itsalwaysteatimeinwonderland

[hattedhedgehog]

Happy Pride from Wenzhou! Thank you @beastlybeverages for commissioning me to draw my favourite unhinged couple in the jianghu.

These are available as 3.5 inch charms for pre-order until June 21st, so get them while you can! Here’s the link to the pre-order.

[Image descriptions:

1: Wen Kexing chatting away and fanning himself as he tries to put his arm around disguised beggar Zhou Zishu, who blushes despite batting his hand away

2: Beggar disguised Zhou Zishu, sitting on the ground with his wine gourd.

3: Ghost Valley Master Wen Kexing, fan out and hair swishing behind him. His outfit, hair and makeup are styled for his rescue of Zhou Zishu in episode 31]

[taylorftparamore]

I'm not sure if you're interested but have you read this about Selena/her health burnthroughmyskin*tumblr*com/post/165337919738/okay-i-cant-believe-im-going-to-actually-do-this it does seem like people are forgetting about the "chronic" part of her illness

link

i want to warn before anyone responds that skimming this will be quite evident if you attempt to argue before reading as i will attempt to cover as much as i can. this will lean very “pop feminism”, however there are brushes of other types of feminism mentioned.

the thesis statement: how we view female pop stars and their recovery is a direct reflection of our society and we all have an inherent bias against women in their own narratives.

In order to best understand why people view Selena Gomez’s treatment as a “she’s healthy now and will never be sick again”, one must first examine the fear behind why one wants recovery to be as simple as “she got a new kidney, now she’ll never be sick again”. It’s the inherent fear of being sick. This is an overlap where physically disabled people, chronically ill people, addicts, and mentally ill people receive most of their discrimination. It strongly ties into the fear of growing older.

Even men get hit with it, though we are going to disregard the male experience entirely in this thesis as I have little experience with being male for obvious reasons. This will solely focus on the woman’s narrative and how it ties into other isms in our society.

With women, they are expected to be pretty, look youthful, and be healthy for as long as they possibly can. When someone at twenty-five has a chronic illness, this upsets the balance of what women are expected to be. A woman with chronic illness is expected to hide it away in shame. With the rise of social media, this is no longer something celebrities can do. A celebrity in the 1950s would be able to quietly disappear for six months then return as if nothing had happened.

Shirley Temple, the first example (and yr example) of a child starlet did not have the same circus surrounding her as she grew up. Before 2005, the only examples of stalking out a young starlet was limited to those who could afford the cameras to do so. What happened in 2005? Camera phones became easier to acquire, MySpace begin to rise in popularity, and thus our ability to stalk out celebrities became far easier too. While there’s issues regarding celebrity life before 2005, the focus is post 2005 and how it interacts with the need for a narrative.

Narrative wise, “was sick then got better” is a nicer summary than “was sick, then was fine for a bit, then was sick again, and will now need treatment until the day they died”. People don’t like it. They don’t like that Halsey’s cauterization of her womb to treat PCOS is only a treatment that might fail her. They don’t want to think about how Demi Lovato’s stint in rehab and therapy are only treatments for her addiction and bipolar disorder. They don’t want to think about how their treatment of these delicately imbalanced women can worsen their symptoms later.

Which is the crux on which this entire theory is built: people don’t want to be held responsible for their actions. They don’t want to think of Selena Gomez as being delicate in regards to her feelings towards growing up in the spotlight (in which she described being photographed on a beach at fifteen by grown men “violating”), they don’t want to think about the long term effects mocking Taylor Swift for her surprised face when she was only seventeen carrying into adulthood, they don’t want to think about how Demi Lovato hitting a dancer could have been caused by the speculation of her mental health, and they don’t want to think about how Britney Spears’s public breakdown could be their fault.

No one wants to be the bully and they want to victimize other people so they can then accuse of “playing the victim”. Playing the victim as a phrase was originally coined in reference to abusers manipulating sociological effects to appear to be innocent while utterly demonizing the victim. Oddly, the mob mentality bullying of these starlets work more of “playing the victim” than any female starlet. They are restlessly bullied then accused of being “too sensitive” the minute they cry out. They are forced into a reaction of smile and laugh politely at jokes about their mental and physical health.

So, let’s think back to 2007 - the invention of the iPhone and the rise of Twitter and the birth of Tumblr. Suddenly, social media and cameras were novelties… that allowed us to watch in real time Britney Spears shaving her head and beating Kevin Fenderline’s car with an umbrella. No longer did we have to wait for the page 6 news spread of it in US Weekly or People - we got to see it happen while it was happening. This is our first example of a public breakdown actually being public. Suddenly everyone had an opinion.

Britney Spears was crucified as a warning - step out of line, and we’ll tear you apart too. Her career was dead the very next day. While Blackout managed to regain some of her popularity back, Britney will never again reach the same heights she had pre 2007 break down. This is mostly good for her mental health, however. The 2005 darlings - Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Raven Simone, and Amanda Bynes - all now had black marks against them with social media and narrative writing all contributing to their fall.

Lindsay Lohan’s recovery is ignored, Amanda Bynes’s mental health issues ignored, and Raven Simone was left to fade into obscurity with only the occasional reminder she is still working in television. This set a precedent.

While Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, and Selena Gomez all rose at roughly the same time, there is a strict timeline to adhere to here. Taylor Swift began her career in 2005, but only started to gain traction in 2007 - the same as the rest of her contemporaries. It is with this marker that we recognize that Britney Spears’s public melt down served as a warning to these darlings - you are not human.

Thus when Demi Lovato’s breakdown started happening in 2009, she was instantly hospitalized with the excuse of “exhaustion”. Selena Gomez would later use this excuse to hide her first diagnosis with lupus. “Exhaustion” was now something none of these starlets could use because now the narrative had already taken shape: exhaustion means drug addiction. Nevermind that dancing for two hours every day and singing for two hours every day is physically exhausting for even the most abled of bodied people.

In 2011, Demi Lovato’s image was given a make over with the release of “Skyscraper” - a double edged sword. She was presented to the public as if she’d fully recovered. However, bipolar and addiction are chronic illnesses. Yet the narrative stuck - she was recovered. Now it traps her - she’s unable to backslide in public. Which means that all of Demi’s backslides must occur within conveniently timed slots which is not how backsliding works.

You might be asking “wait you mentioned Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga… I get how Halsey and Demi Lovato relate to the subject matter, but how does this tie together?” The answer is already there for you: narrative. Taylor Swift’s career path is that of a woman in total control of her narrative. This actually did not occur until 2010, in which she released Speak Now on the promotion that then 17/18 year old Swift wrote and produced the entire album by herself.

Lady Gaga, conversely, owns her narrative in total control of her sexuality. These are two things that women are not supposed to do and thus they are demonized for this. The demonization of Taylor Swift occurred during 2011/2012 - the same as Demi Lovato’s narrative of being a phoenix who rises from the ashes, the same as when Selena Gomez was first hospitalized for lupus (then described as malnutrition and exhaustion - symptoms of lupus), then same as Lady Gaga’s release of Born This Way.

Narratives are important in this new social media game, in which you want to package your starlet in a way that can be easily ate up in soundbites. Lady Gaga was “born this way”, Demi Lovato was a “phoenix”… Taylor Swift is a slut and Selena Gomez is the future trainwreck. The narratives once given are incredibly difficult to break free of. It didn’t help that Demi disparaged Selena for not visiting her in the hospital and that in 2012, Taylor Swift began to date boy band favorite with the hair extraordinaire, Harry Styles. They were now outcasts.

1989 in 2014 helped take back narrative control for Taylor Swift - until it didn’t. The same way Taylor Swift put her career back on track was the same reason it fell off again. Because Taylor Swift puts so much emphasis on controlling her own narrative, she is the most prone to receiving backlash out of all the starlets. People do not like narratives being in control of the people they wish to write them about. Selena Gomez, conversely, now has come forward and publicly admitted to having lupus. Lady Gaga’s new album is “too weird” and thus the subject of derision. The same narrative that put Halsey on the map is now used against her.

So what is the truth of it? Narrative speaking wise… women aren’t allowed to have messy, ugly, complicated narratives.

22 year old Taylor Swift who came on the scene as a pretty, hopeless romantic must have something wrong with her if she hasn’t settled down already (never mind that relationships are naturally complicated and messy and often times both partners have some fault) and is now dating an 18 year old.

Selena Gomez must be heading for a breakdown if she is checking into hospitals for exhaustion and suddenly working “less”.

Lady Gaga should be “over” her weird phase after experimenting with Born This Way.

Demi Lovato must never be allowed any freedom to backslide. Halsey must never, ever show any complaints of PCOS symptoms ever again.

The worst part is that these narratives are often written over the course of two years. It is why new female artists often have difficultly breaking past that first hit. The demand that a female celebrity gives us something to root for often outweighs the music itself. It’s why post The Voice, Cassadee Pope is finding it difficult to receive mainstream success. It is why Britney Spears’s level of fame will remain plateaued at the current level. It is why instead of viewing Lemonade for what it was (a celebration of being a black woman), there was an instant need to pry right into Beyonce’s marriage with Jay Z.

Following this, women’s narratives that are independent of men will be treated as if they have resolved only because of men. Taylor Swift’s relationship with Calvin Harris was treated as the reasoning behind her success, Demi Lovato’s relationships with men disallow her bisexuality to be seen as legit, Halsey’s own relationships with men have choked out any other thing about her, Cassadee Pope’s win was credited to Rian Dawson’s fanbase, etc.

“Recovery” becomes a meaningless word to women’s narratives if they are not allowed an independent narrative.

So what makes this reflective of our society as a whole? It shows what we value and what we mock. Women who are single are to be mocked and told they’re the problem if they do not settle for less. Women who are weird are mocked because they’re funny and not actively striving to be pretty. Women who are sick must recover in order to be seen as inspiring. These are things that we can find examples of in every given pop star. It is why Madonna is mocked - she is an older woman who is still having fun. Older women are not supposed to be fun or be single.

This leads to a conclusion that despite all our progressive beliefs on an individual level, on a societal level we’re still stuck trying to implement second wave feminism. Until we fully dismantle the ableism in the recovery narrative, we will never be able to truly reclaim women’s narratives. Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk.

[2017mdia4120-blog]

Alex Baumann 1/13/2017

1) I was lucky enough to grow up and mature with social media. My earliest memory of social media was logging onto Myspace and updating my profile page. The person with the coolest Myspace page in my school had some serious bragging rights. I would spend time picking what song I wanted to blare into peoples ears when they logged onto my profile. What background I wanted to have displayed that looks tacky now but at the time looked so cool. Also copying and pasting long HTML codes into the editing page that would hide dialog boxes making my page unique. 2) My sister was much more popular than I was in school and always had the more active Myspace and AOL messenger. I remember some days where I would want her to come outside and play but she could not be detached from her computer. When I finally asked what she was so attached to she showed me AOL messenger. At first I thought it was dumb and would much rather play with my friends than talk to them online. After a week of thinking about it and hearing other people talk about it I caved in and got one. I was immediately addicted. 3) The first blogger I subscribed to was actually a Vlogger named Zero Punctuation. He is an Australian gentleman who reviews video games. His videos are distinguishable by his bright yellow background, his very rapid speech cadence, and his nit picky remarks about games. I was very into video games when I was younger and watched his videos religiously. He was a funny guy and gave some good critiques about the games he reviewed. I do not listen to him anymore. I stopped listening to him over time and some of the jokes he makes now see a little childish. I currently listen to a Podcast that is run by two other Australian gentlemen and they sometimes talk about video games but predominately talk about comic books and comic book movies. The only similarities I have noticed is that they are Australian. I do love Australian accents and think that Australians are interesting people.  4) I am now much more active on social media and much more observant of the trends that tend to surface on social media. I try to analyse and compare what is currently popular with what seemed to be popular two weeks ago. I would like to go into marketing and knowing what is popular on social media can be very beneficial for a marketing campaign. Part 2 1)Lets Play videos YouTube is a platform for people to upload their own videos. This can lead people in many different directions when it comes to what they should upload. A trend that started a few years ago was the creation of Let's Play videos. A Let's Play video is a video where a user records themselves playing a video game. The titles are usually "Let's play (insert game title). Each user can have their own goals while playing these games. The user can aim to get through the game and show some areas that people have not gotten through. Other users use it for comedic purposes. Users like PewdiePie, who has the most subscribed channel on YouTube, got his start with Let's Play videos and was well known for them. People can go to these videos to get a laugh at how certain people react to situations in a game. People can also go to them to see how to get through a particularly difficult level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R32TaD79U50&list=PL63AA5F222E21CE9E Google hangouts A Google hangout or going 'Live' on Facebook are ways of broadcasting what a person is currently doing and connecting with friends or fans in real time. These concepts are being used more and more by celebrities. Connecting with anyone through this medium is a very personal connection. Through social media a persons idol may now appear in someones living room. This live broadcast into a celebrities life can give fans a very personal look into their life. This personal view into their life can show fans a side that might not be portrayed on the big screen. With social media people are now much more connected than ever before.   http://www.recode.net/2016/3/1/11586612/facebook-wants-celebrities-for-its-live-streaming-service-and-its Customer service on Twitter A growing trend with companies on social media is contacting their fans directly, through tweets or comments. The person that is running a major corporations social media account is humanizing that corporation by creating Tweets and contacting customers directly. Something companies are doing is monitoring what is being said about their company on sites like Twitter and addressing any problems that people may have. I have had friends who have been Tweeted directly by AT&T after they tweeted about slow service. AT&T responded to the tweet and tried to correct the issue the best way they could. This is a new way of contacting customers directly and addressing them on a medium they prefer to use. Contacting customers in this manner is more efficient and humanizes the company which can put them in a more favorable view in the customers eyes. http://mashable.com/2009/01/21/best-twitter-brands/#WPvGH_H1Ugqm 2: Predictions Live videoLive footage is already a trend in on social media that is growing in success. New features are being added to the Live feature of sites like Facebook and Google that encourage users to go Live. It is currently a very easy way for people talk to their friends or fans directly. The new plans for these videos include adding 360 views to the footage. People can put themselves in the place where the video is being  filmed. In the future people can take their online friends through things like Zipline adventures or mountain biking trails all from the comfort of their home. http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/2017-social-media-trends/ DronesDrones are a fast growing industry that has gained traction in the last year. Originally they were the equivalent of a remote controlled airplane. Now the drones are compatible with iPad and other devices that give people more user friendly ways to control them. A crowd funded project named the lily drone was a drone that would essentially take selfies. The idea was Lily could be thrown and it would follow the user around taking pictures in angles the user couldn't reach. The project failed in the end due to production issues. However, the future of social media will involve much more content that is recorded from a drone. http://www.livescience.com/52701-future-of-drones-uncertain-but-promising.htmlhttps://www.engadget.com/2017/01/12/lily-drone-is-dead-despite-34-million-in-pre-orders/ Increase in AI  According to Forrester research there is an increasing demand in machine learning. Amazon and Google are beginning to tap into the AI market with the Echo and Home devices. These devices are meant to assist with a Hands free interface. People can speak to these devices plainly and they will get the results they want. Amazon and Google are seeing great results with these devices. Machine learning is still a new area that people are still looking to explore. In the future we can expect much more AI and virtual assistants that will help post and cypher through social media. https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/12/12/trends-2017-chatbots-social-trump/