#todays class discussion is on media as a social construction of reality

[noknowshame]

everyone else go away i'm communing with early 20th century sociologists again

[streets-in-paradise]

Let’s talk about the amazingly on spot social commentary on The Boys

Warning: This post contains spoilers from Season 1 and the first three episodes of season 2 of The Boys 

Tags: @nehoymenyoy asked to be tagged. I don’t know if my tags are working well but if they don’t i will send you the link of the post. 

I decided to make this post because i finished all the avaliable episodes of the series two days ago and, having a long talk with my sister about this topic, i tought this is too awesome to not discuss it here. We are both studying in careers of the social field, i'm in sociology and she is in social work. We watched the show together and talking with her inspired my own ideas i would like to share here.

This show was a wonderfull surprise in terms of social commentary. I haven't watched one with such a great commentary since American Gods. In that case i was expecting some degree of progressive commentary because i had read the book previously and i was aware the source material had some, the one added for the series is even better and it was great, but it wasn't a shock to find it. For The Boys i haven't read the comics first and , even when i loved the show for lots of reasons, the amazing on spot social commentary was a hell of a surprise. I have been frustrated lately in terms of the messages in entertaiment products because, even when there is a lot of intention for part of the makers to make more progressive points in their stuff, everything becomes bland marketing to me most of the time. I remember that some years ago media used to came out unintentionally with some really cool progressive messages ( like, for example, " a bug's life" and its anti capitalist message). That stuff seemed soo genuine and today i feel that everytime a product targets my demographic in that sense what they deliver it's soo bland and fake that the progressive intention of the message gets lost in the absolutely obvious intention of selling something to me using my ideals as catch. Precisely this is an important point of critic in this show. I didn't expected at all to get a genuine feeling in the social commentary of a superhero show. I'm not saying that this means i think the makers believe in this (after all, it's amazon), what i praise here is how good they did it. In a time when most productions claim to have a social commentary behind to come out as cool but result in shallow fake bullshit this series has provided me with something that feels autentic. Like American Gods, what i feel the show is trying to tell me actually gets me.

Before starting with the proper talk i want to dedicate a few línes to recommend a few scenes of the show i just mentioned. I was super dissapointed after finding out they will probably end up turning it into more bland fake bullshit for season 3 but, to anyone who likes well delivered social commentary, check on Orlando Jones's scenes as Anansi. He is my favourite character from the show and all his scenes are a blessing. 

I would also want to clarify that this post and the opinions displayed on it are from an anti capitalist, intersectional feminist and latin american perspective. I know the show is very american, the issues it discusses are most of the time worlwide but it has particularities of the american context so i will try to talk only of what i feel i know enough to have a word. I'm argentinian and we have our local versions of some of this problems but i will stay in the series territory trying to be as faithfull as i can to the american reality it gets inspiration from. Also, forgive me for any mistakes on my writing and expresions. English is not my native language. 

Superheros are modern mythology. How would this work in real life?

This is the basic premise of the show’s worldbuilding. The great thing is that this concept is not developed in an edgy, pretentious way. It is serious and painfully real because it’s not only a subversion of tropes, it says a lot of what superheros are to us as a modern times myth. In a superficial view, the world of The Boys feels like what the MCU could have become after the Sokovia accords if they would have been efficiently followed on a worldwide scale.

In that particular universe i use as reference, our superheros are noble and morally heroic individuals.State intervention is the factor threatening to corrupt their actions making them follow the interests of the system. The risk there, along with some very shady violations of human rights to powered people, is having superheros tied to something as unstable as political power. You can fear, for example, what a Trump-like president could do if he had power over the Avengers because, again, the heros are not corrupt, their line of command is. Now, if we strip away all the idealization we had putted on this bunch of powered persons and see them as what they truly are at the end of the day, people like everyone else. Why are we supposed to believe they are immune to corruption? If we also consider the phenomenon of strong privatization of security that has been growing worldwide . Wouldn’t they be more like security workers working for a private contractor? Less like heros and more like private military / security officers?  Now, this is what we are talking about. 

What feels so different from this show is that it assumes a surprisingly realistic point of view on a modern fantasy we are very used to consuming and still constructs a new power fantasy that empowers the viewer. I’ m saying this as an MCU fan, I had grown too comfortable with this optimistic fantasy and this twist from it is brilliant. To put some context on what i want to say here i will try to explain myself first on why i think that superhero fiction have this enormous popularity today and it has become such a huge thing in entertainment. Besides of the obvious reason of big companies producing big exciting action blockbusters for the genre, it’s curious to think on how much these stories gathered a lot of progressive audiences. In past decades action blockbusters didn’t felt progressive, today’s superhero blockbusters were embraced by progressive audiences and this was the start of a twist in general for the media. I think that there is a contextual social reason for this, not the only factor but one i feel is considerable. 

Late Stage Capitalism crushed us, we are so used to injustice and the control the system has over us is so big that we have slowly stopped dreaming of changing it ourselves. Instead, the fantasy of a superhuman who has the power we don’t have saving us from oppression feels really comforting. Captain America becoming such a huge icon in the middle of a time where extreme facism is rising again all over the world, for example. I don’t know much about his comic counterpart but, at least from what i see in the movies, Steve’s ideals feel to me like all those aspects from French Revolution’s  Enlightenment that capitalism dropped away once bourgeois defeated their feudal rivals and capitalism got consolidated, the freedom and equality that feudal lower classes fought for. Today, we feel too small to make a difference so we enjoy the fantasy of powerful persons leading the fight for us. Capitalism feels more unstoppable than ever, it is the only thing who seems strong to remain in a terribly chaotic world. The suffering this cruel system brings to this world is overwhelming, we feel only a miracle can save us now. This is what feeds the narrative of the superhero as modern myth and saviour of humanity.

The Boys tosses aside all our hopes and dreams, presenting us with the most realistic escenario. Superheros are not the miracle we are waiting for, they are humans like everyone else. They are not sacred entities existing beyond our societies, they are part of the system and they insert on it as part of the security industries. They can be corrupted and they work in corrupt institutions in benefit of the ruling class like every other security provider in capitalist societies. They become a new face of the security forces in constant tension with police and military because the myth of the superhero provides them with the public trust those other two forces lost. People lost their trust in cops but they trust sups because they are supposed to be this noble individuals mobilized by their personal feelings of injustice trying to make the world a better place … right? Police are the forces of the ruling class but superheros are supposed to be with us, or at least this is what common sense and propaganda claim, having our hopes as a base to work on. 

For someone so used to the typical superhero fantasy this felt like a slap on my face back to reality. It soo accurate , the system tends to capture any revolutionary input and turn it into profit. Even if the sups could had been a revolutionary factor at the beginning, the most likely thing to happen is for them to become a profitable industry. If we add to this what we already know of the actions of police and military in our real world we have a combo for disaster. The realistic twist is so fresh and painfully real, i can totally see this happening in real life if superheros were a thing. 

We have already introduced ourselves in the world of this story, let’s check on the first main character this series introduces to us. Hughie Campbell, a college age guy who works in an electronics store, lives with his dad and has the most boring average life you can imagine. This guy who is too afraid to ask his boss for a pay raise changes overnight when a superhero kills his girlfriend in front of him and the big corporation the asshole works for covers up the whole thing. The “average guy becomes a hero” trope is not new at all, but the use it has here feels fresh because it is not there only to feed the male geek power fantasy. Hughie is not a geeky average guy only so geeky average guys can identify with him in an action series full of geeky references,he is not there to be the nerdy guy from Robot Chicken. Hughie’s characterization makes a point for everyone. The smallest most unimportant person, the one who can't even stand up for themselves in everyday situations, can make a change. Remember Samwise Gamgee fighting Shelob in Lord of the Rings? Hughie killing Translucent gives me that vibe. If we consider the point i already stated about superheroes being there when we feel too small to fight back injustice, this is the exact opposite. This is a fantasy that gives us the power, makes us think in our own strengths. Hughie is standing up for himself for the first time in his life and he inspires us to fight for our rights. 

Pharmaceutical,Security and Entertainment industries and their business system : Superheros as lab rats,elite security forces and celebrities. 

This part of the post is the hardest to write and the most exquisite. There is so much to talk about about this system Vought shaped tying these three billionaire industries together. The first thing i want to mention, as a point to start, is Butcher’s ramble over the teddy bear with a camera inside in his meeting with Hughie. Perfect introduction for the character with a delightful moment of commentary. In our current societies people live in constant fear for hundreds of reasons. Fears over street crime had skyrocketed all over the world even when crime is not growing uniformly in every country and that accelerated the privatization of security, fears of parents over the strangers they leave they kids with when they are not home inspired products like the one mentioned in the series’s moment, fears on the effects of processed foods are an impulse for the diet industry and i could keep naming lots of other examples. Fears, and the emotional response they trigger , are the base of profitable businesses. 

I had been reading some authors that describe this stage of capitalism as an emotional one. Capitalism preached science and rationality during the past century but today its base of support is an emotional one. To excite the sensations of the people as consumers, to eliminate rational criticism, to push anti popular agendas through emotional excitement and mass hysteria. To cite another example that you can consider bounded to the series, Right Realism in Criminology is now almost common sense and there are people who keep asking for harsher punitive systems. This ideology, with the help of media panic, goes straight after their feelings and fears of being victims of violent crimes. Rational thinking is not the area of discussion, the base of the argument is on fear and pain. Fear of being potential victims, pain shared with the victims thinking in solutions that sound more like revenge than justice. 

Going back to my point, in the world of The Boys this type of punitivism seems to have succeeded even in a greater way than in our current world because it has superheros as backup. If real life harsh punitivism feeds on fear and a wish for social revenge, in this world it has the positive emotions supes inspire on people as a trust certificate for the persons who may not feel that way. They are loved and worshipped celebrities, their faces are everywhere, they have thousands of fans… who would see flaws in what they do? Can you imagine a world in which we worshipped cops and soldiers like we worship celebrities? This is it, people put their blind faith in them because most of them seem to be their fans. Even the people who are against brutality in the actions of security forces would end up trusting them because they are famous people. Our culture has taught us to make ourselves blind to the bullshit we see on the celebrities we love. Fans have a strong emotional attachment to their favourite celebs and this can turn into emotional manipulation in this context. If actors or singers in real life can have a fanbase that forgets to see them as human people how would these actual superhumans not end up being worshipped as gods? 

There has always been military propaganda in entertainment but this marriage between the industries through superheros is far more sinister than that. It makes you think about the unfair amount of credibility we put in celebrities. The plane crash scene of Homelander and Maeve it’s even more devastating looking at it from that perspective. Those persons had their full trust in them and they were safer with the terrorists. Can you imagine being a Homelander fan and dying there?  That’s horrible, the last thing you get in your life is the biggest disappointment ever from someone you trusted and stanned. 

 Speaking of Homelander, he is a right wing wet dream and one of the best villians i had ever seen, he makes me feel sick with how fucking despicable he is. His character is an excellent point to start the ramble on the third wheel of this corporate nightmare. Superheros are products of the pharmaceutical industry, injected with a drug since they were babies. In his particular case, he was raised like a lab rat and the series is realistic even in this detail. The lab rat kid with superpowers is another common trope that we see pretty often and here it also gets twisted. I’m thinking for example on Eleven from Stranger Things, she has been raised by abusive scientists who treated her as an experiment, yet she is this sweet kiddo who has a hard time socializing. Instead, Homelander is a monster without conscience or mercy and seems to be severely affected by his abnormal childhood. Brilliant, he is the ultimate product of this corporative triangle and depicts everything that's wrong with it. 

The cycle is pretty clear: drugs create them, they play their role in security and their media notoriety justifies their actions. As it is shown in season one,  the security aspect of the corporate complex represented mostly in Homelander’s actions craves to grow bigger and get supes into the military since, in the startpoint of the series, they only work with cops. Since the industry feeds on fear and Vought seems to have a monopoly in the production of powered persons there were no threats big enough to justify the intervention of superhumans in wars. Dismissing the importance of this monopoly for the company, Homelander suministrates the drug to terrorist groups in an attempt to create the first super villains. This is a perfect analogy of how the american war machine works. There is no way for terrorist groups from Third World countries to get access to sophisticated war technology without help from the ones who wield that power better than anyone. The first mentions of the supe terrorists reminded me of when i was in my course of worldwide history in college and i learned there how most of those famous names in middle eastern terrorism were actually friends with the CIA before at some point. Here in South America we have other history regarding the style of USA intervention, the Plan Condor dictatorships in the 70’s and early 80’s. I was just starting my career when I had a month of history classes about the Middle East and, being pretty ignorant on the matter, it shocked me the way in which the US villainized people they used to work with. I think the series makes a great point with this part of the plot because it hints something of this war mechanics. 

Gender politics of the series: a surprisingly complex approach on the topic of sexual assault ,a realistic critic to bland white feminism and the empty cashgrabbing ways in which mainstream media adapts feminist discourse.

This topic was even a bigger surprise for me. I wasn't expecting such an interesting approach of gender issues, mostly because this is the area in which media wannabe woke messages had become more dissapointing to me lately. Specially in a show about superheros, i wasn't expecting to get very interesting points.

I will start talking of the portrayals of sexual assault. We have two sexually assaulted characters in the series, Starlight and Becca. First, i think it is great that they didn't used the "rape as character development" trope. Actually, it's cool how they mock this conceptions. When Starlight saves a woman from being raped on the streets or when she makes a public statement about her sexual assault it's the people behind her, building her public image as a character, the ones who push that trope. In the first time their great character development idea is to sexualize her outfit, after the second event mentioned they literally push her sexual assault as development. I love how the public relationships team acts oftenly in a men writing women way, serving as mirror for the most common mistakes of writers on pop culture products when they write female characters.

Going back to my point, i like the effort they putted into portraying differences in both cases. Homelander is the typical portrayal of a rapist, a narcisistic monster without remorse, a deranged son of a bitch. The Deep is also a piece of shit, but of a different kind. There is a phrase that feminists of my country had popularized " los violadores son hijos sanos del patriarcado" ( it means, the rapists are healthy sons of the patriarchy. It tries to explain they are not crazy individuals who act outside societal circunstancies), the Deep reminded me of that.

He is not crazy, he is an insecure guy with a super fragile ego who abuses women for power. Insecurity on men under patriarchy tends to become bashing of women. This is not a black and white portrayal of a sex criminal, it is surprisingly complex. Of course,his actions were unexcusable. He will never repay what he did to Starlight and other women before her but he has chances of working on his issues and, eventually if he trully wants to get better, stop being the scumbag he is. He is not a deranged criminal whose only fate is to be neutralized for the safety of others.

I think this is important because, at least in my country, i had seen people using sex offenders as an example of why countries without death penalty should implement it. I don't support extreme autoritarian security measures and it makes me sick to hear that there are people claiming those as solutions in the name of women's safety. I like the approach they took to portray The Deep as the piece of shit he is but still showing the complexity of this issue instead of going for a more traditional dichotomic way.

Back to the mocking of mainstream media's attempts of adopting a feminist approach i mentioned, the season two got even better at this commentary on the "Strong Female Character" trope with the introduction of Stormfront. She is the literal embodiment of what shitty marketing says an empowered female character must be and has the biggest "I'm not like other girls" complex ever. That interaction she had with Starlight in "pink = bad, pants = cool" mood was super annoying and blaming her for the assault?? Freaking disgusting.

Honestly, i hated her soo much even before she showed her true colours completely. Stormfront represents everything i hate in Hollywood's feminism and the crappy meaningless messages it's pushing lately. She reminds me to all the fake "woke" advertisements i had seen on tv, like a Carefree (pads brand) advertisement that pissed me off last week because with the slogan " self trust is beauty" it portrayed girls who wear make up as fake and insecure.

Now, speaking of that particular scene of her killing Kimiko's brother. I felt literally sick, even sicker than in every Homelander scene. This bitch is worst than Homelander because at least he gathers a public that serves to his views. If you ever need to provide someone with a proof of why intersectionality in feminism matters use this racist bitch. Horryfying racism hidden behind the progressive mask of a bullshit privileged version of feminism, the thing i hate the most. She has a strong nazi terf vibe. I think she absolutely applies as mirror of critic to stuff like Rowling's terf nonsense. 

The introspective look this series has regarding the multiple issues on today’s attempts of gender approach on media entertainment surprised me. It’s everything i would had wished something to point out but nobody seemed to have the guts to make it happen because, as i already said, the current trend is what it’s being focus of critic here. 

I will end this now, i feel there is plenty of more stuff to talk about but this post is getting very long and, if i get more ideas i want to discuss, i can always make a second post. As i said before, this expresses my humble opinions and i’m open to hear different interpretations that can enrich my views. 

Thanks for reading this extra long ramble. 

[loudlytransparenttrash]

Controversial as it may be these days, I actually support and defend people's right to have racist, sexist, or whatever phobic thoughts as long as they don't try to hurt anyone. Just having these views don't hurt anyone but yourself. Unfortunately too many do try to impose on the ones they dislike. But for the ones that keep to themselves, I many not like your views, but I will fight to the death for you to have them cause this is America. Snowflakes may not like this but oh well.

Yeah, the quote “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” has always been a liberal mantra that has separated the United States from the rest of the world, up until now. Now with the bizarre invented crimes of “Islamophobia” and “transphobia,” and getting fired, banned and de-platformed over a joke, free speech is facing one hell of a test. What we can and can’t say is today regulated based on what part of the intersectional order we fall under. Choosing who you vote for, what you believe in and what hat you wear outside will decide whether or not you’re allowed to speak and whether you are subjected to assault and rabid mob outrage, all in the name of social harmony and justice of course... Such demonstrations express an ideology that has been growing in the academy but has only recently entered the cultural mainstream after their orthodoxy was challenged.

From the 1960s, the academic left began adding third-wave feminism, LGBT theory, the consolidation of post-colonialism, and “privilege theory,” which surfaced in the 1990s. Its greatest claims should be familiar to most of us by now, gender is socially constructed rather than based in biology, the West is uniquely despicable, racial identity rather than individual action determines guilt and responsibility and capitalism is evil. Each divides the world into oppressors and oppressed: whites versus “persons of color,” men versus women, “cisgender” versus queer, etc. To a large degree, it is a Marxist divide, but with race and gender in the place of class. Anything that strays from the script must be shut down at all costs.

An average college student at most state and leading private universities will witness displays targeting Israel, warnings of an ominous “rape culture,” and complaints of “white privilege.” Students report PTSD and require therapy dogs and Play-Doh to soothe their feelings after hearing something they don’t like. Activist students and faculty alike regularly argue that “hate speech” is the same as violence and it’s not unusual to see professors alongside their screaming hoard of students and antifa stopping conservative speakers from speaking, claiming the mere presence of an apostate is dangerous. 

Because of this sense of group victimhood, students feel justified in attempting to shut down the free exchange of ideas or retreating to safe spaces, as certain ideas could not only further harm the oppressed, but may potentially strip them of their victim status. Their unfamiliarity with operating in an environment of intellectual disagreement also makes these “social justice warriors” perceive contrary opinions as assaults on their intellectual security. The traditional rules of public discourse therefore do not apply to them. Their cause is too morally important. To allow dissenting opinion is to allow oppression itself.

A large number of college students believe that violence and shouting over a speaker is acceptable methods to prevent people from saying things. Over half of U.S. college students believe screaming over the top of a speaker to shut them down is acceptable, and one in five believe it’s acceptable to use violence to shut the speaker up, according to a national survey of students in 49 states. Today’s college students are tomorrow’s attorneys, teachers, policymakers, and judges. If a large fraction of college students believe incorrectly that offensive speech is unprotected by the First Amendment, that view will be at the center of all the decisions they make once they’re in positions of authority.

Silencing speech creates more chaos than peace. Those who dissent will resort to other means to speak out. They will protest, they will move to the other extreme or they will vote for the most outspoken leader they can find. In response, those who sought to dominate the conversation will do even more to end it, pumping out fake news, vilifying free speech advocates and refusing to present opposing views. So much of the polarization and division afflicting society today is a direct result of restricting speech. When figures in the media block certain ideas, they actually do more to validate and preserve these ideas than remove them. They validate them by granting them enough weight to merit oppressive action and preserve them by keeping them from being debunked.

Therefore, it should surprise no one that the left, which has taken to opposing free speech, has grown more extreme. Idiotic ideas like socialism meet little opposition because free market capitalism allows for winners and losers and is thus hateful. Even comedy has disappeared, as comedians only feel safe obsessing over Trump and white people. By contrast, free speech advocates, although frequently characterized as evil nationalists and unapologetic bigots, maintains integrity by its insistence on freedom. Many different positions find discussion among conservatives which allows for better policy and more constructive dialogue. Even though this dedication to free speech allows alt-right nuts to run their mouths, the strict dedication to reason and reality keeps them to the fringes. Compare it to the other side where the most far-left ideas and figures are mainstream.

It’s one thing to protest a speaker whose stance we find appalling, it’s another to work to block them from being able to speak at all. It’s one thing to choose to walk away from a discussion, it’s another to try to silence another’s voice entirely. When we choose the latter routes, we are one step closer to becoming the exact authoritarians Trump is accused of being. Free speech rights in the United States are still stronger and better protected than anywhere else in the world but we should still be closely aware of these growing attempts to weaken them. As we watch the English being arrested over insensitive tweets, Scots being sentenced and fined for memes and Norwegians imprisoned for "hate speech,” we're getting a glimpse of how fast and easy free speech can be removed and criminalized even in the most liberal democracies like ours. 

[jewish-privilege]

...Diana Clarke, 27, is a history Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh whose research focuses on Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of [Central and Eastern] European descent) in the United States and their relationship to whiteness and systems of oppression. Clarke is one of many arguing that the ideology of alleged [Tree of Life] shooter...draws on centuries of myths and stereotypes about Jewish people that continue to animate and support oppressive ideologies.

Clarke interprets the shooting through the constructs of white supremacy and anti-Semitism that “give Jews contingent access to whiteness and safety and power and then blame them for all the systemic violence in the world.”

...[The shooter] appears to have viewed the congregation’s partnership with HIAS as evidence supporting an age-old anti-Semitic myth that Jewish people have control of the world and sinister intentions to weaken or eliminate white Christians. [The shooter’s] posts on social media in the weeks preceding the shooting broadcast his fear of “white genocide” at the hands of non-white Americans and immigrants in a plot masterminded by Jews.

Explosions of anti-Semitic violence like the Tree of Life shooting can sometimes appear to come out of the blue. And many people reference only the Holocaust in Hitler’s Germany when discussing anti-Semitic violence.

But in reality, anti-Semitism functions as a system of oppression that goes beyond these violent acts. Understanding the pattern of discrimination against Jews is a crucial step toward processing the trauma of violent incidents like the one that occurred at Tree of Life.

...Ben Case, an activist and Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Pitt, has studied and written extensively on how anti-Semitism functions in relation to other systems of oppression.

“A lot of us assume that because we understand other forms of racism that anti-Semitism is kind of like that but not as bad… it’s actually just different,” he said. “Jews don’t fit well into the frameworks that we use to understand race and racism.” As a result, “we end up trying to shoehorn the Jewish experience into” existing categories like ‘white’ and ‘non-white,’ when neither is accurate. “That sort of lack of fitting in either camp is part and parcel to the way Jewish identity has developed in an anti-Semitic system.”

The nature of anti-Semitism is unique compared to other forms of oppression, such as anti-black racism, in at least two ways. According to scholars studying it, anti-Semitism functions cyclically and also by pushing Jews into an intermediate position between the ruling class and other oppressed groups.

The cyclical pattern of anti-Semitism is defined by recurring explosions of anti-Semitic violence followed by periods of perceived safety. Those safe periods allow some Jews to accrue real but limited privilege in between heightened anti-Semitic violence.

Unlike anti-Semitism, anti-black racism functions through a fixed racial hierarchy that constantly enacts physical, economic, political and spiritual violence against black people. There are no “safe periods” during which this systemic racism seems to disappear. (To be sure, some Jewish people are black and may experience both levels of prejudice.)

Some Jewish people say anti-Semitism’s cyclical pattern inflicts a state of constant low-grade anxiety.

...Dafna Bliss, a 25-year-old social worker who is Jewish and living in Squirrel Hill [explains,] “No matter how well things seem to be doing, the Jewish community never feels completely secure. There’s always this little inkling, this little seed of fear.”

In contrast to anti-black racism, which situates black people at the bottom of a fixed racial hierarchy, anti-Semitism allows Jewish people some amount of power and privilege over others.

Historian Aurora Levins Morales writes in her essay on the subject: “The whole point of anti-Semitism has been to create a vulnerable buffer group that can be bribed with some privileges into managing the exploitation of others, and then, when social pressure builds, be blamed and scapegoated, distracting those at the bottom from the crimes of those at the top.”

The dynamic of Jewish people as an intermediary between marginalized groups and the white ruling class still exists today and can be seen in the history of redlining. “Because of racist economic policies like redlining you get Jews becoming landlords in a lot of poor neighborhoods,” Case said.

...As author Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in an essay on Jews and redlining in Chicago, many Jewish property owners took this opportunity to rent to black families whose housing options were otherwise severely limited. Some Jewish landlords were kind and helpful, and others were oppressive and manipulative. Regardless of their behavior as landlords, Jewish people were only permitted to have power over black people because of the confluence of structural anti-Semitism and anti-black racism.

...Christian vilification of Jews as heretical nonbelievers and “Christ-killers” became institutionalized in European Christendom. The construction of the “Jew as enemy” trope took on a supernatural component as the medieval European Catholic Church began to teach that Jews were united with the devil in his quest to destroy Christ and Christians. To spread that message, Christians often relied on specific stereotypes and myths to illustrate Jews’ supposed spiritual corruption.

One of the most well-known negative stereotypes is that of the greedy Jew.

Jews are often seen as financially untrustworthy or “good with money,” whether that be for good or ill. Negative representations of Jewish people that emphasized greed and corruption have followed Jews throughout centuries of transcontinental migrations, making Jewish communities more vulnerable to violence.

Historians argue that anti-Jewish stereotypes like this one are the result of structural anti-Semitism. In other words, they believe anti-Semitic laws and societies created conditions that pushed Jewish people into financial work and then punished them for it.

The Catholic Church taught that money-lending was a sin and tax-collecting distasteful. Therefore, in the faith-based societies of the Middle Ages, only non-Christians were permitted to lend money or collect taxes. As a result of laws and restrictions that funneled Jews into work as money lenders and tax collectors, among other professions, Jewish communities gained financial expertise.

Later laws that barred Jews from specific professions and land ownership kept Jewish people employed in work that was undesirable to the church and ruling elites, but nevertheless essential to Christian states.

...The example of the greedy Jew stereotype shows how anti-Semitic laws pushed European Jews into the intermediate position described by Morales, where some were allowed to prosper if they managed the taxpayers on behalf of those in power. The dynamic put them in a position vulnerable to scapegoating and violence.

“Jews bec[a]me this face of capitalism,” Clarke said, and that “can create a discourse [among] more marginalized people that Jews are the ones oppressing them.”

In this situation, Clarke explained, the ruling class is “rendered invisible by the visibility of Jews,” which sets the stage for Jews to be blamed for the economic misfortune of others.

The stereotypes are often mobilized before and during periods of sustained anti-Semitic violence to blame Jewish people for the exploitation of the masses. The Third Reich, for example, disseminated vast amounts of anti-Jewish propaganda, often in educational materials for children, that emphasized anti-Semitic lies like “The God of the Jews is money.”...

[Read the entire piece at PublicSource.]

[rahmatt102-blog]

Media Representations of Ethnic Minority Males in regards to Black Males

Outline

Long before black men emigrated to various parts of Europe and America. White men already formulated certain stereotypes about them. These stereotypes have a negative effect on black men as they have come across images that portray them as violent, aggressive criminals, barbaric and lascivious individuals. Furthermore, the media has been a massive source for generating unfavourable stereotypes of black men in society, which are seen in news channels, music videos, TV shows etc. These unfavourable representations and depictions of black males have created a society in which racism is clearly evident. After the enslavement of black people, one would expect that such exaggerated and stereotypical ideologies of black men would be non-existent. Alternatively, racism still remains within society and therefore demonstrates detrimental effects. Major historical events such as slavery, have constructed the society we live in today and how we perceive it. Unfortunately, negative stereotypes from the past have flowed into the current stereotypes that exist today.

When these detrimental stereotypes are portrayed in regions where people are not exposed to many ethnic minority groups, their assumptions are negatively biased and therefore have unfavourable ramifications. For this reason, it is necessary for those who aspire to work with the media to equalise the depictions in order that young black and ethnic minority men can have a good role model to look up to, which can have a positive effect on the black and ethnic minority communities. The media representations take up a massive role in ways in which black men are being portrayed, and this in return corresponds with unlawful behaviour. There is a culturally significant issue that involves informative authority. Positive examples start within the household. Nonetheless, that does not alleviate the media’s accountability for the pessimistic effects that have been caused by stereotypes. The trouble with stereotypes is that they are unreasonably unfavourable with fewer countervails than the white audiences. Though the choices are seriously narrow, then the dividing consequences of negative stereotypes on the black community, particularly black men, therefore, become remarkably evident, and the effects it has also become more obvious. All through this blog, I will deliberate stereotypes of the past that are associated with black men and link them to those of the present moment alongside and examine doable resolutions related to it. Secondly, I will deliberate reasons as to why the media patterns are distorted and link it to ways in which the producers in the media are biased and thirdly, I will deliberate the perceptions of black men and crime within society.

Stereotypes associated with black men

To start with, within every society, every ethnic minority group has some sort of a stereotype associated with them, whether we like to accept it or not. Not every single stereotype is negative although the majority of them are. At this stage in time, a lot of individuals maintain multiple stereotypical ideologies based on specific ethnicities, social classes or genders. Stereotypes are not a flaw of understanding but are a structure of social control and individuals are either offended by them or choose to enact these stereotypes. For example, when we speak about the stereotypes that society has placed upon a certain individual/or group of people, especially black men. Black men are typically perceived as lawbreakers, uneducated, consumers of marijuana or worse case lesser human beings. Although it is statistically proven that white males are actually, in fact, more violent and engage in crimes more so than black males.  For instance, according to a survey created by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2015, black boys composed approximately 13% of the U.S. population. But in 2013 they accounted for 38% of arrests for violent crimes and nearly 30% of arrests for property crimes.

A few of the academic scholars will be used to discuss these concerns. The first scholar is Katheryn Russel Brown, an American professor, she makes reference to the stereotype as the ‘criminal black man’, due to correlation between criminality and black males have become interchangeable within society. In Katheryn’s book, The Colour of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment and Other Macroaggressions (1998), in the book she discusses that black men are usually depicted as physical threats to society. They are often condemned for all the wrong that happens. As stated by Katheryn, the ‘criminal black man’ is a fantasy and that the stereotype permits the utilisation of ‘racial fabrications’, in which she characterises as:  ‘when someone fabricates a crime and blames it on another person because of his race OR when an actual crime has been committed and the perpetrator falsely blames someone because of his race’. [Russel, 1998:69]. This quote does indeed illustrate the world we live in, not only are such labels consigned upon black men, but on the other ethnic minority groups as well.

The second scholar we will be discussing this matter with is Linda Tucker. In her book Lockstep and Dance: Images of Black Men in Popular Culture (2007) she debates that the criminal black males’ portrayal in pop culture aid to maintain the image. In her book, she makes mention that one of the remarkably compelling approaches to criminalising black males, particularly young black men is the usage of crime as an analogy for race.  Within the framework of sports, younger black males are often deemed as applicable to this sort of career. Statistics also prove that black men often excel in various kinds of sports, in comparison to white males. It is speculated that in some sort of way sports excludes black males from society. Becoming a sportsman is an opportunity for some young black males that aspire to be seen on TV as well as to demonstrate to the entire world they’re born to be sportsmen. So, to ensure that they achieve their target, they sacrifice their education in return to be outstanding in sports. Although in reality, only a few black men would consider going on to become professional sportsmen. This strategy is based on blandishment, encouragement by peers and therefore results in potentially harmful behaviour.

The criminalisation of ethnic minority men on TV is also evident when taking a look at stories based on immigration. Almost half of the Latino and black immigrant male characters are portrayed as engaging with criminal acts or illegal behaviour and almost over 40% are portrayed as being imprisoned, whilst less than 10% of male white immigrants were presented committing illegal acts [Barrios, 2012]. Nonetheless, crime has an unfavourable place within society, such depictions of black and ethnic minority males in detrimental predicaments have a massive effect on ways in which people in society can understand them. The findings suggest that the media influences racial perspectives of the viewer/observer.

When taking a look at crime TV shows during the 1960s to 1980s, the majority of characters were often depicted as victims of assaults, then were white male characters. Men from minority backgrounds were portrayed as the prime assailants of violence. At an unbalanced percentage, young black men and ethnic minority men are being portrayed as aggressive, because they are being depicted as dangerous and violent characters and with a larger amount of vicious attacks in comparison to their white counterparts [Gunter, 1998]. Therefore, this imposes that the ideology that black males and ethnic minority men are liable to aggression and criminality.

 Perceptions of black men within society

For many years the connection between crime and race in the United Kingdom and the United States has become a controversial matter. Crime is one of the publics top fears and the and the media depict it in a way it has an effect on our perspective towards the minority ethnic groups within our society. The founder of the Italian school of criminology, Cesare Lombroso, claimed that criminal behaviour was a product of biological factors which included gender and race. He formed a theory and argued, certain groups of people such as white people were more ‘civilised’ and others such as ethnic minorities specifically black people were more ‘savage’. Cesare Lombroso assumed that criminality was mainly all a demonstration of ingrained traits and that the human species could be categorised as likely to become criminals purely by observing their physical attributes. For example, slave masters from the US, associated black men with crime because their physical characteristics appeared to be ‘savage’. This ridiculous biological perspective was denounced by several scholars, which included William DuBois, Frances Kellor and Johan Sellin, who explained that various factors such as environmental, social and financial, were the main causes that resulted in the development of criminal behaviour, which is completely nothing to do with race. There is a perception that black artists and actors have a less acceptable appeal in society. The media is an influential tool that massively influences the public. The images that people are shown on TV influences their outlook and ways in which they treat other people. Even though there are some good portrayals of black and ethnic minority men on TV, most of the representations of black men are stereotypical, detrimental and derogatory. Such stereotypes of black men boost the possibility that the audience will view them stereotypically. [Ford, 1997]

In his research, “Ethnicity and involvement in violence on television; nature and context of on-screen portrayals,” which was published in the Journal of Black Studies, Gunther states, that black men have been “long portrayed in mostly low-status jobs.” Other minorities which include southern Asian and Hispanic men have been unfairly judged due to their portrayal in the media. Nonetheless, the portrayal of black males on TV is really down to the kind of show it is. [Gunter,1998]. Gunter discussed that Blacks more regularly achieved equality of status with whites in situation comedies, but in crime dramas, whites were usually more authoritative, dominant, and successful.”

On a daily basis, many people hear news from various styles of communication media. Mary Beth Oliver administered a list of studies based on the portrayal of black and ethnic minority men on TV and ways in which it correlates the public's racial attitudes which were then published in the journal of African American studies. Mary Beth Oliver found that the majority of the public use the media i.e. TV as their principal source of information. During her research, she observed that young black males and ethnic minority males were by far highly likely to be depicted in the media as unlawful or engaging in acts that are deemed as socially inadmissible. The majority of studies have shown that ethnic minority males, particularly black males are more prone to be perceived as a criminal suspect than that of a white male.  [Oliver, 2003].

 Reasons as to why media patterns are misrepresented

Taking into account the lengthy unfavourable effects for black men within society, the discussion prevails: “Why is it that the media continues to show these damaging stereotypes and images?” Racism, for the most part, is usually rebuked in the media and are still inadequately represented as positive role models in mainstream media, portrayed in negative ways, and usually granted minimal roles in fiction, non-fiction and news frameworks, and so on. Why? If the producers of tv shows or movies are to create a favourable impact on people’s life’s, they must be able to confront the source of the issue. A sizeable sum of scholars presented opinions which were based on the occasional elements that may have assisted to the misrepresentations. Comprehending the roots underlying these stereotypes is a vital point towards tackling them, contrary to arguing with them more adequately. The biggest undeniable element is that the individuals culpable for the subject matter are intentionally exhibiting a falsified, prejudiced perspective. This is, without doubt, a historical fact, the media for the most part have not been considerate to black males, all through history, black boys, men and teenagers have by far too often portrayed as clown-like individuals, convicts, gang member/leaders, drug dealers or concupiscent animalistic sort of species who desire white women. That being said that adopted a form in society to uphold a second class, mediocre rank for black people, which dates from slavery all the way through to the twentieth century.  [Diuguid & Rivers, 2000]. Many scholars have stated that there are various reasons as to why the media portrayals may be misrepresented or prejudiced, despite the lack of attentiveness and the spiteful objective on the media’s content producer’s behalf.

There are some contexts, in which scholars have stated that the misrepresented depictions of black men, boys and teenagers is actually down to the viewer's preferences. Studies suggest that a large number of white audiences, as specified by one viewpoint, are likely to be more convenient with a specific variety of stereotypical images of black males, for instance, these portrayals may corroborate their personal concerns and suspicions or rather assure them that black males are lacking influence and leadership. So how does one develop a brand to a crowd (mainly white audience) prepared to pay only to view bogus misrepresentations of black males? [Tucker, 2007] [Guerrero, 1993]. Not so much direct but possibly evenly detrimental, the constraints to captivate the crowd to a primary emphasis on crime and other eye-catching subjects, that “appear to be” related with black men. These findings (based on report figures) shouldn’t really startle us, given the amount of funding that goes these outstanding stories particularly crimes that involve violence. Many of the broadcast stations profit financially and the stations require huge ratings, in order to make more sales i.e. advertisements. The majority of violent crime stories covered in the news generally consist of ethnic minority groups, specifically black men, boys or teenagers. [Kang, 2005, pp. 1550-1551]

If those responsible for producing media content are correct about what their audiences are engrossed in, the scholars propose that in various cases representations of black men are inadequate and misinterpreted because the media content producers already have an inaccurate presumption about what kind of content appeals to the audience. For example, those responsible for developing video games are likely to build a game that embodies stereotypes of the characters as younger white males, instead of the exact market statistics, that consists of a substantial proportion of black teenagers and men. A possible explanation for the portrayal patterns in the well-known video game is due to a consolidation of developer demographics, for instance, the gamer developers build players that are similar to themselves and anticipated beliefs about the game characters (e.g. gamer developers build players that exemplifies their imagined audience). [Williams et al., 2009, pp. 830-831]

An obvious and persuasive assumption about the inadequate media portrayals regards the absence of black individuals’ remarks – in distinct patterns- towards the content production. This absence of portrayals consists of, for example, a shortage of African/Caribbean TV station ownership, and an inadequate stake for black journalists, experts and producers encouraged to provide content. Possibly the greatest crucial requirement to accomplishing the ideal broadcaster is having trustworthy, authentic and credible sources contending to better narrations… competing with exclusive organisations trying to appoint various outline on the report of a subject. [Entman & Gross, 2008, p. 95] A knight foundation report demonstrates ethnic minorities and women are inadequately represented in the job roles as an editor, journalist and publishers. Although there are many companies that have been successful at bringing a variety of people for different backgrounds into the workplace, the mass media has indeed fallen behind. Demographics in 2002 reveal that more than ninety percent of journalists were white. [Lehrman, 2005]. Scholars have made mention that media content producers can gain some points, for instance, when they advocate acrimony about discussing issues that involve racial prejudice. [Herman & Chomsky, 1988]

The primary function of the media is to sell stories, either through news reporting, made-up, video games, music videos, narrations, amusement and documentaries. The patterns of misrepresentation and misjudgement examined until now is the matter that a lot of vital amplitudes of black men stories are generally untold in the media – especially ways in which the lifestyles of black teenagers and men have been troubled emotionally by greater circumstances, which includes ethnic minority financial hardship, endurance of racism and isolation from the social organisations that assist with creating more opportunity and resources. [Eschholz et al., 2002]. In a nutshell, as the media presents it, the struggling black men are simply assumed to be completely accountable for their own problems in life.  Not being aware of these bigger stories that affect black men within society, an individual is left to think that black males are culturally prone towards committing crime, broken families and underachieving.

 Conclusion

It is true that stereotypes cause a momentous number of destruction to members of the African/Caribbean community. When individuals have minimal interactions with people who are not of the same ethnicity, religion or culture as themselves this feeling is intensified. Even though the civil rights movement made great improvements, its condemned racism. This did not assist individuals to develop as people but instead inhibits understanding of what racism is and what it involves. This involves accountability in society and personal contexts. The media must be held responsible, and black men must try to continue to create black role models that will in turn help to neutralise unfavourable stereotypes within the media. This blog primary function was to discuss the correlation between criminality and ethnicity, specifically with black men. The notoriety of black men has been distinguished by assumptions about susceptibility towards crime which can be dated back to the enslavement of African people in the US and in various parts of Europe. In this blog, I have demonstrated the current perceptions of a young black male criminal has been the consequence of distinctive perceptions of crime. Black men do make up for an unreasonable number of crimes and are unjustly over-represented within the prison system. Lastly, it is worthless that people may actually believe these outrageous stereotypes because, in reality, they are utter misrepresentations of reality. Not being aware of the prejudiced attitudes content producers of media may knowingly or unknowingly presume that individuals that come from broken homes or that are struggling financially are of ethnic minorities or black people. Bias against black men is inadequate to secluded acts of racism, and so on.

   References

·         The Color of Crime: Racial Hoaxes, White Fear, Black Protectionism, Police Harassment and Other Macroaggressions is a 1998 book by American academic Katheryn Russell-Brown, (2008).

·         Tucker, l. (2007). Lockstep and Dance: Images of Black Men in Popular Culture (2007).

·         Barrios, M.I., Ortega Moheadano, F. (2012). Analysis of the Image of Immigration in Prime-Time Television Fiction. Communication & Society 25(2), 7-28.

·         Gunter, Barrie Ethnicity and involvement in violence on television; nature and context of on-screen portrayals. Journal of Black Studies v28, n6 (July, 1998):683, 21

·         Lombroso, G. and Lombroso, C. (2011). Criminal man. Minneapolis, MN: Filiquarian Publishing.

·         DuBois, W., Gates, H. and Moses, W. (2007). Black folk. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

·         Kellor, F. (1901). Experimental sociology. Descriptive and analytical. New York: The Macmillan company; London, Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

·         Sellin, J. (1976). Slavery and the penal system. New York: Elsevier.

·         Ford, T. (1997). Effects of Stereotypical Television Portrayals of African Americans On Person Perception. Social Psychology Quarterly, 60(3), 266-275.

·         Gunter, Barrie Ethnicity and involvement in violence on television; nature and context of on-screen portrayals. Journal of Black Studies v28, n6 (July, 1998):683, 21

·         Oliver, M. (2003). African American Men as “Criminal and Dangerous”: Implications of Media Portrayals of Crime on the “Criminalization” of African American Men. Journal of African American Studies, 7(2), 3-18. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41819017

·         Diuguid, L., & Rivers, A. (2000). The Media and the Black Response. The Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science, 569 (1), 120-134.

·         Tucker, L. (2007). Lockstep and Dance: Images of Black Men in Popular Culture. University Press of Mississippi.

·         Guerrero, E. (1993). Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

·         Kang, J. (2005). Trojan Horses of Race. Harvard Law Review, 118, 1489-1593.

·         Williams, D., Martins, N., Consalvo, M., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). The Virtual Census: Representations of Gender, Race and Age in Video Games. New Media Society, 11 (5), 815-834.

·         Entman, R. M., & Gross, K. A. (2008). Race to Judgement: Stereotyping Media and Criminal Defendants. Law and Contemporary Problems, 71 (93), 94-133.

·         Lehrman, S. (2005). News in a New America. Miami: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

·         Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing Consent. New York, New York: Pantheon.

·         Eschholz, S., Bufkin, J., & Long, J. (2002). Symbolic Reality Bites: Women and Racial/Ethnic Minorities in Modern Film. Sociological Spectrum, 22, 299-334.

[fandomcolourofmyskin]

R&R: Race-based Reminders

by @naruhearts || Jan 24 2018

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Today is a good day to lay down some key points:

1. White/white-identifying individuals must realize that they CANNOT speak for all POC, including their own POC friends. POC may be intersectionally and systematically oppressed and ostracized as a collective in white-constructed Western society, but differing ethnic minority groups possess differing experiences. It is racially inappropriate for white people to tell certain POC what is or isn’t offensive, since each varied POC experience is not painted with broad strokes; they aren’t the same.

What a white individual may perceive as offensive/non-offensive does NOT hold the same meanings and connotations for a POC.

2. Just because something is ‘fact’ doesn’t discount how POC interpret it and consume it. White people might correct POC who point out something in a TV show, take offense to it, and thus discuss it or make jokes about it. White viewers might be argumentative with POC viewers and claim that: “the characters aren’t racist! I’m pointing out the facts! Nothing indicates they’re racist and there’s no substantial basis for your accusations! The writers didn’t mean for it to be racist!”

“The writers didn’t mean for it to be racist” —> tries to push subconscious white supremacy under the rug, exempt white people from race-based responsibility and accountability, and make the POC reality invisible; I will talk about this more in the future, but white writers do not have to have CONSCIOUS AUTHORIAL INTENT in order to write something that is interpreted as potentially racist. White-painted historical narratives influence a white person’s behaviour and by socialized design, they can incorporate racism into ANYTHING they do, subconscious or not (due to internalization of white dominance).

Don’t be defensive. Media consumption by white people is entirely DISTINCT from media consumption by People of Colour.

Again, a white person CANNOT establish an objective view for POC, especially when it comes to societal mediums like media. If they think that TV show characters can be racist or if they think something in the literary narrative(s) potentially comes across as racist, they are 100% entitled to this belief (this is elaborated upon in later points). Refrain from overall defensiveness and LISTEN to POC. After all, POC are oppressed; white people are not.

***Please do NOT tell POC that they are “fake woke” if you aren’t POC yourself, even if you personally disagree with anything they said or did. This is a form of racial bullying.

3. Other POC groups lack the authority to exercise the N-word if they do not belong to the Black community. The N-word exists within the Black sociocultural context and is attached to historically unjust/oppressive narratives, policy development, and legal/institutional action against Black POC. It isn’t the business of other POC groups to contribute opinions about a Black person’s racism jokes or how they choose to perceive racism, just like it isn’t a Black POC’s business to contribute adjacent opinions about racism jokes or perceptions of racism of Chinese POC, Filipino POC etc.

***As a Filipina POC, I will never, for example, disclose or enforce an opinion about c***k jokes being thrown around by Chinese POC. Their respective racial space stays untouched.

4. The dimension of colourism —> very real. Light-skinned privilege is pervasive and underpins white privilege within the sociocultural Western context, where light-skinned individuals are either considered “not POC enough” or “not white enough”. If a dark-skinned POC states that other light-skinned POC are “not POC enough”, it is NOT a white person’s business to defend their light-skinned POC friend(s) without allowing or inviting those friends to speak (this is addressed in the following point).

5. A white person is entitled to their opinion - and yes, they are certainly entitled to defend their POC friend(s) - but their opinion ultimately does NOT matter nor does it hold importance because the racial discussion occurring between POCs excludes them in the first place. White people cannot relate (nor do they belong) within the underprivileged racial context in that POC lack systemic and institutional power/influence when it comes to their opinions, henceforth it’s NOT a priority for the white person’s opinion to be heard; it is more racially appropriate for white people to withhold such opinions and instead let the debate between POCs continue uninterrupted. People of Colour experience enough interruption and talking over by the predominantly White sphere of North American society.

The following excerpt from USA TODAY OPINION is highly applicable to whiteness and race-based discourse:

“Most people think of the Ku Klux Klan when they hear “white supremacy.” But the term just means that whiteness is the supreme value, which in the news media it is. As feminist writer Anushay Hossain noted to me, “Just the fact that Megyn Kelly feels she can have a conversation about race on television with three white people is the definition of white privilege.” Before anything offensive was said, there was already a problem” (Powers, 2018)

6. Do not put in argumentative or defensive interjections if POC/BIPOC (Black/Indigenous POC) attempt to address your racist actions, especially ones that are “invisible” to you and thus “can’t be racist behaviour” (aka white fragility). Trust the word(s) of POC/BIPOC people. We witness racism everyday as ethnic minority-labelled groups and can hence distinguish underlying racist patterns easily, from the obvious to the nuanced. We think of ourselves in racial terms and are able to describe how our lives are shaped by our race within, again, Whiteness-governed society; white people cannot do these things (fail to think of themselves in racial terms as a larger group; fail to describe how their own lives are shaped by their race) since they hold the (unearned) privilege to walk through life unaffected by social, cultural, and political systems that A. benefit white people, and B. disadvantage People of Colour (aka white privilege).

7. Another point: do not tokenize your POC friends. Saying that you cannot be racist “because you have POC friends” reduces your POC friends to nothing but caricatures who elevate your social status and erase your accountability and complicity. Racism does not manifest ONLY through obvious external attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours, but through internal attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours. Racism exists via subconscious systemic forces (i.e. social media) that permeate society in numerous ways.

In other words, racism is a multifaceted subconscious/conscious structure, “not an event” (DiAngelo, 2018).

8. Some common white myths: “a. I don’t see colour” b. “Focusing on race divides us” c. “It’s about class, not race” —> Firstly, saying one doesn’t see colour perpetuates erasure of the POC experience/reality. Secondly, race already divides us. Thirdly, we CANNOT talk about other systemic forces like socioeconomic class without addressing race. Race is inherently interweaved into other structural dimensions. It’s why BIPOC/POC are paid less than white employees/unequally treated in terms of job capability, struggle to find jobs, are unable to afford three-story suburban houses, and can never seem to find favour no matter how hard we work.

Here we go into the issue of legal structures —> Black people in the U.S., for example, were historically barred from purchasing land, investing their money, and seeking permanent lodging. In 1960s Canada, Indigenous POC were plucked from their homes, abused in residential schools, lost their land, and could not gain Canadian rights and citizenship unless they renounced their Aboriginal identity; the Canadian Chinese Immigrant Act of 1885 implemented the Chinese Head Tax to discourage Chinese POC from entering Canada after the Canadian Pacific Railway was created. Overall, POC were confined to financial poverty/kept from flourishing financially. Filipino immigrants in Canada, for example, tend to move into low-wage backdoor jobs involving the transfer of labour from white people to POC people e.g. nannies, factory workers, and foodservice (these include my Filipino relatives in these jobs), while white individuals tend to take up jobs of higher public status e.g. delegation, policy-making (Gibb & Wittman, 2012). In a predominantly white-privileged society, the BIPOC/POC financial reality lags.

***It’s not about “working hard to get to the top” — it’s about “working hard to eliminate racism that hinders us from getting to the top and staying there.” We will always be five steps behind white people today (who, underneath an individualistic ideology, think financial merit can be earned if one works hard enough regardless of race —> again this perpetuates the erasure of POC realities and ignores the POC financial hardship experience + systemic racist forces at play. We do not live in a meritocracy, but in a racial hierarchy). Historical racism is the reason for it.

9. Finally: appropriate language.

Refrain from using derogatory racial terms such as “coloured” and corresponding rhetoric when referring to People of Colour.

If you intend to be a non-BIPOC/non-POC ally, please expand your horizons on appropriate race-based term usage when engaging in racial discourse. Continuous education with POC is key!

[brynnmorgan-reflection-blog]

Module 11: Claiming Style 

Within this chapter, twenty-eight, it is highlighting the politics of Latina self-styling, fashion, and the increase of representation of Latinx individuals through the media. Latina style has changed fashion trends while reaching for recognition trying to emerge from socio-cultural forces that connect to the stigma of Latina sexuality and the neoliberal marketing of racialized Latina excess. Fashion is a way to express one-self as well as identity while revealing shared ethical-racial conflict, social class barriers, gender limitations, and overall a symbol of cultural meaning. This chapter continues to discuss the style of, racialized rasquache raunch, where Latinas are re-constructing the stigma towards queerly feminine representations. Instead of an “exotic” style, racialized rasuache raunch gestures to a working-class style with vivid colors, and vernacular forms while promoting a non-white racial identity. Further, this author shared stories that focus on how her mother embodied Latina rasquache style throughout the years and when her mother would take her to shop for clothes, they went to stores owned by non-English speaking Asian immigrants and the customers were working-class Latinas. How she would also shop at her neighbors, Nena’s, whom represented the art of underground Latina styling practices which eventually became irrelevant with no recognition due to mega chain stores. These consumers are benefiting from Latina women’s style while these women are  surrounded by racialized embodiments and stereotyped as sexually exotic and criminally-minded due to their styles that non-Latinas began to benefit from. Overall, this chapter shows how Latinas are reclaiming their style by using self-styling practices to manipulate their ‘exotic’ racialized gender identities and construct new alternative representations. 

What I found most interesting within this chapter is the Latina fashion line at Sears, Latina Life, that targeted Latinx customers. Where Stacy Macias, was surprised to find out that this line obscured any norms that attempted to prescribe an ideal wearer, and was accepting to ample body type while catering to the Latina demographic that would come to patronize the fashion line. This was intriguing to read about because Sears efforts to appeal to a larger Latina audience actually accentuated rather than steering away from the sexual and racialized allure look. They thought they were distancing themselves from this stigma, but in reality, Sears focus to create a calmer professional look re-inscribed the racializing factors of Latina femininity. Before reading this chapter, I was unaware of the impact this fashion line had on the Latinx community and would have thought that Sears was creating something empowering, but really still racialized Latina meaning of femininity. But with this, Sears unintentional gave Latinas the opportunity to display their racialized rasquache raunch style. Continuing, this chapter connects to fashion where it instantly made me think of amazing models today that represent the true meaning of Latina self-styling practices while fighting to reclaim their own style and the stigmas within the fashion industry. Where all Latina models are beautiful and empowering, but on a personal level I admire Christina Mendez.

Christina Mendez is a New York City based, plus-size model that challenges the stigma around what a women bodies 'should' look like while identifying as Dominican. You can see her on magazines, fashion campaigns, and runways where she continues to change the modeling industries stereotypes and beauty standards.

[totallyinnerperfection]

Gilet Jaunes: Digital literacy and social movements in question

Digital technology is constantly evolving. Every day brings a lot of changes. Does the digital promote citizen action or does its use have little impact on the commitment to serve the common good? The new generations would be able to intuitively use the tools of the Web, which are claimed to be “digital natives”.

 Every generation has a million faces and so many voices. On the one hand, such “digital natives” have their special model to expressing their voices. They have the essential access and the ability to create media for self-expression on the social media platform. Digital media enables digital natives an alternative form of social movement participation (Hargittai, 2009). In this blog, I would like to design them as “participatory audience”. Evidently, the development of social media and digital technology does effectively provide tools for audiences to engage themselves into social movements such as Gilets Jaunes[1] (Yellow Vest). This is a good example to better illustrate the concept of digital literacy and audience’s social participation with social media. The concept of “participatory audience” is raised by British scholar Livingston, under the context of media converge and diverge (Livingston, 2013). Even the social reality is mediated by the emergence of new media platforms. “Digital natives” have the access and the ability to create social media platforms for self-expression during the process of social movements, which is just the case of Gilets Jaunes.

 The movement of Gilets Jaunes across several months in France is initiated and organised on social media platform. During this process, digital natives and audiences become participants of the social movements. They could directly intervene and influence the development of the event. They could express their demands and appeals, forcing the government to respond and to react. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms are frontlines of the movements. It is evident that the whole movement is originated from online appeal, at the same time, it is organised across the social network. Digital natives and audiences become the creator of online contents in terms of the events, messages, videos or topics (Napoli, 2011). The use of hashtag such as #GiletsJaunes symbolise people’s engagement into the social movement across the online platform. People try to use the #GiletsJaunes to collect people with the same appeals and the same purpose into the social movement.

 Figure1. The Hashtag #GiletsJaunes of Twitter (Source: Twitter)

 This online tool is provided by the development of digital media, which is supposed to be mastered people in this movement, demonstrating their level of digital literacy. The more participants joining the same hashtag, the easier it is become a prevailing and hot topic. More people would be attracted into the movement and the discussion, accelerating the process of the collective activity. I assume that the participation of Gilets Jaunes into the social movement is mediated, which is an alternative approach to engage in democracy (Hargittai, 2002).  

 Reflecting this issue through the perspective of digital literacy. By definition, digital literacy refers to the process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology (Ribble and Bailey, 2007). This blog assumes that the Gilets Jaunes in this movements are digital natives with digital literacy, because they have essential features of “digital literacy”. Apart from the essential access to online platforms and creating online contents with hashtags and technical tools, these digital natives also knows well internal logics of social media platform. They engage themselves into social media culture and operate within the cultural structure (Justenhoven, 2017). The digital natives know well operation logics of the online environment, such as the dissemination of information through social media, the editing and publication of contents, the sharing of information. Gilets Jaunes know well the different function of social media platforms. For example, different from the hashtag on Twitter, they establish online groups and tagging function on Facebook. People could join the group and engage in the collective social movements with tagging and sharing. Digital natives are familiar with the purposes of various online tools and how they are different or similar to each other (Justenhoven, 2017).

Figure 2. Gilets Jaunes group on Facebook (Source: Facebook)

 Compared to Facebook and Twitter, Gilets Jaunes use less of YouTube and Instagram in the social movement organisation, showing their digital literacy and capacity of using online tools. People organised an online “imagined community” and the movement goes from online to offline spaces. Different from Justenhoven’s online community, I prefer to consider it as a developing process, without the constraints of time and space. There is “fluidity”, “complexity” and “uncertainty” behind the online and offline activities. There is inherent links between digital literacy and the organisation of social movement. This is also what Justenhoven mentioned as “civic” function of digital literacy, where people participate in social movement of democratic process online. People join a larger movement through media organisation which is larger than themselves. In the social movement and democratic appeals of Gilets Jaunes, the digital literacy becomes an indispensable factor to determine the cause. On the other hand, the media literacy also influences people’s construction of the social movements without breaching the limits of laws.

 However, I cast doubt on the increasing digital literacy. It should be noted that Facebook and Twitter are not absolute neutral. Apart from the above seemingly positive progress of “citizen participation”, I intend to raise another question about the digital literacy, its opposite side, the digital illiteracy. People are not born with digital literacy. Apart from the “digital natives”, a large number of people are digital immigrants, who do not belong to the net generation. For this group of people, there is a gap or transition between traditional and new media. People acquire the knowledge of digital media, making them in favour of a simple unlimited access to the Internet.

 Here, I intend to raise the concept of digital illiteracy. The term “illiteracy” is necessarily essentializing in its diversity, to observe and question it on itself. Did the media and other think thanks listen to all the French youths before stating that today’s teenager is a “digital native”? I recognise that most young students are disconcerted by instructions as simple as open a browser, I have serious doubts on the fact that the handling of digital tools is, at home, an innate competence. There is gap of digital literacy between generations and between different social classes. As mentioned by Schradie (2018), when journalists and social movements organisers rely on social networks, it is in itself a form of social exclusion. They favour people who have the time, resources and skills to be online frequently and those who understand how algorithms work (Hargittai, 2009). The Internet has not become this magical place where social stratification evaporates, because social class is the most important demographic element in the production of online content.

 I would like to pose the following questions: the movement of #GiletsJaunes is it a social exclusion to people of “digital illiteracy? Are those who are disconnected and who have no access to online resource excluded from democratic movements and citizenship? Those who are disconnected and those who are still convinced that they can exercise one’s citizenship away from artificial screens and intelligences are considered as “numerical illiteracy” in the digital media era. Every social change that takes root on digital lands and spreads in real life reminds them of the sad defeat of their thought. Today, refusing to participate in the reproduction of content on the social media platform seems to get away from the real world. New York Times would consult reactions on twitter to assess their quality of subjects and articles. As people we shape an increasingly connected world in which digital exclusion leaves “numerical illiteracy” on the edge of the path. People who are defined as “numerical illiteracy” are condemned to be “invisible” or “inaudible” in the GiletsJaunes movements. This is a whole cohort of fragile population in the digital world, who are condemned to be “digital immigrants”. This has become an obstacle of participating in democratic. Therefore, there is observed inequalities on the digital media usage.

 In the end, another critical and pessimist perspective could enhance our understanding of digital literacy with the social framework. Fundamentally, the social class frames the competence and usage of digital tools. And behind this observation, we could introduce the approach of Bourdieu, which elaborates how power relations and reproductions of social inequalities are actually at the centre of digital tools. People’s social status builds and constructs their way of being and behaviour vis-à-vis the use of the Internet and new media (Schradie, 2018). I assume that social class are not soluble with the digital literacy. That is, the digital literacy could not totally reverse the existed social class order. Most of the participants in the movement of #GiletsJaunes are from unprivileged social class appealing for rights. Some of the contents by Giletsjaunes are not of high-quality, which would have negative social impacts.

 In the public discourse, responsible digital citizen should enhance their numerical literacy when it comes to the participation and engagement of social movements. Civic participation is one central goal of numerical literacy. Through the analysis of #GiletJaunes across online media, I expect a more regulated online democratic participation. Digital literacy also involves the skill of analysis, questioning, evaluate the online content, distinguishing credible sources, etc. These are essential to effectively use the online tools and promote the democratic process.

[1] Here we prefer to use the original name of the movement.

[acsversace-news]

Rating: 9.3 Darren Criss: 10 Writing: 10 Direction: 8

American Crime Story Season 2 boasts a star-making performance from Darren Criss.

American Crime Story could be titled American Dream Story. The country’s national myth, dating back more or less to the Declaration of Independence, is a paean to individualism in a fiercely competitive world, to equality of opportunity, that living well is theoretically available to all. Today, the American Dream is really about the pursuit of celebrity, notoriety, money, sex and power.

In both seasons to date, exploring the OJ Simpson trial and Andrew Cunanan’s killing spree, Ryan Murphy’s series gives us the American Dream turned to ashes. OJ Simpson’s entitlement became warped by accruement of wealth and fame. Cunanan’s was instilled in him almost from birth, his existence of lies constructed around make-believe riches, and fame is very much what he wanted. While tackling different themes – Season 1 is about race and Season 2 is focused on homophobia – both American Crime Story entries to date dovetail perfectly, because each represent specific 1990s real-crime sensations that changed the country’s approach to sensationalist, rolling content, the very type Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994) keenly satirised. OJ Simpson’s trial cynically piggybacked on discussions about race relations in Los Angeles and social justice in America, while Cunanan’s crimes shone on a light on homophobic attitudes in society at all levels. The stories are national tragedies atop personal tragedies, reflecting uncomfortable facts and provoking soul-searching questions, yet simultaneously feeding our demand for juicy stories with monstrous men at the fore.

Class has emerged as a major ingredient in American Crime Story, too. From the projects of San Francisco, Simpson journeyed to the refined world of Brentwood, LA. He earned his way to the top by being genuinely gifted as an athlete, becoming a star and personality off the back of his footballing achievements. Behind the sunny persona and bonhomie, however, Simpson (aka. The Juice) was a man crippled by jealousies and slights, both real and imagined. He was a guy who thought he was so unique, so different, he had transcended his African-American roots. He once exclaimed in all seriousness: “I’m not black, I’m OJ.”

As counterpoint to Simpson’s rags-to-riches tale, Andrew Cunanan went to a private school, lived well enough, until his father’s fraudulent career as a conman was exposed, and his special talent was for BS. Handsome, funny, well read, Cunanan turned into a pathological liar. Even when people knew he was talking crap, he did it in such charming fashion, so amusingly, friends forgave him or brushed it off as just one of his quirky insecurities. All the while, Cunanan was edging further and further towards murderous schemes. Cunanan, as depicted in The Assassination of Gianni Versace, is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great pretender, Jay Gatsby, crossed with American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman. He’s like a great white shark prowling San Diego and San Francisco, posing as a harmless Nemo. He dreamed of living in the lap of luxury, but he didn’t want to work for it. Fortitude and hard graft were alien to him. Cunanan’s life disappointments eventually manifested as an obsessive fixation on Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace, who journeyed from relatively humble origins in a dirt-poor region of Italy (Calabria) to international superstardom.

Season 2 is a more intimate and experimentally plotted affair than its predecessor. American Crime Story creator Ryan Murphy and collaborator Tom Rob Smith used Maureen Orth’s investigative non-fiction book, Vulgar Favours (1998), as the text off which to springboard. Across nine episodes, we get Versace and Cunanan’s life stories played out on screen. But, like in an experimental film, it is plotted unexpectedly. There has been criticism of the show’s narrative structuring (chiefly: the plot is unnecessarily convoluted), yet it moves well and demonstrates how daring television is becoming, how it can borrow from cinema and literature to tell a captivating story out of chronological order and do so with fine results.

At the heart of The Assassination of Gianni Versace is a triumphant performance by Darren Criss. In snobbier times, critics might well have declared it ‘too good for television’, but in a veritable golden age of small screen entertainment, any such critique is a bust. As Cunanan, Criss delivers a magnetic and layered portrait of a psychopath far away from dog-tired movie clichés. Cunanan was a mercurial personality, jocular and kind or a moody, preening, spoilt brat at the flip of a mental switch. He breathlessly lied and stuck steadfastly to his made-up nonsense, as if by force of will he could change reality and manifest his fibs into being. The genius in the acting comes from Criss’s ability to make ‘Andy’ not only likeable, but in making us feel sympathy for a devil. It shouldn’t be transgressive to acknowledge monsters can love; it’s just they love monstrously, selfishly and destructively. The final couple of episodes are especially heart-wrenching. What Criss does so well is craft a performance based on a very complicated person and allows such complexity full rein before our eyes. The effect is astonishing.

Criss dominates proceedings so totally that it’s easy forget the cast includes Édgar Ramirez as Gianni Versace and Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace. The script poignantly documents two people almost aloof from everyday reality, as well as a brother-and-sister dynamic made of love and fiery rivalry, of two artists sometimes forgetting they’re related, because the empire they’ve built is much bigger than either of them. Donatella emerged from under her brother’s shadow in the worst circumstances, and their interactions are peppered with a sense of competitiveness, the older brother telling his little sister to up her game, stop thinking so commercially and take more chances artistically. It doesn’t matter Cruz and Ramirez are Spanish-accented actors playing Calabrese, especially when the former gets Donatella’s distinct mumble down to a T. Presenting the pair as virtual demigods among mere mortals cleverly taps into our febrile celebrity culture and Cunanan’s own obsession with Gianni Versace and a world dripping with gaudy riches. Ramirez has the aura of a doomed saint, while Cruz’s Donatella is granite-hard, refusing to appear vulnerable, although she’s deeply wounded by her brother’s murder.

One of Season 2’s most powerful aspects is the examination of institutional homophobia (in police departments, the FBI, the media and the military). The Matt Bomer-directed episode (Ep 5 – Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) is set against the backdrop of the US army’s policy to portray the hideous experiences of Jeff Trail (Finn Wittrock), a former navy officer and one of Cunanan’s victims. But it’s also embedded in little scenes – a cop’s embarrassment of questioning Versace’s partner, Antonio (played by Ricky Martin), and clumsily insinuating the fashion designer was murdered because of his lifestyle choices. Another police officer wisecracks to a colleague she got the case to hunt down Cunanan because she’s a lesbian (inferring she can understand gay people). In its presentation of a world lacking all empathy towards the murder victims and their families, while the news coverage feasts on every scrap of info it can dig up, American Crime Story stings with horror and truth.

Both seasons make for essential viewing, with The Assassination of Gianni Versace taking the show into masterpiece territory. John Travolta’s comeback role as Robert Shapiro reminded us all a guy who has spent a decade or so coasting in a range of B-movies still could deliver the goods. Darren Criss, best known as a Glee cast member, presents the shock of the new. His powerhouse performance is unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry.

[forest-of-stories]

The “Evolution” of a Problematic Shipper

[I’ve been working on this lengthy post, which is about my early adventures in X-Men: Evolution fanfiction, for a very long time.  So, here it is, friends.  Please note a content warning for some discussion of abuse, mostly in fiction.  Also, my individual recollections are my own, and extremely subjective; others might remember the fandom differently than I do.]

Quite a few years ago, I wrote about how X-Men: Evolution was “the first fandom in which I participated heavily: watching the show as it aired, obsessing with other fans about the stories and relationships within, and writing reams and reams of (mostly very bad) fic.”  I still think that this is somewhat true; XME certainly inspired me to do all of those things more publicly and enthusiastically than I ever had before, especially where my One True Pairing was concerned.

For those who don’t know, X-Men: Evolution, which ran from 2000 to 2003, was essentially an animated High School AU of the X-Men comics in which our heroes lived and trained at the Xavier Institute but attended classes at their local high school.  For the first couple of seasons, mutants weren’t public knowledge as they are in the comics or movies, so a few characters used their powers for the first time without understanding what was going on.

The second episode, “The X-Impulse,” introduced viewers to (this world’s version of) Kitty Pryde, a lonely, sheltered fifteen-year-old who was terrified of her newly awakened ability to walk through walls, and to Lance Alvers, a juvenile delinquent whose own powers caused him to make awkward faces and terrible puns (and also earthquakes, I guess).  When they met, Lance seemed happy and excited to meet someone else with super-powers, but he quickly developed a plan to manipulate Kitty into helping him in his criminal shenanigans.  He presented himself as helpful and supportive, gained her trust, and, when she refused him help him, became aggressive and violent toward her and her family.  The episode ended with Kitty recruited by the X-Men and Lance joining the bad guys, and the two of them spent the rest of the season as enemies.

Watching this episode for the first time as a teenager, I knew that Lance’s behavior toward Kitty was wrong and abusive.  And yet, there was something about their early interactions that captured my imagination.  Maybe it was the fact that, whatever else might have happened, he was the first person to show her how to find confidence and joy in her powers.  Maybe it was the hug that they shared, or his line, “Once you own it, nothing can own you,” or the possibility, thwarted though it might have been, that they could have formed an understanding despite very different backgrounds and attitudes.  I liked forbidden romances, and I liked flipping the script to make unquestioned heroes seem villainous and villains seem sympathetic, and I liked when characters rebelled against controlling authority figures and communities, which is how I reimagined the X-Men when I first started writing about them.  I’m not saying that I explored any of those ideas well, but they were what started me writing: at first in collaboration with a friend from summer camp, who still deserves a lot of the credit, and then on my own.  I posted my solo stories on Fanfiction.net, where this fandom would enjoy some remarkable popularity that I’m not sure has ever transferred to any other platform.

I wrote about Lance infiltrating the X-Men (with psychic shields in place), and having to choose between his original mission and his romance with Kitty, whose own commitment to her team and its mission was starting to waver.  I wrote about her trying to figure out her identity beyond her friends’ expectations of her, even as Lance tried to be a better and less destructive person.  I wrote about Charles Xavier mind-controlling Kitty into dismissing Lance and falling back into unquestioning loyalty, giving way to several well-received sequels in which some of the characters tried to free themselves and each other from Xavier’s telepathic chokehold.  I wrote without much direction or concern for established continuity and characterization, and assumed the whole time that the show would never explore what I saw as the unrecognized potential of my OTP.  When canon actually went there, I was as surprised as anybody.

--

After Lance had spent the entire premiere of Season 2, “Growing Pains,” acting like a complete jerk to Kitty and her friends, his destructiveness endangered her life, and he saved her.  They became romantically involved soon afterward, and he became noticeably less of a jerk toward her and slightly less of a jerk toward others.  The series of fics that I was working on had decisively departed from continuity by this point, but I still incorporated elements of the season premiere into the installment that I was posting at the time.  And my fellow Lance/Kitty shippers, believing that canon had vindicated us, were transported with joy.  

If XME were popular today, I believe that there would be a lot more pushback against Lance/Kitty, in both good and bad ways.  Even at the time, the pairing was not universally beloved.  There were probably those who thought that its dysfunctional beginnings outweighed any potential for functionality or sweetness, and there were definitely those who thought that both characters would be better off with someone else.  It’s tempting to rewrite history with claims that “in my day, we shipped and let ship,” and it’s true that yesterday’s shipping conflicts didn’t use all of the same weapons that today’s do, but the fandom was still full of snarky, self-important brats who, no matter which side of any given argument we were on, believed that only we understood these characters and this world.

I say “we,” because I was not exempt from these behaviors.  I’ve sometimes thought that participation in this fandom brought out some of my worst habits.  But a lot of positive things came out of it as well.  It gave me the inspiration and confidence to write more prolifically than I ever had before (or maybe even since), and a chance to explore ideas that became deeply important to me: perhaps most importantly, I don’t think I’d written so extensively or publicly about the horrors of mind control.  Mutual devotion to our show and its fandom, and mutual conviction that Lance and Kitty were meant to be, connected me with a number of friends with whom I started exchanging emails and IMs and LiveJournal comments, and I’ve kept in touch with a couple of them to this day.  And even though I didn’t always respond constructively to attention and validation, XME fandom gave me what I think fandom has given a lot of creative young people: a wider audience for my writing, and a community who cared about the lives and feelings of cartoon characters as much as I did, and in many of the same ways.  My experience in this fandom was as uneven and as flawed (dare one say… problematic?), and often as delightful, as the show that inspired it.

And, for me, it had all started with Lance and Kitty.   As the show progressed, and for years after it ended, I continued to write more canon-compliant one-shot stories about them: missing scenes or predictions for the future. Their relationship was a given in more or less everything I wrote, whether or not they were the focus, and even when I’d fallen deeply into other fandoms, I still regarded it with nostalgic fondness.

--

I think that a lot of us have faced an uncomfortable tension between our social consciences and our nostalgia for the uncomplicated adoration with which we viewed our “problematic faves” as children.  I can’t provide a one-size-fits-all solution for that conflict.  I don’t know if one exists.

“Although I'm not going to say that I never thought that I'd be engaging with XME again in any way,” I blogged in late 2013, as my local cartoon-watching group began the first season, “I was somewhat surprised that I had any feelings about this show left, or anything else to say.”  But I did, and I said a lot of it in short ficlets of less than 500 words, which - since I was in graduate school at the time - were usually all that my energy levels would allow.

At around the same time, I started reading fandom-related posts on Tumblr, including the ones that stated or implied that redemption arcs in fiction, and/or shipping characters with people who had mistreated them, were universally bad because they would increase the likelihood of real-life abuse.  It’s not like I had never thought about that aspect of Lance and Kitty’s relationship (I’d addressed it more than once in the intervening time), but something about phrasing of those posts - or maybe something about my own mental state when I saw them - sent me into a spiral of self-doubt.  I wondered I would have to publicly apologize for and cast aside my affection for a pairing and a narrative that had been so deeply formative for me.  I wondered if my friends would consider me an abuse apologist if I didn’t, or even whether I might secretly be one.  

One of the reasons why it took me a long time to write this retrospective is that I wanted to avoid too many lengthy tangents or blanket statements about critical consumption of media, the toxic elements of “anti-shipping,” and the relationship between fiction and reality.  I do believe that such a relationship exists, but it’s much more complicated than “impure fiction is dangerous, especially if people might be enjoying it in ways that are not politically conscious or wholesome enough.”  Anybody who reads my blog knows that I am intensely critical of purity culture, and I do not believe in being unkind to real people on behalf of fictional characters (and I say this as someone who used to do exactly that).  Also, if you were going to ask, “So you’re saying you support [taboo and/or illegal act]?” please don’t.  I am not saying that, and we are not having that conversation.  Not all “problematic” stories are interchangeable or should be talked about in the same way, and all of the issues that surround them are bigger and more complex than any individual character or romantic arc.

So I am not suggesting that Lance and Kitty’s own romantic arc should not have happened, or that people shouldn’t enjoy it, when I point out that was built on some incredibly inappropriate behavior that reflects toxic cultural attitudes  even if it doesn’t “normalize” or “promote” them, and I can understand why some people (including at least one of my Cartoon Night buddies) would see it as irresponsible storytelling.   In “Growing Pains,” Lance harassed Kitty despite her trying to tell him off, used his powers in publicly destructive ways in order to hold her attention, and tried to keep her from leaving school with her friends.  Even when his protective leap caused her to regard him as something besides an enemy, it seemed to be setting up an arc in which her love - or the possibility of her love - would make him a better person. 

In reality, of course, it’s unrealistic at best for anyone to expect that they can “change” or “improve” the morality of a partner who has treated them (or others) badly.  But it’s an enjoyable and compelling fantasy, as are the “opposites attract” and “forbidden love” aspects of the pairing, all of which we shippers ate up with a spoon.  It’s vital for shippers to recognize the difference between reality and fiction, but it is not my place to assume - based solely upon the nature of the fantasy - that they’re unable to do so.

And, in-universe, I can absolutely understand why sheltered, idealistic Kitty might have given in to this fantasy.  But it doesn’t play out in the way that she - or I - initially expected.

I’ve seen the Season 2 episode “Joyride” so many times that I didn’t have to rewatch it in order to write this essay.  That’s the one in which Lance briefly joined the X-Men, in order to be close to Kitty and, hopefully, to become the kind of person that she might admire.  The story was full of cute moments in which they flirted, bantered, and ultimately worked together to solve a crisis.  It also spotlighted one of the biggest obstacles to their relationship, and despite what a lot of fanfic - including my own - suggested, that did not come from their respective teams’ objections.  Professor Xavier even encouraged Lance’s potential for redemption (which didn’t stop me from reading, writing, and endorsing fic in which he regularly meddled in his students’ love lives), and the other characters reacted to the situation in a variety of understandable, if not always admirable, ways.  No, the telling moment occurred when the team was running through aquatic rescue scenarios, and Lance cheerfully broke rank and “drowned” two other people in order to pull Kitty out of the water.  Here was his entire approach to redemption and to their relationship, summed up in one gesture: he wanted to ensure her safety and well-being, but didn’t always care what or whom he knocked down in the process.  This became even clearer toward the end of the season, when he tried unsuccessfully to chase her (and only her) away from a fight between their two teams, although her friends would still be in danger. This tension exploded in the third episode of Season 3, when Lance and his friends once again attacked the X-Men on school grounds, and Kitty shouted, “This is the real you, isn’t it?” Lance responded, “That’s right! I’m never going to be good enough for you!” (I typed that out from memory, too.)

Naturally, my fellow shippers and I were devastated by this development, and I, for one, wrote lots of angsty fic (often interspersed with the lyrics to late 1990s/early 2000s pop music)  in which the former couple pined for each other despite having been Torn Apart By Circumstances.  Years later, however, I’m proud of Kitty, and of the writers, for drawing that line in the sand, and for realizing that - although, as Charles pointed out, it would have been a good start - it wasn’t enough for Lance to be good for her.  Whether or not this was an intentional writing choice, the later seasons reflected an awareness that he was primarily the one responsible for making himself a better person.  

Yes, after Lance and his comrades joined the climactic battle even though he’d insisted at first that he didn’t care, he and Kitty got back together in the series finale. There were probably viewers who thought their reconciliation hadn’t been earned, as well as those who thought it had been.  Obviously, eighteen-year-old Nevanna (by then in her first semester of college) was one of the latter.  But I appreciate the time that they spent apart, and the fact that it came at least as much from from internal motivations as from external pressure, far more as an adult than I did as a teenager.

To be clear: you don’t have to like Lance/Kitty or pairings like it.  When I say that I regard it differently now, I am not trying to assert that “my ship is Unproblematic after all, so there!” because it isn’t.  Nor am I trying to suggest, “It’s okay that I had a Bad Ship, because I regret it now, and the rest of you are filthy sinners who should do the same.” I don’t, and you’re not, and you shouldn’t.  Or, rather, how you feel about your past shipping, and what kind of person it makes you, is not for me to decide.

I loved and built upon this pairing both despite and because of its problems, and that is one of the reasons why I try not to condemn other people - as long as they maintain that all-important boundary between fantasy and reality - for loving and building upon stories that have similar problems, or different ones altogether.

--

I was sixteen when I first started writing XME fanfic.  I’m thirty-three now.  I can easily imagine some of you asking, “When are you going to get over these imaginary fake not-real cartoon characters and get a life, Nevanna?” That is, I hope that my friends, whom I love and who love me, aren’t thinking along those lines, but it’s certainly a question that I have asked myself more than once.

Even when I was cheerfully participating in fandom in my youth, I still feared that my obsessions with fictional characters were bad for me, a sign that I wasn’t equipped to deal with or care about “real life.” In one diary entry, I wrote with certainty that I would have to abandon my fannish interests entirely when I started college.  If a large contingent of fans had loudly insisted that my interests were not only bad for me but bad for the world, that I was actively hurting others simply by writing about my chosen subject matter, that I was likely to enable or engage in actual criminal activity… I’m not sure what I would have done, but it probably wouldn’t have been what they wanted me to do, and it likely would have made me an even more unpleasant person to be around.

I tried my best to balance academic obligations with fandom and creativity when I did enter college, and sometimes failed spectacularly, but that owed as much to anxiety and poor time management skills, both of which are still everyday challenges for me, as it did to caring “too much” about stories.  I eventually earned a master’s degree, and found a series of jobs, in a field that is just a bit concerned with making sure people get to read whatever they want.  If I’m still “getting a life,” which I believe is an ongoing process, then my fandoms are just one part of it.  And after all this time, X-Men: Evolution is still one of those fandoms.  I find it easy and comforting and fun to write about these characters, and the only person who gets to decide whether I’m “over” them is myself.  

The last time I wrote anything that focused specifically on Lance and Kitty was a little more than two years ago, and the fic didn’t shy away from the troubled history of their relationship.  I have a preference for stories that at least acknowledge that history and the tension that comes with it, but I would never barge in and assume that because a content creator doesn’t check those boxes, they support real-life abusive relationships.

Would I still ship Lance and Kitty if I encountered them for the first time today? It’s difficult to say. Many aspects of their relationship are still things that I enjoy in fiction.  But my early interest in them was based on a specific set of assumptions about the characters, their world, and even the purpose of fanfiction, as well as, yes, some amount of ignorance about how romance and attraction worked.  I don’t want to enjoy their story, or others, solely in the way that I did when I was younger.  Most of the time, I prefer the all the ways that I enjoy stories now.

As I said earlier, I’m not proud of some of my actions in the XME fandom.  I regret sneering at the fanbase for another popular pairing that had dysfunctional beginnings, as if my OTP didn’t.  (The two pairings didn’t even have any common characters, so it’s not as if they challenged each other as far as I know, not that my attitude would have been okay even if they had.  I think I partly just enjoyed hating what so many people liked.)  I regret participating in an LJ community that publicly mocked specific people’s writing.  I regret sticking my nose into people’s reviews just to beg them to read my latest chapter, but not as much as I regret leaving at least one hostile review, with a very thin veneer of playfulness, when half of my OTP hooked up with another character in the middle of a multi-chapter fic.   And, all of that aside, there is a much longer list of regrettable choices that I made as a writer.  But I don’t regret looking at Lance and Kitty in their introductory episode and thinking, “There’s a story there, and I want to find out where it might go.”

[3thurs]

Third Thursday events and exhibitions for September 16

The next Third Thursday — the monthly evening of art in Athens, Georgia — is scheduled for Thursday, September 16, from 6 to 9 p.m. All exhibitions are free and open to the public. This schedule and location and hours of operation information for each venue is available at 3thurs.org.

Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia

Yoga in the Galleries, 6 p.m. — Join us via Zoom for a free yoga class surrounded by works of art in the galleries. Led by instructors from Five Points Yoga, this program is free and open to both beginner and experienced yogis. This program is available both in-person and via Zoom. Email callan@uga.edu to reserve an in-person spot or join us on Zoom.

Film Series: The Crime of Art: “Stolen,” 7 p.m. — It was the most expensive art heist in American history. In March 1990, two thieves disguised as Boston police officers gained entrance to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and successfully plundered $500 million worth of art. Among the 13 priceless works stolen were Rembrandt’s “The Sea of Galilee” and Vermeer’s “The Concert,” one of only 35 of the master’s surviving works. Filmed 16 years after the heist, the film raises a new magnifying glass to this crime, following the renowned art detective Harold Smith as he pursues the mystery of the stolen works. With Smith as a guide, it journeys into the mysterious and surreal world of stolen art and examines the many possibilities as to where the art might be today. 2005, NR, 85 min. This film series is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Kota Ezawa: The Crime of Art” and is sponsored by the UGA Parents Leadership Council.

On view:

“Inside Look: Selected Acquisitions from the Georgia Museum of Art” — With more than 21,000 objects in its collection, the museum cannot show everything all the time. This exhibition features new gifts and purchases across our curatorial departments that have filled critical gaps in the permanent collections.

“Kota Ezawa: The Crime of Art” — This exhibition brings together new and recent works related to Ezawa’s “The Crime of Art” series, a group of light boxes and video animations that chronicle some of the most infamous and high-profile museum heists in history.

“Neo-Abstraction: Celebrating a Gift of Contemporary Art from John and Sara Shlesinger” — “Neo-Abstraction” highlights the resurgence of abstract art among contemporary artists, drawing from a recent major gift

“In Dialogue: Artist, Mentor, Friend: Ronald Lockett and Thornton Dial Sr.” — This exhibition focuses on one work by each artist, both gifts from Ron Shelp, comparing their approach to their work and examining the shared relationship that sustained their creativity.

“Whitman, Alabama” — This ongoing documentary project by filmmaker Jennifer Crandall brings Walt Whitman’s words to life through the voices of modern-day Alabama residents.

“Contemporary Japanese Ceramics from the Horvitz Collection” — This exhibition presents Japanese pottery and porcelain created by three generations of master ceramic artists. Made with both ancient and modern materials and methods, their works are exceptionally diverse. They share the exceptional craftsmanship and sophisticated design characteristic of Japanese contemporary ceramics.

“Power and Piety in 17th-Century Spanish Art” — Works by premiere Spanish baroque painters such as Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Murillo, Pedro Orrente and others, on loan from Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery.

“Modernism Foretold: The Nadler Collection of Late Antique Art from Egypt” — An extraordinary assembly of Coptic objects dating from the 3rd to the 8th century CE belonging to Emanuel and Anna Nadler.

The museum’s days of operation are Tuesday – Sunday. Reserve a free ticket and see our policies at https://georgiamuseum.org/visit/.

The Porcelain and Decorative Arts Museum at the Center for Art and Nature

The Porcelain and Decorative Arts Museum at the Center for Art and Nature at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia will be opening its doors for timed ticket access (https://botgarden.uga.edu/porcelain-and-decorative-arts-museum-timed-access-now-available/). The newest building at the garden holds the personal porcelain and decorative arts of Deen Day Sanders, a longtime supporter of the State Botanical Garden. The space is designed to draw environmental and conservation connections to the collections in the museum.

Eight different gallery spaces blend conservation, botanicals, art, beauty and curiosity. Adjacent to the building is the Discovery and Information Garden, where visitors can connect to the living botanical collection that is represented in many of the porcelain works in the museum. Please join staff and docents for a time in the Porcelain and Decorative Arts Museum to develop your own ideas on art and nature and become inspired to see the natural environment through the lens of the many artists on display.

ATHICA: Athens Institute for Contemporary Art

ATHICA@675, Pulaski St., Suite 1200 

“LIGHT: 2021 Juried Exhibition” — ATHICA’s annual juried exhibition features contemporary art in all media that explores or references light, which is found all around us, around our planet, and throughout art, nature, literature, science, society and language as a concept and a construct with many different connotations. Without light there is no color and art would not exist. Work was juried by guest juror Matt Porter, curator at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia.

ATHICA@CINÉ Gallery

“Remembering Chatham Murray and Her Art” — Works of the late, beloved Athenian and painter Chatham Murray, organized by her friends Charles Warnock, Juana Gnecco and Anne Sears and featuring 14 paintings that span six decades. A number of works in the exhibition illustrate Murray’s love of home and table. Favorite subject matter included the bounty of the garden and home interiors and exteriors, the latter inspired perhaps by her daily walks.

Lyndon House Arts Center

3THURS Artist Talk with Andy Cherewick & Jeffrey Whittle, 6 p.m. — Join the artists and Curator Beth Sale for a gallery walk-through and discussion about the works in the exhibition “I vs. Me.” Reserve your free ticket. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artist-talk-jeffrey-whittle-and-andy-cherewick-tickets-168152154621

On View:

“Willow Oak Tree Exhibition with Guest Curator Abraham Tesser” — In honor of the willow oak tree that graced the lawn of the historic Ware–Lyndon House for over a century, this exhibition features works created with and inspired by the tree. Each of the participating artists received reclaimed wood from the tree to incorporate into a work of art.

“Inside Out: Expressing the Inner World” — Abstract paintings from a group of women artists working primarily in the Southeast.

“Modernist Sculptures from the Legacy of Loyd Florence” — Florence’s life was marked by a lifelong passion for aviation. He graduated in 1939 from the first civilian pilot training program, sponsored by the University of Georgia and served as president of Athens Aviation, which operated the Athens Airport in the early 1950s. Later in his life, he began making metal sculpture.

“Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: Brian Hitselberger and Julie Wills” — For this exhibition, the artists worked independently in their respective studios while maintaining an active dialogue through correspondence and video conferencing.  

“I vs Me: Andy Cherewick and Jeffrey Whittle” — Two beloved Athens artists’ paintings in one gallery.

“Arts Center Choice Award: A Lot More Than It Seems by David Froetschel” — With structures found at thrift stores and imagery taken from fiction, Froetschel balances between order and chaos, dreams and reality, imagining what could be and depicting “a lot more than it seems.” 

“Window Works: AJ Aremu” — Using the banks of windows as a palette, AJ Aremu represents Black bodies in motion and states of repose. Their contemporary clothing blends with African patterns in Aremu’s exploration of the melding of cultures.

“Collections from our Community: Oscar’s Godzillas” — “I always admired the idea of something unbelievable and wonderful hidden out in the world. Godzilla holds a great example. It shows how small we really are as a species and how our actions have great effects.” – Oscar Justus

Lamar Dodd School of Art Galleries, University of Georgia

“Dawn Williams Boyd: Woe” — A series of textile works by the Atlanta-based artist that reflect a lifelong critique of social injustices and racial violence. Using scraps of fabric, needles, and thread as her tools, Boyd painstakingly “paints” the entire surface of her quilts, layer upon layer, cutting, sewing, endlessly repurposing, building the surface into a formidable, authoritative source that pulls no punches. The exhibition is organized by Daniel Fuller and will travel to the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York, and the Galleries at Sarah Lawrence College.

“Time at the Tableæ — Features the work of Dodd undergraduate students Alan Barrett, Alex Barrett and Massie Herlihy. In this intersection of performance, installation, ceramics and photographs, the artists hope to bring a better understanding of what it means to pursue and use ceramics in the ritual of our daily lives.

“Flex·i·ble Architecture: we’re not trying to be heavy, we’re trying to be light” — Dodd MFA candidate Rachel Seburn and Alberta, Canada–based artist Sarah Seburn created this exhibition that investigates materials and their malleability. The artists pull from architectural lineages as they create an installation that acts as a mock-up showroom, an investigation into a new kind of interior building that allows for floors and walls to sink, rock and tilt.

“Waste Creation” — Mickey Boyd, a Dodd MFA candidate, presents a collaborative exhibition with Max Yarbrough, an artist working and living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The artists present a series of images and sculptures that explore how exponential growth equals exponential waste. 

The Atheaneum

“Trevor Paglen: Vision After Seeing” — An exhibition of photographs and a video by internationally renowned artist Trevor Paglen explores an essential question at the heart of Paglen’s recent work: “Are vision and seeing the same thing?” Paglen investigates this question as it relates to the long history of technologies that have aided, and perhaps even eclipsed, the human eye. 

tiny ATH gallery

“Davy Gibbs: ‘Empires’” — “Empire” is a word we associate with a powerful sense of place, with both glory and decay, rise and fall. The Deep South, if never quite an empire in the formal sense, has always been a land of little empires. Athenian Davy Gibbs examines this idea through photographs.

Safety precautions in place for tiny ATH gallery:

Unless vaccinated, please wear your mask

Please consider parking up Pulaski/Cleveland to alleviate parking issues   

If you feel unwell, or have been in touch with anyone who has been sick, please stay home

Enter through front porch door

Hotel Indigo, Athens

ArtWall@Hotel Indigo: Considering the intersection of natural and industrial beauty, “All or Nothing” juxtaposes organic abstractions and lush landscapes with historic structures and decimated buildings. Featured artists include Alexa Rivera, Christina Matacotta and Zahria Cook. 

BARBAR

“Uncaged” — Work in oil and watercolor by Helen Kuykendall, a largely self-taught artist originally from Venezuela who combines natural motifs in unsettling ways. Opening party from 7 to 9 p.m. as part of Third Thursday. 

The Classic Center

No programming for this month’s Third Thursday.

Creature Comforts Brewing Co.’s CCBC Gallery

Artist-in-Residence Noraa James’s painting-in-progress on display in the CCBC Gallery. Plus: How do you contribute creativity to your community? Let us know on the interactive chalkboard installation! 

—

Third Thursday was established in 2012 to encourage attendance at Athens’ established art venues through coordination and co-promotion by the organizing entities. Rack cards promoting Third Thursday and visual art in Athens are available upon request. This schedule and venue locations and regular hours can be found at 3thurs.org.

Contact: Michael Lachowski, Georgia Museum of Art, mlachow@uga.edu.

[dipasolutions2]

How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Agency

Why choosing the right digital marketing agency is crucial these days? Because with the evolving digital world the number of digital agencies has increased in recent years, making it difficult to select the right one.

Every business company looks for the best white label digital marketing agency that will stay within budget while helpingthem reach their business goals.

Throughout this blogpost, Dipasolutions will describe what things to look for, what to avoid, and how to find the big or small digital marketing agency that’ll suit your needs perfectly.

Need to know what you’re looking for. Remember, every digital marketing agency is different and to achieve exceptional results, engage the agency as part of your team.

This way, they can be good stewards of your business, just as you are.

This is important so that they can have similar perspectives to your own.

For instance, if you intend to target business executives, then you should target LinkedIn.

If you intend to target young people, Instagram and Tiktok is the place to be.

Facebook has 1.65 billion monthly active users spending on average 50 minutes per day on the site, so virtually every business can reap the benefits of Facebook advertising by hiring the best digital advertising agency. This example was given to let you know that you need to dive in and spend time with your best partners brainstorming to know your goals, target audience, and outcomes you want from the digital marketing agency.

We’ll discuss the 8 key features of the best white label digital marketing agency that’ll help you to decide the best for yourself

Full transparency.

You should be able to find out everything you need to know about the best white label digital marketing agency through its testimonials.

It’s a great way to know if there are people out there who have been using this digital marketing agency and what the experience is like.

If people have shared their stories, it will show how trustworthy the digital marketing company is and the kind of service they provide.

Review the agency’s website and, if you do not see any information about the agency, such as an address, bios, or a client list, then you should not waste your time with them. There is a good chance that an agency is hiding something.

Choose a company with complete transparency. A company that doesn’t just accept your project, but also guarantees its outcome. When choosing a digital agency, full transparency should be the first criterion.

Credibility and Diverse Portfolio.

The credibility of the best digital advertising agencies rely heavily on the quality of its online marketing portfolio.

With so many services from so many agencies, it is nearly impossible to make an informed decision.

For example, if your business objective is to get in the news and get maximum shares for a specific event, the digital marketing agency that you select needs to have a track record in such a service. That way, there is a guarantee that the agency will know how to achieve your objective effectively.

A Marketing Agency with a diverse portfolio is better than one that only services one type of service or industry.

Moreover, Does the agency have a good website? How high are the results of the search, indicating the site’s SEO abilities? Do its social media pages have quality content and are properly maintained?

Ask these questions to yourself and find the answers.

Tailor-made strategy.

When looking for a digital marketing agency you need one that can custom tailor your entire digital marketing strategy.

Digital marketing requires a wide range of skills. It doesn’t have to be, for example, a hardcore graphic designer, but it would be beneficial to find a company that can develop marketing strategies that are customer-centric and go above and beyond the call of duty.

After all, customers don’t mind when an agency doesn’t know the tools they’re using or the latest way of using them, they just want the business to succeed. So always ask for a tailor-made marketing solution or you’ll be in a red zone.

You might be new to the industry, but having an experienced in-house team can go a long way. You’re not trying to implement a strategy overnight, you want it to be adapted to your company’s goals.

Experienced in-house team.

When hiring someone to design a logo, you would not hire a company without a graphic designer.

Similarly, you would never want to be answered by the calling agents if you want to know about the current week’s progress from the marketing strategist himself.

Most of the small digital marketing agencies hire seasoned talent and outsource the work that results in client’s business failure.

To avoid that see if they list their team members on their about page. If you cannot find them there, LinkedIn is another great option. Search for the agency.

Then click “People” to see a list of everyone who works there. Always dig in and study the company’s team profile. Then decide accordingly.

Same Core Value and Culture fit.

It’s really important to find a digital marketing agency that’ll align with your core values and operates the same way you do in your work environment.

It’s always fun to work with likewise people.

The more you’ll be keen about this, the more this thing will help you in long run. Because you can’t team up with a company that’ll not be on the same page regarding the work ethics that you’ve.

Once both parties align and develop trust overtime it nurtures the business relationship to a greater extent and delivers a quality product and experience for both parties.

Trust us, there’s nothing worse than working with people who don’t value the same things or operate in the same way.

So, if you can’t find the perfect fit, it’s better to move on and find the next.

Month to month commitment.

Absolutely, it is impossible to work with a digital marketing company for decades or years.

However, the commitment of most of the agencies is not as short as it seems.

Make sure that if you aren’t satisfied with the digital marketing agency, you should have the power to cancel it. It’s a professional choice but one which you can take. You are your own boss, after all.

The marketing company should provide a platform for business owners to review and manage their marketing programs.

Each business owner wants to be involved with the business marketing initiatives that are undertaken, even if they are not the day-to-day ones.

This way you can keep the track of things and will see in the first couple of months that is this company is the perfect fit for you in the long run or not?

No unreal Promises.

If a digital marketing company makes an absurd promise like they’ll rank you on Google in the first week it’s a red flag.

That makes some sense if they’ll do it with paid advertising and have an in-house world-class copywriter or some bullet-proof strategy.

But in reality, a good agency always under promise and over delivers.

Ask them how they will accomplish it? What strategy will they implement? What roadmaps will they use?

Ask as many questions as you want to make sure that you both are on the same page regarding results and commitments.

The best solution is to find an agency that is realistic about the time it takes to improve your local search results. Now that makes sense.

Measure Results

The best digital marketing agencies that work with CMOs measure the ROI on campaigns by evaluating traffic, conversions, leads, and brand awareness.

Keep a track of optimization for human traffic, work on improvement of website’s usability, get more backlinks and avoid broken links.

Test your link marketing. Track the reach of your network to determine whether they can get your brand out there. Produce a strong brand voice for your brand. Use Google to improve website usability.

Whether you go for a big or small digital marketing agency make sure they have these abilities.

Conclusion As the market is flooded with a lot of options to look for, it’s an overwhelming situation to find yourself the best digital marketing agency.

Every business deserves the insights of the best business experts in the market.

Every entrepreneur deserves the best team and talent in the market to help him take his business and services to heights.Work together to construct the ideas into reality.

Dipasolutions, as a digital marketing agency understands the hardships that entrepreneurs or business owners face to overcome the challenges and position themselves as one of the best brands in the market.

That’s why you don’t need to worry or put yourself in an ordeal.

Simply book anappointment and Dipasolutions will get you the best tailor-made digital marketing solution for your business and take it to the moon.

Our digital marketing solutions will be the game-changer for you so don’t miss out and reach out today.

[alokitoteachersposts]

500 days of no school: My journey as an online teacher

Last week, I learned from an article that it has been five hundred days since the closure of all schools in Bangladesh. It’s hard to believe this reality. It made me reflect on my teaching journey at Alokito Hridoy School. To cope with countless obstacles, I explored different interventions and innovations. Today, I want to talk about some obstacles (which I believe almost every teacher has faced) and share how I tried to overcome them.

Blended learning approach for digital inequality

Most of the students didn’t have any access to the internet. From the beginning, till now, after 500 days, it has remained the same. A very few students join my classroom daily. This obstacle of not having access to technology is unfair to my students.

To reach all the students, we started a blended learning approach where we did not solely rely on online classes but used various mediums to reach students. We use Imo (a social-media platform) groups to discuss the lessons taught in the online class.These groups are also used to answer questions from students and to collect snapshots of their homework. For the students who don’t have any smartphones at their homes, we text them to keep them updated and call them to provide consultation. We also put up a list of all the activities on our school notice board.

Though it has not been possible to reach all the students, many of them left school and went to the village because their parents lost their jobs. In this current situation, with schools being shut for an indefinite time, the blended learning approach could aid in connecting students to the classroom.

Social-Emotional Learning: Helping my students to face reality

When I started taking online classes, I could see most of my students were demotivated and, to be honest, I was too. We were facing an unknown situation for which we have never been prepared. “Miss, when will our school open again?”, “Miss where are our friends?” “Miss, will this world be ever normal again?” I am sure every teacher like myself faced these innocent yet compelling questions. How do you answer them when you do not know the answer yourself? I could not give my students false hopes, rather chose to face the uncertain reality with them.

Through my supervisor, I got introduced to the concept of social-emotional learning. According to CASEL, social-emotional learning is an integral part of education, and simply put, it is a lifelong process of learning how to better understand ourselves, connect with others, and work together to achieve goals and support our communities. I started conducting different social-emotional learning activities in my online classes. I tried to guide my students to identify their emotions, its driving factors and ways of controlling it through different social-emotional learning activities. We talked about our stress and ways to deal with it healthily. We celebrated empathy and kindness because our world will always need it.

No, I can not say all my students are motivated and full of optimism now but I can say we learned that we need empathy, we need each other, we need to understand ourselves to survive this tough time together. I can not remove the 500 days of trauma, but I can tell them “I am with you”.

Higher-Order thinking questions and Games: My mantra for interactive class

When my journey began as an online teacher, it felt simply impossible to make the online classes interactive and engaging. It’s difficult to attract students’ attention when there’s distance between us. It’s as if we have been parted by a huge wall and that’s why online classes lack the energy and motivation of students.

Students’ autonomy

To make my online classes interactive and engaging, I tried to do a lot of group discussion where my students came up with different questions and searched for the answers and I only guided them. This particular practice gave my students a sense of autonomy.They took more initiative and became more active in the classroom. Additionally, I started designing different games for online classes related to the learning outcome of my class. This made  my online class a little bit more fun and engaging. Games played an amazing role here, with proper incentives teachers can stir intrinsic motivation among students.

Nurturing creativity: Preparing students for future

This whole pandemic issue gave us a chance to re-think our role as teachers. Our role is not to provide knowledge but to guide the students to realize their inner creativity. Creativity is one skill that remains intact despite myriad paradigm shifts. Recently, I started a “Creative Class” where we share our creative works,it could be academic, non-academic, art, anything and everything. We evaluate each other’s work and give each other constructive feedback. To make our creative class inclusive, we conduct surveys to identify students' interests, what kind of things students want to learn. As per that, we arrange different workshops, talk with an expert, inspirational stories, etc.

It’s not easy to be an online teacher in Bangladesh, but this situation has taught me how a teacher can teach effectively with a handful of resources. At the very end, to deal with this crisis, what we teachers need the most is hope.

Shanaj Parvin Jonaki

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officer

Alokito Teachers

[cosmodragi]

Could VR Be the Missing Piece in Meaningful Language Instruction?

In the early ’80s—when Euan Bonner was simply 5 or so—he and his dad would tinker with their Commodore 64, copying code from magazines into the PC so they may play video games. Bonner later taught himself to code and even dreamed of sooner or later constructing a digital actuality platform. That ardour carried by to his college research, the place he majored in Communications with a pointy give attention to media.

When college students put that headset on, they will observe on a stage that’s simply not potential on-line or in the classroom.

But it was a transfer to Japan to turn out to be an English instructor that lastly helped Bonner see how he may meld his love of language studying along with his expertise fascination.

“I started to slowly realize that this passion for technology, specifically virtual reality, had applications in language education. Once I completed my master’s—right about when VR started to have a resurgence in the early 2010s—it all started to come together. I saw that I could use VR to do some fascinating stuff with English language education,” explains Bonner.

Today, Bonner is a lecturer and researcher for the Language, Media and Learning Research Center at Kanda University of International Studies in Japan. His latest analysis focuses on California-based Immerse, a singular VR platform intent on bringing connection, interplay and tangible fluency growth to on-line English Language Learning.

Here, Bonner shares his ideas on how VR makes it potential for college kids to have significant language studying alternatives, even throughout a world pandemic.

EdSurge: What excites you most about digital actuality in English Language training?

Bonner: It will get to the coronary heart of the studying wants of English Language Learners in any age group: children, college college students and enterprise individuals. When college students put that headset on, they will observe on a stage that’s simply not potential on-line or in the classroom.

VR helps handle two major issues in language studying: motivation in older adults and engagement for youthful learners. It delivers that little kick, that enjoyable and thrilling aspect on the floor stage, and offers a lot deeper interactions with different individuals by embodiment, role-play, observe that is devoid of all the distractions in the classroom and on-line studying.

As studying turns into more and more digital, what issues does VR remedy?

In my very own expertise instructing on-line, the college students typically have a one-to-one reference to their instructor however really feel disconnected from the different college students in the classroom. But I’m studying by my analysis with Immerse that VR gives a bridge between the actual classroom and the Zoom classroom. It sits in the center as a spot for college kids to observe and have interaction with one another on a stage that’s higher than simply face-to-face on the display screen. It offers social interactivity and connectivity that you would be able to’t in any other case get out of distance studying.

Euan Bonner

Research says college students typically report being happier, extra excited and fewer bored when utilizing VR as a result of it seems like a recreation. They’re embodying this avatar in a 3D house. That’s what they like to do in their hobbies and their pastimes. If they will merge their classes with their hobbies, it creates a way more partaking and probably motivating surroundings.

What would you inform educators who’re in making an attempt VR for language studying?

Read Bonner’s Research

The downside with all the VR applications that I’ve found from my analysis is that they are business, off the shelf and never particularly designed for training.

Immerse offers unobtrusive scaffolding and detailed situations that lower cognitive load so college students can give attention to language studying as a substitute of making an attempt to think about a situation.

Students have a VR headset on and controllers they use to grip and decide issues up and work together with the surroundings. But in the event that they have a look at their wrist, they will get assist, or their instructor can ship them prompts. It’s a gesture. You simply flip your wrist in direction of your eyes, and the Immerse utility understands, “Oh, you’re looking at your wrist,” so it makes that data seem. It solely seems when the college students want it.

Even in actual school rooms, it’s powerful getting college students to give attention to the materials and take note of the activity at hand. Using the Immerse desktop utility, lecturers click on on the Rally feature, and it simply pulls all the college students collectively and factors their eyes proper at the activity at hand. It simply form of retains everybody centered. The total class is now prepared for that interplay.

Teachers may even group college students into audio-isolated environments, regardless that they’re inside the identical house and may see different individuals inside it. As you possibly can think about, instructing a classroom of 20 college students, as I do, any time college students are doing role-play in a crowded room, you’re distracted by what different persons are saying.

Being capable of isolate the audio helps them give attention to their language manufacturing, on their interactions with the different individuals in role-playing. But after all, when the instructor speaks all people can hear that. The instructor can be part of that group and have a personal dialog, regardless that they’re nonetheless in that house with the different college students.

Those issues are a lot tougher to do in actual life, which is why I really feel Immerse brings new affordances to the desk for language studying.

Students have to observe language studying in a context designed particularly for the studying conditions that work finest for them.

What does efficient VR language studying seem like?

Students have to observe language studying in a context designed particularly for the studying conditions that work finest for them.

When college students use Immerse, they observe English inside a sensible surroundings: sensible areas, enterprise conferences, presentation areas, social barbecue occasions, quick meals eating places, airport customs, that sort of factor.

At the second, Immerse has over 60 completely different built-in language learning experiences and lesson plan templates. But lecturers may also create and edit their very own.

Younger college students can observe by enjoying video games like darts or throwing a ball in a gap that pops up a query that they then have to ask. That enjoyable gameplay retains college students engaged and in the classes.

Recommended sources from Immerse

White paper: “Demystifying the Digital Realm: Applying the research behind language learning and task-based learning to VR”

Introducing the Immerse Planning Hub – a VR lesson plan modifying instrument

Blog: Content about digital actuality, language training and Immerse

Guides: Tips to simply implement VR at your establishment

For college college students who need that day by day life form of observe comparable to shopping for issues from the grocery retailer, Immerse has procuring environments the place the college students are actually given a procuring record and instructed, “Okay, go get those items. Put them into your shopping cart and go to the counter. Buy each of those items and have that discussion.”

If you’re a enterprise individual and burdened about your assembly or presentation abilities, and even dealing with the enterprise journey interactions, you possibly can observe all the things from the assembly to dealing with customs at the airport or getting a prepare ticket.

The backside line is, college students are immersed in these experiences and get it far more rapidly as a result of they will role-play and observe repeatedly. And proper now, VR permits entry to what have instantly turn out to be unobtainable environments, even simply cafes and fast-food eating places. Whatever they should be taught is quickly accessible in the digital world—even when it isn’t in the actual world.

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source https://ultimatefreecourses.com/could-vr-be-the-missing-piece-in-meaningful-language-instruction/

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Blog post 2: TV and domestic media

In the chapter on TV and the Spaces of Everyday Life, Lynn Spigel discussed television’s relation to the spatial geographies of everyday life and demonstrate the contact points between television and the dynamics of public and private space in media cultures. Starting with the television’s continued place in domestic space after WWII, TV has its role in articulating special arrangements of family unity and division. People also manage TV spaces in ways that fit with household routines, gender roles, and taste preferences, they may move the television from the central spaces of the home to a more private room and watch the TV in bedrooms instead, while the television in the living room will be used to symbolize the class statues and family pride. Today, with the invention of mobile devices, television becomes a hybrid spatial experience, people can use the TV in several ways and a variety of places, on the other hand, it is also a form of collective household ritual that has been part of the spatial imagination.

With the feature of spatial dislocations and re-orientations of the television, it gives people an imaginary escape from reality. The television reduces the need to physically travel to public space and explore distant places. Nowadays, people are trying to make television more liveness, to create a sense of immediacy, simultaneity, and intimacy for the viewers. People could now witness a public event in life while doing other things without performing the social etiquette and respect traditionally required of such events. Furthermore, with mobile technology, people can extend their private life into public spaces as it allows people to go in and out of virtual and physical worlds and thereby control the environments of daily life.

In today’s digitalized society, just like what the author suggests, TV has provoked a much more complex spatial imaginary and people engage TV through a much more diverse set of spatial practices. Relating this to my personal experience, TV was always in the center of the living room when I was young. Through various TV dramas, it forms the basis of my cultural understanding of my country as well as the world. TV shows had constructed a space for a specific period for people in the same generation. For example, the Chinese central television had set up an account that live-streams dramas which are usually broadcasted during the summer vacation for people born in the 90s. This gained wide popularity with over a hundred thousand viewers every day. TV gives people from different regions at different ages to gain a spatial imaginary of their childhood memories. On the other hand, it can be seen that for this digital age, with the advancement of mobile technology, TV has become less important for families. A survey by the US Energy Information Administration reveals that the number of homes that don't own a TV has at least doubled since 2009 in United States, one of the main reasons is that viewers are turning to other screens, such as computers and mobile devices to access their video (Nededog, 2017). TV may remain as the central space in living rooms, however, the engagement with TV can be much less as compared to the past. With Netflix and other video platforms, it can be seen that TV has become a machine that has a larger screen but with limited usage as compared to mobile and tablets or a machine that creates background music for families during their family time.

[growthonthehorizon]

On March 22, Growth on the Horizon will bring survivors, students, artists, allies, community organizers, administrators, faculty, staff, and front-line workers together at McGill to participate in arts-based activities that foster exchange and reflection around the reality of sexual and gendered violence on campus, along with individual, collective and institutional forms of healing and care. Interactive activities and art installations will take place all-day in the Arts Building Lobby; while scheduled workshops & presentations will take place across campus. For the full schedule, please visit: https://growthonthehorizon.tumblr.com/schedule This event is free & open to the public. *** WORKSHOPS & PRESENTATIONS [Disclaimer: The following workshops address sexual assault, sexual harassment, and related forms of violence and may be emotionally triggering for some people. Please also note that the schedule may be subject to change due to circumstances beyond our control.] * 10 - 11 AM - A Letter to my Future Self Arts 350 (accessible) Participants will write supportive letters to themselves for a future moment of hopelessness, sadness, or vulnerability. What would help in that moment? How might you be able to achieve your desired state? Facilitators: Chelsey Weir & Hayley Crooks * 10:30 - 11:30 AM - Disclosure Dilemma: Responding to Gendered Violence on Campus. Arts B55, The Moving Image Resource Lab (accessible via theatre elevator; volunteers are on standby to provide directions to students with accessibility needs who would like to attend this workshop – please message sofia.misenheimer@mail.mcgill.ca for more information) Our goal is to explore the complexity and challenges that come with seeking help, disclosing, responding and writing policies in response to sexual aggression. Discussions following the workshop will facilitate an expansion of awareness about rape culture and gendered & sexual violence, exploring the space between what rape culture is perceived to be versus what it is day-to-day. This piece will be of interest to students, teachers, staff and administration, and individuals writing policy. Facilitators: Charlotte Di Berardo, Peter Shaw, Anne-Marie St-Louis, and Brittany Sweet * 11 AM - 1 PM - Speaking our Healing Arts 350 (accessible) What do we do in aftermath of sexual violence? How do we rediscover our voice? How can we begin to express what happened or who we are now? If rape culture demands our silence – is expression the path to our healing? These are some of the questions this workshop seeks to explore. The first half will be spent discussing the importance and the challenge of self-expression for sexual violence survivors; during the second half, participants will be invited to express their thoughts, feelings and/or reflections through the written and spoken word (i.e. letter-writing, poetry, prose, short stories, creative non-fiction, etc.). This workshop is closed to self-identified victims & survivors of sexual violence. This includes those who've experienced sexual harassment as well as sexual assault. Facilitator: Malek Yalaoui Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2034459930156768 * 11 AM - 12:30 PM - Tender Hearts Work Hard: A zine workshop with Ambivalently Yours Leacock 738 (accessible) Inspired by the idea that talking and making collectively in a safe setting can facilitate and inspire feminist action, artist Ambivalently Yours invites member of the public to join her for a collaborative zine making workshop. This activity will mirror aspects of the artist's online practice, which uses drawing, ambivalence, and anonymity as a means to expand the limits of empathy and feminist discussions. This workshop is open to participants of all ages, gender identities and artistic levels. Facilitator: Ambivalently Yours Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/228633794349818/ * 12 - 2 PM - Herbalism & Trauma: Herbal Support IGSF Seminar Room 3487 Peel St, 2nd Floor (not accessible) This workshop will explore some of the top herbal allies for anxiety, trauma, and mental health. We will take the time to connect with different herbs through our senses and make a personalized blend to take home. RSVP required: mcgill.ca/igsf/herbalism Facilitator: Pamela Fillion Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/106042723570472/ * 12 – 1 PM - Film screening of "Cold Hands" Arts B55, The Moving Image Resource Lab (accessible via theatre elevator; volunteers are on standby to provide directions to students with accessibility needs who would like to attend this workshop – please message sofia.misenheimer@mail.mcgill.ca for more information) This student-made film by Eric Bizzarri tells the story of the protagonist Lucas, who in an effort to make friends in high school finds himself in a position that compromises his safety. In the aftermath, he realizes that the support he seeks is not guaranteed. Facilitators: Bianca Tetrrault & Aliya Nowaczynski * 12 - 1:30 PM - Self-Care Corner: Wellness Through Potting Event Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support & Education, 550 Sherbrooke O., Suite 585 (accessible) For centuries the therapeutic use of plants has been used as a means for healing. Today, this approach helps trauma survivors and people with PTSD develop emotional safety, engage in narrative restructuring of trauma, and practice mindfulness by reconnecting with the earth. The goal of this self-care corner is to promote wellness for individuals on our campus. There is no cost to this event. Plants, soil, pots, hot water, food and cups will all be provided. RSVP required: involvement.mcgill.ca/event/77929 Facilitators: Consent McGill * 1 - 2 PM – Health and Wellness at the Library: Creating an Inclusive Space for Students Research Commons Room A, Redpath Library Building (accessible) Students face a variety of challenges and high levels of stress throughout their time at university, and many spend a significant amount of time in the library while coping with these issues. In an effort to support our students, we have developed resources, spaces, and collections to help make the library a safe, inclusive, and welcoming space. This presentation will highlight the various health and wellness related initiatives taking place at the McGill Library, as well as upcoming projects. It will be followed by a short tour of the library to highlight spaces and resources mentioned during the presentation. Facilitator: Robin Canuel, Head Librarian * 1 - 3 PM - Making Memes: Equity and diversity in STEMM with Women in Physics Leacock 738 (accessible) This workshop will open dialogue about issues related to race, class, gender and ability and their intersection with the under-representation of minority populations in STEMM fields. We'll discuss issues pertaining to the social construction of gender, masculinity and femininity in STEMM, intersectionality, implicit bias, micro-aggressions, work-life balance, stereotype threat and imposter syndrome. We will also examine recent media products including cartoons and memes, and discuss origins and solutions to the problem of under representation. Finally, participants can create some memes to convey their thoughts and feelings on any of the topics! Everyone is welcome! Facilitators: Hannah Wakeling & Dr Rosa Rodríguez * 2 - 3 PM - Disclosure Dilemma: Responding to Gendered Violence on Campus. Arts B55, The Moving Image Resource Lab (accessible via theatre elevator; volunteers are on standby to provide directions to students with accessibility needs who would like to attend this workshop – please message sofia.misenheimer@mail.mcgill.ca for more information) Our goal is to explore the complexity and challenges that come with seeking help, disclosing, responding and writing policies in response to sexual aggression. Discussions following the workshop will facilitate an expansion of awareness about rape culture and gendered & sexual violence, exploring the space between what rape culture is perceived to be versus what it is day-to-day. This piece will be of interest to students, teachers, staff and administration and individuals writing policy. Facilitators: Charlotte Di Berardo, Peter Shaw, Anne-Marie St-Louis, and Brittany Sweet * 2 - 4 PM - Picturing Consent: A Photovoice Workshop Education Building, 3700 McTavish, 1st floor (accessible) This workshop will explore the concept of consent in an academic contexts and university campuses. The audience will use their hands to make symbols and gestures of "consent." They will take pictures using a digital camera, print the photo on site and write a small caption on the meaning of the picture. The pictures will be displayed in the space to show the different meanings of consent and sexual-gender-based violence within an academic context, and will be exhibited in the Art Hive during the event. Facilitator: Milka Nyariro, McGill Art Hive Initiative * 2 - 4 PM - Hands-on, Hands-off: A Textile Workshop Education Building, 3700 McTavish, 1st floor (accessible) As human beings, we rely on our hands for mostly everything we do. We use them as tools to explore the world and transform it, and to connect with each other. This workshop focuses on our hands’ creative and caring potential, but also intends to create awareness about their damaging power. Hands-on, Hands-off encourages participants to share their experiences, thoughts and needs, and invites them to listen, understand and respect those of others. In a safe and supportive environment, participants are invited to use their hands to transform fabric gloves to represent experiences related to gender-based violence that may be hard to express in words. The gloves will be creatively transformed to address and understand gender-based sexual violence and rape culture on campuses, allowing our bodies to become sites for healing, resistance, communication, and commemoration. Facilitator: Maria Ezcurra, McGill Art Hive Initiative Facilitator * 3 - 4:30 PM - Bodily, Walking Into the Woods Lobby of the Education Building, 3700 McTavish Walking is as mundane an activity as it can be challenging. For those of us who have experienced any kind of (bodily/psychological) trauma or live with anxiety or depression, something as simple as "walking" (i.e. putting oneself in the public sphere to get from point A to point B) may not be a source of respite or mental relaxation, rather, a space of confrontation (oneself with one's thoughts; oneself with the world). This guided walk proposes a silent, meditative and embodied experience on Mount-Royal. The act of collectively engaging in this everyday action may hopefully offer even the smallest moment of respite as we walk together, in solidarity (even if in silence), sharing a moment of quietude and natural beauty. Walking is as mundane an activity as it is profound. It also opens a space to process, to focus on breath and time for decompression; even allowing us to let go of our thoughts. Walking is a reclamation of (public) space. When we walk in a place, over and over, that place becomes ours. It recalls our experiences as we rewrite them onto these paths. Facilitator: Victoria Stanton * 3 - 5 PM - Safety Strategies Workshop Leacock 738 (accessible) Using maps of campus and surrounding areas, we will use art to explore our personal experiences of those spaces and discuss accessibility, equity, and safety at McGill. This workshop is an opportunity to celebrate your favourite spaces to hang out and to share with others, or to talk about how you navigate struggles and use safety strategies to get around these spaces. Safety strategies are any tools, resources, or approaches we use in our day-to-day lives to increase feeling of safety (not just physical safety, but comfort, access, ease, etc.) in the spaces around us. The goal of the workshop is to create a personal artwork depicting your unique experience of safety, or lack thereof, on and around campus. With your consent, artwork produced during this workshop will be published as part of a digital art exhibition and zine. Facilitators: Right to Campus McGill * 3 - 5 PM - (Re)-CREATE your Visual Narrative: An Experiential Art Therapy Workshop Arts B55, The Moving Image Research Laboratory (accessible via theatre elevator; volunteers are on standby to provide directions to students with accessibility needs who would like to attend this workshop – please message sofia.misenheimer@mail.mcgill.ca for more information) This experiential art therapy workshop will explore how creating and altering images can help to externalize and reorganize the physical and emotional narrative, increase feelings of power, control, and facilitate the positive reintegration of feelings. Art materials will be provided for use and sharing will be based on each participant’s comfort level and is not an obligation. This workshop is intended for survivors of gendered & sexual violence, and those interested in experiencing the art therapy process and how it may be useful for healing. Facilitators: Marissa Singer (art therapist, MA, ATPQ) & Jessica Gardner (art therapist, MA, ATPQ) * 6 - 8 PM - How to Respond to Disclosures Brown Building, Room 5001 (accessible) Participants will learn about the prevalence of sexual violence at McGill and in the larger community, and the various impacts that sexual violence can have. You will learn how to respond to and support people affected by sexual violence by using appropriate tools and approaches. Participants will then practice these tools and methods they have learned through group activities and case scenarios. The workshop will also explore key terms and discuss common myths and misconceptions about sexual violence that may affect one's ability to effectively respond to and support disclosures. Participants will also learn about the many different support resources available on campus and in the community. Facilitator: Bianca Tétrault, Sexual Violence Education Advisor Activities in the Arts Building Lobby [Note on harm reduction: SACOMSS will provide active listeners in the Arts Lobby throughout the day. The Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education (open all day) also welcomes students in need of confidential, non-judgmental and non-directional support at 550 Sherbrooke O., Suite 585, West Tower 1-11 Elevator. Tel: 514.398.3786, 514.398.4486] *** ACTIVITIES IN THE ARTS BUILDING LOBBY 9 AM - Setting the Intention for the Day Mariana Marcassa works as a solo performance artist who understands sound as an affect that by vibrating within our bodies, connects us with the forces of life. She will lead an interactive performance, using her voice to open the event and offer paths for alternative modes of existence, expression and contact with the forces of the world. * 9 AM – 5 PM - PostSecret McGill Decorate postcards that illustrate "what you need" on campus to feel safer and heal from rape culture and gendered violence. Cards will be displayed as part of a traveling installation on campuses across Montreal and published in Art/iculation magazine. Facilitator: Sofia Misenheimer, Art/iculation magazine * 9 AM – 5PM - Colouring Station Colouring is therapeutic! Stop by for a quick colouring session, or take some of our original colouring pages home for later. Contributing artists include Ambivalently Yours, Cassie Jones, Stephanie Wereley, and Chelsey Weir. * 9 AM – 5 PM - Crea·ture Com·forts Tear up strips of used clothing, personalize them with a message, and then tie them on to a collaborative carpet. The aim is to turn negative memories into positive ones with comforting, and creative potential. Facilitator: Christina Marie Phelps * 9 AM – 5 PM - Bodymapping The Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) will offer paper silhouettes, to be coloured in by passersby. By the end of the day, the silhouettes will be filled with affirmations, illustrations, and colours representative of survivor experience, positive growth, healing, emotion, and self-defined wellbeing. This activity will be based around drawing one’s feelings in regard to their own self/experiences, but will be effectuated in a way that allows multiple people to portray their experiences within one work. * 11 AM - 1 PM - IMPACTS Booth The IMPACTS project aims to address sexual violence in all its physical and virtual forms in university contexts. We achieve this through evidence-based research and partnered collaborations to inform policies that protect and support survivors and ensure due process for alleged perpetrators. Facilitators: Dr. Carrie Rentschler, Arianne Kent & Ayesha Vemuri * 11 AM - 1 PM - SWSA Booth Stop by the Social Work Student Association (SWSA) booth to learn more about the importance of degendering bathrooms at McGill, as well as initiatives the sexual violence action committee has developed through action on sexual violence and harassment in field placements for social work students. Facilitators: Jacqueline Ohayon, Vincent Mousseau, Anne-Julie Lozeau * 12 - 3 PM - Screenprinting Bring a shirt, bag, or other item to decorate! Participants will screenprint quotes relating to the theme of empowerment, alliance, and survival. The goal of this exercise is to promote wellness and show support for survivors through clothing. Facilitator: David Rawalia, Machino * 1 - 3 PM - Consent McGill Booth The Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education (Consent McGill) provides confidential, non-judgmental and non-directional support and education to students, faculty and staff of all genders who have been impacted by sexual violence. Sexual violence and its consequences disproportionately affect members of social groups based on their intersecting experiences of oppression. Our work is informed by a survivor-centred, feminist and intersectional lens, and we seek to empower individuals impacted by sexual violence in making informed decisions based on their identified needs. * 1 - 5 PM - Scratch Back Participants will learn the basics of direct animation—animating directly on 16mm film using coloured markers on clear leader, as well as scratching into existing films to “graffiti” the images. With each frame representing 1/24 of an image, direct animation is a meditative and durational process. Participants will be invited to spend as much or as little time as they like, with the goal of producing a collective film edited together from the daylong activity. This work will eventually be projected on locations around campus and re-shot, as an intervention in the public space of campus and as a way to take back the university’s space through messages and images that speak to current conditions around sexual violence on campus, and also imagine a university without sexual assault. Facilitators: Alanna Thain (MIRL & IGSF) & Eric Craven (Atwater Library & Computer Centre) Art Installations in the Arts Building Lobby *** ART INSTALLATIONS IN THE ARTS BUILDING LOBBY Altaring Solitude: Alone, Together This secular shrine will encourage a moment of quiet self-reflection, meditation, and catharsis for passing students, faculty, and staff. Much like a Day of the Dead altar, meant to expel loss while mourning, the shrine will create an immersive space for participants to acknowledge instances of violence and pain, without erasing or suppressing their memories. Additionally, the shrine fosters awareness and understanding around sexual violence and its impact for those who might not have first hand experience or nuanced insight into the impacts of sexual violence on campus. Artists: Cassie Jones & Sofia Misenheimer * Felted Cocoon for the Deep Web A cocoon installation for caring, resting, and healing shame and guilt. From 3 – 4 PM it will host a restorative discussion facilitated by the artists and a small team of queer and inclusive learning practitioners. For more about the project, please visit: aconstellation.space/2018/02/06/felted-cocoon-for-the-deep-web Artists: Goldjian & Wyï * I'm not a Number This art installation questions the process of survivor disclosure to a trusted friend or faculty. What happens in the time between when survivors disclose and the time it takes to potentially phone a help line for resources? How might policy, training and awareness building aid in helping the community to support survivor disclosures compassionately? Come and participate in this interactive installation designed to highlight and provoke discussion about the complexity of disclosure and the need for policy and education that supports survivors disclosures. Artists: Tina Jones & Charlie Jones ***

Poster:  Illustration by Cassie Jones Colour & Design by Sofia Misenheimer