#the male love interests are not an obstacle but rather a tool in furthering the flavor that is Wenclair Slowburn

[tequiilasunriise]

Homies I understand that Enid and Wednesday having potential male love interests sucks but don’t y’all understand how much angst potential this gives us. If you’ve never heard a wlw cover of ‘wish you were gay’ by Billie Eilish I suggest you get on that because oh my GOD we have been slleeeepppiingg on this gold mine of potential Wenclair slowburn heartache.

“I just wanna make you feel okay

But all you do is look the other way

I can't tell you how much I wish I didn't wanna stay

I just kinda wish you were gay”

Can you imagine Enid looking across the room, seeing Wednesday caught up between her bland as shit love interests and thinking to herself, “Of course they want her, who wouldn’t? She’s just so... so.... fuck.” A quiet, heavy sigh fills the air as Enid studies that painter’s muse of a side profile that is Wednesday’s jaw. “Even if those dumbasses weren’t around, I never stood a chance anyways….”. Your honor, Enid “I just kinda wish you were gay” Sinclair is my VISION. Just hear me out.

“To spare my pride

To give your lack of interest, an explanation

Just say I'm not your type

Don’t say that I'm not your preferred sexual orientation”

The sheer pining at wholeheartedly believing she made the Classic Sapphic Mistake™️ of falling fer a straight girlie and Enid just being so full of longing for Wednesday. Miss “I ate alone at seven, you were six minutes away” telling herself to just forget about it and try to be ‘normal’ (yes internalized homophobia moment). If she can’t transform, she should at least find a suitable mate because her parents keep pressuring her to do such and this leads to her agreeing to walk outta here with Ajax (I think that’s who the show is tryna pair her up with?) when he approached her with an offer of hanging out together. Can you imagine Enid looking over her shoulder one last time in a fleeting glance at Wednesday across the courtyard talking to one of her male love interests before turning back around and walking off with Ajax?

“How am I supposed to make you feel okay

When all you do is walk the other way?

I can't tell you how much I wish I didn't wanna stay-“

Okay, but here’s the thing, here’s the thing homies- as Enid is walking away imagine Wednesday looking away from her conversation with Soggy Bread Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum to catch a peek at Enid’s back. She sees her roommate and Ajax walking away together kinda close together, and, oh, how her blackened heart secretly longs. “Of course he would be drawn to her,” she thinks darkly to herself, “Like a moth to a flame, and I can’t even blame the idiot.” When Enid and Ajax turn the corner and are finally out of her field of vision, Wednesday turns back to Bland Boy Number 2. It’s clear he’s vying for her affections (they both are, actually), and normally she would have his head on a pike for such audacity, but unfortunately for her Mister Musty Dusty McCrusty has a role to play in her investigation. Speaking of her investigation, she can’t have any distractions. Wednesday tries to rebury her accursed feelings towards the radiant werewolf, really, she does try. If the world ended in a fiery explosion right then and there, let it be known that Wednesday Addams tried. But, as Wednesday hears the faintest echo of Enid’s laugh from down the hall, a laugh Ajax himself surely caused….

“-I just kinda wish you were gay”

[passionate-reply]

Kraftwerk are best known for being innovative pioneers in the field of electronic music, but by 1981, the rest of the world was finally catching up to them. Faced with living in the future they’d helped create, they released their last truly great album, Computer World, as a sort of reaction to the times. Find out more in my video, or by reading the transcript below the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums. Today, we’re talking about Kraftwerk, and what is perhaps their last truly “great” release: 1981’s Computer World.

Kraftwerk were, of course, one of the first groups to popularize the creation of music through chiefly electronic means. From their icy and robotic onstage demeanour to their stiff-shirted sense of style, just one look at them makes it clear the outsized influence that Kraftwerk have had on the genre we now think of as “electronic music.” While, at times, their significance can be over-emphasized, and I’ve always been critical of the way that the discourse on this all-male quartet has often squeezed out even earlier electronic pioneers like Wendy Carlos and Delia Derbyshire, it isn’t all for no reason. While Kraftwerk’s actual music often comes across as more accessible than experimental, the fact that they were doing it in the 1970s, long before synthesisers became a commonplace sight in popular music, should fill anyone with the sense that they were architects of the future.

Music: “The Model”

While “The Model” first debuted on Kraftwerk’s 1978 LP The Man-Machine, it was re-released as a single in 1981, where it saw substantial success in the charts. In those few short years, the musical landscape had changed, with younger artists like Gary Numan and OMD making headway in the charts with similarly synthesiser-centered songwriting. For almost the entirety of the 1970s, Kraftwerk had been contentedly putting along, secure in the knowledge that they represented the future of music. But now, as the 80s began, they were finally living in the world that they had made possible. The future had arrived for them--so what were they possibly going to do now? I think the best way to frame Computer World, and perhaps what makes it such an interesting album for me, is that it represents a reaction to the ways that the landscape of electronic music had shifted around the artists in these intervening years. On Computer World, Kraftwerk would both reflect as well as critique what younger artists inspired by them had started doing. It’s the first Kraftwerk album that seems to represent a true challenge being posed to these by now august and illustrious pioneers, forcing them to respond in new ways.

Music: “Pocket Calculator”

In many ways, “The Model” is a pop song--compared to most previous Kraftwerk compositions, it’s heavy on lyrics, and focused, surprisingly, on a human being, and a love story involving her. But I think the Computer World single “Pocket Calculator” is almost as good of a pop song as “The Model” is. Highly melodic, and almost candy-coated in its simpering exuberance, it has perhaps the hookiest hook anywhere in the Kraftwerk discography. I’m tempted to compare it to similarly bright and upbeat tracks from Yellow Magic Orchestra, such as “Ongaku”--particularly since it was also released in a Japanese-language version, as “Dentaku,” for that market. Still, there’s no avoiding that the subject matter of “Pocket Calculator” has taken a sharp turn back towards an iconically Kraftwerk subject matter: the inner life of the titular machine. While the narrator of the lyrics announces themself as “the operator” with the titular calculator, it’s also possible to interpret the lyrics as the voice of the machine itself. “I am adding and subtracting, I’m controlling and composing”--but who, indeed, is really performing these tasks: the operator, or the calculator itself? Perhaps a stronger example of Kraftwerk gone pop is “Computer Love.”

Music: “Computer Love”

Melodic, but also balladlike, “Computer Love” is an unambiguous return to the traditional pop theme of romantic love, absent from the asexual and perhaps childlike glee of “Pocket Calculator.” Its more plaintive hook is also an easy one to appreciate, and its theme is perhaps more universal: while listeners at the time may not have necessarily owned rapidly miniaturizing digital technology, surely, all of us have, at some point, felt lonely. “Computer Love” doesn’t just connect to that feeling, but it also offers us hope, in the form of an almost magical, futuristic solution for finding love. I think it’s the internal balance of “Computer Love” that makes me find it so captivating: it’s a song about despair at being alone, perhaps even intensified by the alienation of modern society in particular, but it’s also suffused with the romantic dream of computerized matchmaking services, which might, like so many other technological developments, tremendously improve one’s day-to-day life. In “Computer Love,” the machine is only a tool, a small piece of the overall human picture, and not the chief focus of the work--much as the camera for which “The Model” was posing was little more than a prop in that love story. But despite this optimism about online matchmaking, other tracks on the album seem more skeptical about our computerized future, including the opener and title track.

Music: “Computer World”

While Kraftwerk are best remembered as utopian thinkers, many of their compositions hint at the potential downsides to technological advancements, albeit subtly. Much like *The Man-Machine* alluded to works like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Karel Čapek’s R.U.R., the title track of *Computer World* prominently notes organizations like Interpol and Scotland Yard among those who may benefit from computers, hinting at fears of oppressive techno-surveillance expressed by works like Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report.” With its slinking rhythm and overall ominous feel, this track implies that we should be apprehensive, without necessarily stating what to fear, and I think that’s part of why it’s remained resonant. In today’s world of deepfakes and location tracking, we’re constantly vigilant over the nameless potential dangers presented by the machines in our pockets and handbags, even when we couldn’t explicitly state what they are. Our increasing distance from the album, in both time and technological progress, may present an obstacle to appreciating it as art. While it’s easy for me to get into the mindset of computers as something newfangled and exciting, having grown up earlier in the personal computer age and able to recall the way they were advertised and talked about in the 90s and 00s, I do wonder how this album sounds to my younger peers. At any rate, “Numbers” is the track that I think sounds the most like it could have been on any Kraftwerk album, and not just this one.

Music: “Numbers”

A classic example of how a simple conceit can fill a whole composition to its brim, “Numbers” remains one of Kraftwerk’s most iconic tracks. Nowadays, it might be best known for how heavily it’s been sampled by later artists, and the influence it’s had on hip-hop, that nephew of electronic music that is nowadays, somewhat arbitrarily, considered a separate genre unto itself. But ultimately, “Numbers” and its famous beat stand up perfectly well on their own. As a cosmopolitan panoply of languages recites the names of the numbers, we are reminded of the ways in which mathematics is a universal language. Not only does it unite mankind, but many have also wondered if it might someday be the key to communicating with people from beyond the stars--an honour also bestowed upon music itself. Structurally, “Numbers” is the second-to-last song on the album’s first side, and like many earlier Kraftwerk albums, it transitions directly into another part of a larger “suite,” connected both musically and thematically. “Numbers” becomes “Computer World 2,” which is not simply a reprise of the title track, but a sort of medley which also incorporates the whispering vocoders of “Numbers.” While in many ways, Computer World feels like an attempt by Kraftwerk to keep up with the times, the overall structure of the album maintains a sense of continuous, symphonic composition, not unlike the seamless “transfer” between “Trans-Europe Express” and “Metal on Metal” some years before.

The cover design of Computer World is another in the long list of the aesthetic triumphs of Kraftwerk, which, I maintain, are perhaps as important and influential as their music itself. Its bright yellows and greens remain eye-catching, as does its portrayal of the band members’ portraits, rendered on a computer terminal. Despite seemingly now only existing in cyberspace, their faces remain in the position we saw them in on The Man-Machine, projecting their beatific gazes towards the leftward horizon of the future. The struggle between the reality of a human being, and that which is affected by their simulacrum, is a strong theme throughout Kraftwerk’s discography, stretching back, at least, to “Showroom Dummies,” and the cover of Computer World seems to take it another step further. Now, we don’t even contend with the idea of physical replicas of humanity, in the form of trudging robots or glib mannequins, but rather with the idea of an ethereal, holographic doppelgaenger. With its title, the album asks us not only to consider computers as technologies in and of themselves, but about an entire new era, and a new way of being, which is brought about by their arrival and proliferation. In many ways, this way of thinking about the future was more correct than perhaps anyone knew at the time, and I think it’s this sense of vision that makes Computer World remain a vital artwork as opposed to a curiosity.

As I said in the beginning, Computer World is often considered to be the last great album Kraftwerk made, putting an end to their streak of classics that began with 1974’s Autobahn. Their follow-up to it was the troubled and controversial Electric Cafe, released in 1986, which attempted, unsuccessfully, to add more dance influences and samples with the textures of more traditional instruments into their sound. While I think Electric Cafe is an album not without its merits, it is certainly a substantial departure from the Kraftwerk sound we’ve gotten familiar with so far. I might characterize it as an album that perhaps went too far into the territory of attempting to keep up with the times, extending Computer World’s lunge for more accessible, lyrical pop further than it could reach. Whatever the motivations, it’s hard to hear Electric Cafe tracks such as “Sex Object” without being at least a bit startled at the group’s willingness to tackle the topic of sex so frankly. It might be the only Kraftwerk song in which being like an object or a machine is portrayed in an unambiguously negative light.

Music: “Sex Object”

I think my favourite track on Computer World is its closing track, “It’s More Fun To Compute.” With a straightforward repetition of the title as its sole lyrical content, and a brazen, strident synth blast propelling it forward, it’s another one of those simple, but utterly compelling tracks that Kraftwerk seem to have been full of. Despite the way it flips into something much more melodic later on, it’s the tumult of the opening bars that really sells me on “It’s More Fun To Compute.” I think the textural qualities are almost a bit reminiscent of the grating oscillations of their often overlooked earlier album, Radio-Activity. That’s everything for today, thanks for listening!

Music: “It’s More Fun To Compute”

[crimsonblazw]

Zero-one is the perfect start to a new generation

artist credit:https://twitter.com/r5WitWG0y8Poz0K/status/1300385462972866560?s=20

Introduction

Kamen rider Zero-one concluded last week and I believe it to be a very strong first entry into the Reiwa era of Kamen rider. On the surface it's back to basics with a grasshopper themed main character and simple animal motifs for his forms and the other riders while the major motif of the season centers around Artificial intelligence and the concepts of free will,dreams,and empathy.

At first glance you'd have several preconceived notions about the series,but there is FAR more than meets the eye.

Story and themes

Structurally this season of KR is made up of bigger arcs (four in total) which break down into smaller two episode arcs that make up the week to week episodes which allowed the show to maximize the monster of the week formula while the main story progresses at it's own pace (the best way to do KR in my opinion), this pairs well with one of Zero-one's biggest strengths; world building.

Each two episode arc explores the humagears' place in society and they're overall relationship with humans leading to a diverse range of dynamics that get explored over the course of the show with very few stones left unturned.

In general the thesis of the show is built on the beliefs of the humagears' creator Hiden Korenosuke,that humagears will help humanity achieve the their dreams.

At first you can take this literally given humagears can be thought of as "tools" for day to day life when in reality they where meant to grow along with humans (in other words reach singularity) and use their own passions and dreams to elevate those of humans and vice versa,the significance being that humans by nature are empathetic and social beings who have only made it so far as a species due to our ability to care for one another, humagears are meant to help humanity achieve our full potential faster.

The challenges this idea faces is a society that not only wants humagears and humans alike to become nothing more than "beasts of burden" for the upper class but also it's mirror opposite;the potential malice and selfishness that ultimately destroys lives and dreams,all of this being synonymous with the classic fiction trope or A.I. and robots representing the inhumane treatment of the common person.

Characters

While the overall show and it's smaller stories make up the backbone of the show the main characters are the heart, having arcs that represent the exact message the themes of the show are trying to communicate.

Aruto Hiden/Zero-one- Our main character. He has the staple good heart of a main rider with a strong belief in the power of dreams.

His arc is flat in order to inspire the other characters around him and further their own growth while having his own convictions tested the challenges of the show. He's very endearing and seeing how he overcomes every obstacle (even when it's crushing him) is the mark of a good main rider.

Izu-Aruto's humagear partner. It's easy to dismiss Izu's growth but her change is present but subtle. She goes from following Korenosuke's initial directives to making her own decisions,she starts off confused by Aruto's jokes but begins repeating them,and she goes from being Aruto's secretary to being his family. The evolution of her and Aruto's relationship is heartwarming and gives them on the best male/female lead dynamic in the franchise.

Fuwa/Vulcan-He starts as a staunch humagear hating foil to Aruto and a rather typical secondary rider. But after discovering his entire mindset has been "crafted" by those who want to control him his arc blossoms into a great story of a man taking back control of his life and rejecting the false and toxic ideals forced on to him, resulting in arguably the best arc in the show.

Yua/Valkyrie- While her arc can be easy to miss she represents those who unintentionally surrender their personhood to those above them while believing they retain their independence. Despite some lacking screentime she does recognize her worth and atonomy and reclaims her life (not unlike her partner Fuwa) and I hope future female riders follow her example (but with more screentime).

Horobi and Jin- Our two initial villains and the heads of the humagear terrorist cell Metsubojinrai.net.

Horobi begins as a steadfast believer in his "master" the Ark and shares it's beliefs in the extermination of humanity, beliefs he tries to pass to his "son" Jin who has concerns about their violent and forceful methods before becoming indoctrinated.

As the show goes on Jin begins to develop his own beliefs separate from Horobi while Horobi begins to experience a crisis of faith. They're dynamic is unique in KR and their arc is a perfect representation of the kinds of toxic concepts that can be passed down from parent to child but with time can be unlearned.

Gai/Thouser- One of the two major villains in the show. In many ways he's a more serious version of Dan from Ex-aid, his main position in this story being a stand-in for the greedy ruling class who will destroy as many lives as they want so long as they get what they want.

He's genuinely impressive in terms of how well calculated his plan is and absolutely loathsome for the fact he essentially caused everything wrong in the series. His eventual "redemption" is VERY hard to swallow but for food or ill does fit with the shows themes of overcoming our worst aspects and also doesn't bend over backwards to make him sympathetic.

Naki/Raiden-the other two members of Metsubojinrai.net. Wish they had gotten more screentime, especially since Naki seemed like a character that would have been cool to see more of. I do like them still and think it's cool they got their own happy endings.

The final arc

This deserves it's own section. The final arc is one of the most bold and interesting final arcs in the franchise and in my opinion is the best one since Drive.

The asset that really makes this part of the show work is the "final boss" the Ark. Despite seeming like a generic "evil entity" final boss commonly seen in toku the Ark is a methodical and truly evil being.

The Ark represents the darkest parts of human existence, mainly that our compassion/love can be easily turned into malice when the hardships of the world take it's tole on us.

Going deeper the ark's "philosophy" can also be seen as a parallel to those who think humanity is better off destroyed because of humans alleged inherent cruelty,not realizing that not only are humans not inherently cruel but that mindset is at most a trauma based response to the hardships of the world or a hypocritical mindset that give those who think it a free pass to be malicious and hateful while thinking they're "enlightened" for recognizing the alleged folly of man.

The Ark utilizes these concepts in it's final plan when it manipulates Aruto and Horobi take each other to their lowest points by having them kill each other's most treasured person,the duel between the two fueling human/humagear tension to the point of war,and it did this all without being around for most of it.

Aruto is so besides himself with grief that he essentially abandons his dream,I think what stood out to me was Fuwa attempting to stop Aruto and pointing out that Aruto is where he used to be,full of rage and hatred that can only be overcome with someone else showing you genuine empathy, which is what Fuwa is attempting to give to Aruto as a parallel to when Aruto did it for him.

The final battle is not only between Horobi and Aruto but between Malice and empathy. And in the end the two breaking down and recognizing each other's pain with Aruto winning but sparing Horobi is the final "test" of what fully realized empathy is.

Outro

2020 has been rough. I think more than ever we see what's wrong with the world and what we need to do to fix it. Whether it was intentional or not Zero-one was the rider I think we needed right now.

In a society that doesn't value empathy ,unity,or dreams we have to elevate each other and hold on to our passions and dreams for the future.

Thanks for reading ! Please like and share ! And feel free to share your thoughts. Keep your eyes peeled for future posts! Best wishes friend

[pass-the-bechdel]

La Femme Nikita Season 5 Full Review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

87.5% (seven of eight)

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

37.36%  

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Three: episode 5.02, (62.5%), 5.03, (42.86%), and 5.04 (45.45%).

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

None.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Eight. Three who appear in more than one episode, three who appear in at least half the episodes, and two who appear in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-one. Nine who appear in more than one episode, six who appear in at least half the episodes, and one who appears in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Improved, but can still be shockingly bad at times (Average score: 2.86).  

General Season Quality:

Starts out relatively alright, but its second half is quite terrible.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

Short final seasons, when not imposed at the last minute, can often be a blessing. In the right hands, they allow showrunners to get the core of a concept, and to focus all of one’s efforts into telling the best possible story, instead of being forced to try and split the story one wants to tell in a space larger than one needs, which is often the case with television.

However, in order for abridged final seasons to work, a show has to know what story it is telling.  It has to understand the core of its characters, and what themes it seeks to explore.  Person of Interest had one ongoing plot that needed finishing in its final season.  The Nikita remake’s last season took the series to the last logical place it could go. While neither is its show’s finest season, they largely work as conclusions, and are generally satisfying.  

While the final season of La Femme Nikita is ostensibly held together by elements such as Section One’s conflict with The Collective and Nikita’s search for answers about her origin—the two plotlines, and their consequences, play a role in every episode this season—neither of these, it becomes clear by the end, are stories the showrunners were actually interested in exploring. Nikita’s interest in her father feels contrived, and once answers are given halfway through, the series fails to allow her to react in any way that feels honest.  Does she feel disappointed? Is she happy that she found her dad, despite the fact that he’s an asshole of the highest order?  What does she think about the fact that she has a sister who was apparently allowed to live a much more comfortable life than she did?   It’s not explored, except in the shallowest terms possible; the show doesn’t care. The same occurs with the Collective: after attempts to paint it as the biggest of bads, they turn out to exist because the series needed a baddie, any baddie, development or characterization optional.  The Section’s collapse, which could have been used to tell a story about the organization, its methods, and how it has changed since Nikita became part of it, is instead background noise.  A lot of the season feels like filler, which is astounding, given that it’s only eight episodes long. 

While I appreciate the fact that the shows is attempting to tell a larger story and is attempting to keep its mythology straight—this was not the case in season one—this does not make the season any more consistent or cohesive.  Yes, the continuity technically works, but the character motivations underpinning it all are a complete mess.  Mr. Jones, who allegedly spent years ensuring his safety via a complex web of deceit, suddenly abandons it for no goddamn reason.   Nikita is suddenly very invested in getting to know her father, but not at all interested in her fucking sister. Jones apparently has a super-computer that makes excellent predictions, which is mentioned in one episode and then forgotten. Nikita is considered the only viable choice for running the Section, even though a) she doesn’t want it, and b) has demonstrated shockingly few of the skills necessary to run it.   One of the season’s best character bits, Nikita’s concern for Mick Schtoppel—the false Mr. Jones—evaporates as soon as she meets the real one: we never learn if he ends up alive of dead, because she never thinks to fucking ask—and this is a character who had been making recurring appearances since the first season!

Even the things that sort of work, like the series ending, are bothersome.  Yes, it makes emotional sense that Nikita ends up in charge of the Section. It fits. However, the implicit suggestion that she will allow it to keep operating like it normally does, despite the fact that “like it normally does” means enslaving people, is not only terrifying, but it also suggests that the series was never going to do right by Nikita, even if it had wanted to. 

Consider the existing case for the Section, or complete lack thereof.  Yes, the western world needs protecting, but not even Mr. Jones can explain why, exactly the Section is the tool for the job, or why, exactly, the only way to obtain capable soldiers is via coercion and dehumanization.  He can only say that the Section is necessary, and the series can only act as if that’s all the answer one needs. 

This, then, is why we can’t get a Nikita who is actually as effective as the series tries to make us believe she is.  A Nikita who is clever, decisive, driven and against the Section, would, at the very least, ask questions the writers can’t answer; at most, she would actually upend the entire system.  Hence, why she is instead uninformed, naïve, foolish, ineffective and passive, even at the alleged height of her powers.  It’s not just unconscious sexism at play; it’s the writers realizing they can’t further their preferred narrative without stacking the deck in their favor, and breaking the show in the process. 

Not that sexism isn’t still a factor: not only can it be seen in the way Nikita is written, but also in the fates of all the female characters. While I quite love Quinn, the show’s overall writing suggests that her attempts at manipulation are meant to be seen as transparent, pathetic, and ineffective.  That she ceases to have a role in the story after Operations’ death suggests that her prominence was granted to her so that she could serve to prop up his character, rather than as the star of her own story.  Jasmine, after reappearing in episode two so she could “prove” that Nikita’s attempts to make the Section less tyrannical were wrongheaded, becomes a non-factor.  The two female Collective members are easily dispatched obstacles or no larger importance to the plot.  Michelle, Nikita’s fucking sister, doesn’t get even a hundredth of the attention their father does. Even Madeline can’t return without suggesting that her final act of defiance—committing suicide—was both wrong and done only because she was thinking about Operations. 

In short, women in La Femme Nikita can’t be selfish or have wants; they can only exist to serve.  Male characters like Michael, on the other hand, get to have agency, an active role, and sympathy, and to be terrible without consequences.  While Nikita ends the series doing the thing she’d been saying all season she didn’t want to do, because her abusive absentee father told her to, Michael’s final fate is being free to raise his son without interference.

What is perhaps saddest about all this is that, as usual for this series, many of the ideas here are quite good. Yes, give me the Section falling apart. Yes, give me Nikita trying to make changes inside the Section, whether they succeed or blow up in her face. Yes, give me Quinn attempting to begin a relationship with Operations out of a combination of ambition and genuine interest.  Give me Operations dying and the Section scrambling to recover. Even Nikita’s search for her father can be made into something compelling, as can be plainly seen in…um…Nikita.

Granted, La Femme Nikita deserves to stand on its own, rather than in comparison to its more recent remake, and shouldn’t be criticized for failing to be like a series that didn’t yet exist. And yet, it’s more or less impossible not to compare them, given that most of the stories told here are stories that the latter series also ended up telling. Nikita’s search for her father? Done, and Nikita Mears’ relationship with Richard Ellison is far more compelling in half an episode than this Nikita’s relationship with Jones manages to be in four.  Nikita placed in a position to take over the Section? Done, and in a way that fully sells both why she doesn’t want to do it and why she feels she needs to, and makes it her choice. The Section falling apart?  Done, in a way that squeezes a lot of tension from a combination of internal and external factors.  Heck, both series pull off the penultimate episode heroic sacrifice, except that in Nikita it is actually essential to the story, rather than something that just happens.

La Femme Nikita’s failure, however, is more fundamental than just not being like the remake. The problem isn’t that it’s not like Nikita, but that it plainly doesn’t value storytelling or character development. As it is, this is a season which hints at evolution and growth, only to show that no, this series is as mediocre as it ever was, all the way to the end.

[scripturehomosexuality]

The Scourge Of Homophobia: How It Affects Life in the “Straight”-”Gay” Dichotomy

Note: This blog is based in the United States. Keep this in mind as you read this post, as it is reacting to phenomenons within the country, and may not reflect situations in other parts of the world.

The dominance of homophobia is a reality of our modern existence. It is reflected in our media, everyday life, and modern philosophical thinking. It has become something that is inescapable, as it is dominant in countless areas of life. In fact, it finds its highest fulfillment in the “Straight”-”Gay” dichotomy, which is based on the following homophobic idea: that same-sex attraction and behavior is an anomaly.

Merriam-Webster defines it as “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals”. Yet, everybody knows that the reality involves much more. For those who identify as “straight” (especially if they are Christians), it involves having antipathy toward same-sex activity or attraction, either outwardly or subtly. It often involves shunning otherwise benign cultural affinities to avoid being called “gay”; for men, that would include avoiding briefs, artistic pursuits, musicals, and the like. It means having to constantly be on guard against anything perceived to be “gay”.

Those who identify as “gay” may think that within that label, they have finally escaped the imposition of homophobia. Yet, that is simply not the case. As shall be seen, the scourge of homophobia has real effects on both sides of the “straight”-”gay” dichotomy, and distorts life into grotesque shapes.

How Homophobia Affects Christianity And “Straight” People In General

In the Bible, love is considered the single largest building block of Christianity. In fact, the entire religion was founded on an act of love. John 3:16 says it clearly: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (New King James Version).

Many other scriptures impress upon Christians how important love is to the faith. They further show how Christians should love others. For example, 1 Corinthians 13:13 says the following, when speaking of things that are eternal: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (English Standard Version) Galatians 5:23 goes further, when speaking of the fruitage of the holy spirit: “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (New King James Version)

1 Peter 1:22 is particularly interesting. In that verse, the Apostle Peter tells his fellow Christians to “love each other deeply with all your heart.” (New Living Translation). The Greek word translated “deeply” (“ektenōs”) is a physiological term signifying the stretching of a muscle to its furthest limit. In other words, it means such love must be stretched to its furthest capacity, should be intense and blazing, and must be absolutely unsparing in its intensity. After all, how would they die for each other if they loved each other less than that? Note also that no distinction is made regarding genders, and whether love between Christians of the same gender should be different.

Lastly, 1 John 4:8 gives a hard verdict on the importance of love in Christianity. I shall quote it, since I can’t improve on its wording: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (New International Version)

Given all of the above, let’s look at how homophobia affects that love.

In short, instead of enhancing Christianity, it warps and twists it into a strange contradiction.

As has just been shown, the Scriptures tell us that love between humans must be abundant and overflow, since as Romans 10:13 tells us, “love works no ill” (American King James Version). However, homophobia tells us that love isn’t entirely a force for good. Rather, it tells us that if we dare spend our love on the wrong party - in this case, the wrong gender - it can become a deadly weapon causing divine wrath. In other words, in the eyes of Christian homophobia, love is a tool of both God and the Devil. As a result, while Christians are obliged to embrace love, it must be a guarded and restrained embrace, knowing it can become evil at a moment’s notice.

Thus, in contradiction of 1 Peter, homophobia encourages love to be stifled in its expression. It encourages people to irrationally scrutinize to whom they display their love, and how they display it. People must constantly ask if hugging or embracing their same sex friends is too much. They have no choice, because that contact may uncontrollably propel them to manifest that love in its highest form - within the erotic realm.

At its logical conclusion, homophobia tells us that even gentle affection for one’s own gender is dangerous. As a result, we would be safest if we didn’t feel even friendly affection for our own gender. That’s the only way people could be safe from such “evil love”. It creates laws against love (in contradiction of Galatians), and suggests that in certain circumstances, love can be downright evil.

What is the end result? The sense of brotherhood that is essential to Christianity is mocked, sabotaged, and undermined. Brotherhood can never exist without a base of love, and homophobia considers that base suspect. Brothers in faith must guard against loving each other “too much”, so that such love doesn’t become poisonous. They must scrutinize how they manifest what little love they share, in even the most innocent of actions. A hug, a pat on the back, or a hand on the shoulder may be suspicious actions. The very same thing may exist between sisters in faith.

Indeed, homophobia actually makes love a dirty word, and one to be regarded with some loathing. After all, in the world of homophobia, love can be dangerous and harmful, and can bring wrath upon a congregation who tolerates it. Because of this, a declaration of love between Christian brothers or sisters must be closely watched, because of the harm it could pose to everyone if it passes certain boundaries.

At its very core, homophobia is entirely an anti-Christian phenomenon. This is because instead of enhancing love (the central tenet of Christianity) in all its forms, it declares certain kinds of love evil and tries to eradicate it. This is why the embrace of homophobia by modern Christians is strange and contradictory: by doing so, they are actively supporting the perversion of their own faith, and are ultimately hurting themselves.

However, the effects of homophobia aren’t just limited to the Christian world. Instead, they extend to the entire “straight” world. While homophobia may not reach the extremes found within the Christian world, same-sex activity is still viewed as abnormal, and similar suspicion is displayed towards it. Because of this, just like those in Christianity, “straight” people in general exercise incredible restraint in how much they love each other, and how that love is displayed. By extension, they likewise are wary of physical contact, even with an arm on the back. Thus, whether a person is a Christian or not, same-sex activity is suspect in the “straight” world.

How Homophobia Affects the “Gay” World

Those who identify as “gay” may think they have escaped the imposition of homophobia. However, perhaps they don’t fully understand the central idea of the “Straight”-”Gay” dichotomy - that same-sex activity is an abnormality. Both the “straight” and “gay” sides fully accept that extremely homophobic idea. Their main difference rests in how they react to that idea. The “straight” side accepts it and distances itself completely from same-sex activity, even from things supposedly related to it. Meanwhile, the “gay” side accepts it, and uses it to guide its own philosophies on same-sex activity.

In other words, internalized homophobia within the “gay” world is not a random occurrence. Instead, internalized homophobia is one of its pillars, because of the “gay” side’s embrace of an very homophobic idea.

An prime example is the embrace of anal as the highest fulfillment of same-sex activity. It should be noted that its embrace is very recent. Until the 1970s, anal was taboo even within the “gay”-identified community. As such, anal sex was historically not considered the “sine qua non” of same-sex activity. In fact, it was more considered a cross-gender act, since the penetrated male was “acting like a woman”. Thus, how anal became so important during the 1970s begs many questions about the modern “gay” leadership, and what it stands for.

This is especially so when one studies LGBT media, particularly any concerning anal sex. This is shown in a Youtube video by “bi”-identified writer Zachary Zane, entitled “Can you be Gay/Bi and not like anal sex?” Inside the video, Mr. Zane protests that the anus is not “this chocolate soft-serve that’s leaking s— all over the place”. After saying that, he then admits that with anal sex, “s— happens, literally”. He then describes the first time he had anal sex, where he was utterly disgusted and horrified at seeing feces on his penis. However, by the third time he did anal sex with his partner, they “just washed it off and kept going, because it’s not worth it to stop having sex…because you’re afraid of a little bit of poop getting on you.”

The point is this: while advocating anal sex, Mr. Zane just described disconnecting himself from his innermost sensibilities, for the sake of his label. He basically forced himself to like something that he found disgusting, and submitting himself to what he considered degrading. In a choice between respecting his own natural feelings and having “real gay sex”, he chose the latter. Thus, natural affinities and repulsions must be disposed of, since they apparently pose an obstacle toward expressing love in “real gay sex”.

However, what does love have to do with acts that degrade? Why does love require submitting to acts that are repulsive? Doesn’t this violate the universal principle, as stated in the Bible, that “love works no ill to one’s neighbor [or lover]”?

Mind you, in the end people will do what they want. However, the messaging of the LGBT leadership and media is on an entirely different level. Their message is that anal sex is the “bread and butter” of same-sex activity, and is a necessary act for same-sex lovers. In other words, in their minds, the highest fulfillment of same-sex love is an act that is dangerous, degrading, and usually quite painful. It makes anal penetration a systematic requirement, which is very different from a personal choice.

It can only be homophobia that motivates that sort of message. It’s the only way that the leadership feels the highest fulfillment of love is an act that actually insults it. Furthermore, it can only be homophobia that motivates people to submit to such an act, and not feel that they deserve better. From what can be seen in the video, engaging in anal sex requires submission that would be unacceptable elsewhere, and a conformity people would rebel against in other areas of life.

Another example involves the language used within the LGBT-identified community. Within the community, it’s not uncommon for men to call each other “girls”, “bitches”, “pigs”, “whores”, and the like. It’s also not unusual for men to call their anuses “manginas”, “manpussies”, “pussies” and other words that liken the anus to the vagina. For women, they may call each other “dykes”, “bull dykes”, “baby dykes”, when “dyke” originally referred to men.

In using this language, those people may think that such usage isn’t homophobic. However, these words really reinforce a derivative idea of the “Straight”-”Gay” dichotomy: that men into men aren’t really men, and women into women aren’t really women, no matter how strong or weak that attraction might be. Rather, under this mindset, men into men are psuedo-women, and women into women are pseudo-men. Thus, by using this language, they cooperate in undermining their own identities as men and women, identities which are rightfully theirs. By extension, they also support the dichotomy that oppresses them.

Perhaps the pinnacle of this is the recent embrace of the word “queer”. This word is being increasingly used to describe all people who are attracted to their own gender. However, the meaning of the word “queer” has always meant “strange or unusual”, and that meaning is still present today. This original definition inspired its application toward non-”straight” people, particularly after the 1950s Red Scare, as same-sex attraction was perceived as weird. By incorporating a slur in their language, these people are inadvertently supporting this historically unprecedented idea.

In saying this, I’m aware that there are many “queer”-identified followers on this blog. In saying all this, I have no intention of offending them or belittling them. However, as a friendly suggestion, I urge them to really think about the label they have adopted, and whether that label is desirable given what was just discussed. Ultimately, it’s up to them whether they want to continue to use the label.

As a result, in so many ways, homophobia shapes and molds the “gay” world as it does the “straight” world. As a result, those in the “gay” world should not be surprised at the more blatant displays of internalized homophobia. This is because internalized homophobia is in the DNA of the “gay” world, and as such exerts incredible influence.

Conclusion

It’s known that homophobia exerts a lot of influence in our world. However, many people may not realize how much influence it exerts, or how it influences daily life. As you have just seen, within the “Straight”-”Gay” dichotomy, its influence is inescapable.

In fact, the very existence of the “Straight”-”Gay” dichotomy is an artifact of homophobia. This is because of the idea that the dichotomy is founded on: that same-sex activity is an abnormality. It thus declares that people attracted to the same gender - to any degree - is a minority that is fundamentally different from other humans, and imposes an artificial separation within humanity. This disregards the fact that same-sex attraction is a majority phenomenon, and always has been.

This point must be made clear: nobody wins in the “Straight”-”Gay” dichotomy. If one is on the “straight” side, their sexual expression is heavily circumscribed. Within that camp, “straight” boys feel compelled, as expressed by the Man2Man Alliance, to say “Yes to a girl and No to a boy; when they’d rather say Yes to a boy, and No to a girl.” The inverse happens with “straight” girls. They also feel compelled to restrain themselves from activities and habits they might enjoy, for fear that such activities will make people label them as “gay”. For example, for boys that might include wearing briefs, dabbling in the arts, wearing pink, and the like.

If one is on the “gay” side, they feel compelled to follow a highly specific form of same-sex activity, where drag, gender-atypical behavior, and anal play are considered essential. As it is for the “straight” side, it stifles one’s personal expression; if they are not interested in such, they may soon find themselves ostracized. It also requires that they think of themselves as odd or unusual, which introduces all sorts of psychological issues that are unnecessary.

It becomes clear then that, in an unusual feedback loop, homophobia and the dichotomy sustain each other totally. That loop must be broken so that we can have healthy attitudes on same-sex activity again.

Thus, I also encourage you to read “The ‘Straight’-’Gay’ Dichotomy: How It Works”, to fully understand how that system functions. I also urge any who read this to go to “For Straight People (though not exclusively)”, which will point to philosophies and forms of same-sex behavior that don’t hinge on demonstratively false concepts. Don’t be afraid of talking about what you learn to others.

In this way, you can hasten the end of this institutional homophobia, and as a society we will be much freer. Then, the world will be freely tied together in bonds of love that are male-male, female-female, and male-female.