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lokismusings · 4 years ago

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Russell T Davies on straight actors and gay characters.

I decided to put this here because I post a lot of Hilson stuff. As an actor, this article hit a nerve. However, as a defender of free speech, Davies is allowed to have his opinion without me thinking of him as insensitive. Just like I am allowed to have my own opinion and argument, and ask questions without being labeled “homophobic, intolerant” etc. (that would just make me laugh because have you SEEN my blog? Anyway, I’ve seen a few other websites covering this article. I am also very skeptical of everything I read, including the sources, and I try not to blindly believe everything. That being said, I felt like posting this to get other opinions and ask honest question to help my understanding. If this has already been covered on Tumblr, please feel free to send me the conversations! Some background on me: I graduated with a BA in Theatre and have worked both on and off the stage since I was twelve years old. I have directed plays and an audio play. Given my experience and dedication to my craft, I think my opinion is worth something.

Also, for the sake of this argument, I am leaving trans-actors out because that’s a whole different post. Here is the article:

https://news.sky.com/story/russell-t-davies-straight-actors-should-not-play-gay-characters-12185652

Okay, so first things first, let’s talk about this: “Speaking to the Radio Times, Davies compared a straight actor playing a gay character to black face.” Something that irks me is when one person tries to speak for a whole community and doesn’t reference people from said community who might disagree: whether it’s the LGBTQ+ community, a religious community, medical community, etc. The list goes on. Here, Davies is speaking on behalf of, or speaking for, both the LGBTQ+ community and the black community, is he not? I am genuinely asking because I would like to be more educated on this kind of speech.

Then Davies says, "I'm not being woke about this... but I feel strongly that if I cast someone in a story, I am casting them to act as a lover, or an enemy, or someone on drugs or a criminal or a saint... they are NOT there to 'act gay' because 'acting gay' is a bunch of codes for a performance.” Does that not discredit his whole statement? If any actor does a caricature version of anything and doesn’t take it seriously or really works to get into the role and the mindset of a character, they’re not a good actor. At least, they’re not an actor that I’d want to hire. Second, by the logic that a straight person shouldn’t play a gay character, should someone without a criminal record not be able to play a criminal character? Before you go off and say “it’s about identity and sexuality, and playing a criminal is about the choice to break the law” or other arguments, I hear you. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the experience. How can an actor who has never committed a crime play a criminal character authentically? They do their research: reading, interviewing, etc. I’m not saying that an actor with a few minor marks on his record shouldn’t be considered for the same role. I’m saying that in an audition setting, if both of these actors were auditing for the role and the non-criminal-record actor just happened to do a better job and fit what the director and/or writer wanted, is that a mark against the criminal-record-actor? Maybe personally because we don’t know what the director is thinking. But chances are, it’s not a mark against the other actor. The other one just happened to have a better audition. Or, a major factor when considering casting, said actor was easy to work with--I’ve seen a lot of talented actors lose a lot of roles because of their inability to take criticism or notes.

Plus, the whole “Breaking Bad” series?? I highly doubt the main actors were meth-making drug-lords. Or, a better example, “The Wire?” In that show, we see the constant battle and deals between drug-lords and cops.

Another point I’d like to make: “...is a bunch of codes for a performance.” That’s exactly right. The audience doesn’t want to know an actor is “performing.” We know that going in, with what is called “suspension of disbelief.” We know the whole show is a performance, but we also expect the actors to be truthful (unless it’s a comedy/farce, but again, that’s a different argument).

Was it bad that, before 2020, some main characters in TV shows were portrayed as straight but the writers ended up “queer-baiting?” I am referring, of course, to House, M.D. (If you follow this blog, you’ll understand.) But I am also referring to the BBC Sherlock Holmes series. Yes, both pairs of characters (House and Wilson; Holmes and Watson) are assumed to be straight. However, some episodes allude that there could also be something more there. Even the actors have said in various interviews that they aren’t sure if it’s a true romance that the characters are afraid to face, or just a strong bond between best friends that blurs the line between platonic and romantic. I’m paraphrasing, but you get the picture. Therefore, should these characters have only been played by straight actors who are questioning their sexuality or feelings for a best friend? Would it have been disrespectful to gay people if these characters ended up becoming romantically involved? (If we ask the Hilson and Johnlock community, I’m guessing that’s a resounding “NO WAY! IT WOULD BE A DREAM COME TRUE!” xD <3)

“It's about authenticity, the taste of 2020.” *Cinema Sins sigh*

"You wouldn't cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair...” Again I say, directors and casting directors need to ALWAYS search for someone who is in a wheelchair, or deaf, or HOH, etc. before looking for an able-bodied actor to play a character with that disability (I’m iffy on the whole term “disability because of its negative connotations, but I’m using that word in order to keep this post as long as possible). But I give you the example of Rainman with Dustin Hoffman. Or A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe. Or the play and movie Proof, where the father had a mental illness? Anthony Hopkins was diagnosed late in life with Asperger’s Syndrome, but the father in Proof was written to allude more to schizophrenia. And yet, Anthony Hopkins did a tremendous job in that role. Or Even Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks. Many people today love Tom Hanks and laud him as a “woke” celebrity. But if he were to portray the role of Forrest Gump today, how many people would try to “cancel” him or at least have very strong words for the director not casting an actor with autism, due to the character’s autistic tendencies? A whole lot of people on the internet and Twitter, I’ll bet. As someone who struggles with anxiety and panic disorder, would I be upset if someone without that mental illness got cast in a role of a character struggling with that? Sure I would. But if they did an authentic job and approached the role respectfully, it would be hard to stay irritated. Besides, there are always more roles created practically everyday.

To continue on with Davies’ quote: “...you wouldn't black someone up.” Yikes. I’m sure he didn’t mean this in a cast-off kind of way, but that’s how it comes across. I can see now why he said he wasn’t “being woke about this,” because a more “woke” way of putting that would be...what, exactly? “You wouldn’t cast a non-black person in a black role.” That sounds better and less harsh. Or even “a white person in a minority role.” Which should be common sense, and I agree with both statements.

And then “Authenticity is leading us to joyous places." Oh! Look at that! There’s that word that I’ve been using and emphasizing throughout this whole post! Authenticity is one major brick in the foundation of good, credible acting.

“High-profile examples of straight performers playing LGBTQ+ characters include Rami Malek's Oscar-winning portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, and Taron Egerton's Golden Globe-winning turn as Sir Elton John in Rocketman.”

I haven’t seen Rocketman, but I saw Bohemian Rhapsody and it was great! Why am I high-lighting this movie? Because it’s the perfect example of a straight actor playing a gay character and playing it authentically, while also looking a lot like the real person they’re portraying. If a look-a-like had been cast who also happened to be gay, but couldn’t act to save their life or couldn’t bring as much as Rami brought to the role, wouldn’t that kind of put a damper on the film? And yet, Rami Maleck both looked the part and brought an authenticity to the role that many Queen fans loved and appreciated. Even the remaining Queen band members said that he did an incredible job and Freddy would be proud. I wonder if Freddy would care that Rami wasn’t gay? I doubt it, but no one can know for certain.

Then there’s the whole term “gay face.” I personally don’t think this is the right term to use because it could possibly diminish the whole meaning and importance of “black face.” Even if Corden appeared to be mocking gay people (I never watched The Prom so I have no idea what his performance was like), calling it “gay face” takes away from and inadvertently belittles the whole dark history of “black face.” Black face’s whole history comes out of an even darker history of racist times filled with hatred and ignorance. I’m not saying that gay people haven’t had their own experiences with hate and intolerance, but isn’t kind of “un-woke” and “insensitive” to compare the hundreds of years of blatant, public racism against an entire race of people to the intolerance of homosexuals? (Again, I’m asking this genuinely because I want to learn and get other people’s opinions. I’m not trying to speak for any community, and I recognize that my personal opinion on this matter is just that: my opinion. And I could be better informed.)

Along the lines of the above paragraph, is it wrong to say or think that casting a non-minority actor in a minority role is a lot different from casting a straight actor in a gay role? Sexuality comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors; that is to say, every race has people with different sexualities. But I think it would be pretty cringe if a Caucasian actress was cast in a role meant for an Asian or African-American woman.

Director Joe Mantello told Sky News the casting was not intentional, but rather a "very fortunate series of events".

He continued: "That being said, I think having an out gay cast really did inform the work and it took on a particular kind of tone because of that, which is not to say that's the only way to approach this material. But for this particular group, it did something that I think is very, very special. There's a chemistry that they have."

And this man summed up my entire argument! He also put into simpler terms what I have been trying to express about the beauty of theatre: there will always be special casts, especially when there’s a great chemistry from a shared experience. A "very fortunate series of events,” indeed. “The casting was not intentional...” leads me to believe that the director didn’t set out to have an all out-gay-cast, but rather, each actor brought great performances to their auditions and were considered by the director to be perfect for the roles. These actors also just happened to be gay.

If you’re still here after all of that, let me take a moment to sincerely thank you for reading the whole thing! I know it’s a lot, but I’m very passionate about acting and giving each and every actor a fair chance. Let me know what you think, and please be respectful!

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brigade-claire-opinions · 4 years ago

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Day 9: The Haunting of Hill House

Let's talk about this novel and this show.

I already posted a quick review of the novel last year, so I'll briefly plagiarize myself. Please note, however, that I'm adding some significant elaboration to this review, including spoilers. I won't spoil the show once I get to that portion, but if you plan on reading this book, all you need to know is that I absolutely love it - it's my favorite novel about a haunted house and one of the best examples of classic horror literature.

Anyways, onto the review:

The Haunting of Hill House was written by Shirley Jackson and released in 1959. I've been trying and failing to read this book for the better part of two years now. It's always shown up on lists of the scariest books ever written, alongside the likes of The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson and Ghost Story by Peter Straub.

Having finally read (and, ultimately, been severely let down by) Straub's Ghost Story, I picked this one back up. I'm not sure if it's that something changed in me in the past year, or if it's because I was no longer trying to read it before the release of the Netflix "adaptation," but I became enamored with the novel in my third reading and finally, blessedly finished it.

In this novel, Shirley Jackson successfully captured the psychology of living in a haunted house. I fell in love with our central cast: Eleanor Vance, our protagonist who has a history with poltergeist activity, likely stemming from caring for her invalid mother until the latter's passing; Dr. John Montague, a psychologist bent on investigating the scientific angle of the occult and the man responsible for bringing together our ragtag band of misfits; Luke Sanderson, the thieving and charming black sheep of the Hill family and heir to Hill House; and Theodora (or Theo, who intentionally does not have a provided surname), a childish, flamboyant, and likely queer psychic who naively craves the excitement of staying in a haunted place.

Together, these four must brave the throes of Hill House and face whatever remnants of its terrifying history await them. This party is to experience total isolation during their stay, as cell phones weren't common in 1959. They are also to face conditions of "absolute reality," or reality completely unaffected by the subjective perceptions of the human mind. I believe that this is ultimately the narrative's way of explaining that the human mind cannot fathom paranormal activity without prior framework to quantify it, but 1959 was a different time.

What really struck me about The Haunting of Hill House was its lack of empirical ghostly encounters. Yes, the characters have spooky experiences and things happen, but the novel doesn't outright show us a ghost. Instead, it poses a question: is the house truly haunted? Or is the absolute reality that the house's troubled history is affecting the people staying there? Is it possible that Eleanor, with her history of Poltergeist activity, is causing the doors to slam and the writing on the wall? The ending only further adds to the mystery, and the reader is left to ponder.

The Haunting of Hill House has had a troubled history with screen adaptations. Two films based on the novel - both named "The Haunting," - released in 1963 and 1999 respectively, and neither had a particularly warm reception. The 1999 film in particular often appears on "worst of" lists of horror films. Prior to 2018, adaptations of Shirley Jackson's magnum opus seemed taboo, destined to fail.

And that, my friends, leads us to the show.

As you likely already know, the Netflix adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House has VERY little to do with the novel. The eponymous house and some characters are shared, but what we have here is a mostly original story about a family whose lives are still haunted by Hill House decades after they abandoned it.

Our showrunner Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Hush, Doctor Sleep) took Jackson's novel, deconstructed it, and crafted something brand new.

I am exceedingly pleased by what Flanagan and co made for us. The Haunting of Hill House is easily the best thing to come out of the novel since, well, the novel. It's also the only thing on the list so far to have legitimately scared me.

The show follows the Crain family, who move into Hill House in 1992. Olivia and Hugh Crain - the mother and father of the family - are house flippers, and Hill House seems to be their big break. As you'd expect, however, things go awry, and most of the family flees in terror in the middle of the night not long after their arrival.

Along with Olivia and Hugh, there are five Crain children who form our central cast: Steven, Shirley, Theodora, Luke, and Eleanor. The story is told between two eras - in 1992 during the family's summer at Hill House, and in 2018 as the family deals with a tragic loss.

Our cast in this story is absolutely incredible. With one exception, each member of the Crain family is portrayed by two different actors, and each gives it their all.

Michael Huisman and Paxton Singleton play Steven Crain, the eldest of Olivia and Hugh's children. Steven does not believe in the ghostly encounters that the family experienced in their time at Hill House, but that does not stop him from capitalizing on their trauma and writing a book about their experiences anyways, much to his siblings' disapproval. Due to circumstances, Steven is having marital troubles at the start of the series and is separated from his wife Leigh, played by Samantha Sloyan.

Elizabeth Reaser and Lulu Wilson play Shirley Crain, the next oldest, who was named for Shirley Jackson. Depending on how you look at it, Shirley grows up to either have the perfect or most baffling career, as she owns, lives in, and runs a funeral home along with her husband Kevin, played by Anthony Ruivivar.

Kate Siegel and McKenna Grace play Theo (this time with a surname!), the middle child. Theo has a touch empathy, allowing her to experience psychic phenomena when touching people or objects; she wears gloves to help circumvent this. She lives in a guest suite attached to Shirley's funeral home, where we occasionally see her girlfriend Trish, played by Levy Tran.

Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Julian Hilliard play Luke, the older of the twins who make up the two youngest members of the family. Luke, having been severely traumatized by his experiences at Hill House and the way his family was torn asunder afterwards, has a severe struggle with substance abuse. He has a "twin connection" with his younger twin sister, as the two of them have the tightest bond of the entire family.

Victoria Pedretti and Violet McGraw play Eleanor, the youngest of the family and the other half of Luke's twin empathy. Of all of the children, Nell and Luke each had the most traumatic experiences at Hill House; Nell still occasionally sees the ghost that haunted her the most as a child. Nell's story is the most tragic of all of the children as well; I won't say any more than that.

Timothy Hutton and Henry Thomas both put on fantastic performances for Hugh Crain, the father of the family. During the opening of the show, Hugh has to make the drastic decision of leaving Olivia behind as he and the children flee from Hill House in the middle of the night. This, of course, caused a massive rift to tear between him and the children, and they all become estranged.

Last but absolutely not least, Carla Gugino portrayed Olivia Crain, the mother of the family. Olivia has arguably the most tragic story, as a sensitive who becomes increasingly affected by whatever lurks in the walls of Hill House. She still lurks in the minds of the children and Hugh, even after that fateful night.

Flanagan and this wonderful cast knew exactly how to put on a fantastic show. Each role is played pitch perfectly, in both incarnations of the characters. Child actors are known to struggle with putting on strong performances, but none of these young cast members are ever overplayed to the point of being annoying. The stellar writing that these characters have to work with does a great job of bringing the audience in and making them feel like part of the Crain family. We care about these characters and don't want anything to happen to them, and thus we are horrified whenever they are hurt or scared, just as we would be if anything happened to our own loved ones.

The Haunting of Hill House has the some of the most effective scares I've seen in horror. Flanagan knows how to build up tension and when to release it. He knows exactly how to frame a shot and how to use subtlety to his advantage. There are a few jump scares sprinkled throughout the show, but unlike with most other horror pieces, the jump scares are meant for the characters and not for the audience. They have real meaning and serve a purpose and aren't just there as a cheap way to shock the audience.

The score for this show does a great job of underlining the tension, but aside from the opening theme, nothing quite stands out for me. I do want to take a moment to discuss the cinematography, however. Flanagan knows EXACTLY how to frame a shot, when to show something scary, and when to leave something to the audience's imagination. The juxtaposition between the two eras is masterful in its framing and use of colors. The happier childhood era in Hill House is shown in bright, warm colors with some nice bloom effect to display a more innocent time. Shots are more spacious and give the characters plenty of breathing room, and the score is light and almost playful.

In contrast, however, the scarier portions of the childhood era and most of the adult era are filmed with muted colors and cooler, darker tones. Shots are cramped and claustrophobic, and darkness fills corners and swims in rooms. The score for these shots is ominous and quiet, or even non-existant at times, leaving us to wonder what's going to happen.

The Haunting of Hill House is one of my favorite shows. It's fantastic, nearly perfect, in almost every way; I seriously have a hard time thinking of anything I'd change. Over the course of ten episodes, I felt myself moved and swayed and afraid for the members of this family. The show is not for everyone, of course, and I even hesitate to call it an adaptation of my favorite haunted house novel, but its strengths far outweigh anything negative I have to say. If you're looking for a long-form scary watch, I implore you to check this out. I even encourage you to read the novel, as it is interesting to compare the two and look at what few parallels Flanagan drew between them. As of today, the show has a second season. The Haunting of Bly Manor, which is based upon the works of Henry James, reuses much of the Hill House cast in new roles, marking The Haunting as an anthology show.

I'm almost done talking about adaptations for this month. Tomorrow, I return to a film I watched in my youth now that I've read the novel it's based upon...

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douxreviews · 6 years ago

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The OA - Season 1 Review

By Billie Doux

(The first part of this review is spoiler-free. I'll discuss the ending underneath the adorable spoiler kitten.)

The OA is an eight-episode series currently available on Netflix that was created by Brit Marling, who plays the lead, and Zal Batmanglij. It tells the story of a young blind woman named Prairie Johnson, missing for seven years, who returns home unexpectedly.

Prairie, no longer blind and inexplicably referring to herself as "The OA," won't tell the FBI or her parents (the wonderful former Borg queen Alice Krige and equally wonderful Walking Dead alum Scott Wilson) what happened to her during the seven years she was missing, although there are physical indications that she was imprisoned and abused. Instead, she begins telling her story to five random people in an abandoned house at midnight. The story, and it's a wild one, is told in chapters on successive nights throughout the succeeding episodes, and it has a dramatic effect on the lives of the five listeners, all of whom are from the local high school.

The ending of this series, or possibly first season since there are rumors that there may be a second, is controversial and is generating a lot of discussion. For me, The OA isn't so much about the ending, although I'm one of the viewers who found it quite powerful. It's my opinion that The OA is about the strength and transformative power of storytelling. We've all read books that have changed our lives and made us see the world in a new way. That's what this story did for the OA's five acolytes, four of whom are high school students: Steve, a violent outcast who deals drugs; druggie Jesse; brilliant and disadvantaged Alfonso; Buck the youngest who is trans and struggling to make his parents understand him; and Betty Broderick-Allen, a teacher.

I'm not sure if I can wholeheartedly recommend The OA. Some are finding it utterly fascinating and well worth watching (like me. I thought it was), while others are pissed about the ending and think it was a huge waste of their time. Caveat emptor?

And now, some spoilers. If you're planning to watch The OA, go no further until after you do!

What was real?

It appears that Prairie Johnson was kidnapped and imprisoned for seven years. She was blind when she was kidnapped, and regained her sight before she returned. Her five acolytes indeed used "the movements" she taught them to distract the school shooter long enough to keep him from killing the children in the cafeteria. Were the five actually sending the OA through an interdimensional portal so that she could rescue Homer and the others, or was that all in her head?

Honestly, I was about to give up on this series while watching the first episode, until I got to the end when the "I was born in Russia in 1987" thing started, oddly coinciding with the title sequence. Who puts the title sequence at the end? It was like saying, the story actually begins here. Of course, her childhood in Russia and the way she came back from the dead was very secret princess. It was so unbelievable that this was the point where I started wondering if OA was making the whole thing up. Or if maybe she believed it, but was stark raving mad.

There are so many hints and parallels throughout that make it seem possible that OA is either lying about her past and her seven years of imprisonment, or that she is mentally ill and honestly believes things that are not true. Her parents kept her medicated for nearly her entire childhood because of her unbelievable stories. There were multiple references to her head injuries. After her return home, the doctors in St. Louis said she should be committed. In the final episode, she is again being medicated and has an ankle monitor. There are also many indications that OA is psychic, which could be true even if she fabricated the whole thing.

After I finished the series, I rewatched the pilot, searching for clues. The first thing she asked when she woke after jumping off the bridge was, "Did I flatline?" She said that she was trying to get back to where she'd been held captive, even though she knew that they were gone. She also said, "We all died more times than I can count." The first thing she did when she arrived in her childhood home was attempt to find Homer Roberts on her computer, and later, she did. Although why couldn't Steve and Alfonso find evidence of her story online, too?

Did Hap exist, or was his search for proof of life after death a way that the OA used to humanize her captor? During the series, we often see things from Hap's viewpoint, even to his trips to find other NDE survivors and that strange murder of his friend at a morgue. (What the hell really happened in that morgue? What was that other guy doing?) The OA told her five acolytes that her father was a miner, and Hap's house was situated at an abandoned mine. When the OA was little and her name was Nina Azarova, her father forced her into freezing water in order to cure her fear of her nightmares of drowning in an aquarium, and note the similarity to Hap repeatedly drowning his captive subjects. Plus, the series began when the OA jumped off a bridge, and the kids on the school bus in Russia went over a bridge. Note also the use of glass or plastic during the OA's seven years of imprisonment and in the final shooting scene.

The neighborhood that the OA and her acolytes lived in was outright creepy. It looked like a typical suburb on the surface, but it consisted of jarring and oddly naked tract houses and there were often strange objects in the street. And I dare say most suburban neighborhoods don't have a half-built abandoned house sitting in the middle of an empty street? There was also the weirdness of the OA's instructions to her acolytes to leave their doors open while they were at her storytelling seances, something I found uncomfortable in present-day America; was that because the FBI instructed the Johnsons that "doors should remain open at all times"?

Steve, the OA's first follower and the character who changed the most, was introduced with a jarring, explicit sex scene right in front of a picture window showing that strange neighborhood. A drug-dealing bully with rage issues, Steve was the one who chose the other acolytes — except for teacher Betty Broderick-Allen, who basically chose herself. Grief-stricken by the recent death of her twin brother, Betty at first appeared to be a closed-minded teacher parroting the views of a rigid educational system uninterested in connecting with children who are different. Phyllis Smith is wonderful as Betty, and I thought her developing relationship with Steve, and in particular, the night she gave away her inheritance to save him from the goons from Asheville, was one of the high points of the series. I also really loved the scene where the OA impersonated Steve's stepmother and talked Betty out of expelling Steve, especially the bizarre little detail of one of the OA's fake press-on nails popping off while they were talking. Note that the OA guessed correctly that Betty had just lost a sibling, another bit that made me think she was psychic.

So let's talk about the ending.

The scene where Alfonso found the books under the OA's bed was very Usual Suspects, but it was also ambiguous. Yes, the OA could have used those books to create the details in her story, but she also could have been reading about subjects that had a relationship to her life, couldn't she? Why did Alfonso look in the mirror and see himself as Homer? And here's the big one for me. What was FBI agent Elias doing in the Johnson home alone at night, and why was he so weird and unconventional in the first place?

After I finished all eight episodes, I checked out a lot of articles and reviews on the internet. What seems to upset critics the most is the insertion of a school shooting into the narrative, supposedly out of nowhere. (That, and the admittedly silly interpretive dance "movements" that were intended to open the interdimensional portal.)

Honestly, I don't think the school shooting came out of nowhere. The focus of the entire series was saving the lives of children, and the five acolytes were all from the high school. The OA's story began with the Russian children dying on the bus, and then focused on five youths trapped under glass and killed and revived repeatedly in Hap's basement. Plus, it seemed to me that Steve fit the profile of a possible school shooter, and even though he momentarily reacted to the OA with anger in the pencil-stabbing scene, he was the one who changed the most, and for the better, over the course of the story.

We're now hearing that there may be a second season in the works. I cannot imagine what a second season could be about. Almost anything they do to answer questions about what happened in the first season might ruin the whole thing. Then again, what if the OA really did go through a portal in the end? What if Homer, Rachel, Scott and Renata do exist and are still imprisoned, waiting for her to rescue them?

A few bits:

-- OA may have meant "original angel." I thought that it could have been an interpretation of the word "away."

-- I didn't notice it the first time through, but there is a lot of purple, the color of royalty (secret princess), magic and spirituality.

-- There's Braille, too. There are actually strips on Braille on Khatun's face during the afterlife scenes. Also, the OA kept touching her white bedspread that had knobby protrusions like Braille.

-- How on earth did the OA and Homer write the symbols representing the movements on their skin? They couldn't touch each other; could anyone physically do that? Was that the reason the OA was told to make her arms longer during that scene with the bill and the trench?

-- Why were there potted plants in Hap's underground prison?

-- Why did the OA's mother Nancy freak out in the restaurant?

-- Loved the tiny blue quail eggs in milk for breakfast, and the bit in the afterlife about swallowing a bird.

So what is this show? Is it pretentious arty crap, or is it a powerful story about storytelling, mysticism and life after death? Lines are open. What did you guys think?

Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

#The OA #Brit Marlin #Prairie Johnson #The OA Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews #something from the archive

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la-knight · 7 years ago

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For the writing 1, 2, 7

1: Describe the plot of your current WIPs in a single sentence each.

Ohmigawd…that’s hard…okay, let me make a list real quick.

The 12th Camellia: an autistic queer Mormon girl has to rescue her sister when her sister ends up trapped in their favorite VR MMO; Six of Crows meets Sword Art Online.

Bare Not Your Heel to the Coward’s Arrow: world-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in CW’s Arrow

A Little Black Book and a Little Black Dress: World-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in The Blacklist

Blow Northerne Wynde: a queer autistic woc Mormon girl and her sentient starship get hurled through a wormhole that takes her back to our time, followed by alien invaders who have seeded Earth with sleeping kaiju they intend to wake up to exterminate us; Pacific Rim meets Outlander, sort of.

The Edge of Darkest Devotion: Sequel to a finished fanfic about Loki’s motivation/redemption/character journey in Thor 1, Avengers 1, and afterward.

Empress of Ice and Oceans: Hades and Persephone, but using Yoruban and Russian mythology and starring two black leads.

Eidolon: If Romeo & Juliet were both Batman-esque vigilantes working for the Crown when the ghost of a homicidal necromancer and Jack the Ripper attack magical AU London.

Facets of Snow and Frost: World-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in the MCU/MTCU.

Glass: industrialized magical urban fantasy version of Alice in Wonderland with a lot of gay poc kids fighting against the ridiculousness of a prophecy that says the female lead is going to be the dark ruler that will plunge the magical world into a new Dark Age.

Hallows: A genderfluid goddex tells the story of how they were kidnapped and forced to fight as a magical gladiator, then was blackmailed into betraying their home when they fell in love and their wife was used as a hostage against them (they’re telling their sister while rotting in a prison cell, but the sister doesn’t know if she believes them).

House of Gears: Teenage Jewish Cinderella’s little sister is kidnapped by the bogeyman, so she must crash a steampunk monsters’ ball with the help of her former not-so-imaginary friends (including a genderfluid Princex Charming/Sleeping Beauty and a lesbian fairy godsister) to get the sister back.

In the Dark of the Night and the Hour of the Wolf: Redemption fic for Hela from Thor Ragnarok (female villains almost never get the redemption fanservice male villains do). Ties into “Edge of Darkest Devotion.”

King or Captain, Sinner or Saint: World-hopping fanfic redeem Killmonger, ties into Facets.

The Lightning Bleeds Scarlet and Gold: World-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in CW’s Flash (like Magenta losing her powers, Iris and Barry taking so long to get together, Barry’s dad dying, stuff like that). Ties into Bare Not Your Heel.

Once in the Winter’s Tide: Fanfic set between Winter Soldier and Civil War that ties X-Men, Blade, Spider-Man, and other things into the MCU, starring Bucky and a mutant woman with 4 kids and a dangerous secret. Ties into “Darkest Devotion.”

Once Upon a Time: Redemption fanfic for Nuada Silverlance, the villain from Hellboy 2.

A Palace of Ink and Stardust: Autistic woc Mormon girl falls in love with a changeling at her school and has to come to grips with being bisexual and Mormon (cute wlw fluff all around, with magic).

The Silver Princess: A bi Mormon healer’s apprentice falls in love with an Elven princess and the princess’s twin brother, while all three of them have to deal with a war brewing between humans and fae. All the queer poc rep.

Snow White, Blood Red: World-hopping fanfic to fix all the dumb shit that happens in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, starring an autistic woc, a trans woc, and their gay best guy friend.

Yes, I have ADD. No, that’s not a joke.

2: Do you have anything published? If so, where?

I’ve published several short stories and a poem. I’ve self-published my first two books, but they were heavily whitewashed at the insistence of the agents who originally repped them and I didn’t realize at the time how problematic that was (although I knew it was annoying af) so I’m rereleasing them fully restored to their original poc (and for the most part queer) glory when I have the time.

As for my short stories, you can find my latest in the anthology Tomorrow’s Cthulhu, on my Patreon, or in the anthology New Legends: Caster - Castle - Creature.

7: What was the first novel you ever tried to write? If you’ve never tried to write a novel, then what was the first story you ever wrote?

The first story I ever wrote was in crayon when I was 4. It was a fanfic about how the Red Ranger fell in love with Rita Repulsa’s daughter (who was NOT the daughter of Lord Zed, so he was her stepdad) and while she was…like…wicked, you know, bad temper and chaotic neutral type, like Wade Wilson level morals, she hated being evil because it was too much work and she was lazy and she just wanted to date the Red Ranger because he was hot and nice to her.

The first NOVEL I ever wrote, I was 8 or 9, it took me an entire school year, and I wrote it by hand. It was called Catrina and Stephen: How an American Girl Became Princess of Monaco, and it was basically the adventures of this random girl who, on the eve of her 17th birthday, bought tickets through a magazine (I don’t know…) to the Coronation-and-Find-a-Bride Ball of Prince Stephen of Monaco, and her parents paid to fly her to Monte Carlo (in the middle of her senior year…for some reason) and the prince was like 19 and they met and fell in love a la Cinderella at the ball and got married literally the next day and had all these weird adventures and like, I shit you not, 35 kids (lots of triplets and quadruplets and I think a few quints).

I worked on it every day, in school, for bellwork. We got a writing prompt every morning and I always found a way to incorporate the prompt into the next chapter of my book. So literally one chapter might be them going to the grocery store and having to shop “like poor people” and the next chapter an evil scientist shrinks them down and they have to create a fort out of toothpicks and lincoln logs to protect themselves from a tarantula and rats, then in the next chapter they might scout an expedition to fucking Pluto and meet some eldritch alien horrors, but one of them fell in love with one of the kids (also being a kid, so cute “that’s my girlfriend” child love) and it became a star-crossed lovers thing that gets resolved by the UN. It was wild shit.

By the end of the year it filled 6 composition notebooks, had over 150 chapters, and ended with Catrina and Stephen dying and the alien and princess taking over the Earth and forming an intergalactic empire or something, but it was cool because basically it was just, everyone can do whatever except bomb each other or torture people.

#ask LA Knight #writing

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loudlytransparenttrash · 7 years ago

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This Week Within Our Colleges: Part 17

UC-Berkeley students protested their own exam and demanded a "take-home essay with significant time to prepare" in its place. “Our well-beings are being put on the line because of the emotional, mental, and physical stress that this university is compounding with what is already going on in our everyday lives,” the student protestors cry. They go on to claim that their professor is unqualified to teach because he’s a white man, and after nearly four minutes of non-stop bitching, one student said he just wanted to take his exam, which got him named a “white boy with privilege” by the protestors. Just as the group was leaving, one stayed behind to tell off the rest of the class, “I don’t know why you’re still, like, sitting down. I really don’t understand. Y’all can take your fucking test, but people are dying out there. Y’all can take your test, but this university is protecting white supremacists, and y’all are protecting them too.”

Stevens Institute of Technology students are demanding that the school completely rename a building named after Republican Greg Gianforte, who paid for the academic center to be built. The school agreed to change its name to highlight Gianforte’s wife and parents although the students want his surname removed from the building completely. The students are hoping to raise $20 million, the same amount donated by Gianforte, to buy out the building and rename it themselves, however, the students have only raised about $1,500.

The University of Wisconsin, Madison students are demanding for a disclaimer to be added on an Abraham Lincoln statue accusing him of genocide. Katrina Morrison, chair of the Associated Students of Madison, said that while she appreciates “Lincoln’s role in creating land-grant institutions,” she supports a plaque on his statue to recognize what she called “his brutality towards indigenous people.” “We want a plaque because we want the university to recognize his part in the massacre and killing of innocent people.” Mariah Skenandore, co-president of an indigenous student organization, likewise supported the measure, saying the university doesn’t “acknowledge the impact that it is having on their students” by not having the plaque in place.

Seattle University's law school withdrew its sponsorship of a debate over illegal immigration in fear exposing students to “painful” conservative viewpoints. The goal of the debate was to examine and talk about DACA. More than 200 students signed a petition demanding that the school not host the event, calling it “hateful xenophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric“ and both “harmful and unsafe” for the school’s undocumented students. Following the petition, law school dean Annette Clark announced that the institution would no longer sponsor the debate as part of its “Social Justice” duties.

University of Oregon students forcefully disrupted a speech by the school’s president as he attempted to outline how the school plans to put a massive $50 million donation to use. He was prevented from coming onto the stage by students shouting chants such as “Nothing about us without us!” and cries of fascism and Nazis. President Michael Schill was instead forced to stay in his office and make a video announcement to the students, where he promised the money would help fund a new Black Cultural Center, which includes tutoring and support staff for black students.

A University of Nevada-Las Vegas professor told her class that Trump may have played a role in encouraging the mass shooting days earlier. Tess Winkelmann was captured on video telling her students that Trump has only encouraged violence since being president and violence is a consequence to his words. Winkelmann boasts about her early warnings that Trump was going to end up getting people killed, “When he got elected, I told my classes three semesters ago, some of us won’t be affected by this presidency, but others are going to die. Other people will die because of this.” She also accused Trump of white nationalism and “threatening nuclear violence against North Korea.”

Two Mount Allison University professors wrote an article arguing that white students from Western countries need to take workshops to confront their "white fragility" and “white privilege” before going on study abroad trips. If students fail to critically reflect upon their fragility, the professors warn that they risk perpetuating “harmful outcomes” to these countries and could possibly “overlook and perpetuate racism.” To fight this, they recommend robust “pre-departure programming and preparation” for white students. Though the professors warn that this training may not be enough to fully address students’ white fragility. “The antidote to white fragility is on-going and life-long, and includes sustained engagement, humility, and education,” they conclude.

A Pennsylvania State University-Brandywine professor criticized her students for believing in “whiteness ideology” which includes acknowledging “if I work hard, I can be successful” and that “everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve success.” Angela Putman designed a comprehensive three-day seminar on “white privilege” for her students, and became concerned when she realized most students have been “socialized to believe that we get to where we are through our own individual efforts.” Instead, she claims, our fate is decided by “racism and whiteness functioning in various contexts, the powerful influence of systems and institutions, and the pervasiveness of whiteness ideologies within the United States.” Once students “learn more,” Putman hopes that they will “resist perpetuating and reifying whiteness through their own discourse and interactions,” and learn to fight “manifestations of racism and whiteness within U.S. institutions and systems.”

Members of the Black Student Union at the University of Vermont forced their way in to the president's office this week to present a set of demands. In addition to "mandatory diversity training" for all faculty and frat/sorority members, the students also demand increased funding for non-whites and expulsion of students who commit "hate crimes" such as removing a BLM flag. The ultimatum concludes by demanding the administration renames an on-campus building named after George Perkins, an environmentalist who served in the Abraham Lincoln Administration. “If the University of Vermont is truly ashamed of its disgustingly racist history, then the name of this building needs to be changed.” The group was originally told that University President Tom Sullivan was unavailable, but they took it upon themselves to barge their way in.

A group of professors recently warned college administrators that “diversity educators” risk “burnout and fatigue” from “the emotional weight” of their jobs. Seven diversity educators from a “predominantly white research institutions” were interviewed, and they found that many of the subjects described suffering from “burnout” and “racial battle fatigue” from their microaggression prevention efforts. This burnout is caused by diversity educators’ “consistent exposure to various microaggressions,” noting that microaggressions can be described “as forms of assault and torture.”

UC Riverside student Edith Macias became hysterically outraged when she saw a male student wearing a MAGA hat. She abused him and stole his hat, saying it represents genocide and “freedom of speech is genocide, homeboy.” The butch Mexican goes on to say that stealing his property is no big deal because the student’s ancestors stole land, later calling him a white boy. Liberal students rallied around Macias and defended her actions to take the MAGA hat, which they say represents “a violent white supremacist regime.” They also demand UC administration to “pay for alternate housing accommodations for Macias while simultaneously covering her current housing costs” and “grant Macias amnesty and protection from any student or legal charges.” The students go on to demand for the school to release a statement against “white supremacist violence,” as well as one in support of sanctuary campuses.

California State University, Long Beach is looking for a new professor to teach classes on “gender variant theories.” The new hire will be asked to develop courses on topics such as queering gender, queer studies, feminist transnationalism, trans feminism, transmigration, and gender variant theories. Notably, the Women’s Studies Department which invents these bizarre courses, also offers a variety of other feminist courses, including one on “the social construction of masculinity” another titled “lesbian histories” and a class on “queer spirit.”

Swarthmore Indigenous Students Association burned the American flag and issued a set of demands, including the removal of the flag from campus. The demands called on Swarthmore College to “admit and recruit native students” and for the school to create a fund to pay for flights “to and from home” for all students who are unable to afford travel expenses. The demands were made public at one of their flag-burning events. “We burn the American flag not just for ourselves, but for our ancestors who died because of that flag. We burn it for our indigenous siblings across the globe and for all of the people across the globe exploited by the United States and other Western imperialist states. We burn this flag because we want you to know it’s not just you who is angry and fighting against this oppressive apparatus, we are too.”

A University of Connecticut professor is calling for a “more expansive inclusion of feminism” by colleges to help female students recognize the oppression they face. Cristina Mogro-Wilson surveyed over 100 female students and found that the overwhelming majority of them do not believe that “discrimination and subordination” are issues in women’s lives. The findings were deeply problematic, she contends, because without a sense of their own oppression, female students may be disinclined to protest in order to “create change.” Worrying about the potential of a “post-feminist standpoint among younger women who no longer see discrimination against women as being a salient issue,” Mogro-Wilson calls for even more feminism and intersectionality into the school’s curriculum. It’s really sad to watch old feminists beating a dead horse, desperately trying to keep their paychecks coming in.

Another feminist professor joined the dead horse flogging, saying more feminism needs to be taught to female students in response to their "waning attention to feminist concerns.” Katherine Cruger from Chatham University says she has noticed students “wary to acknowledge that they could be suffering at the hands of an imperialist, white-supremacist, capitalist patriarchy.” We’ve heard of “race fatigue,” now Cruger cites “feminist fatigue” as a possible reason why female students aren’t bothered by their so-called oppression. Cruger says she was disturbed when one female student said she is “sick to death of feminism.” To combat this dissidence, she encourages students to learn how to better appreciate feminist activism through more extensive teachings of feminism in the classroom, noting that without this activism, “we will be stuck in a heteronormative, racist society that never grows.”

Two Seattle Pacific University professors argue that it is necessary to redefine science in order to combat "white male privilege," which they believe is the primary reason that more men are interested in and excel in STEM fields. According to the pair, professors must work to "disrupt privilege" in their classrooms by de-emphasizing "male-socialized traits such as independence, competition, and individual victories." The professors also assert that science has been used as a tool of racial oppression, complaining about “science disproportionately advantaging white people.” To combat this, they call upon fellow professors, especially those who are white males, to “disrupt privilege” in their classrooms by “recognizing their own privilege” and coming to see themselves as “agents of change who can contribute to the disruption of systems of unfair advantage."

The University of Missouri released a set of guidelines on how to host inclusive events, asking students to consider having “a counselor present” for “potentially triggering” events - their words, not mine. The guidelines lists dozens of questions students should ask themselves during the planning stages, including, “If my event is potentially triggering, do I have a counselor present?” and “do I need to create a ‘safe space’ for this event?” Another series of questions warns students making advertisements for their event to be “conscious of colors and how they can be exclusionary or stereotypical” while considering the language used on advertisements as it “can potentially be biased.” Another set of questions focuses on the “decorations” used at events, which students should assure “aren’t culturally appropriative or misrepresenting to other cultures” by “doing my research on a culture I am attempting to appreciate.”

The president of Albion College says that it is “appropriate” for people of privilege to feel “uncomfortable.” President Mauri Ditzler made the remark during a meeting with a conservative student who was harassed and abused by protestors after he made talking points derived from Ben Shapiro quotes. Ditzler came out in solidarity with the protesters, lecturing the conservative student about how he was “only made to feel uncomfortable for a day,” while “many of those demonstrating feel uncomfortable every day.” He goes on to say that while the violent protestors made him feel uncomfortable himself, this discomfort was actually “an example of his own privilege.”

A group of protestors shut down a discussion on “civil discussion” (the irony) at the University of California, Los Angeles, forcing the event to be relocated. The video shows one female shouting, “We need to actually organize ourselves to create a political crisis to get this fascist regime from power,” claiming the “country was founded on genocide and slavery” and “was never fucking great.” “We can’t normalize fascism,” she proceeded to scream, leading audience members to stand and raise a fist with her in protest... “Stand up because this is what the good Germans were facing. This is what the people in Nazi Germany were facing,” she declared as another protester joined in, eventually leading the unoriginal chant of “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA!” As the auditorium emptied, protesters repeatedly shouted “November 4, it begins. Trump and Pence must go!” referencing Antifa’s planned uprising on this date where they intend to create havoc “day and night” until Trump resigns...

The University of Maryland-Baltimore County Women’s Lacrosse team has been labelled “racist” and “ignorant” after the team’s twitter account liked a tweet by President Trump which he wrote about honoring the American flag which men and women have fought and died for. UMBC’s Black Student Union noticed the Women’s Lacrosse team’s twitter account's grave wrongdoing, telling them, “You’re welcome to come to a meeting and voice your ignorance and blatant disregard for students within your campus let alone your own team. If you are going to be racist please come correct.” The women’s team twitter account was later entirely deleted after other black students jumped on the bandwagon of calling them racists.

Brown University students voted to end the purchase of feminine hygiene products from the company “Tampon Tribe,” due to cultural appropriation. They claim that the company “affected them really deeply” due to both “the name and some of the branding as well.” One student organizer said she “had concerns about Tampon Tribe’s name over the summer when they first considered using the company,” but pushed on after gaining assurance the company had “Afro-diasporic and indigenous identities” as leaders. Fatal mistake. They soon realized that it was still cultural appropriation to buy these tampons, so they stopped purchasing them immediately.

A University of Southern California professor argues that condemning protesters who disrupt and shut down conservative speakers can reinforce “white supremacy.” Charles Davis believes because the protesters are disproportionately “students of color” or “students representing other marginalized groups,” any attempt to stop protestors from shutting down these events, it’s actually the protestors who are made to feel unsafe. Davis says these protesters are simply people who “use disruptive tactics to shut down hate speech and engaged in resistance against white supremacy.” Instead of criticizing the protesters, Davis encourages to “spend substantive time listening to their concerns” as they’re justified because “colleges have exacerbated racial issues by allowing the presence of white supremacy on-campus.”

A pair of student groups at Kent State University, including one named WOKE (World Of Kolored Empowerment... I’m not even kidding), staged a protest where they all stood in a circle, and then took a knee. According to the group’s flyer, the students took a knee for “the Dreamers, the brutalized by the authority, the ones who have been under and misrepresented” and “the oppressed who don’t believe that a change will come." One student who attended the demonstration said he felt it was his “duty as someone who has privilege to express my voice," while another had tears streaming down her face as she held a sign to protest against the hurricanes in Puerto Rico.

Another group of students at Cornell University took a knee against white supremacy and whatever else they were displeased with when they woke up. While the kneeling only lasted two minutes, the rally was filled with speeches covering topics of white supremacy, racism, and privilege. “Our society is steeped in white supremacy. Why should we expect Cornell, an enterprise built on stolen land, to be any different?” Professor Russell Rickford said during his speech to the crowd of students. He went on to show his communist ties, saying the school is a white supremacy because it supports “hierarchies of privilege, upon which global capitalism rests.” He later led chants of “free Palestine!” which the student drones eerily repeated collectively.

Students at Reed College are protesting a required humanities class for freshmen that focuses on texts from the great thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome, saying that “students taking Western Civilization courses is harmful” because “the course in its current iteration draws from predominantly white authors.” Remember this is a course on ancient Greece... The protest group claims the class should be “reformed to represent people of color” in a list of 25 demands, which also includes “anti-oppression workshops, scholarships for black students, paid positions for black students and the hiring of more black faculty.” The protestors stormed the class and overtook the stage, while giving the class a lecture of their own and vowing to hold silent protests during every lecture. The student activists also brought in mental healthcare advocates for students who have reported having “panic attacks” due to the course material.

Two feminists at Columbia University are campaigning for the class presidency by promising free “Lego, bubble-wrap, and Play-Doh” to classmates. “Do you want Legos, Bubble Wrap, and Play-Doh?” asks their campaign flyer, which is posted around campus. “If so, vote for the STEMinists” - the name the feminist duo, Michael and Riya, have given themselves. If elected, the pair hopes to sponsor events focused on women’s empowerment, but they’re also set on showing students that school is fun! “We would do events to destress. For example, we'd create a Lego area and it'll be fun. One of the activities we also plan on doing is giving out free Bubble Wrap.”

A bulletin board at Kent State University residence hall is urging students to “stop cultural appropriation this Halloween” by eschewing costumes based on other cultures. According to the display, cultural appropriation occurs whenever somebody “adopts aspects of a culture that’s not their own," particularly if the person is part of a "dominant culture," which yes, is just another way to say white people. Towson University announced that is has joined “Ohio University and universities across the country in reminding our community this Halloween that ‘we’re a culture, not a costume.’” DePauw University also publicized the campaign, telling students that “stereotypes hurt.” Similarly, Central Michigan University announced plans to host an October 25 event dedicated to ending stereotypical costumes in a recent Facebook post, encouraging students to “Get involved and take a stance against the appropriation of costumes.”

A professor at the University of Illinois has become highly concerned that algebra and geometry perpetuate “unearned white privilege” because “terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi” give the impression that math “was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.” She also worries that teaching more advanced math can perpetuate discrimination against minorities, especially when they do worse than their white counterparts. “On many levels, mathematics itself operates as whiteness. There are so many minorities who have experienced microaggressions from participating in math classrooms, where people are judged by whether they can reason abstractly,” the professor states. She also wonders why math professors get more research grants than gender and women’s professors.

A teaching assistant at the University of Pennsylvania admitted to intentionally ignoring white male students and will only call on them if she has to during class discussions. “I will always call on black women students first. Other POC get second tier priority. White women come next. And if I have to, white men.” Close your eyes and think of the most stereotypical man-hating, smug feminist with a man’s haircut and you’ve just pictured Stephanie McKellop. She was not happy when the school issued a statement condemning her blatant classroom bias, saying, “I had the cute idea that Penn could defend me against Nazis.” No love, Penn has an obligation to defend its students against sleazeballs like you.

#college

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punkpoemprose · 8 years ago

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Love Is Love Is Love

A little quick something for @justanaverageoc who requested Steve and Bucky with a trans kid. Hope this is what you had in mind.

Stucky Rated G Length: 761 Words

Raising a child is never easy. When all eyes are on you it gets even harder. When you’re an Avenger it feels borderline impossible.

Bucky had seen so much shit in his life, things that he could never speak of, that the sheer thought of raising a child was something that made his stomach turn. If someone had asked him about having a kid, he would have laughed the idea off. He loved Steve. He always had and always would. They had a pair of gold bands on their fingers to prove it.

Maybe back before the war, when they lived together in their crappy apartment, he would have dreamed of having a little guy running around the house, but even being with Steve back then had been something impossible except hidden away in the thin walls that contained their shared bed. Since he had come home, it was something that he wouldn’t even dream of anymore. Getting married to Steve, having the law on their side and being able to be relatively safe together was more than he had ever hoped for, but it was still too dangerous of a life to have a kid.

He was firm on it, even when Steve asked him about adoption.

“Steve we’re Avengers. Someone’s trying to kill us every other week. I know it sounds awful, but those kids are safer in an orphanage than here in the tower with us. Remember when Peter nearly died? He has powers Steve and he nearly died. I know Clint finds a way, but that’s because no one but the team knows who he really is. The whole world knows us. The kid would never have a chance.”

It had been on a mission a year later, busting into one of the last remaining Hydra bunkers, that they had found her. She was barely two years old, strapped to a table, unable to speak in any language at all.

It had hit the whole team hard. Of course they expected such cruelty from Hydra. They were monsters, but Wanda and Bucky saw the baby and saw themselves. The government wanted her handed over once they got back, but Nat and Tony had managed to somehow talk them into believing that the kid was better in the hands of the Avengers than in the system. They were proven right when her abilities had manifested as on command invisibility.

By the age of three she had been officially adopted by Steven Rogers and James Barnes, and unofficially adopted by all her Aunts and Uncles on the Avengers team. They named her Sarah Winnifred Rogers-Barnes after both their mothers, and despite all the chaos in their lives they raised her to the best of their ability.

“Dads,” their child had called on a rainy Tuesday afternoon a few months after their fourteenth birthday, twelve years after Bucky and Steve had carried them from the Hydra hell hole they had found them in.

“Aunt Nat said that I should talk to you about something. I know I should have talked to you guys first, but Aunt Nat always knows the right thing to say and I was scared you wouldn’t understand so I talked to her.”

“It’s alright Sarah,” Steve said with a smile, “What do you need to tell us Darling?”

“It’s about that… I mean I don’t know how to say it, but I don’t think I’m Sarah.”

Bucky had stepped in then, “Is something making you feel depressed? Is it school? Are you feeling bad about something else? We’ll do whatever we can sweetie.”

“Yes, but it’s not like that Daddy. It’s… I don’t think I’m Sarah Winnifred… I think I’m Seth William.”

“Oh!” Bucky said, his eyes wide, Steve’s shock less evident in his features, but there just as strong.

“I… well honey you would know. That’s not for us to decide. If that’s what you’d like us to call you, we can,” Steve began, taking a deep breath, “I’m just glad you told us.”

“As long as you don’t want to be called Sam, it doesn’t matter to me. You’re our kid, and if you’re our son I love you. I just wouldn’t want Wilson thinking my boy wants to be like him.”

“Buck!” Steve said, giving his partner an appalled look that faded when Seth walked over to hug his fathers.

“Don’t worry Dad, I wouldn’t dream of it. I was thinking about Stephen though, with a ph instead of a v, but Seth felt right.”

“Thank God,” Bucky said with a laugh as he kissed his son’s forehead and held both the men he loved close, “This world can only handle one Steve Rodgers-Barnes.”

As they talked about going about legal name changes and what they could do to make Seth more comfortable, Bucky relaxed and thought to himself, not for the first time, that raising a kid wasn’t so hard after all.

#stucky #captain america #steve rogers #bucky barnes

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paulbenedictblog · 5 years ago

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%news%

New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

News top stories daily news hot topics Justin Trudeau: Las buenas noticias, y las malas, para el primer ministro de Canadá

News top stories daily news hot topics

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Media caption“Canadians voted in favour of a progressive agenda” – Justin Trudeau’s victory speech

High Minister Justin Trudeau has retained energy in Canada’s election but lost both his majority and – by a minute margin – the favored vote. Here is a breakdown of the fitting files for his Liberal occasion – and the atrocious.

News top stories daily news hot topics Comely files – he’s mild in energy

It was once a cosmopolitan election battle for the Liberals but there was once the sense leisurely on Monday evening among occasion devoted in Montreal that they can also now breathe a cramped much less difficult.

When TV networks started projecting a Liberal minority, supporters at the election evening headquarters erupted into chants of “four more years” as one scheme of relief passed by technique of the crowd.

“The Liberals did better than we belief they would,” acknowledged supporter Brian, who selected now not to give his closing name, announcing he had been spooked by polls that advised a tighter plod.

Extraordinary Liberal MP Marlene Jennings says voters “indulge in shown they mild indulge in believe in the Liberal authorities and in Justin Trudeau, and they positively didn’t desire a Conservative authorities, now not even a minority authorities”.

Peaceful, Ms Jennings conceded she had grown frustrated staring at the campaign get sidetracked by “so-known as scandals” at some level of the closing few weeks.

“There were times at some level of the campaign the place I needed to desire the Liberal strategists and shake them and utter: ‘Why don’t seem like we speaking relating to the enormous things we have got done over and over?'”

News top stories daily news hot topics Scandalous files – his star energy is diminished

Mr Trudeau had an exceptionally lengthy honeymoon by most political requirements – but his status has clearly dimmed with the Canadian public.

The place did he stumble?

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Media captionFour years of Justin Trudeau in two minutes

Even earlier than the election campaign started on 11 September, his approval rankings had slipped.

The predominant peril with the Canadian public came after a disastrous abroad outing to India, which took roar against a backdrop of relate-ops showcasing the Trudeau family in account for feeble Indian outfits.

Then came the SNC-Lavalin affair – an ethics scandal connected to makes an strive to stress a ragged attorney basic to carve inspire a deal for a firm going by technique of a corruption trial, which extra tarnished Mr Trudeau’s personal stamp.

That ragged attorney basic, Jody Wilson-Raybould, was once booted out of the Liberal occasion by Mr Trudeau.

In opposition to the percentages, Ms Wilson-Raybould ran and obtained as an self sustaining in her Vancouver utilizing.

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Jody Wilson-Raybould

She is a vocal critic of Mr Trudeau and might per chance per chance wait on as a reminder of that scandal in the Residence of Commons.

Within the end, revelations that Mr Trudeau wore blackface – broadly seen as a racist caricature – on as a minimum thrice shook the Liberal campaign and compelled Mr Trudeau to ask Canadians to forgive him for his past misbehaviour.

News top stories daily news hot topics Scandalous files – the Liberals lost the West

The prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan grew to change into completely Conservative blue – rather than one Recent Democratic Celebration (NDP) stronghold in the town of Edmonton.

That blue wave helped the Conservatives produce nearly 30 seats in Monday’s election, taking them from 95 to about 122.

The Liberals were by no methodology going to brush these deeply Conservative areas. Even at the peak of their status in 2015 they simplest held a handful of seats in these two provinces.

However now Alberta and Saskatchewan indulge in grew to change into solidly faraway from Mr Trudeau’s occasion amid one scheme in western Canada that its interests are now not represented in Canada’s capital of Ottawa.

With closing results mild rolling in early Tuesday morning, the Conservatives furthermore had a minute lead in the favored vote – 34.5% to the Liberals’ 33%.

That didn’t plod the dignity of Conservative leader Andrew Scheer who acknowledged in his speech to occasion devoted that “more Canadians wanted us to bewitch than any diversified occasion”.

News top stories daily news hot topics Scandalous files – the Bloc bounced inspire

The Bloc Quebecois has furthermore had a resurgence.

Voters had relegated the occasion calling for sovereignty for Quebec to the sidelines in the closing two elections – but its fortunes grew to change into under the recent management of Yves-Francois Blanchet, and they more than tripled its seat depend, from 10 to an estimated 32.

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Mr Blanchet campaigned under the slogan “Quebec, c’est nous” or “We’re Quebec”, and on being a solid suppose in Ottawa for that province’s interests.

The occasion, which simplest runs candidates in Quebec, is at odds with Mr Trudeau on disorders like the province’s controversial secularism law – Bill 21 – which prevents judges, law enforcement officers, teachers and public servants preserving some diversified positions from sporting spiritual symbols such because the kippah, turban or hijab whereas at work.

Mr Trudeau did provide an olive branch to those Canadians who rejected the Liberals at the pollfield, and acknowledged he had heard the frustration from prairie voters loud and sure.

“To of us that did now not vote for us, know that we are going to work daily for you,” he acknowledged. “We are able to govern for all individuals.”

News top stories daily news hot topics Comely files – he can mild govern with a minority

Mr Trudeau will need the enhance of diversified parties to pause his promised “progressive agenda” if he desires to lift on to energy.

One likely ally is the NDP, who might per chance per chance help the Liberals to outlive key self belief votes and to skedaddle legislation.

However that enhance comes at a label.

Image copyright Getty Photos

Image caption From left: Justin Trudeau, Andrew Scheer and Jagmeet Singh

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has already residing out his occasion’s laundry list of priorities in a minority anguish: enhance for a nationwide pharmacare knowing, investments in housing, addressing student debt, decreasing cell phone and cyber web funds, action on climate, and raising taxes on the wealthiest Canadians.

However Mr Singh’s roar is much less sure on the Trans Mountain pipeline venture, which might per chance per chance triple the capacity of impolite oil the most up-to-date pipeline carries to the west hover.

Mr Trudeau’s Liberals enhance the venture, announcing it is in Canada’s nationwide hobby.

In his speech to supporters leisurely in the early hours of Tuesday, Mr Singh vowed his occasion would play a “sure fair” in Ottawa.

However enhance for a minority authorities furthermore most incessantly has an expiration date.

On moderate, minority governments in Canada closing about a yr and a half of to 2 years, noteworthy shorter than the identical outdated four-yr majority timeframe.

News top stories daily news hot topics Comely files – voters pause desire climate action

The Conservatives had pledged to without prolong repeal Mr Trudeau’s signature climate policy in the occasion that they came to energy.

However now it feels like the federal carbon tax – imposed on four provinces that did now not already indulge in their possess cap-and-trade programme or label on carbon in roar – will stay one more day.

It is miles now not going to be too subtle for Mr Trudeau to stable enhance from during occasion lines for his climate insurance policies.

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Media captionWhat’s more indispensable to Canadians — the financial system or the ambiance?

The NDP, the Bloc Quebecois and Canada’s Greens, which added a seat in Atlantic Canada, all campaigned on taking action on the ambiance.

“Chances are you’ll per chance per chance indulge in gotten asked us to demonstrate scheme more imaginative and prescient and ambition as we take care of the ideal anguish of this period – climate trade,” Mr Trudeau acknowledged in his victory speech.

“That is precisely what we are going to pause.”

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oselatra · 6 years ago

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Looking for a hot and a cot in Little Rock

Winter weather in Central Arkansas means people experiencing homelessness have even fewer options for shelter.

As temperatures drop and Arkansas slinks toward winter weather, shelter options for the homeless in Little Rock are scarce. With the October closing of 40 emergency beds at Union Rescue Mission's Nehemiah House, many homeless people in Central Arkansas are left with two choices: staying at Little Rock Compassion Center or sleeping outside.

Choices are especially limited for single men. The Salvation Army once gave men a bed for the night but changed that practice in July 2016. Its beds are now restricted to women and children; men can stay only if they're part of a family unit. The cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock support a day center, but not beds for overnight stays for either men or women. Abba House is for women and children only; St. Francis House houses veterans only. Lucie's Place has a shelter with eight beds for LGBT young people. Our House provides housing to single men, but does not have enough beds to meet demand. The shelter also requires all residents to find a full-time job shortly after arriving and maintain it throughout their stay.

The faith-based Compassion Center, at 3618 W. Roosevelt Road, has 150 beds. With the closing of the beds at Nehemiah House, however, Compassion is bedding up to 200 men and women a night, some of them sleeping on mats for lack of mattresses, pastor and CEO William Holloway said. The women sleep separately at Compassion's shelter at 4210 Asher Ave.

The Compassion Center is a "hot and a cot" shelter, offering a hot meal at night and breakfast in the morning. It also operates a 12-step program for people with drug and alcohol addictions and hosts worship services on Wednesdays and Sundays and daily prayer every morning and night.

The religious tenor of the Compassion Center has prompted allegations — denied by Holloway — that LGBT individuals are denied shelter there and those who are allowed to stay are subject to intense proselytization. There have also been complaints about overcrowding and a lack of hygiene products for those housed there.

Mandy Davis, director of Jericho Way Resource Center, the city's day center, says the Compassion Center provides an important service to Little Rock by allowing the homeless long-term stays, which makes it possible for Jericho's social workers to keep in touch. "I need stabilized people in order for social workers to be as effective as they can be here at Jericho Way," Davis said. "So I might have the professionals on staff; but, if we as a city don't have emergency shelter beds for people living on the streets, then how do you work those cases if they're living outside and struggling to meet their basic needs? Or freezing to death, or having to have limbs amputated? This gets complicated."

In addition to case management, Jericho Way, at 3000 Springer Blvd., provides access to computers, internet and local phone service, showers and restrooms, laundry services, housing referrals and access to job counseling and training. Open from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., it serves breakfast and lunch and provides transportation to and from the day center. Jericho Way, which is run by the Catholic nonprofit DePaul USA, is jointly funded by the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock.

Those who will suffer the most from the lack of beds are individuals who are not able-bodied, Davis said. The Compassion Center, which is not handicapped-accessible, plans to install a chair lift, but probably not before the weather gets more severe.

Pinning down how many people in Central Arkansas are homeless is difficult. The nonprofit Central Arkansas Team Care for the Homeless (CATCH) tallied 369 unsheltered men and 139 unsheltered women over a period of 24 hours in 2017. But Sandra Wilson, president of the Arkansas Homeless Coalition, said the count excludes many homeless people. It is tailored to those individuals targeted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development's specific homeless programs and is intended only to represent the number of people eligible for those programs.

Little Rock's 2018 annual operating budget lists $375,000 for Homelessness Outreach, up $25,000 from 2017 and 2016's annual budgets. The city of Little Rock also employs a homeless services advocate, Chris Porter, a former case manager at Jericho Way.

Despite the fact that the Compassion Center says it's so crowded it has people sleeping on mats rather than in beds, Porter said he isn't worried about the Compassion Center exceeding its bed capacity. He said Holloway has told him that the Compassion Center has an additional floor it could open up for more shelter.

"I've yet to see when the Compassion Center said it was overfull," Porter said. "There are beds available. People just don't choose to go to the beds. When I hear the Compassion Center say, 'We are overflowed and we don't have a bed,' then I'll say, we've got a big problem."

And until then?

"Until then, I live in the here and the now," Porter said. "I just have the confidence that right now, people don't have to be outside if they don't want to be," he said.

As for plans to expand available shelter options, Porter said the city "is not in the business of shelter. They rely primarily on people who have shelters. ... That's my understanding, because shelters are in the business of sheltering."

***

While Porter may be confident the Compassion Center can handle the need for beds in Little Rock this winter, other service providers are not so sure.

Roger Mauldin, who volunteers at The Van, an organization that brings supplies such as food, water, clothing and hygiene products to homeless folks where they're living, lived on the streets for about four years. He said he never stayed at the Compassion Center, even when his choice was between sleeping there or sleeping in the cold. He said his brother tried to stay there but was denied entry for carrying too many possessions with him.

Penelope Poppers, who founded Lucie's Place, said she's heard that those who run the Compassion Center "famously don't love LGBT people, and they openly deny housing to LGBT people." But Holloway said there's no policy to deny shelter to gay or lesbian or trans people. "I don't discriminate against anybody," he said.

Service providers told the Times that the Compassion Center's evangelical mission drives most of the complaints they hear.

If a resident rejects the Christian message, Holloway said, "I let them make up their own mind what they want to do. That's their answer to that problem, not mine. That don't stop me from housing them, that don't stop me from feeding them, and it don't stop me from preaching to them. And sooner or later, they will listen.

"That's what we do, that's what we were founded on. We based this whole center around Christ, so it's all spiritual, right? But also at the same time we don't turn people away because they don't believe like I do. I still go ahead and feed them. When Jesus fed the 5,000 on the mount, I don't think he went around and said, 'Do you believe in me? Do you trust me?' He just fed them all, and that's what I believe in."

***

Antonio, a full-time volunteer at Jericho Way, was staying at the Compassion Center when a reporter interviewed him. He asked the Arkansas Times not to include his last name in this story because some of his family doesn't know that he's homeless. Antonio, who says he left Pine Bluff on foot to escape the city's high crime rate, said he's glad the Center exists, and he understands the rules it has in place.

"It's been different than having your own place, your own house," he said. "I'm not gonna say they have a bunch of rules, because the rules they've got are for people's safety. They actually try to help people all they can. ... I mean, all and all, I'm grateful that the place is there. If it wasn't there, I'd be sleeping on the street, which I've never tried, and I don't want to, either."

Asked about the complaint that the Compassion Center doesn't provide enough hygiene products for the people staying there, Antonio said churches and other organizations often give out hygiene products on the weekends, so people have access to them for free. And anything the Compassion Center gets, he said, it'll put out for shelter residents to use.

Antonio also said that anything he collects he has to carry around with him, so he often chooses to donate the deodorant or toothpaste he picks up from those churches to others in need. "Even though you're in this position, you can still help somebody. ... It kinda builds you up a little bit, lets you know that you ain't just all the way down and out. You still have the ability to help somebody."

Antonio said he gets up around 3:30 every morning — early to rise at the Compassion Center means one might have the bathroom to himself — and takes three different buses to arrive at Jericho Way and mop up before it opens.

"I look at homelessness as, I've found trials and tribulations, and the Bible says we're going to have those, but they'll pass," he said. "It's not like nobody is going to pull up on the road and say, 'Here's a house and a car, I put you some money in the bank.' You've got to work for it, you've got to get out and do what you've got to do."

***

The Compassion Center's men's shelter and thrift store is housed in a former Salvation Army building. Its entrance is manned by staff members who speak to new arrivals from behind a Plexiglas wall. Holloway showed a reporter around the facility and introduced many of the organization's success stories, calling over some of the individuals working at the shelter with variations of "Hey, brother! How long have you been with us?"

When people arrive at the shelter, they're given a clean set of clothes and a voucher to pick out items they need from the Compassion Center's thrift store, which raises funds for the shelter.

Jimmy Townsend, head of housekeeping at the Compassion Center, has been at the center for three years. Originally from California, he and Holloway said the homeless often abandon suitcases and belongings when they become too heavy to continue carrying.

"Dragging that suitcase behind you gets heavy," Townsend said. "Especially when it's raining, with nowhere to go. Just throw it down."

Holloway pointed out their nurse's station, where he said a nurse volunteers six or seven times a month. The nurses provide basic medical services such as checking blood pressure and body temperature. Holloway said the Compassion Center was in the beginning stages of renovating the nurse's station, classrooms and meeting rooms in the facility when Nehemiah House's 40 emergency beds closed.

Most of those who come to the Compassion Center "are happy to be in out of the weather," Holloway said. "If you're out there sleeping under a tree and it's raining on you all night long, this is a dry, safe place. We have security here, and we have a full-time night watchman here, and a residential manager."

That takes money. With extra people sheltering there, the Compassion Center is focused on housing and feeding all who walk through their doors. The recent increase in residents has put a particular strain on food supplies. According to Antonio, residents have been eating a lot of beans and rice.

The kitchen staff includes folks participating in the drug and alcohol recovery programs and some performing community service. Diana Warden, who's been at the facility for five months and works in the kitchen, said she came there "to get my life together so the Lord could help me better myself. My life was unmanageable, I was on drugs for 30 years, and it really has helped my life. I'm so grateful for this program. ... I want to spend the rest of my days sober, the rest of my life on this earth is going to be sober. I take my sobriety very seriously. ... That's the good part about the program, it helps you change your life. The 12-step program is close to my heart, and I'm very grateful to the pastor and his wife for starting the program. I am."

Kitchen worker Larry Thomas came to the center in 2008 while struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. "I came to find Jesus. I knew where he was, but I just couldn't get there the way I was going," Thomas said. Thomas completed the eight-month 12-step program and was then offered a job in the kitchen. He's now married. "He was planning on leaving, so I had to go out and find him a wife," Holloway said. Thomas added, "The pastor's been holding me here under lock and key for the last 10 years and 10 months."

Past the kitchen, a large warehouse divided into metal cages is filled with donations, including a large walk-in freezer the center was given and a veritable wall of bags containing donated clothes. Most of the clothes are donated through blue Compassion Center donation boxes located around town, according to Holloway. The clothes are sorted into three categories: clothes used by the center for new arrivals, clothes designated to sell in the thrift store, and clothes that are bundled and sent to a recycling center in Houston, a transaction for which the center is paid.

As the CEO of the center, Holloway said he relies heavily on the center's donor base for funding; a recent gift from a donor allowed them to order a stack of new beds. Despite the strain the emergency bed scarcity is putting on their resources, Holloway said he and his staff make it work.

"We know most of the homeless people who come through, or we learn to know them," he said. "We try to help them out as much as we possibly can, but the only ones we can't help out are the ones who are violent. If you've got a bad temper or anger and are wanting to fight all the time, you can't do much for that person."

Holloway said some of the policies in place — like requiring that new arrivals check-in their cell phones overnight before they're given back in the morning — are to combat issues they've had with residents fighting. "We keep them from doing any drug dealing or prostitution or anything like that for safeguard," he said. People in the drug and alcohol programs aren't allowed to have their phones for the first two months of the program. "They're here for a reason, they're trying to get their life together. ... We're trying to build up strength to say no and get them back to thinking again," he said.

***

Even with the message of the Gospel attached to the services the Compassion Center provides, it's still the only shelter in Little Rock with emergency beds available without stipulation, like having to pass a drug test or joining a long-term program. Aaron Reddin, the founder of The Van and a longtime homeless advocate in Little Rock, said the key problem for those serving homeless folks is this skewed ratio of people to services.

"There's more people than there are services available," he said. "We see [this] every year this time of year. We're a rural state. This is what we can't seem to get through to anyone that should be looking at the big picture of it all ... . There's an influx every year, about this time when the temps drop, from folks in rural Arkansas who come here thinking they're going to get some help, they're going to get inside. And then everyone here ends up overloaded."

Reddin said the navigation of bureaucratic red tape, like zoning issues and time delays, by those who have the authority to work through them, would be crucial in opening more emergency shelters for the winter months and in creating long-term solutions after that. Reddin said he's encoutered problems with city code enforcement kicking people out of camps in the woods but offering no alternative place to stay, aside from shelters located miles away.

So what would Reddin call for from those in positions of power to create change? "Acknowledge that you have screwed your own citizens and apologize for it, for one," he said. "That would be a really great first step. You're the leaders of this city, and I know you have to have codes, and all of these things. I understand that. But when you have a public health crisis, such as hundreds of people sleeping in this crap on your streets and in any patch of woods you can find, then you have to pull your big person britches up."

Davis said remedying the recent loss of those 40 beds would be the first step to stabilization. "I think that one solution would be partners, including the city partnering with a nonprofit or a church, and opening 40 beds," she said. "We lost 40 at the [Union Rescue] Mission, so start there, because we can't implement new interventions to reduce the number of people living on the streets if we can't hold the interventions that we have. So, we need to pivot at this point and not try to do more. Instead, we need to back up and say, we've lost these beds, how can we fill them?"

Holloway believes the most pressing need for people experiencing homelessness in Little Rock is Jesus. "Christ in the life is what's most needed, and the rest will kind of take place. I know you can't print that."

He also said he's working to develop a crisis center or hotline for people experiencing homelessness to call to help figure out their next steps. Teaching home economics, shop and mechanics classes in high school again would be an important step for teaching people trades early on in their careers.

Asked what the city is doing to improve conditions for the homeless, Porter referenced the recent efforts of city-funded Jericho Way to create more affordable housing for people exiting homelessness, as well as their case management services, but said that help is available there only for those that want it.

"If you've been over there [at Jericho Way], you know that there are some people who don't want it," he said. He noted that Jesus had been homeless and had told his disciples, " 'Well, I'm getting ready to leave you guys, but the poor are going to be with you always.'

"And so it is. Not that we should be all right with that, but we should have compassion for that. They're gonna be with us. We need to always try to help them. Always be concerned about them but, at the same time, respect that that is a truth that won't change."

Looking for a hot and a cot in Little Rock

#Looking for a hot and a cot in Little Rock

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vdbstore-blog · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on Vintage Designer Handbags Online | Vintage Preowned Chanel Luxury Designer Brands Bags & Accessories

New Post has been published on http://vintagedesignerhandbagsonline.com/charles-jeffrey-and-the-designers-transforming-fashion-for-a-post-gender-world-fashion/

Charles Jeffrey and the designers transforming fashion for a post-gender world | Fashion

The fashion designer Charles Jeffrey is wearing a kilt when I meet him. Granted, he’s Scottish – the 28-year-old grew up in Glasgow – but this is less about nationalism and more about what fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race will know as a “lewk”. The kilt is combined with an oversized leather jacket, chambray shirt, beret, striped football socks and paint-splattered boots held together with bright yellow electrical tape. On his Botticelli-ish face, Jeffrey has added two carefully positioned beauty spots with a kohl pencil. The overall effect is striking. It will provoke some quizzical glances from the ice-skating tourists at Somerset House in London, where Jeffrey’s studio is.

Since launching his label, Loverboy, in 2015, the designer has quickly become a poster boy for catwalk fashion that flouts gender norms, though he probably wouldn’t describe himself as such. Unisex fashion was retail’s answer to the increasingly loud debate over how we identify in terms of sexuality and gender – it was seen in Selfridges’ 2015 Agender unisex pop-up, and is now mainstream, with John Lewis recently making its childrenswear gender neutral. Jeffrey’s work is the flipside of this idea. Instead of discounting gender in fashion, taking away the gender constructs, it plays with them. He uses designs traditionally worn by a man (a suit, say) or a woman (a dress), and makes it a free-for-all, do-what-you-feel, dressing-up box.

Jeffrey’s Loverboy show at London fashion week men’s earlier this month. Composite: Rex Features

He is joined by other designers working in the same area, such as Edward Crutchley, who puts men in crinolines, and the Art School duo who put men on the catwalk in bodycon dresses. They all show their collections at the twice-yearly menswear showcase London fashion week men’s, which took place last weekend.

Jeffrey, though, is the star of this cohort. For his spring/summer 2018 show, the Loverboy label featured a man in a miniskirt and a woman in a striped trouser suit. It closed with a man in a floor-length wedding dress covered in childlike drawings. It didn’t – as it might have a few years ago, when streetwear dominated the men’s shows – prompt scepticism and sighs on the front row. Instead, it was rightly lauded as one of the best shows of the season and scored Jeffrey the emerging talent award at the Fashion awards in London in December. He collected the award from his hero, John Galliano, in a full face of makeup, including painted-on kiss curls.

Jeffrey followed his triumph with another this month. During the latest London fashion week men’s, he showed “Tantrum”, a blistering howl of a show that, in staging at least, recalled Alexander McQueen at his best. It began with a series of young men and women, painted white, running on to the catwalk and screaming at the front row. They then sat down at tables dotted in the venue and heckled models – including Faris Badwan from the Horrors – while swigging wine. Afterwards, Jeffrey told reporters that the collection was partly inspired by Alan Downs’ 2005 book The Velvet Rage, about growing up gay. “It’s about accepting anger and utilising it,” he said. “This is the first time I wanted to explore that particular emotion. It’s always been so joyous and fancy-free but there is a dark side to that, too, so I think it’s good to explore that.”

In 2015, a survey found that half of people aged 18-34 believe that gender exists on a spectrum and shouldn’t be limited to either male or female. Jeffrey is part of that generation refusing to define itself in binary terms. He believes “gender is like an idea” and “there’s this whole perception of how a man can look and a woman can look – and it’s such an interesting place to explore”. Jeffrey’s take on fashion and gender is playful and permissive – gender roles are something to be tried on, depending on how one feels that day. As such, it’s ignoring the signifiers of gender that clothing has provided for centuries. It’s disruptive. A man in a ballgown walking down a catwalk is like a Shakespearean heroine masquerading as a man – it’s carnivalesque, a cheeky “up yours” to the status quo. In fact, Jeffrey, in a truly millennial way, describes any discussion of gender as “a bit of an eye roll”.

Backstage at the London fashion week men’s Edward Crutchley show. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

He calls his career “a journey of my own identity”, one that began with Central Saint Martins’ infamously forthright tutor Louise Wilson, who died in 2014. “One day, she sat me down and I had all my drawings. I had a dress on, this big felt T-shirt and these weird shoes, and she was basically shouting at me: ‘Your work doesn’t make any sense!’” Wilson – who had also tutored Alexander McQueen and Christopher Kane – advised Jeffrey to examine his own dress sense and to take photographs of his outfits. These images, and this process, still form the basis of Loverboy, three years after he graduated.

This is a movement where the personal is the political – with Jeffrey’s kilt a perfect example. He tells a story of being on the metro in Paris. “I was wearing this Givenchy kilt skirt thing and these two guys started ripping the piss out of me … I ended up saying to them: ‘Vetements national … my heritage … I’m Scottish,’” he says. “They were like, ‘Oh, it’s a kilt. You’re not gay … it’s fine, then.’ I had to pretend not to be gay so I wouldn’t get harassed and I just remember thinking: ‘It’s so crazy,’ because as soon as they realised it was a kilt, their perception of it changed. Because [a kilt] is grounded in masculinity.”

Jeffrey has experimented with his image since his teens – and is well-versed in coping with other people’s reactions. He recalls getting punched at the age of 15 because he had dyed his hair orange. He worked out that he could survive – thrive, even – by finding a scene of like-minded people, first with an emo phase, and later in clubs in London. “What we do now feels like that for other people. One girl I met in Paris was dressed very normally,” he says. “She was shaking and she gave me this letter saying: ‘I have been able to come out because of your brand.’ I see her on Instagram now and she has shaved her head. She’s got that validation and she’s able to express herself.”

Finding a community where your identity is accepted and celebrated is an idea that would chime with Eden Loweth. He designs for his label, Art School, with his partner Tom Barratt who, says Loweth, “identifies as transgender, male to female”. For their show last Sunday, the two 24-year-olds included trans models and men in makeup on the catwalk. The trans model Munroe Bergdorf – who found herself in the limelight last year when she was hired by L’Oréal and then sacked for expressing strong opinions – sat in the front row wearing their clothes. Loweth says the brand is designed to appeal to their friends and those like them. “A lot of our friends wear mostly secondhand clothes because they can’t achieve their identity with clothes that are new and on the market now,” he says. “In the society we live in, it’s becoming increasingly hard for young people to have a voice. A lot of people channel that through what they wear; an expression of themselves.”

Art School on the catwalk at London fashion week men’s. Composite: Rex Features

The place where this self-expression was honed – for Jeffrey anyway – wasn’t just the studios of Central Saint Martins, but the club scene of London. Loverboy shares its name with the night that Jeffrey set up in 2015, first to help finance him through college, but later to explore his ideas in a curated space. It ran for just a year, but provided – along with Jeffrey’s rent money – the fertile soil for his ideas to grow in. He describes clubs as “a safe space to think, feel, be, see and present yourself. It’s the ideal place to pull a look. You can pull a look when you go to a restaurant, but you’re not really enjoying that look as much.” Does he still go out a lot? Jeffrey tries to cover his smirk and then cracks. “Hmm … yes, I do. There’s a whole rave scene happening. My friend has a contact; they’ll send him a message when there’s a rave. It’s amazing.”

The writer and model Niall Underwood, who studied with Jeffrey, is a muse for the designer and regularly wears his designs. He calls Loverboy clothes for “a post-gender world” and says he enjoys wearing them because of how inclusive they are for those in his milieu: “I’m a cisgender man who dresses up in makeup, but some of our friends are more femme and they can wear Charles, too.” Underwood believes the club setting and community of creative people is vital. “We are all the odds and ends of different family backgrounds who ended up united in a London nightclub,” he says. “That’s not a new concept, but that doesn’t mean it’s invalid.”

As Underwood says, the club as a permissive place to explore self-expression and play with gender norms isn’t a new idea (nor is men wearing clothes designed for women – Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivienne Westwood and JW Anderson have all played with this idea). Alistair O’Neill, reader in fashion history at Central Saint Martins, sees Jeffrey and his cohort in the tradition established in London since the late 60s. He namechecks David Hockney’s Notting Hill set, the scene around Roxy Music in the 70s and the clubs Blitz, Taboo and Kinky Gerlinky in the 80s – where Galliano, Westwood and Rachel Auburn, along with performance artist Leigh Bowery, were clientele. “Clubs can become the breeding ground for creativity,” says O’Neill. “Barry Miles called the dancefloor the R&D department of Central Saint Martins. These designs weren’t being sketched, they were being worn to a nightclub.”

Jeffrey’s Loverboy show on the catwalk for London fashion week men’s SS18. Photograph: Stuart C Wilson/Getty Images

O’Neill is careful about connecting what Jeffrey and friends are doing to “LGBTQ visibility and new debates about gender identity”. Instead, he emphasises the playfulness of this group of designers – one that marks them out from the genderless trend that came before it. “This is quite different,” he says. “This is not about daywear, it’s about a new kind of evening wear. These are clothes that stand out.” He also credits social media with the normalising of outfits that used to be reserved for after dark. “It’s this giant mirror,” he says. “I think it has put a different spin on self-fashioning and self-appearance in relation to that kind of community of people who are interested in projecting an idea of themselves. It’s hugely powerful, though I don’t think it’s all positive.”

Jeffrey is part of a generation where non-heterosexual and cisgender identities have, as O’Neill says, been “normalised as part of their peer group and wider society”. If the folks attending Taboo had a very different life in the daytime – “they were doing it all at nights and waking up in squats”, says O’Neill – Jeffrey’s generation is increasingly using clothes as self-expression 24/7. The designer describes his class at Central Saint Martins as a place where “it was the norm for people to be wearing dresses, girls in suits. You would have your Supreme sportswear person next to someone who pins ties to a towel and wears that.” The success of RuPaul’s Drag Race – now on its ninth series – has, he says, helped the mainstream become acclimatised to this different way of dressing. “That drag look isn’t only something you see in a dark basement of a club, you see it’s something that can be digested.”

Even if his clothes are not designed to be a political statement, Jeffrey does feel strongly about providing a space where trans identity can be celebrated: “there is a lot of stigma still attached to trans people and it’s important to communicate with the whole spectrum of what gender is, people who want to be associated with femininity and masculinity”. Loweth also feels strongly about this issue, with the label’s recent show featuring several trans models. “Trans identity across the world is being attacked, especially with people such as Trump in power now,” he says. “We want to create joyous self-expressions to combat that.” Resistance through joy is an idea that feels very 2018.

There is a school of thought that more and more people will start to dress in a way that subverts the long-established structures of who is meant to wear what – whether in a big way, as with Jeffrey’s gang, or with smaller tweaks, such as young men wearing glitter at festivals. Does that mean there is a gap in the market? Selfridges, which has worked with Jeffrey and Art School, thinks so. Jack Cassidy, the company’s menswear buying manager, says the designer, whose show it hosted last weekend, “is leading the way for a less gender-specific way of dressing and categorisation”. In-store, following on from 2015’s Agender genderless fashion project, Cassidy adds that up to half of the designer men’s avant-garde department (where the likes of Jeffrey would sit) is now sold to women. Cassidy believes this across-gender shopping will continue: “Generally, the new generation of fashion-savvy consumer would shop in stores and departments that historically were targeted to the opposite gender.”

Perhaps what makes Jeffrey and this cohort of designers feel important is that they are experimenting with self-expression as much as selling clothes. It means what they are doing rings true – and for a zeitgeist where authenticity is highly prized, that’s the sweet spot. “I’m happy walking down the street with makeup. It might lift today, it might make it that much more interesting,” says Jeffrey. “Rather than: ‘I’m going for a night out,’ it’s like: ‘I’m going to go and get my eggs.’ Let’s see how that feels.”

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6 Famous People Whose Origin Stories Are Dark Secrets

Nobody expects celebrities to actually be exactly the way they portray themselves publicly. Bruce Willis doesn’t go around killing terrorists every day (that probably happens, like, every other weekend). When you’re famous, it’s understood that you’ll have to bullshit a little and cultivate an image that appeals to your audience. But some do less cultivating and more top-to-bottom renovations. It’s always shocking when famous people turn out to be the complete opposite of what they’re famous for. And that’s the case with …

Kid Rock Was Born Rich And Grew Up In A Huge-Ass Mansion

No “celebrity goes into politics” story will ever be weird again, but the announcement that Kid Rock might run for Senate still managed to turn a few heads. After all, his biggest claim to fame was supposedly spending a summer “trying different things … smoking funny things,” and based on his ability to rhyme “things” with “things,” he surely has no better than an eighth-grade education, right?

Rock wants us to think he’s some rough-and-tumble country boy, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. His childhood home in Macomb County, Michigan recently sold for nearly $1.3 million, which we’re reasonably sure would be enough to buy whole towns around there. It turns out that his dad owned two luxury car dealerships and made some not-insignificant amounts of money.

Romeo High School “Your little rec center shall make a great showroom for our Bentleys. Papa will be most pleased.”

Mr. and Mrs. Rock’s “four-bedroom, four-bath, neo-Georgian colonial house” is over 5,000 square feet, has an indoor Jacuzzi, amenities out the wazoo, and the property itself contains an apple orchard. Rock has tried to flaunt his down-home country style and use it to smear politicians as “out of touch.” That doesn’t have the same gravity now that we know his past.

Adam Serwer/Twitter That’s a sad burger for so many reasons.

Rapper Rick Ross Was A Prison Guard

Florida rapper Rick Ross is best known for his songs about nonstop hustling and pushing it to the limit (“it” being all of the drugs). Hell, he got his name from a drug kingpin. That’s why it was kind of a shocker when it came out that Ross was a corrections officer (read: prison guard) prior to getting into the rap game.

After the story broke about his previous life of literally the opposite of crime, Ross originally denied it, but somehow the media managed to get ahold of pay stubs that proved it. For about two years in the mid-’90s, he worked as a CO in Florida. Granted, that makes him more of a badass than being a CO in, say, Terre Haute, Indiana, but it didn’t help his street cred any.

Florida Department of Corrections, Maybach Music Group His earliest songs were about how much he hated that Urkel kid who kept visiting his house.

Even 50 Cent took a jab at Ross in a rap to point out how dumb it was for Rozay to keep acting like he was something he wasn’t. After all, if you’re only learning about smuggling drugs and weapons from someone else’s case file instead of doing it yourself, can you sincerely say your raps come from the heart?

Probably thanks to some magical PR whiz, Ross finally owned up to his past. Rather than dismiss his old job as some kind of phase, he managed to call it a “hustle” in its own right. (We’re beginning to think that absolutely anything can be a hustle as long as one declares it so.)

Ron Jeremy Was A Special Education Teacher

Lots of people watch porn — about 67 percent of you are only reading this while you wait for some to load. Even the “casual” viewer can probably name a fair number of lady porn stars, but for some reason, about the only male porn actor most people can identify is Ron Jeremy. He’s been the mustachioed face of videotaped boning for decades, but believe it or not, that wasn’t really his Plan A.

On an episode of Judge Pirro, Jeremy admitted that his background was in theater, and that he’d gone on to get a master’s degree in special education. As in working with disabled kids.

Jeremy is happy to talk about his educator past, and always considered his teaching degree his fallback option, or “ace in the hole” (that’s probably not the only thing he’s called that). He majored in theater in college, and much like theater majors of today, he went and tacked on an education degree “just in case.”