to me as feminst) ... I have to borrow the words of this great Mashable article by Jess Joho: 

The only thing that feels truly retro about Captain Marvel's '90s setting is its shallow take on feminism that we should be moving away from, not using as a crutch. It's not just that so many of the movie's heavy-handed Feminist Moments come across as disingenuous. Those moments also tap into an old conceit of equality as a sort of revenge fantasy, mixed with the undertone of a battle of the sexes. [...]  The feminist-ish sentiment of "girls are just as good as boys" defines and measures women's empowerment as it compares to men. Consequently, it devalues and trivializes feminine power in its own right.

... so considering that this is, the first and only solo female movie in MCU...... They really, really could have done better. I hate to say this but (because MCU > DCEU), ...... Wonder Women did it a LOT better. 

Onto Demolition Man. It’s past my bedtime so I’m going to just rush through random thoughts via bullet points: 

Wesley. Snipes. (Probably doesn’t help that Blade is also one of my favorite movies.) 

Sylvester Stalone was great in this movie. He had great form in all of the shots he was in. Commandeered every scene. 

ALL OF THE CHARACTERS! They were so lively. Everyone had motivations that drove them, instead of being basically houseplants that can drive spaceships (ahem...CM...) 

I definitely have another soft spot for movies with ridiculous plots. “LAPD gets cryofrozen as a criminal for failing to save citizens, but in tern DEMOLITION MAN-ing an entire complex throughout his career. When big bad evil Wesley Snipes gets parole, only one man can stop him --- the very Sylvester Stalone, The Demolition Man, who put him in jail!” “oh and this is a weird 2023 where you have to pay fines for cussing.” 

Oddly enough this movie has a great example of ‘secure heterosexual male protagonist’ and ‘female love interest with her own motivations’.. They actually agree to (CONSENT TO!) make love, and she starts and finishes in her own terms. 

Sylvester Stalone’s character is actually very caring and understands his role in the world he wakes up to; he is not at all gross (”back in my day” is never said) and he understands his position as a guest to all of this, while asserting his own views of morality onto the world. 

Also I’m very upset that this movie achieved themes of displacement, utopia, and “who is the real bad guy?!” a lot, LOT, better than CM. 

Denis Leary plays the rebel in the movie and also made this music video, which actually aligns a lot with my thesis interests (masculinity, prescribed notions of American life, suburbs....) 

I just have to reiterate again that (1) Sylvester Stalone did not have to prove his masculinity to anyone, but his humanity is acknowledged by even the heroine in this character - (2) why must women still be *acknowledged* by man of our competence in 2019!?

OH, this movie makes SO MUCH BETTER 90s REFERENCES THAN CAPTAIN MARVEL!!! This is important. Captain Marvel makes 90s references as much as it nods to feminism. There’s a Blockbuster. And a Radioshack. Do they even realize those stuck around into the 2000s? 

To conclude... I understand the constraints put onto Captain Marvel, sandwiched between freaking Infinity War 1 and Infinity War 2. But had Marvel Studios not learned their lesson from the tragedy of Age of Ultron? Even Joss Whedon, who arguably is a very well accomplished director, could not make AoU work. It was not a good movie. And he freaking set up the entire Avengers franchise! 

I can’t know what lead to the underwhelming result that is Captain Marvel, but it is not a great product to stand on its own. 

DEMOLITION MAN IS STILL RELEVANT! Captain Marvel will still only be relevant in the future if we don’t, as a society, move on from “girls can do anything boys can do” mentality. 

[trashytacosan]

six thousand miles away

This is my very small gift for Oikawa’s birthday! Thank you @miya-atsumu-miya-osamu for the prompt! 

"Happy Birthday, Oikawa-san!"

A camera flashes as he leans in to blow out the candles on his cake. Around him, his teammates are boisterously chanting his name, and patting him on the back. Oikawa can't help but smile, it's his birthday after all. Doesn't matter if the smile is fake.

The captain of the team hands him a knife so that he can have the honor of cutting the cake. He's sure to hold his smile in place while he does so. They all went out of their way to purchase him his favorite cake, and practice was grueling as usual yet they stayed behind to celebrate with him, so it’s the least he can do. 

It isn't like Oikawa doesn't appreciate his teammates. It's just that the person he wants to spend today with most of all is six thousand miles away. His boyfriend is currently in America studying abroad. The distance has been hard on them both with the only bright side being that they haven't bonded yet. Distance is far more difficult for mated pairs. Though sometimes, it feels like they're already a mated pair.

The captain leans on Oikawa's shoulder, far too close for comfort. "The night is still young, Oikawa-san," he says suggestively, "A few of us wanted to go out for drinks. Join us?"

Oikawa gets along just fine with a majority of his teammates, and they've been accepting of him despite his second gender. But the captain is a different story. The alpha uses every opportunity to find a reason to touch Oikawa, or platonically scent mark him under the guise of being a caring captain. Everyone, well everyone who matters, already knows that Oikawa is being courted by Iwaizumi Hajime so the alpha's behavior is inexcusable.

There's also the obvious fact that Oikawa isn't remotely interested.

With a poised grin, he eases out of the captain's hold. "Actually, I have a date tonight," he informs them all, "Maybe next time!"

Everyone seems to accept this. Gradually they file out of the locker room, tossing another birthday wish for the omega over their shoulders.

Unfortunately, not everyone leaves.

"A date?" the captain says, "I didn't know Iwaizumi-san had returned from New York?"

So, the captain is aware of Oikawa's relationship with Iwaizumi. Then what's his deal?

After Oikawa packs up the leftover cake, he stands up and slings his gym bag over his shoulder. "It's a Skype date," he boasts proudly, "Iwa-chan is going to stay up so we can talk."

"Cute."

The omega thinks that's the end of it. At least that's what he hopes. When he's walking outside on the sidewalk, the captain catches up and falls into step beside him.

"You know," the captain starts and Oikawa has to mentally remind himself that this man can have him benched for the remainder of the season if he wanted, "if you were my omega I'd go above and beyond to ensure you had the best birthday ever."

"Iwa-chan was one of two selected from his university for the abroad program. I understand that this is important for his career."

"Doesn't it bother you that he's so far away? Alphas lose interest quickly, you know."

Oikawa stops walking and turns to the alpha. "If this is your idea of impressing me you've really missed the mark.” He tilts his head to the side thoughtfully. "In this short conversation you've pointed out several of your own flaws."

"How so?"

"Alphas are fickle, short-sighted, and simple minded. That's what you said. You're also an alpha so wouldn't that apply to you, as well?"

The captain is at a loss for words. It's almost pitiful watching him struggle for a proper response. Oikawa can't help but laugh at the bewildered look on the man's face. When he's done laughing, he walks off to the bus stop. He expects the captain to catch up with him after his brain starts to work again. He's pleasantly surprised when he doesn't.

During the bus ride to his apartment complex, Oikawa thinks back to the exchange with the captain. Of course, it bothers him that Iwaizumi is so far away. They haven't seen each other, in person, in over a month, and the program doesn't end until early September. Phone calls, text messages, and Skype calls are nice but nothing compares to having the alpha with him. Though it's not like things will get better in September because they attend separate universities. A two-hour train ride isn't bad at all. Then again, their schedules don't always coincide.

Oikawa isn't cut out for long distance relationships; he's far too clingy. He's always known this. Yet, he couldn't help falling in love with Iwaizumi. Despite the lonely nights, it's definitely worth it.

Once he's at his apartment, Oikawa sits the cake box on the counter and hurries to his desk. Thanks to the captain's advances, he's running late for his Skype date with Iwaizumi. He spins around in his desk chair as his laptop powers on as a way to quell his building nerves. Last time they tried to arrange a Skype date was a total failure due to scheduling conflicts. Since then they've stuck to text messages with a few phone calls in between which isn't really enough at all.

Still, Oikawa doesn't complain as much as he'd like to. He understands that Iwaizumi has enough things to stress about as is.

The laptop is finally up and Oikawa wastes no time opening Skype. While he waits for Iwaizumi to answer his call, he idly plays with the hairs at the nape of his neck. When he doesn't get an answer, he pouts but tries again.

Then, he hears a knock at his door. Glancing at the time on his laptop, he frowns because no one should be visiting him at this hour. When he doesn't get an answer from Iwaizumi, he sends the man a not-so-vague message of disappointment before getting up to answer the door.

Stupid Iwa-chan, he thinks, Not answering my call when he promised me he would!

There's another knock at the door and Oikawa hurries his steps. He's expecting to be met with the sheepish grin of his neighbor who never seems to have the necessary condiments in his own kitchen so he comes over occasionally to raid hid cabinets. Instead, he's met with a human-sized, gray alien plushie, and the scent that has brought him comfort through many moments of distress.

"Can you believe they tried to charge me for two seats on the train because of this thing?"

"Iwa-chan!" Oikawa screams in surprise. Without preamble, he tackles the alpha to the floor. "You're here!"

Iwaizumi grunts at the impact. The plushie is now sandwiched in between them, blocking his view of Oikawa's face but he doesn't need to see the omega to know that he's crying. While his current position is very uncomfortable, he endures it for Oikawa's sake. He's been known to "ruin the moment" in the past with a crude remark so he decides it's best if he keeps quiet.

Oikawa, on the other hand, is far from quiet. He's sobbing loudly about how "Iwa-chan didn't answer my Skype call and I was so upset and thought about ignoring Iwa-chan for a full day! But we both know I would've caved and only ignored you for half a day! You're here, though! You came all the way from New York..."

Everything following that is an incoherent mess of words and sniffling. Iwaizumi decides that they better move this scene to the apartment. He wiggles his way from beneath the plushie and helps Oikawa stand to his feet. He manages to get them all, including the massive plushie he's been lugging around since he left the airport, into the apartment and shuts the door.

On the couch, Oikawa sits on Iwaizumi's lap as the tide of emotions wane. Sometimes he just gets so overwhelmed; a sight that only Iwaizumi gets to see because Oikawa is usually great at concealing his emotions. But with Iwaizumi he doesn't have to worry about appearing weak or if he's an uglier crier. It has been like this for as long as they've known each other.

As happy as Oikawa is, he's also worried because a flight from New York to Japan isn't cheap, and the alpha needs to save his money not spend it on lavish surprises.

"Our parents paid for my trip. So, don't worry about that," Iwaizumi told him, easily reading the omega's thoughts. "I'm only here for two days."

Oikawa sighs in relief. "That means you're all mine for two days," he says suggestively, lowering his head to nuzzle his alpha.

Iwaizumi cups Oikawa's face and leans in for a kiss, but then he catches a whiff of another alpha's scent on Oikawa. "Is that captain still hitting on you?" he asks, eyes narrowing dangerously. "The next time I see him, I'm going to rip his throat out!"

An excited shiver passes through the omega; he loves it when Iwaizumi gets like this. "Why don't you just make sure that the next time I go to practice, everyone is reminded that I belong to you and only you."

"I already planned on doing that, Tooru."

Then, they spend the next two days doing cheesy, couple-ly things that we all lowkey love! And, the alien plushie has been scent marked so Oikawa will have something with Iwaizumi’s scent during his next heat. Iwa-chan is such a considerate boyfriend! <3 

[hollywoodjuliorivas]

NONFICTION

‘She Said’ Recounts How Two Times Reporters Broke the Harvey Weinstein Story

ImageJodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Jodi Kantor and Megan TwoheyCreditCreditMartin Schoeller

BUY BOOK ▾

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

By Susan Faludi

Sept. 8, 2019

SHE SAID

Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement

By Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Tell the truth: Do you really need to hear more about Harvey Weinstein? The open bathrobe, the hotel hot tubs, the syringes of erectile-dysfunction drugs delivered by cowed assistants, the transparent requests for “a massage,” the ejaculatory exhibitions — it’s not just indictable, it’s … ick, simultaneously pathological and pathetic.

Which explains the reluctance I felt sitting down to read “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement,” wherein the New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey revisit at book length their investigative reporting on Weinstein, promising a “substantial amount” of new information. New information? More than 80 women have come forward to recount their encounters with the Oscar-award-monopolizer-and-patron-of-progressive-causes-turned-Tinseltown’s-über-ogre, the beast whose fleshy unshaven headshot every famous Hollywood beauty knows to hate, and whose trial has now been rescheduled for January to allow for additional testimony against him. What new gruesome details do we need?

But “She Said” isn’t retailing extra helpings of warmed-over salacity. The authors’ new information is less about the man and more about his surround-sound “complicity machine” of board members and lawyers, human resource officers and P.R. flaks, tabloid publishers and entertainment reporters who kept him rampaging with impunity years after his behavior had become an open secret. Kantor and Twohey instinctively understand the dangers of the Harvey-as-Monster story line — and the importance of refocusing our attention on structures of power. When they at last confront Weinstein, in a Times conference room and later on speakerphone, he’s the mouse that roared, the Great and Powerful Oz turned puny humbug, swerving from incoherent rants to self-pitying whimpers (“I’m already dead”) to sycophantic claims of just being one of them. (“If I wasn’t making movies, I would’ve been a journalist.”) He’s loathsome and self-serving, but his psychology is not the story they want to tell. The drama they chronicle instead is more complex and subtle, a narrative in which they are ultimately not mere observers but, essential to its moral message, protagonists themselves.

ADVERTISEMENT

[ This book was one of our most anticipated titles of September. See the full list. ]

Kantor and Twohey broke the Weinstein story. Their 3,300-word Times article on Oct. 5, 2017, aired allegations against him that had been piling up as whispers and rumors for 30 years. That report, and the ones to follow, were grounded in scores of interviews with actresses and current and former employees, supplemented by legal filings, corporate records and internal company communications that documented a thick web of cover-ups, bullying tactics and confidential settlements. It was bravura journalism.

“We watched with astonishment as a dam wall broke,” Kantor and Twohey write of the response to that first article. A day after it was published, so many women phoned The Times to report allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Weinstein that the paper had to assign additional reporters to handle the calls. On Oct. 10, another round of women, including marquee names like Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Rosanna Arquette, went public in a second article in The Times. Three weeks later, a third article detailed still more accounts of sexual abuse by Weinstein, spanning the globe and dating back to the 1970s. “This has haunted me my entire life,” said 62-year-old Hope Exiner d’Amore, who recounted being raped by Weinstein when she was in her early 20s.

This series of articles in many ways ignited the #MeToo movement, already smoldering in the atmosphere of frustration after reports of Donald Trump’s alleged sexual predations (a story that Twohey broke with another reporter) and the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape failed to slow the reality star’s march to the White House. Their reporting, Kantor and Twohey recall in “She Said,” seemed to operate as a “solvent for secrecy, pushing women all over the world to speak up about similar experiences.”

And a solvent for the structures that enforced that secrecy. A day after the first story came out, a third of the (all-male) board of the Weinstein Company resigned and the remaining members put Weinstein on leave. Two days later, he was fired. Within a year, his corporation declared bankruptcy — and, as part of the Chapter 11 filing, released employees from nondisclosure agreements.

Image

Credit

What explains the company’s decades of inaction? Answering that question, and parsing the ways that such entities and their centurions functioned as Weinstein’s shield, is the prime focus of “She Said.” The guardians the authors unmask aren’t only the obvious ones. Yes, Weinstein’s board members looked the other way long after they knew; yes, The National Enquirer and Black Cube security snoops deep-sixed damaging accounts and shut down whistle-blowers. Yes, Weinstein’s brother, Bob, the company’s co-founder, kept mum beyond all reason — even after Harvey had punched him in the face. But there was also the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which often kept its settlements secret. And David Boies, the lawyer admired for championing gay marriage before the Supreme Court, who served as Weinstein’s personal consigliere and tried to squash every threat of bad press. And Linda Fairstein, the celebrated Manhattan sex crimes prosecutor, who, after an Italian model reported to the New York City police that Weinstein had groped her, brokered connections between Weinstein’s legal team and the lead prosecutor and tried to discredit the woman’s allegation to Twohey.

ADVERTISEMENT

[ “She Said” names some of the people who helped Harvey Weinstein evade scrutiny. ]

And then there was Gloria Allred, the crusading feminist lawyer, whose law firm, in 2004, negotiated a nondisclosure agreement for one of Weinstein’s victims; the firm pocketed 40 percent of the settlement. “While the attorney cultivated a reputation for giving female victims a voice,” Kantor and Twohey write, “some of her work and revenue was in negotiating secret settlements that silenced them and buried allegations of sexual harassment and assault.” Allred went on to do the same with women who had been abused by the Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and the Olympics gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. In 2017, after a group of lawyers in California persuaded a state legislator to consider a bill that would ban confidentiality clauses muzzling sexual harassment victims, Allred denounced the move and threatened to go on the attack. The legislator, Connie Leyva, quickly shelved the idea. (A year later, Leyva introduced such a bill and it was signed into law.)

Maybe the most appalling figure in this constellation of collaborators and enablers is Lisa Bloom, Allred’s daughter. A lawyer likewise known for winning sexual-harassment settlements with nondisclosure agreements, Bloom was retained by Weinstein (who had also bought the movie rights to her book). In a jaw-dropping memo to Weinstein, Bloom itemized her game plan: Initiate “counterops online campaigns,” place articles in the press painting one of his accusers as a “pathological liar,” start a Weinstein Foundation “on gender equality” and hire a “reputation management company” to suppress negative articles on Google. Oh, and this gem: “You and I come out publicly in a pre-emptive interview where you talk about evolving on women’s issues, prompted by death of your mother, Trump pussy grab tape and, maybe, nasty unfounded hurtful rumors about you. … You should be the hero of the story, not the villain. This is very doable.”

“She Said” contains a second story of what’s doable against great odds: how two reporters with no connections in Hollywood and with almost no one willing to go on the record were able to penetrate this omertà and expose what lay behind it to public scrutiny. This is the book’s deeper level, the story of getting a story, signaled in the choice of chapter titles like “The First Phone Call” and “‘Who Else Is on the Record?’” Kantor and Twohey have crafted their news dispatches into a seamless and suspenseful account of their reportorial journey, a gripping blow-by-blow of how they managed, “working in the blank spaces between the words,” to corroborate allegations that had been chased and abandoned by multiple journalists before them. “She Said” reads a bit like a feminist “All the President’s Men.”

Kantor and Twohey take us through the time-consuming, meticulous and often go-nowhere grunt work that’s intrinsic to gathering evidence, winning the trust of gun-shy victims and maneuvering past barricades that block the path to a publishable article. Along the way, we witness how much institutional support such a protracted effort requires. Kantor and Twohey make a point throughout the book of stressing their reliance on a multilayered editorial team, from rigorous young research assistants like Grace Ashford, who combs through government employment data and tracks down a key former assistant from the late 1980s at Miramax, Weinstein’s film production company, to seasoned elder hands like the Times investigative editor Rebecca Corbett. “Sixtysomething, skeptical, scrupulous and allergic to flashiness or exaggeration,” Kantor and Twohey write of her, “but so low profile that she barely surfaced in Google search results. Her ambition was journalistic, not personal.” The night before the first article ran, Corbett remained in the newsroom until dawn, weighing and reweighing every word.

In this way, “She Said” is a dead-on description of what makes so-called “legacy” journalism so powerful. Ironically, the #MeToo movement that Kantor and Twohey’s articles about Weinstein helped launch promulgates an opposite message: that the best way to bring injustice to light is to get rid of the “gatekeepers” and let rip on Twitter, that we’ll only get to the “truth” when the Establishment is brought down and no one is in charge.

[ Read: “I’m Harvey Weinstein — you know what I can do.” ]

It may be, as the political writer Lee Smith argued in The Weekly Standard, that some journalists had protected Weinstein partly out of a craven illusion that the Hollywood rainmaker would someday make rain for them, buying their articles for high-grossing films. And no doubt the #MeToo movement has prompted the mainstream media to take these stories more seriously. Would Vanity Fair’s editor today omit allegations of sexual assault from a profile of Jeffrey Epstein, as happened in 2003? Nonetheless, the big-league sexual predators who have been brought to justice in the #MeToo era have been brought there not by internet whisper campaigns but by good old-fashioned reporting: O’Reilly by The Times, Nassar by The Indianapolis Star, Epstein by The Miami Herald, Roy Moore by The Washington Post, Weinstein by The Times and The New Yorker. “The Weinstein story had impact,” the authors note, “in part because it had achieved something that, in 2018, seemed rare and precious: broad consensus on the facts.”

ADVERTISEMENT

There’s an implication here: The answer to institutionally protected predation isn’t the anti-institutionalism of social media and viral tweets, but a powerful counter-institution capable of mounting a rigorous investigation, run by, yes, gatekeepers. Not spelled out but amply evident in Kantor and Twohey’s reckoning is the importance that those gatekeepers be female as well as male. In 2013, Jill Abramson, then The Times’s executive editor, promoted Corbett and another woman to the paper’s senior editorial staff, making the masthead 50 percent female for the first time in history. What happens when you get that kind of sisterhood is familiar to any spectator of the Women’s World Cup. Watching Kantor and Twohey pursue their goal while guarding each other’s back is as exhilarating as watching Megan Rapinoe and Crystal Dunn on the pitch.

Toward the end of the book, Kantor and Twohey devote two chapters to Christine Blasey Ford and her decision to air her sexual-assault allegations against the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. This, and the book’s finale, “The Gathering,” seem appended, an anticlimactic climax. In “The Gathering,” the reporters assemble 12 of the sexual abuse victims they interviewed (including a McDonald’s worker, Kim Lawson, who helped organize a nationwide strike over the fast-food franchise’s failure to address sexual harassment) at Gwyneth Paltrow’s Brentwood mansion to talk, over gourmet Japanese cuisine, about what they’ve endured since going public with their charges. The testimonials inevitably descend into platitudes about personal “growth” and getting “some sense of myself back.” At one point, Paltrow starts crying over the way Weinstein had invoked his support for her career to get women to submit to his advances, and Lawson’s friend (a McDonald’s labor organizer who came with her so she wouldn’t feel alone in a room full of movie stars) hands the actress a box of tissues.

These therapeutic scenes paste a pat conclusion onto a book that otherwise keeps the focus not on individual behavior or personal feelings but on the apparatuses of politics and power. At the least, though, the contrast throws into relief how un-pat, instructive and necessary “She Said” is. It turns out we did need to hear more about Weinstein — and the “more” that Kantor and Twohey give us draws an important distinction between the trendy ethic of hashtag justice and the disciplined professionalism and institutional heft that actually got the job done.

Susan Faludi is the author of “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women” and, most recently, “In the Darkroom.”

SHE SAID

Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement

By Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

310 pp. Penguin Press. $28.

[erenjaegur]

Snk Positivity Day 6: Love Your Series

Im gonna put this under a read more because I cant think of express my feelings on something without turning it into a full length incoherent ass essay so!!

I’ve been in the snk fandom since I was like 12 lol - Im 16 now so that’s like, five years?? I can still remember like I’d see a lot of gifs n stuff of it going around tumblr and for some reason I just really felt I wouldn’t like it like I had smthing lowkey against it?? But then I decided to watch it one day, n i still remember, I was just chilling on my laptop watching it in the sitting room, my family around me and stuff and goddd it was soo good... but it made me tear up... n bITCH I was NOT! about to cry in the sitting room around my family. I was not! prepared for that. That night I stayed up till possibly 1 or 3am just watching it, I must’ve gotten to like around episode 6 I think? I loved it so much I rlly fell in love, I finished it all in just three days.... three days of which I also went to school and stuff and had to go to my friends party.... bitch i was pissed i didnt even like that person....i just wanted to finish snk lmaooo 😭

Im pretty sure Id spend sm of my time invested in snk and looking through snk tumblrs and stuff and other fandom stuff of it, I loved it so much!!! like!! thats all I did and even then I was still forcing my friends to read/watch it. I was really cringey in 6th class wow lmaoo I would literally go around during break with the snk manga like xD!!! eren is my baby!!! saying shit like that yikes.... bitch first of all hes 4 years older than you...your literally 12.....

Especially then, when I was younger it brought me sm happiness like when little me was going through shit then little insecure young me, you know how people say u use entertainment to escape or whatever, a distraction, idk.... like that was rlly it man idk ho to describe it without sounding weird i swear it was like my main source of happiness omg lol

Almost always, its very rare like I’ll be watching a movie, listening to music, anything like that just consuming some piece of media or literally just like. living my life and I see something and im like. omg snk au in which.... or I just somehow relate it back to snk or some of its characters lol. Like even when I was on holiday in Venice last year I was literally like thinking of a fanfic of like, the 104th on holidays in Venice like how wholesome...

Like I really do love snk I think about it every day without fail, and I honestly think I’ll always always always love it, and even if I don’t, it’s always gonna have a special place in my heart. Like, I liked it since i was literally 12 years old and it helped my through shit and I just have so much good memories associated with it. I honestly rlly do picture myself being like a 40 year old woman and still loving snk but like the fandom is dead or something... 😭 I rlly hope that never happens.....bc that will happen my 40 year old ass will b like boiis whens season 10 coming out ? Like I really hope snk is one of those series that kind of just lives on forever, or atleast for a very long time - Like Harry Potter for example

Okay, all that was really personal and I’d be surprised if anyone is reading this anyway, but I love looking back on it and talking about snk like this, I love it :) Butttt, getting to one of the reasons why I think I might love snk so much, and I mean, I can’t really pin it down why I love it so much, I dont think anyone can pin down EXACTLY why they love something, especially a series, but I think one thing I really like, and it becomes really apparent when I look at other series is like, they have a good balance between male and female characters if that makes sense. Like theres not way more men in the show than there is women, like how it is in some series or like, theres not way more men in the show than there is women, and the female characters in the show aren’t just like background characters pretty much, and they’re all good fleshed out and developed characters n shit. I think people have talked about this before but yeah.. And the female characters aren’t sexualised or anything like that and like, theres basically little to no fanservice at all which is nice. Supereyepatchwolf said something about it in his video about snk, how it can appeal to everyone because anyone of any age and gender and such can be in the survey corps n stuff... :P

And the characters just in general of course :) I honestly think the characters is one of snks strongest points, like... im not about to do a full on character analysis on anyone here lol but they’re just so amazing. Like I think on first glance it can probably be easy for people to sort most of them into like a trope or something or just write them off as cliche - mostly eren is victim to this bc people are like typical shounen boy !!! but like. you know anyway. I wish I was better at expressing my feelings and thoughts lol. Like god idk i feel like its so easy for someone who idk might just be a casual fan or smthing to just kinda see the characters on their more surface level without seeing how much depth they actually have - and I feel like that could also easily happen with anime only ppl. Like snk really does have so much great n complex n developed characters, especiallyyy now with the timeskip, more so now than ever. Like you know when you love something so much that you cant just pin point one thing about it... because its like.... everything about it i love n everything within it works to like compliment everything in it if that makes sense u get me?? like i cant just pinpoint ONE THING its the whole thing.... why i love snk? *directs u to link of readsnkmanga.com* or something lol

as for the characters themselves, obviously u can tell, with my url, u can take a guess at who my favourite is :) since the timeskip, i dont like him as much - not that i dislike him, i could literally never - but timeskip eren is basically a whole new person - and im not saying that in a bitter tone or anything, if anything its cool and i appreciate it and i understand why eren is like this now, all the shit hes been through- stuff so singular that barely anyone else would be able to understand, no one, if anything. So i understand why hes like this, and as i said earlier, this’ one of snks strong points its complex and rlly developed characters... The things I admired about Eren is just like... his good and bad, everything. How passionate he is, how he wears his heart on his sleeve - that of which being his most notable quality imo, and he expresses himself in an unapologetic manner like.... the courtroom scene... he rlly shouted that in front of all those people... how headstrong, stubborn and impulsive he is. I relate to Eren alot, thats part of the reason why I love him so much because I think I can kinda see myself in him.. but on the same hand, I think it’s also because he possesses a lot of traits I admire. Eren never backs down even when the whole world seems to be against him. He holds on firmly to what he believes in and never gives in, even when literal guns or canons are being pointed towards him. He’s full of determination and will power and he knows what he wants, and he’s also not afraid to express his opinion, even if he knows that he’ll be laughed at or be largely disagreed with.. And I admire his impulsiveness too. Those are all things I admire and other things I didn’t mention.. like me, I’m a very non confrontational person, I always feel things out before getting to it, and even then a lot of the time I just don’t at all. I might second guess my emotions and feelings when it comes to relationships with people especially, and I can a lot of the time stifle or keep quiet about my own beliefs, not completely keeping quiet, but not speaking them out as firmly as I believe them in my own mind, yielding? more I guess, if people disagree with me, I might step down a little - Which isn’t a completely bad thing, it’s good to be openminded and to see other sides, but when it’s coming from a place of embarassment or insecurity, not so much. So I really admire those traits in Eren :) I relate to him a lot, but I also know that in a lot of ways too, we are veryy different. I’ve even thought before, if I knew someone like Eren irl would I even like them lol?? Who knows lol. But as a character, I love him :) My other two favourtie characters after Eren, Levi and Jean, I won’t go into them as much as I did Eren but with them, and not just that, all of the other reasons they’re my faves.. I have like more of a ‘crush’ on them lmaooo like with them i could read so much /reader fanfic lol... but even though Eren is my #1 I could nEVER...god NO lol. And I think thats also down to the fact, as I’ve been saying I seen myself in Eren... rather than the other way around :))))))))

Like god there have been so many times I’ve laughed, cried at stuff in this fandom, made good memories as a result of it irl too... bullied my friends into watching it.... Like I have nothing but good memories. I really can’t express enough how positively snk has impacted my life like I genuinely can’t, it’d be impossible.. I seriously love it :) I’ve made friends bc of it, gotten closer to friends bc of our mutual interest in it, stuff like that...:) And even if those things didn’t happen, I’d still love the series and its fandom itself. :) I seriously can’t thank enough, the ppl that contribute to this fandom, I really can’t. Everything, and everyone to small and big creators, thank you so much. Well known and lesser known creators, like just everything and everyone, seriously. Everyone is just why this fandom is so great and!! Like I just think how lucky am I to have smthing like snk have such a big fandom and stuff and so many great people in it. Like y’know when you see your favourite fanfic update, you see your favourite artist has put out smthing new, even just see a funny snk text post or something, it all can really brighten and even make your day, and its so good :) There are so many amazing creators in this fandom, fanfics that are honestly better than published books I’ve read - like seriously, some of this stuff seriously deserves to e published or something!! And the fact that so much of these creators are putting their work out there and sharing with us for free, is just so great, and I’ll never not be grateful for it :)

Like seriously, returning back to when I was like 12-14, some days back then when I was younger it really felt like y’know the only things I could take comfort in was this series and its characters and stuff yknow.... and maybe im just being and emo teen but im getting kinda emotional thinking about it just now :’) Like seriously... I feel like im maybe being too much in this post lol but seriously this series means a lot to me.. as I said, I can honestly really picture myself being like 40 and still rlly loving snk like no matter what, whatever happens, wherever the series goes, whatever the hell, it’ll always hold a special place in my heart, because its helped me through a lot, a lot of bad days, I have nothing but good memories associated with it, made friends, seen some of the most beautiful art and read rlly great writing!! Just like yeah. Thank u Isayama and this entire fandom.....

and I was gonna peace out but I also want to appreciate and throw some love @ Isayamas art and art style. Obviously, Isayama was a bit infamous in the earlier days for his art not looking so great (Which also is amazing bc like a manga with not so great art like his in the beginning... grew to become so BIG!! like who would’ve thought) - even so the character design and stuff was all really good?? Like I also think thats a strong point he has too!! And all those years of practicing really shows, because damn!! look at his art now!! It’s really damn nice and im not just saying that lol :P

Anyway!! :) Thats all lol

[pilgrimbenham]

Esther and You

This Sunday I taught from Esther chapter 2. We are currently studying Esther verse-by-verse at Shoreline and it has been incredibly enlightening learning how life in 4th-century B.C. Persia parallels our time today. 

We’ve been learning about King Xerxes I who was a powerful, prideful hedonist who worshipped himself about as much as he did pleasure. Even the most half-hearted historian wouldn’t need five minutes to discover life in Xerxes’ court was dismal. And I would add: eerily familiar.

IDOLS

Xerxes was a hedonist. He filled his harem with 400 young virgins from all over the Persian empire, which at that time spanned from north Africa to India. He threw lavish parties that at one point continued for six months, with an open bar and an endless tab. He loved to chase women and eventually pursued the wife of one of his officers, who eventually assassinated him in 456 B.C. He was known as “Xerxes the Great”, and wanted everyone to know how great he was. Xerxes worshiped the three idols that capture every human’s heart: the passion for pleasure, the thirst for more, and the quest to bring glory to self. 

John, in his first epistle, communicates these as: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-17). John says that these are “worldly”, and if we love these things, the love of the Father is not in us. I think the “Apostle of love” knew a thing or two about this topic. These are the trappings of every human heart. These are what appealed to Adam and Eve when they fell in the utopian garden (Genesis 3). These are the same lures Satan used to tempt Jesus in the barren wilderness (Matthew 4). They are what shipwreck the older man’s life, what captivate teens’ hearts before their future is written, what is intrinsic in a toddler when their toy is taken from them. It is encoded in our very DNA: it is our sinful nature. Esther’s narrative doesn’t clean any of this up or try to appeal to postmodern sensibilities--it is raw and real.

MEN AND WOMEN

Xerxes sought out 400 young virgins to come and replace Vashti, his ousted queen. She was cast away because at his lavish party he sought to parade her in front of his officers wearing nothing but her crown. Xerxes wanted to show others how his trophy wife earned him their respect. In the process, he deeply disrespected his wife so she returned the favor and refused to come. So he banished her. To replace her, Xerxes sent officials out to find the most beautiful untouched young girls. He put them through a rigorous year-long beautifying process and vetted each one by spending a night with them, then sent the cast-offs to the second home of the concubines where they would spend the rest of their lonely lives as perpetual widows, unless he called for them by name again. 

The young boys didn’t fare any better. Josephus and Herodotus record that 500 young boys were taken and castrated annually to serve in the court of the king. Can you imagine? Your son taken by another and then having his manhood removed so he could serve someone else? Actually, I do think we can imagine this. Today our world treats women and men the same way: exploit the women and castrate the men. The world’s methodology is to use women for their bodies and their beauty and once one obtains what he wants from them, just put them away. The world removes the manhood from men by making them asexual or effeminate. To even bring up the concept of ‘masculinity’ for some jumps an incoherent step to chauvinism. The beauty and diversity of gender and two unique and complementary sexes has become blurred today to our demise.

HOPE UNSEEN

Esther’s situation was pretty bleak. The ruler who had taken command was full of himself and sought to make his own name famous. The people of God were marginalized and many in government were seeking their destruction. The two heroes of this story were flawed and had ignored commands to return to Jerusalem and reoccupy the land. Though it is embraced by the Jews, this book is conspicuously absent of any mention of Yahweh, the divine name of God, nor Elohim, the Hebrew noun which means God. There is no mention of Jerusalem, or the temple. No one prays in the book of Esther No one has a prophetic vision. No one seems to care that there is a law given by God. There’s not even one tiny miracle.

What exactly then is happening here? Is this some godless book that some atheist professor at your college snuck into your Bible after you watched God’s Not Dead 4?? Esther is powerful because of what it implies. Behind the scenes, though it isn’t obvious on the pages or to the characters of the narrative, God is at work. Although there is no mention of God, He is clearly seen throughout the book as working behind the scenes.  A seemingly godless book has the fingerprints of God all over it.  Doesn’t that describe your life? “I don’t see God! I don’t see any miracles! I don’t see any divine intervention! It’s as if God is not there and I’m just left to figure things out in the mundane and ordinary details of life!” R. Kent Hughes said:

“The sweet doctrine of God’s providence is this: God sovereignly works in and through the everyday, non-miraculous events of life to effect His will. Such a God, of course, is great beyond our imaginings because He maintains all of life, involves Himself in all events, and directs all things to their appointed end while rarely interrupting the natural order of life.”

Some of us are not seeing God work and we tend to get discouraged. We are impatient. But don’t forget: Lazarus' family mourned for 4 days after he died and then Jesus showed up! Jacob waited 7 years to marry his wife, Rachel. Abraham waited 25 years until the son of the promise, Isaac, was born. Israel waited 40 years before entering the promised land. And Noah had to wait 120 years for it to rain! So though you don’t see things happening now, be encouraged that God unseen is not God absent. Wait and trust Him. Like Esther, have hope that you may be here for such a time as this.