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omniversalobservations · 3 years ago

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Near Myths No. 1 (September 1978)

Luther Arkwright is a work of apocalyptic science fiction set in parallel universes. The eponymous hero has the unique talent of being able to move between parallels purely by force of will, and is aided by Rose Wylde, a telepath whose many incarnations across the parallels are able to communicate with one another. Luther and Rose are agents of a parallel known as "zero-zero", whose stable position in the multiverse has allowed the development of a world at peace with itself and sufficiently high technology to monitor the parallels for signs of the malign influence of the "Disruptors".

Most of the action in the story is set in a parallel world where the English Civil War has been indefinitely prolonged by the actions of the Disruptors, who are also responsible for unleashing "Firefrost", a legendary artifact which is destabilising the multiverse. Arkwright intervenes on the Royalist side in order to draw out the Disruptors and locate and destroy Firefrost. Along the way his unit is ambushed, and he is killed, only to return to life with his powers enhanced.

The storytelling of the early episodes is complex, with flashbacks to Arkwright's upbringing by the Disruptors, escape to the parallel of his birth and early missions for zero-zero intermingling with the course of his mission in neo-Cromwellian England, with story-telling techniques and art styles shifting to match. The scenes of Arkwright's death and rebirth are particularly abstract and full of religious and mythological symbolism. The comic is unusual in being one of the few adventure stories where the readers and the protagonist both know from the beginning that he's going to die, only the event itself is not known.

The later parts of the story have a more straightforward, linear form. At the end Arkwright, having completed his mission, renounces violence.

Source: Wikipedia

"There is not one infinite universe, instead there are an infinite number of universes: a multiverse."

Those were Karl Marx's first words to the Scientific Assembly of Munich in 1882. I've read that the media described the implications as "far-reaching."

My great-grandfather told me that some people panicked, thinking that we were about to be invaded at any moment. Our entire world was stunned. I don't think that many people had more than a shaky idea of what Marx meant by "probability valency," "shell perception" and all the rest. There was a lot of speculation and debate.

I remember my grandmother insisting that it was all a hoax, as late as 1964, especially after what Orson Welles did.

Mind you, for most people doubt ended in 1886, when Crookes proved Marx's theoretical model to be an actual physical reality. By the end of 1888, at the World Fair in Paris, we had had to accept that our's was but one of an infinity of Earths.

Yet what did they hold? What were they like? Were there Earths where dinosaurs still lived? Where the Holy Roman Empire still held sway? Others where life, as we knew it, had never evolved? The truth of it, when we were at last able to perceive it, was beyond our wildest imaginings and our darkest nightmares.

Recorded text of EL communication - CAT4.63256/6. Location , ELA Rm 15. Date, 24-09-71. Subject Mary Astor. A/Para 09-01-67. Notes: Instruction to Alternative Self recently contacted, Para as above. Standard Pattern Briefing. C/P 659023a. Non-crisis. Strength and Imaging 96%.

The myriad parallel Earths are separated from each other not by space or time, but by a dimension the Karl Marx of ZeroZero termed "probability valency." These Earths are all the echoes of the same basic blueprint. Each co-exists in time. Most co-exist in space; some occupy slightly different orbits, or are at a different point in their orbit. The latter two classes of parallels are extremely rare. Most Earths share identical astronomical features: Core Position as it is termed on ZeroZero.

Each Earth is dif ferent in some fashion from the others. There are a few that have never known Humankind, and on these Earths there has never evolved any life form of comparable intelligence to Humanity. Across the parallels inhabited by Humankind there are many variations of history. A surprising number share the Eastern or Euro Asian continent as the cradle of whatever civilisation they have. Beyond this the variation in culture, language, social development and human psychology is too slight, within the massive breadth of probabilities, to be entirely coincidental.

The Earth known as Zero-Zero developed along one of the five standard historical templates. Rising to a Middle Ages which saw the rapid growth of the Holy Roman Empire, the Germanic states were strongly united in an unusually coherent and effective alliance. Their rulers, and later the World Emperors, maintained a continuity of lineage and policy for nearly five centuries.

Dominated by this Empire neither England, Spain or France developed,into major powers. The Ottoman Empire briefly opposed the Holy Roman Empire; the resulting Thirty Years War served only to sharpen the technological revolution begun by Gutenberg and the mediaeval alchemists. Through a lengthy process of war and diplomacy the Empire rose to world domination. By the end of the seventeenth century the "Boy Emperor," Frederick X, the puppet of a decadent and glittering court, held sway over the entire globe.

There had, during the Empire's long climb to misrule, been another power rising. Science had been slowly assimilated, over the previous two centuries, as the religion of the masses. The Futurist Renaissance with its new ideals, its reappraisal of the world in the light of scientific thought, and its contempt for the old doctrine and dogma (in which the rule of the Emperor was enshrined) was the movement of the people, and, more importantly, that of the military.

The world-wide military coup, the execution of Frederick and his court, followed by a dictatorship based on the principles of the Advancement of Science, was inevitable, merciless and brief.

"I am the Son of Scientific Thought," declared the first World-Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, when the world was finally brought under the Futurists rule in 1802.

The science of this Earth grew by leaps and bounds, unfettered by the socio-religious prejudice usual on other parallels.

By 1800 John Dalton had perfected his Theory of Relativity. In 1816 Franz Joseph Gall proves to the scientific establishment th existence of psionics. In 1820 a man and woman set foot upon the Moon. In 1832 Charles Babbage completed BINAC, the first electronic stored-programme computer. During the early 1850's world poverty and famine were eradicated.

And, working quietly in London, the mathematical genius Karl Marx was progressing towards a discovery which would change his world.

He was constructing a mathematical model of the universe, then of the multiverse his equations predicted. In 1881 he had his proof; that beyond the common and familiar Earth there were others, set in other solar systems, set in other galaxies, set in other universes. As he refined his theories Marx designed the annotation system still used by ZeroZero to designate the different continua.His own Earth was taken as a norm, thus 00-00-00 for Zero-Zero; so 00-01-00 and 00-00-01 would be flanking parallels, one unit of "probability vatency" removed, and so forth.

Marx announced his discovery to an Earth much changed from the Iron Rule of Science. Over the last century, the dictatorship had mellowed into benevolent rule. In 1900, the dictatorship and the powers of the World Consul were dissolved by the Athens Accord. A self - regulating World Government was established. Zero-Zero had become the first technologically advanced parallel to live in harmony with itself, freed from cultural and religious dogma.

One of the first acts of the new administration was to initiate the Valhalla Programme. Created to monitor parallel worlds and observe the predicted fluctuation of historical trends. London was chosen to be the site of the giant Valhalla Nova complex, built to house the most advanced technology of the time and the specialists the project required.

The massive hyper-computer W.O.T.A.N. was conceived as an integral part of the structure and project. W.O.T.A.N. was designed to scan the continua, to correlate, analyse and display information on the status of the myriad parallel worlds.

That ZeroZero had the technology to do this was unsurprising The means of reaching other parallels lay in the careful nurturing of psychic and paranormal research. Parapsychology had been recognised and developed as a true science on ZeroZero since the1830's.

By the early 1900's on Zero-Zero the ability of certain human minds to hook into and use psionic energy was a well established fact. Furthermore, methods of developing and enhancing psi-abilities had been carefully nurtured.

One of the most astonishing finds was that of the Empathic Link. Psychics with this talent could, through various techniques, monitor and on rare occasions communicate with their alternative selves on other parallels. Some psychics could use psychometric techniques to scan other parallels; techniques which were at first augmented by W.O.T.A.N. and then duplicated by the hyper-computer.

During the long, hot summer of 1905 the Valhalla Nova complex became fully operational. The parallels surrounding Zero-zero were scanned; the information received was split into basic social and cultural indices. These were then compared to the theoretical indices generated by W.O.T.A.N. and Marx's careful predictions.

The results were nowhere near what had been expected.

THE DISRUPTORS DISCOVERED

Previous speculation had concluded that the variation across Human-inhabited parallels would be enormous. Each parallel was expected to have generated its own individual psychology, language groups, histories and societies.

Instead, W.O.T.A.N. demonstrated that the socio-historical variation fell within 30%, on the Marx-Oppenheimer Index, of Zero-Zero's history across a set of one thousand "neighbouring" parallels.

This was, of course, improbable in the extreme. For example, the odds against the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, across a significant number of the sample parallels, was calculated at approximately 735,000 to I against. Yet only five parallels, were not using the Gregorian calendar; by whatever name it was known.

There had to be an outside force acting on the parallels. W.O.T.A.N. named the effect of this force Disruption, and before long had proved to it's satisfaction the existence of the Disruptors.

Initially it seemed that every parallel exhibited some shade of Disruptor activity: even Zero-Zero. The considerable panic this caused was used to justify the expansion and increased budget of the Valhalla Nova programme.

Fortunately the continued research demonstrated that this shadow of Disruptor activity was exactly that. It was discovered that there were parallels which occupied probability foci (also termed psi-matrix nodes) and that any disturbance on these focal Earths was echoed by similar disturbances on the shadowed parallels.

Two things were swiftly demonstrated by this new intelligence. Firstly, that Disruptor activity had been and was being co-ordinated across these focal parallels. Secondly, that ZeroZero occupied a strangely stable and independent position in the Multiverse.

The first period of research into other parallels (1905-1928) ended when the Psi-section was brought fully onto stream with the rest of Valhalla Nova. The next few years saw the difficult work of setting up "field operations" on those parallels that could be reached via the empathic link or other psionic means. By 1930 Valhalla Nova had four hundred and sixty-two Psychics gifted with the empathic link, each in contact with between three to twenty alternative selves. The dif ficult work of achieving full communication, then persuading what was often a very frightened individual to co-operate, could take years.

The first active "field agent" was Margaret Bondfield of 28-00-35, a citizen of the French Imperial Estates-General, recruited in1924. Other Margaret Bondfields followed on other parallels until, by 1930, there were fourteen active Bondfields; two of whom hadsucceeded to government, in a ministerial or consular capacity, on their respective (British Empire and Roman Republic dominated) parallels.

By this time a considerable body of information on Disruptor activity had been assimilated. ZeroZero now had numerous in-sights into the respective histories, modes, and means of Disruptor campaigns across a huge number of parallels.

Unfortunately, a goodly amount of this information was highly speculative; furthermore the patterns of Disruptor activity often seemed contradictory. Analysis of the few thousand parallels available to ZeroZero through the empathic link showed numerous patterns of common historical perception. Whereas psychometric scans of certain parallels revealed that their history, usually up to the sixth through to the eighth centuries, had been manifestly different. It gradually emerged that the Disruptors had rewritten, or grafted on, the perceived history of these parallels at least twice in the history of the multiverse.

The first and greatest remoulding of the perception of the past had taken place between 550 to 700AD. The second was during the years 1500 to 1800AD. Three centuries which saw a rapid turn around from the period of the witch-hunting craze (common to most parallels) to times of scientific discovery and enlightenment on some Earths, but of philosophical and scientific repression on others.

Whatever they were doing, for whatever reasons, it was certain that the Disruptors had engineered wars, coups d'etat, plagues, peace treaties, scientific discoveries, industrial and philosophical revolutions, assassinations, autocracies, alliances, reformation, decline and renaissance for over a thousand years.

Some theorists argued that their influence could stretch all the way back to the beginning of human society. The majority opinion, however, settled on the fourth and fifth centuries as those in which the Disruptors had become established.

THE VALHALLA RESPONSE

The theorists on ZeroZero could explain possible Disruptor motivations for several, linked, activities. However, no theory could consistently explain all Disruptor activities,

Until the mid 1940's the most popular hypothesis insisted that there were actually numerous, conflicting Disruptor organisations. A great many lives were lost in a number of abortive attempts to recruit, or liaise with, what Zero-Zero perceived to be, ethically sound Disruptor enclaves.

By the start of the 1960's Zero-Zero had, at last, reconciled itself to standing alone against the Disruptors.

The working hypothesis altered to accept that the Disruptors were co-operating in the manipulation of hundreds of thousands of parallels. The World Government of ZeroZero accepted that, whatever the nature of this manipulation, it must be countered where possible.

The main directive issued in1921 by the World Government ordered that the counter-Disruptor activities performed by ZeroZero must act to enhance the freedom and preserve the well-being of the afflicted Earth. The aim of any Valhalla Nova activity, therefore, was to remove the Disruptor influence, whilst leaving the Earth in question unaware of both ZeroZero and the Disruptors.

The question of secrecy, and of fighting the Disruptorr, in secret, first became an issue on Para 34-09-09, in 1920.

Due to W.O.T.A.N.'s interference (using Valhalla Nova's most powerful telepaths) the WorldWar I of this parallel had continued for far longer than the Disruptors desired.

ZeroZero further manipulated the Disruptors into increasing the power of the Anglo-French American colonial states, in an effort to hasten the end of the war. In the final days of the war the Americas declared their independence, and ZeroZero took the previously untried action of informing this Earth of the existence of the parallel Earths, of themselves and the Disruptors.

Within hours the fledgling American Federation was destroyed by nuclear attack. Devastated by weapons launched on a different parallel which emerged at ground-zero on 34-09-09.

Elsewhere around the parallel there were other, selective strikes, attacks by strike forces of Rooks and the outbreak of engineered plagues.

Within a decade the world was reduced to a primitive technology, with the remaining population harshly moulded into a loose tribal structure.

On ZeroZero the lesson had been learnt. It might be that para 34-09-09 was one which the Disruptors could afford to lose, but ZeroZero could not, in all conscience, take such a risk again.

The War would go on, but it would be a shadow war, fought by shadow warriors. A war in which the victories and defeats would, all to often, seem meaningless, far too subtle or small to matter. And always there is the Question: Who are the Disruptors, and what, ultimately, do they want?

THE DISRUPTOR INTELLIGENCE

The following is what Valhalla Nova knows of the standard patterns of Disruptor activity across the parallels. Most of the information concerns the methods and organisation of known Disruptor agents. This material forms the basis for the Valhalla Nova briefing of new ZeroZero agents.

W.O.T.A.N. soon realised that most of the Disruption was conducted by agents indigenous to the parallel being disrupted. The most powerful of these agents usually occupied positions of power on the parallel, as either heads of state or religion, or as powers behind the throne. These key agents received their instructions from (W.O.T.A.N. assumed) a central Disruptor control, probably based on a single parallel. These instructions were passed through either the empathic link, or, increasingly since the end of the end of the nineteenth century, by sophisticated Trans-Parallel Communicators (TPCs).

Somewhat to Valhalla Nova's surprise, it was discovered that most of the Disruptor agents were dupes. Disruptor control would deliberately manipulate its agents perceptions and knowledge. Many key Disruptor agents would not even know of the existence of parallel Earths. Moreover, Disruptor control represented itself in many different ways across numerous parallels. The Disruptors' influence over these key agents, called Bishops by ZeroZero, could often be traced back over several centuries.

A technique of Disruptor first contact emerged. The Disruptors would usually begin by representing themselves as a powerful, though secret, organisation, sympathetic to their chosen agent's cause, conviction or ambition.

The newly recruited Bishop would then be aided in the establishment of an expanded power base; the Disruptor Lodge. Where possible existing social groups were used as fronts whether political, religious, corporate or criminal. It is not unusual for the Disruptors to infiltrate and take over existing secret societies. (A fact that can cause considerable confusion to ZeroZero agents, as they attempt to establish which secret society, one of several native ones, is the actual Disruptor Lodge.)

The Disruptor Bishop's first priority is to recruit further prime agents. These are organised into an Inner Council, who are the only native Disruptor agents to know of the existence of the Disruptor control.

Immediately below that an Elite is formed, these agents believe that the Bishop And the Inner Council are the masters of the Lodge.

Finally, the Elite recruits and controls the rank and file, the Pawns, of the Lodge. These ordinary members make up the largest proportion of any Lodge, although their knowledge about the Lodge, its purposes and organisation, can vary wildly from parallel to parallel and even within the Lodge itself.

The establishment of a Lodge usually takes a generation. During which time the Inner Council's loyalty to and dependence on the Disruptors will have been firmly established. Once the Disruptor control is certain they begin to use their puppets for their own inscrutable aims. By this time the Bishop, or their heir, normally accepts these plans as perfectly desirable or justifiable.

The inducements offered by the Disruptors are considerable. Their strongest card remains that of knowledge. Thousands of parallels have fallen to Disruptor Lodges using sophisticated weapons and tactics beyond the norm of that Earth.

Brutal and direct support has occasionally been provided by the Rooks. These are cybernetically enhanced humans, far stronger than a normal person, with an arsenal of highly advanced weaponry at their disposal.

At first ZeroZero thought that the Rooks were entirely robotic, but a ZeroZero agent managed to disable and briefly examine one, discovering them to be about 70% human/organic and 30% machine. For some reason the Disruptors have been extremely reluctant to use the Rooks since the nineteenth century on most parallels. Far more subtle and dangerous are the Disruptor Knights. These human agents are invariably psychic and able to travel between parallels, as do the Rooks, by using Trans-Parallel Vehicles (TPVs). The Knights function as in situ advisors to the Bishops. On rare occasions they may command a Lodge on a parallel considered critical to the Disruptors.

To date ZeroZero agents have yet to capture a Disruptor Knight alive. Simply because they all appear to have the ability to will their own death.

Several items of Disruptor technology have been observed by ZeroZero agents. Some have been captured. One of the most significant events was the recovery of a Trans-Parallel Communicator (TPC) from a Disruptor Lodge destroyed by ZeroZero agents. Which has freed ZeroZero from a total reliance on agents with the Empathic Link.

ZeroZero also discovered that the supposed psionic talents of the Bishop and Inner Council were often the product of Disruptor machines. These artificially implanted psychic abilities can usually be predicted, giving the more flexible psi-active ZeroZero agents a much needed edge.

Once established the Lodge acts as the tool of the Disruptors on the parallel. There might, in fact, be a number of Lodges, some acting in opposition to each other. The Lodges are used to initiate and control the social and geopolitical manipulations that the Disruptors wish to create.Valhalla Nova has extensive files detailing individual Lodge actions and reports of the activities of Disruptor Knights and Rooks.

It is evident that many of the Bishops and Inner Councils have no idea of the wider ramifications of their actions. In some circumstances the Disruptors have brought about situations where their own Lodges have been destroyed; usually whilst another is being created, or it's influence enhanced. Communication, using a TPC, between Bishop and Disruptor control has only been observed a handful of times, by ZeroZero agents who survived the experience.

In each case Disruptor control represented itself as some kind of guiding oracle, Organisation or figurehead. The only consistency is that the TPC shows the image of a man (in one case a talking statue), in robes or uniform, against some sort of symbol which represents the Lodge. Each man, and the statue, showed a marked racial similarity.

Source: The Arkwright Multiverse

(image via Comixology)

#comics #Luther Arkwright #multiverse

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queernuck · 7 years ago

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So if we believe that “I Will Survive” is in fact not intended as a pro-life comic, and that instead it portrays a fundamental break in a relationship between Nick and Judy, one immediately begins to realize both the fundamental narratives evoked within, and moreover the ways in which these lead to a certain sort of exegesis of the weaknesses found in Zootopia as a site of allegorical convergence.

The specifically Catholic imagery that pervades the comic seems to lead to one sort of series of subjectivities which are evoked by a discussion of abortion: the way that culturally speaking, Catholicism relies in large part on cultural structure and continuity to realize itself, that Catholicism is in many ways distanced from its own actual practice. The number of self-identified Catholics is far higher than the number of people who fulfil what most would require as basic commitments to Catholic identity. Despite not attending Mass regularly, many Catholics are set in a series of cultural values that predispose them toward homophobia, sexism, anti-abortion ideology, anticommunism, so on. Conversely, more frequent churchgoers are often seen to be adherents of theory that puts a great deal of emphasis on “Social Justice” as a Catholic concept, not to mention the deep faith of leaders within communities transformed by liberation theology. The specifically Catholic character of Judy’s experience is thus one we can understand as complicated: she is religious enough to have what appears to be an icon of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, but is still living with Nick, having extramarital sex, living a life outside of Catholic teaching.

While Nick is not shown to have the same ties, he conversely feels much stronger about continuing the pregnancy. One could infer a similar relationship to religion, one founded upon a larger sense of morality and the Good as held in his previous lifestyle, one operating outside of morality as dictated by law, that specifically held the law in contempt as a standard for morality. Of course, this fits with an image of a Catholic couple rather well: a man who firmly feels that an abortion would be wrong, that he is ready to be a father, and a woman who knows that, on the other hand, she is not ready to be a mother. This is further developed by Judy’s understanding that, as the two are different species and according to the comic’s development of Zootopia’s biology, there is at least a reasonable degree to which she is warranted in worrying about complications from pregnancy. The way that this can be likened to “real” worries of the same sort, whether through the artifice of family history, personal health, whatever the origins may be, is part of the tension seen at a fundamental level in Catholic life: that of the woman whose body is not hers, who is likened to the Virgin Mary, sacrificing her own self for the good of the child, of the World, such that the child may live. This is indeed implied by Nick’s own discussion of the child, of the possible good, and indeed the expected good, the child will do. The continuation of their union is this child, is Nick’s trust in Judy as mother, as a figure like Mary as represented in his own mother in a sort of Oedipal turn.

Of course, Judy’s worry about the child also resonates with one of the weaknesses of Zootopia: the way that the fundamental tension of race in the narrative is, in fact, extricated from a dynamic that is literally predatory, that names itself as such, that leads to a point where we must make a turn much like that of Žižek on the notion of the neighbor, the separation we ask and in fact demand of the neighbor, the sort of assimilation into individuality and separation that the neighbor role implies. The predator-prey dynamic reflects numerous unstable and violent disparities of racial violence, in that the predator class is subjugated, but rightfully so, in that the tension grows out of a fear of the Other held specifically out of the image of the Other, of the violent body of the Other. This is, of course, implied by the Catholicism of the comic: the colonial relations created within Catholic culture, maintained through it, would allow a common moral structure to be supposedly held across bodies in tension, in disparity with one another. Judy fears the specific combination of prey species and predator species as creating a “freak” and the comic itself even notes that it is part of a wild imagination on her part, a sort of development of a eugenicist impulse borne out of racial violence, but one that the text of Zootopia seems to hold as at least possible, as a genuine worry.

This then raises the question of rights as structurally bound and conceived when articulated within a violent structure of encounter: what right then, is one’s own when predicated on violent concepts of the self, the body, so on? Can one create a positive concept of justifying an abortion based off of a notion of health based in a largely ideological, even surrogate-racial basis? The argument, the initial one expected out of a “pro-life” comic, that this would be wrong simply because abortion is wrong resonates far easier, even if it is not able to hold in relief of other ideas around abortion. That one, then, finds the question of holding access to abortion and reproductive care as an absolute principle when it can be used in order to realize violent ends, leads to the more intricate, far less easily-resolved issue of what motivations lie behind abortion, and how one can discuss these when they are so often articulated in language that explicitly requires the discussion of capitalist violence, colonial violence, violence based in creating abled and disabled bodies, all articulated within the sexed act of carrying a pregnancy to term.

If this, then, is the case then one would wonder why the ambiguity created by Nick’s apparently above-it-all distance, the eventual weight of the comic appearing to favor him, the way that the comic concentrates on his departure and the result of Judy striking him so dramatically, both in the moment and as a resonant theme within, downplaying the actual dynamic of domestic violence by a police officer in favor of an idealistic concept of parenthood, how this explores a certain question of what cohabitation and sexual intercourse within an already precarious relationship demands out of both partners: if one interprets the comic as being an exploration of these themes, rather than a comic against abortion, one is forced to reckon with both the weakness of Zootopia as a film, and enter into an even more troublesome development of these themes as proposed by “I Will Survive” as a work within Zootopia’s fan community.

#zootopia #i will survive #judy hopps #nick wilde #slavoj žižek

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ourcommonbowl-blog · 7 years ago

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The National Aboriginal Health Organization’s Sexual Health Toolkit Part I and II

Christine Thompson, Sophia Lam, Kinna Joe and Celine Caro

The resource we selected is a two-part sexual health toolkit that teaches youth how to be sexually healthy, safe and responsible. The toolkit was developed in partnership with The Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN), an organization by and for Indigenous youth that works across issues of sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice throughout the United States and Canada. The first part of the toolkit focuses on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and contraception whereas the second part discusses healthy relationships with oneself and others as well as sexual abuse and sexuality. This resource encourages open discussion and communication without judgement and incorporates several aspects of health (spiritual, mental and physical health). Each clan member began this assignment with an interest in health and an open mind about which resource to review. In the end, we chose to focus on sexual health as it is a pertinent issue facing Indigenous communities today. This resource in particular was engaging, easy to understand and well suited for youth. We felt that this resource could be well utilized in educational and social settings and could help promote sexual wellbeing in Indigenous communities while providing relevant information to all Canadians. This resource can be found at the following website: http://www.nativeyouthsexualhealth.com/toolkit.html

The toolkit presents health in accordance with Indigenous perspectives. The toolkit takes a general approach to Indigenous knowledge by incorporating the element of wholism when discussing health and the definition of healthy relationships. Firstly, there are many types of relationships: the relationship with ourselves, with friends, families, a partner, our community, and Mother Earth. Relationships require certain qualities to be and stay healthy. Any kind of relationship (romantic or friendly) needs safety, respect, trust, communication, enjoyment and fairness. Good health is a balance of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual elements. The resource states that “good health is achieved when we live in a balanced relationship with the earth and the natural world”. Mother Earth provides food, air, medicines, laws and teachings. These principles are to be combined with an active lifestyle, a positive attitude, and peaceful and harmonious relations with people and the spiritual world.

The toolkit explains the traditional views on sexual health, where sexuality is an expression of the life-creating force. “In the past, sexuality was not perceived as shameful and children were taught openly about their bodies, sexual and reproductive passages, and moon time” according to the toolkit. Each First Nation carries different stories and teaching about sexual health. They have varied coming-of-age ceremonies or naming ceremonies. Before colonization, women were recognized as having a great power because of their ability to have children and this ability was honoured within the communities. Before colonization, sexual diversity was also accepted. In many Indigenous communities the existence of male-females and female males (two-spirited individuals) was recognized as having the social responsibility of carrying two spirits and this was considered a gift. Two-spirited people were respected and often became medicine people, healers, and visionaries. Moreover, rape and sexual aggressions against women were not an element of Indigenous culture. The resource outlines the effects of colonization such as loss of identity, loss of traditional beliefs and values and the continuing effects of residential schools. It exemplifies how this has all contributed to social problems within Indigenous communities, including sexual abuse.

There are many benefits to using this resource, especially when educating Indigenous youth. One main benefit is the layout of the resource as it includes large text, concise paragraphs, bullet points, tables, colourful images and eye-catching titles per section. These elements make the toolkit easy and engaging to read. The resource incorporates and addresses first person questions that readers may find themselves asking. It informs readers by assuming they have no previous knowledge of sexual health, while remaining respectful and non-patronizing. An example of how the resource does this is when it is explaining the process of STI testing; it addresses when an individual should be tested, what to expect when being tested and where testing can take place. Individuals accessing this resource can easily find answers to specific questions they may have by scanning the documents for titles that pertain to their needs. The resource includes information that is specific to Indigenous people, such as discussing insurance-related information specific to Status First Nations women in regards to birth control accessibility. It includes traditional sources of support such as community Elders when suggesting ways youth can confide in others. The toolkit makes it easy and clear for youth to detect if they are in an unhealthy relationship and provides practical advice for empowering oneself and improving self-image. The document features links to external resources where readers can gain more in-depth knowledge on each topic. It outlines the definition of drug facilitated sexual assault so that readers are able to name their experiences and access resources accordingly. The toolkit describes the impacts that colonialism and Western media have had on Indigenous ways of life, particularly self-image. However, it is careful not to blame Indigenous people and communities for the adverse circumstances they may find themselves in.

While we find this toolkit to be excellent and useful, we have also outlined a variety of challenges that may pose as barriers when using it as a teaching resource. The resource intends to be accessible to the many Indigenous Nations across Canada which can pose an issue when directing readers to relevant external resources, such a local grassroots organizations. Because of this general approach, it is difficult for the resource to provide information regarding nation-specific knowledge and traditions. While the toolkit touches on traditional views on sexual health and sexuality, such as an openness to discussing sex, it does not discuss traditional medicinal practices regarding birth control or fertility. The sexual assault section of this resource features some problematic language such as the term ‘victim’ as opposed to ‘survivor’. It’s inclusion of tips for keeping oneself safe from sexual assault implicitly suggests that sexual safety is the sole onus of an individual versus the fault of the perpetrator. The entirety of the resource features very gender-binary language that may make the information feel less relevant to gender-non-conforming or queer-gendered readers.

We brainstormed some suggestions for how this toolkit may be improved upon. We feel that an updated version of the toolkit should be released with updated statistics, language and stories. We feel that the toolkit would benefit from the incorporation of specific data regarding structural violence against Indigenous peoples, specifically the widespread violence against Indigenous women in Canada. It may be beneficial for the toolkit to incorporate specific suggestions as to how individuals can include spiritual and mental wellbeing into their sexual health practices. The toolkit could include a chart of birth control methods and related information to each method. A glossary could also be included to offer definitions for terms that readers may not be familiar with. It would be beneficial to include a section teaching Indigenous youth how to be assertive and how to advocate their needs and questions when interacting with medical care practitioners. Instructors utilizing this resource may be able to incorporate some of these changes within their own teaching practice.

This resource could be used in both formal classroom settings and within community teaching spaces across Canada. This resource can be adjusted according to where and when it is being utilized. Instructors should consider their audience and location when tailoring this resource and selecting supplementary teachings about sexual health. Instructors could preface this toolkit with information of local Indigenous history and sexual health practices as well as a discussion on the impacts colonialism has had in the area. Instructors could include current issues facing Indigenous peoples today as well as a discussion of the relationship between health and land. Instructors can discuss the relationship between traditional Indigenous health knowledge and the contemporary Western health care system. Depending on the age and maturity of the students, instructors may want to include a discussion on how the colonial health care system has served to oppress and assimilate Indigenous peoples (e.g. smallpox epidemic, forced sterilization, etc.) and the lasting intergenerational impacts that colonialism has had on Indigenous health.

Instructors may want to consider how they can utilize this resource within an Indigenous teaching pedagogy. Instructors might decide to deviate from the Western teaching techniques of reading and regurgitating information by providing alternative opportunities for learning while using this resource. For example, instructors can use more Indigenous methods of teaching such as story-telling, individual exploration and hands-on activities. Instructors could include individual exploratory assignments such as encouraging students to research and explore local Indigenous community organizations. This would be an opportunity for students to further their own knowledge and find resources that they may realistically access. Inviting community members, such as Elders or Indigenous volunteers, to speak to students could be a beneficial way to provide an alternative form of learning and to incorporate Nation-specific information. Instructors must take this last suggestion with a caution however: including Indigenous speakers does not relinquish an instructor of the responsibility to adequately teach their students and to incorporate Indigenous teachings in various ways.

We have devised a specific class activity that will interactively engage students while utilizing the toolkit. Firstly, instructors can divide the class into groups of 3 or more students, and then distribute cards to each group. Each card will contain a different scenario of an individual that is related to some aspect of the toolkit (e.g. an individual in an unhealthy relationship, an individual who does not access Western healthcare, etc.) and each group will read and discuss their card together. The groups will consider if the individual in their scenario is a healthy person or what is healthy/unhealthy about the situation. Students will be urged to consider what they learned from the toolkit when discussing their scenario. The class will then reconvene and each group will share their scenario and what they discussed/concluded about it. The instructor can then prompt class discussion by asking pointed questions related to each scenario (e.g. what role may colonialism play in the scenario, how could the toolkit be useful in the scenario, what role does Indigenous Knowledge play in the scenario, etc.). Students should be encouraged to contemplate how their own preconceived, Western ideals may have affected their views of the individual on their card. Instructors may wish to incorporate additional resources such as educational videos before starting the class discussion/debrief to reiterate specific points/direct discussion.

Wither this resource is used in formal or informal educational settings, with Indigenous or non-Indigenous students/instructors, it is an excellent toolkit for teaching youth about sexual health and wellbeing. The fact that it was made in conjunction with the NYSHN gives the toolkit an air of authenticity and relevance. This is a great resource to keep Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth in Canada sexually informed, safe and healthy.

#resource review

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crossfitvinny-blog · 8 years ago

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Project text

Vincent Lopez Professor Maria Turnmeyer AAS 113B

Helen’s Zia’s points of view against that world

In the book Asian American Dreams Helen Zia finds herself trapped in puzzle in order to find her own identity. There are major conflicts between two specific ethnic groups, Korean, and African American. Moreover, these events from the past share similar connections with events in the 21st century. In the book written by Helen Zia, chapter four of the book of Asian American Dreams,is about the alienation phase of Helen Zia from both her American and Chinese cultures. Helen Zia was born and raised in America.When she was growing up she often had problems assimilating herself to one culture. Even though she was born and raised in America she was discriminated by her own culture because she looked asian . In a similar way, also she could not assimilate with her Asian culture because she was “Americanized” and had an accent speaking Chinese. I experienced similar complications adapting to the American culture. I was seventeen years old when I immigrated to the United States from a small country in Central America ( El salvador). It was a difficult change for me, since at the time I did not know how to speak English. I attended a big charter school in Los Angeles county( Los Angeles High School) , which was diverse and had students from all over the world. Although the majority of the students were born in America, many of them would only socialized with others students that shared similar backgrounds and culture. I did not know who I could friends with, I tried to have friends from all different ethnicities and sometimes I would not be welcome to some groups and the groups that accepted me there were occasions where the people that I started to become friends with would talk in a spanish. In some occasions this made me feel as an outsider. Communicating was a big barrier as a foreign student making me feel isolated from everyone else. I experienced a similar parallel between Zia’s story and my own story in the way we could not identify with any specific group. In chapter four of Asian American Dreams there are two racial groups that confront discrimination to each other. There was a population growth in the east coast mainly in New York and others surrounding states, in the years of 1980 and 1990, the book Asian American Dreams states “The number of black residents grew by 18 percent, Hispanics by 19 percent, and Asians by 132 percent.” Korean American communities were increasing at a fast rate, having more than 78 percent of the Korean immigrants with colleges degrees, many new businesses started to raise in the city. Many of these business were opening in poor black communities where the Koreans started to move in, this caused a chaos amount this two groups because African Americans believe that Koreans and Koreans American were taking their jobs, had preference among banks to obtain loans to open up business in addition they treated blacks in deferential, this made Africans American to believe that Koreans has special privileges. In the year of 2016-2017 president Donald Trump speech for presidency targeted the Hispanic community, especially when referring to the Mexican and Mexican Americans . In the article presented by The Huffington Post Donald Trump stated “When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending you their best. They are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are sending those problems with us. They are rapist and some, assume, are good people.” This can relate to chapter four, when African Americans were protesting against Korean Americans, because of their false belief of inequality. Another recent event that has occurred is that black lives matter movement, where African American were discriminated and racial profiled. In these events there were similarities between the black community being racially prejudice to the Korean people and in most recent being labeled because of their race. It was conjunction of Africans American being killed by white police officers. An African American black male was shot dead by a white police officer, the officer stated that he was trying to reach for his gun and that was the reason for the officer’s reaction. In addition to chapter four Asians and Asian Americans were being label as Japanese, many Koreans and other Asians started to identify themselves with their own country of nationality, the books states “I am Korean I am not Japanese”. Since at the time the war world 2 had just ended. Just how many different Asian groups could not be distinguished, ignorance is an important concept to understand in the modern era. In the United States there are many ethnic groups that play an important role in society. It is important to recognize and understanding the similarities that every ethnic group has in the previous eras since these actions leads to greater opportunities that allow people from all part of the world to acknowledge our differences and to understand each other from different points of view. Discrimination, violence and racism are actions that should not express to our peers; just as the Asian community as label as in the book states “All Asian are Chinese” my own ethnic group is often label as if you speak Spanish you must be Mexican. This and other groups are label everyday in life, therefore we should understand that each and one of us hold different values that create the society that we now live on.

Work Cited Thegurdian.com Black life’s matter Lowery, Wesley. "Black Lives Matter: Birth of a Movement | Wesley Lowery." The Long Read. Guardian News and Media, 17 Jan. 2017. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. Huffingtonpost.com: Donald trump’s speech Moreno, Carolina. "9 Outrageous Things Donald Trump Has Said About Latinos." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 09 Nov. 2016. Web. 18 Feb. 2017. Asian American dreams Zia, Helen. Asian American Dreams the Emergence of an American People. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001. Print.

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queernuck · 8 years ago

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Naming Your Sexuality

What is important to remember, through Horvat’s discussion of the mundane postmodernity of sex in the West versus its subversive character in a place such as Iran, is that Horvat is not attempting to institute the Western paradigm of postmodern expanse, but rather is articulating the shifting topology of a hyperreal articulation of the sexual as related to love that is described rather well through the means by which gay life, gay lifestyles, are created and conceived in the West and through reactionary oppositions to Western concepts of sexuality.

First, one must note that in order for these lifestyles to be articulated, there must be not only a prohibition, but a specific one that relies on gender, gender as an expression of sex, the concept of the relationship as sexualized and moreover sexual even as it is not a mixture of bodies in sexual contact, that the sexuality of becoming-gay is inherent and moreover predominant in its conceptual outpouring of desire. Similarly, the way in which trans women articulate themselves is related to the structures of prohibition that surround the conceptual homosexuality, the sexual outpouring that describes homosexual desire, and as a result the positionality of trans women is colonial as well. This is to say, one can only enact a prohibitory structure against these practices insofar as they are named and regulated through colonial encounter, through an institution of colonial power, and that even in the supposed lifting of such prohibitions in the West, the prohibition remains as a means for reactionary violence to be realized.

To expand in other directions on Horvat’s connection between desire and love, the way in which the space of neoliberal postmodernity’s paradigm of supposed-acceptance operates as an apparently infinite hyperreality requires an examination of the structuring of markers of identity in assemblage with concepts of love both as an act and within certain bodies in mixture, in states of affairs, such that the West is the hegemonic overdetermination that not only erased a possibility of revolution, but that of love as a point of revolutionary contact. Love is instead owing to structures of semiotic display, love has been replaced by romance, but moreover a romance that relies upon commodity in experience, in evidence of experience, in how the body is marked and named in time in order to create a process of love. Marxist processes of commodity fetishism are themselves fetishized, a sort of double-desire where not only does one desire a thing, but desires the desiring of the thing, a procedural articulation that in turn creates the apprehended, assimilated concept of the homosexual.

In order to oppose Horvat’s admonition toward the assumption of an immediate radicality to certain acts of mixture in sex, toward a conflation of love and sex, one must be careful to separate his claims (as well as those that can be taken from his thought) from ones that offer a certain regulatory action, as a means of discussing the body. Horvat’s reliance on the creation of the body through a white supremacist articulation of identity is not in implication that individual bodies are inherent subjects of this system, but subjects as-such, described in a language of assemblage that requires the terminology employed by Horvat. In effect, the artifice of encounter in critique is one that is only possible due to the coloniality of the artifice, there is only a becoming-gay or becoming-trans because of these articulatory processes. Thus, within the geographical West one is largely not faced with the colonial violence that marked those distinctions, and outside of it one is considered as a colonial body unable to differentiate itself before entering certain processes of articulation to begin with. In short, outside the West there is not a becoming-gay until the entry of heteronormative violence, through its formation or a negative reflection of it. Countries such as Israel may be marked as friendly to gay culture because their culture includes certain semiotic operations but this is in stark contrast to the way in which they institute a becoming-gay, a forcible entry into the positive articulation of the West upon gay Palestinians such that these Palestinians may be coerced into serving as informants, threatening to impose the same entry in a violent negation in the culture articulated against that same west. The structure is identical, is reflective, is not differentiated but rather is a singularity of violence that matches height and depth in experience. First, one must be subsumed and enter into a space where being gay and becoming-gay are not revolutionary before one may be marked by violence outside of this West, where it is revolutionary as part of a counterrevolution, is a specific striation of the body that regardless of origin will hold a great degree of differentiating power.

Horvat’s implementation of love as a concept related to these identities is one that would note the preclusion from an encountering of love fostered upon trans women in particular, and that the same structures of coloniality faced by other women are imposed and redoubled upon the bodies of trans women. Moreover, that bodies in certain assemblages are always-already sexual, are merely sexual, and are thus part of a hypersexualized hyperreal is incredibly important. Women, as a whole, are often articulated through a concept of postmodern sexuality that allows them to make subjects but moreover removed objects out of a commonality of womanhood or of sexual desire of those outside of whiteness in order to create a sort of temporary, conditional entry into universality through sexual desire that poses itself as revolutionary but moreover is owing to a hegemonic ideology of what constitutes proper desire. This is how women may enter hegemonic sexuality as lesbians, as trans women, so on. Their entry is condition, and moreover is articulated as part of a larger coloniality that they may eventually be refused, but first will refuse to others as a primary articulation of violence. The presence of the subaltern in relation to the supposed universal shows the operation of exclusion-from-universal that the artifice implies as part of their consideration as limits upon universality, limits that proscribe a quasimathematical function of desire. Trans bodies are desired along specific lines, within certain aesthetics, but are only made through the gaze toward objectification that Sartre describes, an allowance of perception of oneself as an object of desire on a merely temporary basis, a basis that is soon revoked.

One can speak of the reactionary concept of homosexual decadence as linked to the West, and how it is decried through various fashions that are characteristically counterrevolutionary. The violence of creating this decadence is in turn through markers of heteronormative sexuality thus that it is effectively a sort of function of the heteronormative paradigm rather than of any imagined gay decadence. There is no “homonormativity” to be found except as a misspoken naming of the larger postmodern disaffection that belies love as a means of relation. To direct that critique inwards, in purely masturbatory reflection, in a sort of direction of love’s intensity into a rabattement against oneself is a derealized love, an impossibility of realizing love. To posit “homonormativity” as a paradigm is to effectively ignore the assimilatory act and preclude any realization of love that is hidden or protected through the artifices of assimilated culture, the sort of hiding of revolutionary outpourings of desire within love that form a common and shared experience for those forced into the closet. Homonormativity as a semiotic relies on a previous violence of heteronormativity, and can only be proposed in moments where one is in fact characterizing an imperialist act, in which one is instituting colonial visions of romance upon another. The importance of this, the way in which Horvat’s analysis is duplicitous, is better understood when one turns it against itself, is that it provides the structural critique Horvat means through an analysis of his propositioning, itself slyly reflective of the same unnamed homoerotic desire he talks about encountering. Horvat is coming on to the reader, inviting an encounter with the text that is imbued with the same outpourings of desire, of love, that he believes to be revolutionary. Horvat is not merely describing, he is in fact participating.

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