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lokisprettygirl · 1 year

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Under his influence (Post Avengers! Loki x female reader)

Read chapter 9 here // Series Masterlist

Chapter 10

Summary : Loki Meets Mrs. Geller, Things are heating up between you and him.

Warning: mention of psychological torture, angst, insecurities, self deprecating behaviour, Melissa, some much needed steam , 4k words

Note : This is the mandatory fun fluffy steamy chapter of the series (Gif is how i picture him on the bed)

"You have my phone number right?" You mumbled softly so he nodded,

"I have memorized it"

"Recite for me"

He looked at you for a moment before he proceeded to recite the number, however just to be safe you did write it on a note and shoved it in his pants pocket. This morning you woke up in his arms thanking all your stars that last night wasn't just a heavenly dream. He had to leave soon so you were enjoying most of the time you had with him, by enjoying you meant you couldn't stop kissing him.

"Give me those bird like kisses" he mumbled so you pulled away and looked at him.

"Whaaaat?" You giggled so he cupped your cheeks, placed his lips on yours and pecked you again and again until you got the point.

"You like that I see" you mumbled so he nodded, then you did the same to him until he was all giggly. God you wanted to keep him in your pocket

"Okay before you leave I want you to meet Mrs Geller" you told him so he stood up from the sofa with you in his arms.

"God sometimes I forget all about the inhuman strength" you placed your legs down but he still had his hands around your waist, holding you in the air as if you weighed nothing, you looked down at his forearms, the rolled up sleeves made him look hotter somehow, he was wearing the white shirt from last night with a pair of formal black pants.

"Mmhm you enjoy that?"

"Ohh yeah, I like the idea of you being so strong, knowing that you can just fold me in half like a log of wood with a snap of your fingers is super sexy" you whispered in his ear and his cheeks went red again. He needed his erection controlling charm. Now he had filthy images in his head about bending you over in several ways and taking you like that. Erection control charm Stat.

"Well I would never fold you in any way that would make you feel anything but delighted" it was your turn to get bashful. He was cute and sexy, the deadliest combination.

"You know what else I find sexy?" You whispered as you planted your lips on the soft skin of his neck.

"That even though you're such a strong deadly powerful man, I am the safest when I'm with you" he hummed as you said that, a smile appeared on his face. He'd always keep you safe.

Before things could get dirty, you grabbed his arm and took him with you to meet Mrs. Geller.

"I love this dress on you princess"

"You know I dressed up for you right, I mean you have seen me in my natural habitat" he chuckled as you said that.

"I have. You resemble a dainty little wild creature in your natural habitat" you gasped at the comment before you hit on his chest with your fist playfully "Especially when you hair is all matted and uncombed you look like a bear cub"

"Staaapp I'll kick your ass" you chuckled

You knocked on Mrs Geller's door and as soon as she opened it she couldn't take her eyes off him. You didn't blame her though.

"Can we come inside?" You asked her

"Of Course my dear, come come" she mumbled hurriedly so you took him in and he looked around, her apartment was similar to yours.

"Ahhh sit down please" she looked up at him so he smiled and sat down on her couch. She was even shorter than you and he didn't want her to strain her neck just to have a conversation with him.

"Mrs Geller first of all I just wanted to thank you for the last night and secondly this is Loki as you must know"

"Hello Mrs Geller" he mumbled politely so she smiled

"I am soooo confused" she let out a nervous laughter

"I know you see..you know how he escaped with the tesseract and ended up in an apartment?"

"Yes I follow Melissa McKay on Instagram, she just posted this photo.. see" she said excitedly as she showed you a picture on her Android phone and you controlled the urge to roll your eyes. People were deeply invested in this fake couple.

"Uhhh yeah about that, you see when he escaped he didn't end up in her apartment, he ended up in mine, he has been living with me for more than two months before Thor, his brother found him and took him back. Remember when Thor came to Minnesota a month ago? He wasn't just on vacation, he came for Loki" You spoke as fast as you could and her eyes widened in shock, she took a step back and stared at him, he was just looking at her with that typical confused puppy look on his face.

"Oh wow. I knew you were hiding a boy in there because I heard voices…but woww" she gulped as she finished her sentence "But what is this thing with Melissa then?"

"It's all lies, trust me I had no clue of such a thing before the press conference, i never wanted to hurt y/n like that" Loki answered her and she nodded.

"Okay let me make you both a cup of coffee" she offered but you told her that he had to leave soon.

"So what does this mean, are you seeing him?" She took you aside and questioned you,

"It's umm..we are friends "

"Best friends " he chimed in so you smiled.

"Sharp hearing " you told Mrs Geller and her eyes widened even more.

"I just know that he's someone very important to me and I don't want to lose him. Againn" you told her as sincerely as you could, you wanted her to understand that he wasn't just some guy you were seeing.

"Oh he's the one isn't he, the guy you couldn't get over" she said it as a matter of fact.

"Yes"

"Yeah I don't blame you"

You smiled and his face flushed, he was easily embarassed and you had planned to have so much fun with that knowledge.

"Ummm so can you please promise to keep this with you for now, i don't want my mom to know about all of this, I'm not ready to deal with her just now" you requested her so she hugged you and promised you that she won't share anything with your mother. You hoped she'd be able to keep that promise because she loved gossiping and you weren't ready to deal with your mother's opinion about this just yet.

She sat down next to Loki and asked him different things as if she was testing him whether he actually cared about you or not. He learned that it was her birthday tomorrow so he conjured a fluffy sweater for her as a present, it was something he had made for Frigga but never got the chance to give her.

"You can knit?" You asked him as you brought him back to your apartment

"It was just a phase where i enjoyed knitting, i have grown out of it" you cupped his cheeks and kissed him as he said that.

"You're so cute"

He smiled and kissed you back but then you suddenly pulled away from him,

"Wait i have to see this picture your fake girlfriend posted again" you grabbed your phone from the kitchen counter but he tried to snatch it away.

"You need to do no such thing darling"

"Ohhh but I do" you swiftly walked away from him to get away but he followed you,

"Why?" He asked you so you shrugged, he tried to snatch it away from you again so you ran towards your bed and unfortunately you didn't have much space to run around in your apartment, he picked you up and laid you down on the bed, you placed your hands up so he won't be able to grab the phone but your attempts were futile, he pinned both of your hands with one hand and used the other one to grab your phone then it disappeared. Damn super strength and magicky stuff.

"I don't want you to hurt yourself like that, you hear me?" you bit on your lip at his sharp commanding tone.

"Mmmhmm" you hummed in response

"She means nothing to me'

"And I do" that wasn't a question but a statement, you knew he cared about you, if he didn't he never would have come back for you. And he definitely wouldn't have been there on top of you at the moment.

"You do, only you do" he whispered as he leaned down to kiss your forehead.

He couldn't stop staring at your lips so he lowered down and kissed you, he didn't let go of your hands and kept them pinned over your head while his other arm grabbed your thigh and he curled it around his waist one by one.

This definitely was the most sexual kiss you have had with him until now, or with anyone really, your body felt warm, weak and tingly all over, you just wanted him to keep going and do whatever he wanted to do with you, however a knock on your window made you gasp in his mouth. You craned your neck up and so did he to look at the window, Thor was standing on the other side with a huge smirk on his face

Loki immediately let go of you and then he helped you off the bed like the gentleman that he was. How come he wasn't aroused by that kiss? You felt it deep in your soul but when you had your legs around him you felt nothing, no bulge. Nothing.

"Okay give me my phone or we won't be able to talk" you placed your palm forward so he conjured your phone and gave it back to you. You wanted to kiss him but you could feel Thor's eyes on you both so you looked at him and he turned around, he made sure that you both saw him rolling his eyes.

"Okay call me whenever you can..I'll miss you" you mumbled as you kissed him, your eyes were teary and they made him sad too. He wished he could have taken you with him or better he wished he could have stayed here but it wasn't possible. He was on a probation, if he was to fuck up again he'd be sent back to Asgard and he didn't want to go so far away from you at any cost.

"I will ring you tonight only i promise" you smiled as he said that before your arms curled around his neck so you could hug him tightly, once you had your fill, you walked him towards the window and he somehow stepped out even though the window was too small for his large frame.

"Ummm hiiii and thank you for your help" you said to Thor and raised your hand forward so he shook it gently.

"My pleasure lady y/n" you smiled at him before you diverted your attention back to loki.

"Take care okay? And eat and miss me" you told him as you fixed the collar of his shirt and it made him smile. Norns he found you all kinds of precious.

"You do that too please, no more skipping meals" he mumbled softly so you nodded.

When he left you sat down on your bed, you needed a moment, everything felt so good when he was there but as soon as he was gone you felt gloomy again. Oh the rush of the new love, well technically this was your first love since you have never actually been in this sort of love before.

You picked up your phone and despite his resistance you couldn't help but stalk Melissa again, she had posted a picture with him where he was looking at the camera, a small smile on his face while she was looking at him like a love sick school girl. Now you knew why his eyes seemed that way, he was sad and miserable. She had tagged a profile so you opened it and it belonged to Loki but you didn't think he was the actual owner of the account, he probably didn't even know about it.

He already had like 200k followers and that shocked you.

As Thor and Loki reached the tower, loki used the invisibility charm to disappear, when Tony spotted Thor he stormed towards him.

"Where is that reckless brother of yours?" He asked Thor, even though Loki was right next to him Tony obviously couldn't see him, Loki took off his shoes and started to tiptoe around Tony so he could get away without being noticed.

"How would I know I just returned from my morning stroll? What a beautiful morning in midgard today" he smiled widely.

"Well he missed the training sesh with Cap, you know he can't leave the tower without permission right?"

"Did you even check his chamber thoroughly?" Thor asked him, hoping that Loki was back to his room by now.

"I knocked ..he didn't open up"

"Norns, he must have consumed buckets of midgardian liquor at the celebration last night" Both Thor and Tony walked towards Loki's room together and knocked loudly, a moment later Loki opened the door, looking half asleep and hungover out of his mind.

"You really need to set an alarm" Tony told him before he walked away, as soon as he was out of sight Loki waved his fingers and he was back to looking his perfect self.

"We have to be more careful than this, you can not be out this late in the morning" Thor said as he huffed

"I am being treated like a prisoner"

"You are a prisoner" Loki rolled his eyes and shut the door on Thor's face. After an hour he stepped out of his room in order to not make them more suspicious of him. He wanted to call you and hear your sweet voice but you must have been at your workplace already and he didn't want to bother you or distract you.

He was trying to find something to eat in the kitchen but as soon as he spotted Melissa his appetite died.

He didn't say anything but she kept walking towards him and then she hugged him.

"I'm sorry about my behavior last night..i was drunk" she smiled so he pulled her away.

"That is fine, just, do not embrace me without my permission" he told her as he pushed her away by holding onto her shoulders.

"Honestly, what is your problem?" She asked him as she crossed her arms. Sometimes she scared him but not in a good way.

"Where should I begin?" She glared at him at the sarcastic response.

"I'm just trying to be your friend here Loki"

Okay now he was actually upset by her. She was starting to take the fake relationship too seriously, he already had a friend, he didn't need more and especially not the ones who he knew just wanted to hurt him and use him for their own benefit.

"You don't want to be my friend, you want to be my concubine so let us not even play pretend here"

She got upset by his words and stormed out of there, why didn't he want her? She was attractive, several guys would have killed to be with someone like her.

In the evening Loki was being interviewed along with Melissa so you sat down on the couch with a glum look on your face. You hated seeing him with her,

"So Melissa tell me about the moment when you knew he was the one" You saw her blushing at the question, she was sitting so close to him and only you could tell how uncomfortable he was.

"That would be the moment when he kissed me for the first time, the moment we kissed I just felt this chemistry between us, this scorching heat and it was the most amazing thing in the world" No not the heat, the heat was yours. How much did he tell her about you? You felt a little upset but the thought of him talking about you made you feel warm immediately. He talked about you when he didn't know of her intentions, he had a gorgeous woman in front of him but he was only interested in talking about you.

"Fuckkk yeahh" you let out a noise of excitement. If your exes knew who you were seeing they would seethe and burn, nobody wants their exes to date someone better than them, and you were literally being blessed by a real god.

"Loki what was your first thought when you met her, I am sure it must have been terrifying especially since it was right after the chitauri attack and she must have been scared by your presence"

Well you were scared out of your mind at first but then he won you over with his calming personality.

Loki placed his fingers on his lips, a smile appeared on his lips as he thought about you, he didn't even look at Melissa before he answered.

"I often think about that and I wonder why I was taken there, the tesseract could have sent me anywhere in the universe but somehow It took me to that tiny little apartment in mi..New York City" he corrected himself immediately before he continued to speak "That space belonged to such a sweet precious angel and it is fearsome when I think of it now because a miniscule amount of deviation in time, even just a mere fraction of second could have diverted my destination but it knew, the tesseract knew, i suppose I ended up in the right place at the right time" his eyes glittered as he spoke and yours teared up. The studio audience cooed at his response so Melissa kissed his cheek.

"He wasn't talking about you dumbass" you groaned as you muttered to yourself.

At night you laid down on the bed with your phone stuck to your chest, you were waiting for his phone call desperately, you missed him already and it was killing you. As soon as your phone rang you picked it up,

"I thought you wouldn't call at all tonight"

"What?" You heard your mother's voice and your eyes widened, probably should have checked the number, you were glad you didn't say his name.

"Ummm hey mom you know i wanted to talk about the party, Mrs Geller invited you right?" You gulped.

"Yes, I'll just stay with you tomorrow night, David won't be able to join me" she mumbled so you hummed in response, you just hoped Mrs Geller wouldn't tell your mom anything about Loki. As she hung up you took a deep breath but your heard your phone ringing again so you picked it up, maybe she forgot to criticize you for something and remembered just now

"Yes mommmm" you heard him chuckling on the other side and your face flushed.

"Darling, I know your mother can be overbearing but replacing her with me is hardly the solution" he said to you so you chuckled in response

"I'm sorry I was just talking to her, i thought you wouldn't call tonight"

"Oh I promised, didn't i? I just got back to my chamber"

"Chamber huh"

"Rooooooom..happy? Is that better"

"Uh Huh"

"I have missed you princess"

"I have missed you more"

"Well that can be argued"

"I will win"

"Perhaps you will lose"

"Yeah how?"

He paused for a moment before he spoke again.

"Ohhh. Did you see me on the television today?"

"I might have"

"Well then I am afraid you have lost already"

"How come?" You giggled and it made him smile.

"Because you got to see me and you heard me speaking but I went all day long with just memories of you in my head" you bit on your cheek as he said that. Smooth fucker

"Okay I'll let you win this time"

"Thank you, I truly wish I was there darling "

"I know..me too. Good thing I stole your suit jacket last night"

"You devious woman, I need to learn this game, are you wearing it?"

"Mmmhmmm I am" your voice turned sultry and it made his breath hitch in his chest.

"Ohh norns "

"And I'm wearing nothing underneath" you mumbled and then you heard the sound of his telephone hitting the floor, his mouth opened wide as he pictured you on that tiny bed, with you wearing nothing but just his jacket.

"Lokiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" you whispered his name so he came back to reality.

"I am here, you have painted a sensuous picture for me"

"Mmmhmmm i didn't know this was going to be that type of phone call" his cock went hard as he heard your flirtatious voice, fortunately he didn't have to fix it with the charm this time, he can be as hard as he wanted and he could also touch himself.

"It doesn't have to be sweetheart"

"Goddddd you're cuteeee" you giggled and it made him smile. Your comfort came first always.

"Lokiii"

"Mhhhm"

"How do you look right now? Do you have clothes on?" He gulped again, how come a mortal made him so nervous?

"Just a trouser"

"That's nice, that's how I was picturing you anyways" your voice almost came out in whispers and he placed his free palm on his bulge to calm himself down. His mouth opened and eyes closed as he couldn't help but think of your half naked body underneath him.

"Can I ask you a dirty question?" You smiled as he said that.

"Mmmmhmmm go ahead"

"The jacket, are they buttoned all the way up or you left them unlatched, if I was to look at you right now would I see your bare skin?" He questioned softly and it almost threatened a moan to escape from your throat, the man you fancied and lusted after was thinking of you in such a way, it made you squeeze your thighs involuntarily.

"I left them all open lo"

"Norns darling you're killing me" his sexy husky voice melted in your ear and you pictured him right next to you

"And it smells like you lo, i smell like you, it's like you're right here holding me, whispering in my ear" you bit on your lips as you finished your sentence. His hand rubbed over his clothed bulge and then he realised something.

"Darling?"

"Mmmhmm?"

"You're not wearing my jacket are you?" He asked you so you chuckled.

"Would you be upset if I say no?"

"Not at all, you can have all the fun you desire, i fancy such harmless mischievous pranks, i wasn't named god of mischief for kicks and giggles"

"oh my god..So do I. Thank you, you really do get me" your eyes teared up at the intense emotions you were having at the moment, it was a mixture of arousal and the deep affection you felt for him. You were so in love with him.

"Mmmhmmm you're a naughty naughty girl, that is fascinating" you chuckled as he said that.

"Well at least you find me fascinating"

"You are amazing princess, never let anyone make you feel differently"

"Okayy if you say so"

You both talked for an hour, everytime you said something sexy his cock got hard immediately, he desperately wanted you to touch him but he had no problem staying patient as well, this thing between you two wasn't just romantic and definitely not just sexual, he needed your friendship and he wanted to be your confidante, your one and only, he just hoped his feelings were reciprocated. He always feared that he'd do something or say something that would turn you off and make you see him differently.

He took a deep breath and smiled, he was tired from the day but knowing that he wasn't going to lose you made him feel calm. He couldn't even describe in words how much he valued your presence in his life, the past month felt torturous for him, his heart felt empty and devoid of any emotion but since last night those cracks were starting to fill again with your care and possibly love. Did you love him? He hoped so because he was falling deeply and irrevocably for you. How could he not when you were nothing short of a goddess for him.

You said your goodbyes, though it wasn't something any of you wanted but you had to cut the call at some point and sleep. Next day you got ready for Mrs Geller's birthday party and you weren't expecting to see the whole building plus several other people you didn't know at all. It was a small apartment so that's why it looked even more crowded, your mom had come too and you looked at Mrs Geller nervously but she assured you that your secret was safe with her. .

You went to her kitchenette to make yourself a drink but you gasped as you felt a pair of arms circling around your waist.

You turned around and placed your hand on his chest, you couldn't see him but you knew he was there because you could touch him and you could definitely smell that scent of him that drove you crazy..

"What are you doing?" You asked him as quietly as you could, you made sure nobody was looking at you because they would definitely think you were a lunatic for talking to the air. He leaned closer to whisper in your ear. He was playing a dangerous game but you were into this game.

"I'm here to take revenge for last night, you lied to me sweetheart, you didn't think I'd let it slide so easily, did you?"

🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠

Tag list (if you want to be tagged or removed let me know.. also I’m not able to tag some of you, please check your settings)

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#loki x female reader #loki #loki x reader fluff #loki x reader #loki x reader insert #loki x reader fic #loki x you #loki x reader angst #loki x reader smut #post avengers loki #canon divergent au #soft loki

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bestiarium · 1 year

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The Ala demon and Ardat Lili [Babylonian mythology; Mesopotamian mythology]

Hailing from ancient Mesopotamian stories, the Ala was described as a floating, amorphous cloud, and like many other evil entities, it was mainly active at night. This evil, cloud-like monster would stalk the streets of human settlements in search for a victim. After choosing someone to haunt, it would enter their house without difficulty and envelop the sleeping victim. Those who have been attacked by these creatures tend to have difficulty falling asleep, often lose their appetite and also develop general depression.

But the Ala demon also had a very particular effect on its victims: it usually attacked sleeping men and would cause them to ejaculate in their sleep. As such, it is likely that the myth of the Ala arose as a way to explain wet dreams. It’s actually not alone in that regard: in Babylonian mythology, the Ardat Lili – which means ‘maiden of the night’ – was another demon or creature that caused sleeping men to ejaculate. These female spirits would approach and arouse men at night. They were also known to ‘satisfy themselves’ with sleeping men, thus explaining the wet spot in their bed.

Supposedly (though I am not entirely certain about this), the Ardat Lili were the undead ghosts of human women who died as virgins. Since they never had the opportunity to experience sex during their lifetime, they would haunt the world of the living and seek out sleeping men.

Sources: Bane, T., 2014, Encyclopedia of Demons in World Religions and Cultures, McFarland, 416 pp. Jastrow, M., 1893, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Handbooks on the History of Religions Volume II, Ginn & Company, 782 pp. Pick, D. and Roper, L., 2004, Dreams and History: the interpretation of dreams from Ancient Greece to modern psychoanalysis, 289 pp. Citing from ‘Geller, M., 1997, Freud, Magic and Mesopotamia: How the Magic Works, Folklore, 108, p.3’ (image 1: ‘Infernal Apparition’ by Paul Lormier, 1848. This image is often associated with the Ardat Lili spirits but remember it was drawn much later) (image source 2: ‘air elemental’ by SarahMillerCreations on Deviantart. I thought it fit the description of an evil, cloud-like entity)

#Babylonian mythology #Mesopotamian mythology #undead #spirits #demons #ghosts #creatures #mythical creatures

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apod · 4 years

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2020 November 4

Fifty Gravitational Wave Events Illustrated Image Credit: LIGO Virgo Collaborations, Frank Elavsky, Aaron Geller, Northwestern U.

Explanation: Over fifty gravitational wave events have now been detected. These events mark the distant, violent collisions of two black holes, a black hole and a neutron star, or two neutron stars. Most of the 50 events were detected in 2019 by the LIGO gravitational wave detectors in the USA and the VIRGO detector in Europe. In the featured illustration summarizing the masses of the first 50 events, blue dots indicate higher-mass black holes while orange dots denote lower-mass neutron stars. Astrophysicists are currently uncertain, though, about the nature of events marked in white involving masses that appear to be in the middle -- between two and five solar masses. The night sky in optical light is dominated by nearby and bright planets and stars that have been known since the dawn of humanity. In contrast, the sky in gravitational waves is dominated by distant and dark black holes that have only been known about for less than five years. This contrast is enlightening -- understanding the gravitational wave sky is already reshaping humanity's knowledge not only of star birth and death across the universe, but properties of the universe itself.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201104.html

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leahgolds · 3 years

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Notes on post BLM. Have children’s book publishers opinions changed?

At the beginning of writing my essay I looked at the publisher Andrea Shavick who suggested that in order to avoid problems with upsetting anyone from another culture, one should use an animal as the character of their story. My argument to this was that, this doesn’t help the problem of the lack of diversity and only puts a plaster over the situation without trying to fix it.

While the Black Lives Matter Movement started in 2013, the world started to take more notice in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered by police. Everywhere people started to look at themselves and society and questioned whether we were doing enough to be anti-racist.

“It is not enough to say you aren’t racist, you have to be anti-racist”

- This has been often quoted though out the protests and is also very relevant to the world of book publishers.

Philip Nel - Was the Cat in the Hat Black?:

. To dismantle systemic racism - starting with children - we need to produce, promote and read a range of books that explore BAME characters.

. It is not enough to teach tolerance, we must respect difference

. We must understand that not only mean people are racist

. White people must use their privilege to help

Fig 1: David Huyck, Sarah Park Dahlen, infographic, Diversity in children’s books, 2018

. “Children’s literature continues to misrepresent underrepresented communities, and we wanted this infographic to show not just the low quantity of existing literature, but also the inaccuracy and uneven quality of some of those books”

Alison Flood:

. Only 1% of British children’s books featured a main character who was black, Asian or minority ethnic, the proportion has increased to 5%

. Far more likely to encounter an animal protagonist when reading a book for children than a main character sharing any non-white ethnicity

. Representation increased to 10%, up from 7% in 2018 and 4% in 2017. This is still well below 33.5%, the proportion of primary school aged children in England who are from a minority ethnic background

. “We want to encourage the publishing industry just to continue to strive for better.” - Farrah Serroukh

. “Things are going in the right direction, but these things take a long time to change, and they need everybody to work together on them,” - Jill Coleman (director of children’s books at BookTrust)

. Coleman “I think there has been quite a change in people’s attitudes, due to all sorts of things going on - not least Black Lives Matter, which really did impact on publishers. Publishers - are much more interested in making change, and are aware that the situation is not a good one.”

. BookTrust is challenging the publishing industry to increase the number of creators of colour in the UK to 13% by 2022, when it will publish its next report

Sarah Garland:

Fig 2: Sarah Garland, Billy and Belle, 2004, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, London

. “I was just trying to show things as they are - it wasn’t meant to be an issue” - Garland

. In 2004 the portrayal of a mixed raced family bought on unusual controversial

. The sales marketing department said it would be difficult to sell this book globally - What Shavick warned about

. Garland has received many letters from families like the ones in her books thanking her for representing them - Always goes back to the importance of feeling seen and represented

Karen Sands-OConnor:

. “Reading about people who are like yourself affects both your self-image and the likelihood you will enjoy reading”

. “if the world of children’s books doesn’t include people who look like you, it is difficult to feel welcomed into reading” - Darren Chetty

. Authors of colour often feel isolated within the publishing industry. They don’t feel they have as much freedom with what they can write about as white authors

. If there are black characters, they are mostly ‘sidekicks’

. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie stressed in her 2009 Ted talk on the danger of a single story, that representation affects the reader’s perception of who matters in books

. Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books, began dedicating some of its collecting efforts to culturally diverse children’s literature in 2015

. “Publishing is a market-driven industry. If books aren’t selling, publishers can make the case that there is no audience - therefore they do not need to publish more books with characters of colour”

Farrah Serroukh and Karen Sands O'Connor:

. Over 30 years ago, in 1987, author and publisher Verna Wilkins founded Tamarind Books

. Wilkins was concerned that so few children’s books included Black and minority ethnic characters and the effect this had on children

. This independent publishing house focused on challenging the representation imbalance, producing quality inclusive literature that featured BAME children and children with disabilities

. Because of Wilkins, several independent publishers have emerged in the UK to create inclusive books that show a range of characters and experiences

. These include: Alanna Max, Child’s Play, Knights Of Lantana, Anna McQuinn and Tiny Owl

Charlotte Eyre:

. Some publishers have been called out for failing to take the situation (mis-representation) more seriously sooner and for not doing more to find or promote diverse talent

. Hachette UK donated £20,000 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund

. "There will now be a desire to read new voices and listen to the unheard and buy the books by those who - up to now - have been ignored by the mainstream" - agent and Curtis Brown chair Jonny Geller

. “To agents/editors popping up now to ask black authors to send submissions to them - where was this energy before?" - Headline commissioning editor Katie Packer

. Publishers and writers started posting reading lists on social media of books by BAME authors

. Quite a few made statements that they ‘stand against racism and discrimination in all forms’

Image caption:

Fig 1: Dahlen, S. (2019). Picture this: Diversity in children’s books 2018 Infographic. [Online] available at: https://readingspark.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/picture-this-diversity-in-childrens-books-2018-infographic/ [accessed 22.3.21]

Fig 2: Billy and Belle. [Online] available at: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-670-84396-1 [accessed 22.3.21]

Bibliography:

Eyre, C. (2020). Publishers, agents and authors continue to respond to Black Lives Matter protests. [Online] available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/publishers-and-authors-respond-to-black-lives-matter-protests-1205749 [accessed 21.3.21]

Ferguson, H. (2020). It is not enough to say you aren’t racist, you have to be anti-racist. [Online] available at: https://www.cipd.co.uk/news-views/news-articles/end-racism-at-work#gref [accessed 22.3.21]

Lawrance, S. & Wilson, J. (2015). Drawn from the archive - hidden histories of illustration. Seven Stories Publications. Newcastle. [accessed 28.2.21]

Nel, P. (2019). Was the Cat in the Hat black? : the hidden racism of children’s literature, and the need for diverse books. Oxford University Press. New York. [accessed 7.2.21]

Sands-OConnor, K. (2019). British children’s books are still too white – responsibility to change them is on all involved. [Online] available at: https://theconversation.com/british-childrens-books-are-still-too-white-responsibility-to-change-them-is-on-all-involved-126853 [accessed 7.2.21]

Serroukh, F. Karen. & O'Connor, S. (2020). Go deeper: Reflecting on black presence in children’s books. [Online] available at: https://www.bl.uk/childrens-books/articles/reflecting-on-black-presence-in-childrens-books [accessed 18. 2. 21]

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Psychiatry Confronts Its Racist Past, and Tries to Make Amends Dr. Benjamin Rush, the 18th-century doctor who is often called the “father” of American psychiatry, held the racist belief that Black skin was the result of a mild form of leprosy. He called the condition “negritude.” His onetime apprentice, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, spread the falsehood throughout the antebellum South that enslaved people who experienced an unyielding desire to be free were in the grip of a mental illness he called “drapetomania,” or “the disease causing Negroes to run away.” In the late 20th century, psychiatry’s rank and file became a receptive audience for drug makers who were willing to tap into racist fears about urban crime and social unrest. (“Assaultive and belligerent?” read an ad that featured a Black man with a raised fist that appeared in the “Archives of General Psychiatry” in 1974. “Cooperation often begins with Haldol.”) Now the American Psychiatric Association, which featured Rush’s image on its logo until 2015, is confronting that painful history and trying to make amends. In January, the 176-year-old group issued its first-ever apology for its racist past. Acknowledging “appalling past actions” on the part of the profession, its governing board committed the association to “identifying, understanding, and rectifying our past injustices,” and pledged to institute “anti-racist practices” aimed at ending the inequities of the past in care, research, education and leadership. This weekend, the A.P.A. is devoting its annual meeting to the theme of equity. Over the course of the three-day virtual gathering of as many as 10,000 participants, the group will present the results of its yearlong effort to educate its 37,000 mostly white members about the psychologically toxic effects of racism, both in their profession and in the lives of their patients. Dr. Jeffrey Geller, the A.P.A.’s outgoing president, made that effort the signature project of his one-year term of office. “This is really historic,” he said in a recent interview. “We’ve laid a foundation for what should be long-term efforts and long-term change.” Dr. Cheryl Wills, a psychiatrist who chaired a task force exploring structural racism in psychiatry, said the group’s work could prove life-changing for a new generation of Black psychiatrists who will enter the profession with a much greater chance of knowing that they are valued and seen. She recalled the isolation she experienced in her own early years in medicine, and the difficulty she has had in finding other Black psychiatrists to whom she can refer patients. “It’s an opportunity of a lifetime,” she said. “In psychiatry, just like any other profession, it needs to start at the top,” she said of her hope for change. “Looking at our own backyard before we can look elsewhere.” For critics, however, the A.P.A.’s apology and task force amount to a long-overdue, but still insufficient, attempt at playing catch-up. They point out that the American Medical Association issued an apology in 2008 for its more than 100-year history of having “actively reinforced or passively accepted racial inequalities and the exclusion of African-American physicians.” “They’re taking these tiny, superficial, palatable steps,” said Dr. Danielle Hairston, a task force member who is also president of the A.P.A.’s Black caucus and the psychiatry residency training director at Howard University College of Medicine. “People will be OK with saying that we need more mentors; people will be OK with saying that we’re going to do these town halls,” she continued. “That’s an initial step, but as far as real work, the A.P.A has a long way to go.” The question for the organization — with its layers of bureaucracy, widely varied constituencies and heavy institutional tradition — is how to get there. Critics operating both inside and outside the A.P.A. say that it still must overcome high hurdles to truly address its issues around racial equity — including its diagnostic biases, the enduring lack of Black psychiatrists and a payment structure that tends to exclude people who can’t afford to pay out of pocket for services. “All these procedural structures that are in place are helping to perpetuate the system and keep the system functioning the way it was designed to function,” said Dr. Ruth Shim, the director of cultural psychiatry and professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, who left the A.P.A. in frustration last summer. They all add up, she said, to “an existential crisis in psychiatry.” A racist history White psychiatrists have pathologized Black behavior for hundreds of years, wrapping up racist beliefs in the mantle of scientific certainty and even big data. The A.P.A. was first called the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, according to Dr. Geller, who last summer published an account of psychiatry’s history of structural racism. The group came into being in the wake of the 1840 federal census, which included a new demographic category, “insane and idiotic.” The results were interpreted by pro-slavery politicians and sympathetic social scientists to find a considerably higher rate of mental illness among Black people in the Northern states than among those in the South. In the decades following Reconstruction, prominent psychiatrists used words like “primitive” and “savage” to make the cruelly racist claim that Black Americans were unfit for the challenges of life as independent, fully enfranchised citizens. T.O. Powell, superintendent of the infamous State Lunatic Asylum in Milledgeville, Ga., and president of the American Medico-Psychological Association (the precursor to the A.P.A.), went so far as to outrageously state in 1897 that before the Civil War, “there were comparatively speaking, few Negro lunatics. Following their sudden emancipation their number of insane began to multiply.” Psychiatry continued to pathologize — and sometimes demonize — African-Americans, with the result that, by the 1970s, the diagnosis of psychosis was handed out so often that the profession was essentially “turning schizophrenia into a Black man’s disorder of aggression and agitation,” said Dr. Hairston, a contributor to the 2019 book, “Racism and Psychiatry.” Since then, numerous studies have shown that an almost all-white profession’s lack of attunement to Black expressions of emotion — and its frequent conflation of distress with anger — have led to an under-diagnosis of major depression, particularly in Black men, and an overreliance upon the use of antipsychotic medications. Black patients are less likely than white patients to receive appropriate medication for their depression, according to a 2008 report published in “Psychiatric Services.” Fixing the problem To change course, and serve Black patients better, organized psychiatry is going to need to make a higher priority of training doctors to really listen, said Dr. Dionne Hart, a Minneapolis psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist and an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. “We checked a lot of boxes publicly,” she said in an interview. “Now we have to do the work. We have to show we’re committed to undoing the harm and working with all of our colleagues from all over the country to recognize trauma and acknowledge trauma where it exists and get people appropriate treatment.” Psychiatrists lean liberal, and many say that people with mental illness are a marginalized and underserved group. In 1973, the A.P.A. made history by removing “homosexuality” as a psychiatric diagnosis from the second edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. But the kind of soul searching that occurred around that decision has taken much longer with race. Psychiatry today remains a strikingly white field where only 10.4 percent of practitioners come from historically underrepresented minority groups, who now make up nearly 33 percent of the U.S. population, according to a 2020 study published in “Academic Psychiatry.” That study found that in 2013, Black Americans were only 4.4 percent of practicing psychiatrists. The discipline’s history of pathologizing Black people — to “regard Black communities as seething cauldrons of psychopathology,” as three reform-minded authors put it in 1970 in the American Journal of Psychiatry — has deterred some Black medical students from entering the profession. “Some people in my family, even now won’t say that I’m a psychiatrist,” Dr. Hairston noted. “A family member told me on my match day that she was disappointed that I had matched to psychiatry and not another specialty — it seemed like I was letting the family down.” The difficulty in finding a Black psychiatrist can put a damper on the willingness of Black patients to seek treatment. And psychiatric help is also strikingly inaccessible for patients without money. Psychiatry is an outlier among other medical specialties for the extent to which its practitioners choose not to participate in public or private health insurance programs. In 2019, a study by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission found that psychiatrists were the least likely medical providers to accept any type of health insurance: Just 62 percent were accepting new patients with either commercial plans or Medicare, while an even more anemic 36 percent were accepting new patients using Medicaid. In contrast, across all providers, 90 percent reported accepting new patients with private insurance, 85 percent said they accepted those with Medicare and 71 percent were willing to see Medicaid patients. Many psychiatrists say they do not participate in health insurance because the reimbursement rates are too low. A 2019 study showed that, nationwide, reimbursement rates for primary care physicians were almost 24 percent higher than for mental health practitioners — including psychiatrists. In 11 states, that gap widened to more than 50 percent. The A.P.A.’s advocacy in this particular area of equity has focused on pushing for full insurer compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, a 2008 law that requires health insurance plans that provide mental health care coverage to do so at a level comparable to what they provide for physical health care. While the profession hopes for higher reimbursement rates, the gap that affects patients, in the short term, is inequitable access to treatment. “The thing that’s always bothered me the most in the practice of psychiatry is, you can talk about your commitment to things like equity, but if you have a system where a lot of people can’t get access, so many patients are cut off from access to quality care,” said Dr. Damon Tweedy, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University and the author of “Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine.” “What are our values?” said Dr. Tweedy, who sees patients at the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System. “We might say one thing, but our actions suggest another.” Source link Orbem News #Amends #confronts #Psychiatry #racist

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robgraceinc · 4 years

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The Art + History of the Mid century Roof-line: Butterfly... While many credit architect William Krisel with the creation of the butterfly roof, his credit belongs only to bringing the design to the masses through his 1957 neighborhood in Palm Springs, Calif. Illustration by Christian Musselman. An artistic representation of the modernist spirit, the butterfly roof appears as the wings of its namesake bug mid-flight. The butterfly roof is simple in its beauty and functionality. It is as if the low-slung roof was pressed down at its apex, tipping the usually downward-angled roof up towards the sky. Aside from offering incredible mid-mod curb appeal, this inverted style creates space for windows set high along the roofline. The unusual placement allows copious amounts of natural light into the house without compromising on the privacy of its dwellers. While many credit architect William Krisel with the creation of the butterfly roof, his credit belongs only to bringing the design to the masses through his 1957 neighborhood in Palm Springs, Calif. The first sketch and planned butterfly roof was designed by architect Le Corbusier in 1930. That project never took flight, and architect Antonin Raymond created a similar home to Le Corbusier’s design in Japan. Marcel Breuer was then inspired and built the Geller House in Long Island, New York, in 1945. A) Image posted is by local artist @dannyhellerart To see more of his incredible art go to: http://www.dannyhellerart.com B) If your looking to buy a new home; Check out this newly constructed, #MCM inspired, high desert listing with a Butterfly roof-line! Select this link: https://leaskoupartners.com/…/yucca-val…/9220-hermosa-avenue #art #butterflyroof #architecture #realestate #bhgre #bhgreleaskoupartners #palmspringssocial @robgraceca @bhg.leaskoupartners @bhgrealestate @bleaskou (at BHGRE Leaskou Partners) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBec6aoDtFP/?igshid=1ptve0zwi65ga

#mcm #art #butterflyroof #architecture #realestate #bhgre #bhgreleaskoupartners #palmspringssocial

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bk-lostintranslation · 4 years

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ESSAY: The Law vs. Justice - A Troubling Dichotomy

"...Depictions of policemen – and recently, policewomen – as flawed but essentially courageous figures whose blatant disregard of rules should be forgiven because they care too much, fails to address a grim history of due process abuses by burying them beneath the facile premise of action-packed hijinks or zany comedy.”

In text or film, police stories run parallel to a mosaic of much-loved tropes and familiar cinematics: the steely-eyed officer staring down the barrel of a gun as he confronts the perp; the ubiquitous car-chase through a glittering metropolitan mise-en-scéne to the counterpoint of screeching tires and wild jazz; the athletic detective pursuing the antagonist through an urban maze of rooftops and stairwells, guns blazing and adrenaline pumping; the hard-edged police duo pummeling a snitch to a bloody pulp in a trash-strewn alleyway until he confesses to the information they're after. Genres switch from comedy to drama; protagonists evolve from stoic sleuths with a spotless badge and an unswerving mission to wisecracking cynics whose broken moral compass belies a heart of gold. Yet, as key figures in a discursive construction of culture, each character is elevated to near-sacrosanct levels of heroism for one reason: he will unflinchingly use violence to achieve his ends – not because he disregards the law, but because he has taken it upon himself to uphold justice. The dichotomy between the two, while incontestably age-old, is remarkable because the idea that one is an obstacle to achieving the other is a recurrent theme in law enforcement fiction – and because it appears to at once enable and ennoble police violence.

A cursory glance toward contemporary entertainment reveals how saturated it is with alternately gripping or poignant portrayals of the police – be they crime dramas, infotainment or film. Yet, when perusing a majority of these media-created depictions, it is also essential to note the dark skein of violence that runs through the narrative, framed as a necessity to maintain control within a gritty backdrop of urban decay (Deflem, 2010). From television shows like Law & Order, CSI Miami, The Wire and Chicago PD, which feature hard-nosed protagonists roughing up their suspects as par for the course, to critically-acclaimed films such as The French Connection (1971), Dirty Harry (1971), and Die Hard (1988), which showcase the ideal cop as a trigger-happy maverick willing to flout both institutional and legal safeguards to catch their perp, to more recent buddy-cop comedies such as The Heat (2013), where the quirky, would-be feminist twist attempts to call attention away from flagrant police abuses, there is a pervasive message that police brutality and misconduct are the panacea to clean up a city seething with crime.

The execution of this concept is certainly exciting from a storytelling standpoint. After all, there are countless instances where the law is stymied by historical framing, its message and purview a product of its times. Neither ironclad nor teleological, laws evolve according to their own methodology, not in smooth sequences but in messy, haphazard, often incoherent increments that reflect the protean nature of society itself (Hutchinson, 2005). However, the diegesis of law vs. justice becomes fraught with complications when it is used repeatedly to promulgate fictional constructs as truth – to frame violence as the only means to fight fire with fire, with the hero cop acting in the best interests of the underdog, against antagonists who will ultimately and most deservedly be trounced in a simplistic narrative arc of Good versus Evil (Geller, 1997; Jacobson, Picart & Greek, 2017). Unfortunately, what these formulas tend to overlook – either due to disingenuity or pure carelessness – is how they function as propaganda pieces for institutions already entangled in civil rights violations. More to the point, their depictions of policemen – and recently, policewomen – as flawed but essentially courageous figures whose blatant disregard of rules should be forgiven because they care too much, fails to address a grim history of due process abuses by burying them beneath the facile premise of action-packed hijinks or zany comedy.

To be sure, crime dramas have been a popular staple of entertainment for decades. In their work, Media and Crime in the U.S, criminologists Yvonne Jewkes and Travis Linnemann remark that crime films are "arguably the most enduring of all cinematic genres..." and that their attraction is rooted in the fact that they "reassure us that criminal behaviors can be explained and serious offenses can be solved. They offer immutable definitions of 'the crime problem' and guide our emotional responses to it" (2017, p. 173). But beyond the comforts of catharsis and closure, these films provide an intimate view into worlds that exist as ciphers to the general public. Research has repeatedly shown that viewers glean knowledge of law enforcement not from direct interaction with said entities, but from mass media consumption (Surette, 1998; Skogan, 1981; Mawby, 2003). While public opinions of policemen are, on the whole, encouragingly positive (Huang and Vaughn, 1996), it is imperative to ask ourselves whether these opinions are factual or colored by the glamour and gloss of mediated representations. In their work, Media Consumption and Public Attitudes toward Crime and Justice, Kenneth Dowler and Valerie Zawilski note that,

Presentations of police are often over-dramatized and romanticized by fictional television crime dramas while the news media portray the police as heroic, professional crime fighters. In television crime dramas, the majority of crimes are solved and criminal suspects are successfully apprehended. Similarly, news accounts tend to exaggerate the proportion of offenses that result in arrest which projects an image that police are more effective than official statistics demonstrate. The favorable view of policing is partly a consequence of police’s public relations strategy. Reporting of proactive police activity creates an image of the police as effective and efficient investigators of crime (2007, p. 3).

Of course, it would be simplistic to claim that all audiences imbibe and interpret media-constructed images of police in the same fashion. As Yvonne Jewkes remarks in the work Captured by the Media, "people are not blank slates who approach a television programme without any preexisting opinions, prejudices or resources" (2013, p. 145; Kitzinger, 2004). However, it is equally impossible to believe that these sources do not feed social constructions of law and order in its myriad forms. Indeed, the media's portraits of crime and justice are often pivotal in influencing both policy and day-to-day events. A large body of research devoted to the relationship between public attitudes and criminal justice policy has shown that representations of crime news catalyze public pressure toward harsher policing and more punitive sentencing. Additionally, a close appraisal of police-related television shows and films yields disturbing trends. Not only is there an overblown emphasis on offender-based violence, i.e. murder, rape, and robbery, but the offenders themselves are portrayed as cunning to an almost, if not outright, psychopathic degree. They can play the criminal justice system like a fiddle, and can run circles around the average police officer, whose by-the-book approach only leaves him/her mired in red-tape and frustratingly stultified by Internal Affairs. Instead, it is up to a tenacious few, with the guts and grit to transcend these bureaucratic impositions, to dispense justice towards offenders (Barille, 1984; Surette, 1998).

Given that the ontological divide between fiction and fact can often risk becoming disquietingly blurred, the study of sensationalist fiction's influence on criminal justice policy becomes doubly relevant (Potter & Kappeller, 2006). An example can be taken from 24, a hugely-popular Fox Network series that ran from 2001 to 2008. The show followed the exploits of counterterroist Jack Bauer, a resourceful anti-hero willing to resort to everything from mass property destruction to torture in order to save the American public. Bauer's legacy survived well beyond the screen, to the point where he was cited by the late Supreme Court Justice, Anton Scalia, as pertinent to constitutional jurisprudence and the use of torture: "Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. ... He saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" The fact that Bauer does not exist is beside the point; rather, it is the durable imprint his heroics left on the minds of the audience. For them, the thrilling, nick-of-time rescues and terrorist intrigues exemplified by 24 were not escapist fantasies, but a dire reflection of the national state of affairs (Lattman, 2006, p. 1).

Similarly, Clint Eastwood's wild card, Harry Callahan, immortalized by the 70s cult classic Dirty Harry, is portrayed as a ruthless but ultimately effective cop whose willingness to bend – or break – the rules guarantees fast results. What makes the film particularly noteworthy is its scathing criticism of the perceived hurdles beset upon law enforcement via the enactment of the Miranda warning in 1966, in addition to would-be obstacles such as the Exclusionary Rule. Whether or not the film's legal research is rooted in accuracy is, again, beside the point: its true premise is to question whether a system that gives precedence to the rights of offenders over victims is even worth upholding. In the film's closing scene, Harry, having broken the law by shooting the rampaging sniper, Scorpio, tosses his police badge into the water – an act as politically charged as it is defiant. Through Harry, not only is the upheaval of the period's political climate reflected, but the passions of the viewers enacted (Leitch, 2007). Indeed, the Dirty Harry Syndrome – also known as Noble Cause Corruption – is a term coined by the film, although the phenomenon understandably predates it. Jack R. Greene describes it as when "police are tempted to use illegal means to obtain justice... [even though] police ethicists and lawmakers hold that any gains that might be achieved by illegal means are not worth the miscarriages of justice and negative precedents that might result" (2006, p. 601). However, the film's enduring popularity is testament as much to its directorial finesse as to the resonance of its underlying message: that in order for justice to prevail, pragmatic vigilantism is preferable to the impractical hurdle of upholding civil rights. Like his modern predecessor, Jack Bauer, Harry Callahan's actions serve to anchor him within a timeless cultural bricolage: the everyman's avenger who occupies the liminal space between saint and rebel for his steadfast pursuit of justice.

In his work Encoding & Decoding in the Television Discourse, renowned cultural theorist Stuart Hall coined the term 'Circuit of Communication' to argue that, despite the assumption of meaning as a static agent, it is in fact a socially structured process that can either edify or delimit us through its visual language and representation (1973). Indeed, the meaning of any medium can be considered a sociopolitical and cultural discourse with its own style, syntax, structure and vocabulary – all of it pivoting on the audience as both the 'receiver of the message, and the 'source.' With that in mind, police films and dramas do not exist in a vacuum, but are in fact embedded in contingent social realities, many of which serve largely to either reflect or perpetuate specific modes of thought and conduct. One need only trace the complex evolution of law enforcement on-screen to observe how they establish specific notions of law vs. justice, good vs. evil, order vs. disorder, within a specific sociopolitical milieu.

For instance, the earliest film noir classics such as Double Indemnity (1936) were pivotal in bringing to life the postwar disenchantment and murky morality of the era, while touching upon gender politics, social mores, and their shocking subversions. Similarly, the besieged and troubled characters of Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) served almost as widgets fulfilling a critique on sexual politics and mass surveillance. The late 1960s relaunch of the genre-defining radio and television series Dragnet (1949-70) was designed to tout the impressive intricacies of LAPD procedurals, in an age characterized by anti-police sentiment and the infamous Watts Riots.

Later, the Nixonian legacy of the War on Drugs, and its subsequent Reaganite expansion, saw the rise of such Cop Booster classics as 48 Hours (1982) and Lethal Weapon (1989). More recent films such as Crash (2005), while attempting to touch thoughtfully upon racial tensions in the melting pot of LA, quickly became entangled in undercurrents of misogynoir and color-blindness by suggesting that the officer who committed digital rape on a black woman was redeemed by later saving her from a car crash, and by asserting superficial equality with the idealistic message that everyone across the racial spectrum has problems, while conveniently denying the reality of systemic racism in a white power structure (Hobson, 2008; Lott, 2006). Even the latest blockbuster, The Heat (2013), which aimed to subvert gender roles in law enforcement, unfortunately tripped over its own message by becoming not a paean to feminism but a stale, formulaic buddy-cop cliché that equated female empowerment with the same reckless disregard and gross misconduct vis-à-vis its male-centric counterparts.

At nearly every point, cop films and dramas appear to be a means to either challenge or embellish institutional authority. Yet no matter their superficial advancements, very few focus on the realities of police-work, such as preventive and proactive strategies, much less on efforts at rapport-building – or lack thereof – within the community they protect. Fewer still address blatant acts of police violence and misconduct not as effective tools, but as risky perpetuations of Hobbesian logic where good must vanquish evil by any means necessary.

However, it is imperative to understand how this rigid binarization circumvents meaningful and nuanced dialogue. By resorting to cursory labels that pit one 'side' against the other – and, indeed, create sides at all – it is dangerously easy to frame entire groups of people, policies, and phenomenon as irrational threats that can only be eradicated by extralegal and increasingly ruthless means (Parenti, 2003). Certainly, recent history has seen the expansion of law enforcement as justification to eradicate a 'newer, deadlier' breed of enemies beyond the scope of conventional legality. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, for instance, former President George W Bush denounced the tragedy as "a new kind of evil" that had to be fought "in the shadows." Constitutional safeguards therefore had to be set aside out of necessity, in order to protect the greater good. The outcome would lead to two wars, increasing governmental opacity, the establishment of the Patriot Act, mass domestic surveillance, and the unspoken sanctioning of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' on terror suspects (Graham, 2004; Nakashima, 2007; Purdum, 2001, p. 1).

While national security – internal and external – is certainly of prime importance, it is necessary to understand the risks of being engulfed and acclimatized to an atmosphere of terror, through which the media derive profit, politicians push insidious agendas, and financial systems subjugate and surveil public activities. Furthermore, into this commodification and mass consumption of terror, recent trends towards more egregiously aggressive cop shows, and the expansion of police power they reflect, deserve critical focus. In his book, The Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces, Radley Balko remarks that, "No one made a decision to militarize the police in America. The change has come slowly, the result of a generation of politicians and public officials fanning and exploiting public fears by declaring war on abstractions like crime, drug use, and terrorism. The resulting policies have made those war metaphors increasingly real" (2014, p. 42).

To decry the media as the sole instigator of fear-mongering would, of course, be unfair. But nor can it be denied that the media in all its forms plays a pivotal role in reinforcing the black-and-white paradigm of law vs. justice, with the heroes willing to achieve their goals at any cost, be it torture or deception (Rafter, 2006). While such narrative designs can be compellingly escapist and entertaining, they run the risk of becoming so entrenched into the social fabric and psyche as to seem factual. A no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners approach to law enforcement would seem ideal for convicting the indisputably guilty – but the fact of the matter is that the deliberate disregard of procedural law will only undermine the liberty interests of the innocent. Films and television shows that continue to push this agenda merely misrepresent police misconduct as a legitimate validator of heroism, and therefore of goodness. The protagonist is elevated to near-sacrosanct levels for one reason: he will unflinchingly use violence to achieve his ends – not because he disregards the law, but because he has taken it upon himself to uphold justice. Yet regarding the two as mutually exclusive is not only pandering to teleological delusion, but masking the reality of a deeply flawed justice system by redefining criminality as the darkest shade of evil, and police misconduct as the only means to take it down.

References

Balko, R. (2014). Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces. Perseus Books Group.

Barille, L. (1984). “Television and Attitudes About Crime: Do Heavy Views Distort Criminality and Support Retributive Justice?” In Ray Surette (ed.) Justice and the Media: Issues and Research. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.

Deflem, M. (2010). Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control. Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Iii. doi:10.1108/s1521-6136(2010)0000014019

Dowler, K., & Zawilski, V. (2007). Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption. Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(2), 193-203. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.01.006

Geller, W. A., & Toch, H. (1997). Police violence: understanding and controlling police abuse of force. Choice Reviews Online, 34(08). doi:10.5860/choice.34-4799

Grahan, B (2004). As an issue, war is risky for both sides. Washington Post. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1575-2004Oct1.html. Accessed on September 21.

Greene, J. R. (2006). Encyclopedia of Police Science. doi:10.4324/9780203943175

Hall, S. (1973). Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Hobson, J. (2008) Digital Whiteness, Primitive Blackness. Feminist Media Studies, 2 (8), 111-126. doi: 10.1080/00220380801980467

Huang, Wilson W.S. & Michael S. Vaughn. (1996). “Support and Confidence: Favorable Attitudes Toward the Police Correlates of Attitudes Toward the Police.” In T.J. Flanagan and D.R. Longmire (eds) Americans View Crime and Justice: A National Public OpinionSurvey. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Hutchinson, A. C. (2005). Evolution and the common law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Jewkes, Y., & Linnemann, T. (2017). Media and crime in the U.S. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

King, N., Picart, C. S., Jacobsen, M. H., & Greek, C. (2017). Framing Law and Crime: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 46(5), 586-587. doi:10.1177/0094306117725085ff

Kitzinger, J. (2004). Framing abuse: media influence and public understanding of sexual violence against children. London: Pluto Pr.

Lattman, P. (2007). Justice Scalia hearts Jack Bauer. Wall Street Journal. Available at http://blogs/wsj.com/law/2007/06/20/justice-scalia-hearts-jack-bauer/. Accessed on September 21, 2017.

Leitch, T. (2007). Crime films. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Lott, M. R. (2006). Police on screen: Hollywood cops, detectives, marshals, and rangers. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.

Mason, P. (2013). Captured by the media: prison discourse in popular culture. London ; New York: Routledge.

Mawby, R.I. (2003) 'Evaluating Justice Practices', in A. Von Hirsch et al (eds) Restorative Justice and Criminal Justice: Competing or Reconcilable Programs? Oxford: Hart Publishing.

Nakashima, E. (2007) A story of surveillance: Former technician 'turning in' AT&T over NSA program. The Washington Post. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110700006.html. Accessed on September 25, 2017.

Parenti, C. (2003). The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slavery to the War on Terror (Reprint Edition). New York, NY: Perseus Books.

Potter, G. & Kappeler, V. (Eds). (2006). Constructing Crime: Perspective on Making News and Social Problems. Chicago: Waveland Press.

Purdum, T. S. (2001, September 16). Bush Warns of a Wrathful, Shadowy and Inventive War. Retrieved November 10, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/17/us/after-attacks-white-house-bush-warns-wrathful-shadowy-inventive-war.html

Rafter, N. (2006) Shots in the mirror: Crime films and society. New York: Oxford University Press.

Roberts, J. & A. Doob. (1986). “Public Estimates of Recidivism Rates: Consequences of a Criminal Stereotype.” Canadian Journal of Criminology 28:229-241. gy 28:229-241.

Skogan, W. & M. Maxfield. (1981). Coping With Crime. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

Surette, R. (1998). Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Images and Realities 2nd Edition. New York: Wadsworth Publishing.

#essay #law #police brutality #police violence #mass surveillance

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readyforstylesblog · 5 years

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Image Skincare and Laura Geller makeup brushes at Dermaworks https://www.instagram.com/p/B6A6bgyllhf/?igshid=vk48obn1yifx

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persianicole · 5 years

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Get Your A$$ Out Of Bed Here's Your Next Job

Get Your A$$ Out Of Bed Here’s Your Next Job

Source: Creative Services / Radio One

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thebkgengagement · 7 years

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Look what I found at Adiamor!

Emerald Jewelry Twisted sapphires Dina Staggs Dina Staggs Marian Lancaster-Weston

18K White Gold Three Stone Diamond and Sapphire Trellis Ring from Brilliant Earth Potential settingJanell Johnson Dominique Alexis Barbara Monica Geller-Bing “Friends”: Princess Cut Blue Sapphires & Princess Cut Diamonds White Gold Engagement Ring 🙂 <3 Refer: http://www.adiamor.com/Engagement-Rings/Sapphire/Sapphir…

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#adiamor #Emerald Jewelry #found #i #look

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romancevsreality-blog · 7 years

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bachelor in paradise, season four, episodes three and four: WHY WOULD I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

Oh, god, I’m back.

You’re probably wondering, “Hey, Amanda, can’t you count? There wasn’t a *Bachelor In Paradise: Victim-Blaming Island Episodes one and two recap!” Hunty, I know. But did you see those episodes? I literally had to leave midway through the first one and get more alcohol to handle it. You know who should never be asked to hold a panel on sexual assault and racism? Chris Harrison. Literally. I would rather have a panel on torture wherein which I am the one being tortured by Carrot Top. I would rather be taken over by a Trump-supporting demon1 that gets carted around Fox News as their Token Pretty Black Girl.

Oh my god, I literally just said I would prefer to be Stacey Dash, what have I done?!

So no, I won’t be recapping what I consider to be the Men’s Rights Activist Textbook For Discussing Sexual Assault and Racism. Nah man, nah.

What that does mean, though, is that I must do my rankings swiftly, and on a different scale this season, as we don’t have Queen Jubilee to be our barometer of Perfection, and rather we have Robb(ie), a hot mixture of saliva, hair gel, sweat, and low self-esteem. I dislike them all, pretty much. I must rate them in terms of things I hate in my own life. Alas, I present:

The Amanda Mitchell Standard of Dislikability:

Raven: People playing music in public without headphones

Jasmine: mosquito

Robb(ie): Ross Geller

Lacey: Running out of one expensive product and then as soon as I replace that one, running out of ANOTHER expensive face product

Diggy: When the commercial is louder than the show I was watching

Matt: Forgetting one thing when I go shopping

Taylor: Walking into a cold pond and touching seaweed

Kristina: Pills on sweaters (I dislike her the least)

Amanda Never-Shoulders: a recurring cold for 2+ months that is just a tickle in the back of your throat and a constant throat clearing and a sniffle

JACKSTONE: Running out of all of my expensive face products at the same damn time

Dean: Waking up from a nap and being not 100% sure of what time it is (I dislike him the least of all of them too)

Alexis: 30 second ads before 30 second videos

Ben: Wet socks

Danielle: A straw with a crack in it

Nick B: Entering a room and forgetting what you meant to do in there

Iggy: When people comment on other people’s food

Vinny: Standing on the left side of the escalator

Alex: The Hobbit and any movie that expects me to want to spend 2+ hours in the god damn woods2

DeMario: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel’s marriage

Corinne: Missing a button on your shirt and discovering after someone points it out

We’re back after the shutdown and we haven't even gotten to the rose ceremony yet, but everyone’s back and still DTF. The opening is as awkward as ever, and I zoned out. Back at the villas, the girls are crying because love is not in the air, and the guys are oblivious. I mean, this is a group of very attractive people who all have never had to work this hard to get other people’s attention or get them to want to be with them. Ugh, it’s so hard to go to an island for two weeks and get drunk and flirt with people.

I WOULD BE QUEEN OF THIS ISLAND.

But really, the dudes are having bro-time and the ladies are not having it, and they need a new dude to come in.

So here comes Adam.

The Amanda Mitchell Standard of Dislikability on Adam: People with no clue of how they’re occupying space

Adam was on Rachel’s season and we all forgot about him and I still forgot about him. The show reminds me that he was the guy with the French mannequin and everything makes horrific sense. I would rather fall in love with that French mannequin than have a talk about the sexualization of black male bodies by white people. But the guys are PUMPED that they have another guy to play video games with and talk about sports wi - I mean, that Adam’s there and he has a true chance at love. All the girls are thirsting over Adam, primarily because he has a date card. Basically the guys admit to Adam that none of the guys have made a single move except Derek, who’s been holed up with Taylor pretty much since before the shutdown.

Adam says he’s interested in Raven3 and Kristina, and takes his time getting to know both of them. Raven wants to be like Evan And Carly Who Got Engaged in Paradise And Are Getting Married There Too, Remember, After Jade And Tanner, The Golden Couple Who Got Engaged Last Year In Paradise And Married On TV Earlier The Year Before, Remember Them, and Adam wants someone he can lift up. I’m sure he means emotionally but I definitely had the mental image of Adam constantly carrying his girlfriends around.

The next day, it’s FINALLY the rose ceremony, and pretty much every rose is up in the air except for Taylor’s. Robb(ie) and Ben Z both want Raven’s rose, but neither of them want her to go on a date with Adam.

So of course Adam gives Raven his date card because everything is hilarious.

Meanwhile, Dean’s isolating himself from… everyone, but especially Kristina, and Kristina’s frustrated by that. She sits down with Diggy to discuss how she’s feeling and I realize that the time that this group spent together during the shutdown is going to play out in the dynamics of this season. Kristina and Dean bonded during the shutdown, but back on Fuck Island, things aren’t as smooth. He literally says he can’t talk to her until after his shower and all but bolts away from her.

Kristina: Dean just might not be into you anymore. And that’s okay.

Ben Z is in a tizzy that Raven and Adam are going on a date because basically he has a dog and Raven has a dog so they’re Meant To Be. Raven and Adam’s date cost all of $30 (including tip) because they basically sat at a table and drank margaritas and then did some terrible salsa dancing.

They play out how ominous the rose ceremony is going to be because there’s a tsunami coming in and it's pouring rain out. Literally no one wants this to happen. TAKE THE HINT. None of the guys are confident because they spent the last few days dicking around with each other and forgot that it’s not in their hands anymore. Iggy’s desperate and pretty much tries to go around to every girl and try to get a rose because he wants them Instagram followers. He bastardizes a Jewish prayer for Lacey. I literally forgot Alex was even there. Alexis forces JackStone to compliment her over and over again and this show should be much more of that and less of Adam making out with Raven in an a desperate attempt to get her rose.

Then again, there hasn’t been enough gross making out this season. It’s the alcohol consumption control and also these guys are terrible.

There’s an amazing scene where Robb(ie) tries to kiss Amanda Never-Shoulders and she swerves him so hard I cackled. She puts her hand on his shoulders and it ls like, “I want it to be special! You’re sweaty!” I would like this show to be 100x more cutting men down to size.

Dean takes Kristina aside and basically tells her it would be best to “slow down” a little bit, which is the fuckboy way of saying “I wanna bang other people, AND I wanna still bang you.” He all but tells her she has no obligation to give him her rose. Dean’s got terrible communication skills.

The Rose Ceremony starts and you would think these people have just seen water for the first time after being in a desert.

Taylor gives her rose to Derek.

Jasmine gives her rose to Matt.

Raven gives her rose to… Adam, and Ben Z doesn’t even know what to do with himself.

Alexis gives her rose to JACKSTONE.

Lacey gives her rose to Diggy because one couple has to be there just to stay for mutual agreement.

Danielle M. gives her rose to Ben Z out of sympathy AND HE DESERVES A REAL ROSE HAVE Y’ALL SEEN HIS FACE

Kristina gives her rose to Dean. Why.

Amanda Never-Shoulders gives her rose to Robb(ie) and I do not understand how she has such terrible taste in men.

Alex, Nick, Vinny, and Iggy all go home. All the men except Iggy get exit speeches4 and Vinny struggles with his seatbelt.

The next day, the tables have turned, and the guys are in charge now. Danielle L shows up, and all the guys are salivating over her. I refuse to call her DLo.

The Amanda Mitchell Standard of Dislikability on Danielle L: the idea of a dolphin eating a squeaky toy

She has a date card, 20 pounds of makeup and boob tape on at like, 9 AM. The guys are alight because there’s finally someone they’re into there. Danielle is interested in Ben and Dean, and Ben takes his time with Danielle to talk about how Dean and Kristina are in a rough spot, which leads Danielle straight to Dean instead. It makes no sense.

Danielle offers Dean her date card, and Kristina is krushed5. She was hoping for a fun bonding day with Dean and he’s off on another date with a girl who just go there. Dean tries to explain himself away and keep Kristina on the hook by being like, “Well, she knows about you, so…” Dean and Danielle go on a date driving a single ATV6 and Kristina sits at home, crying and drinking and watching a sunset. Danielle and Dean’s date ends with them making out. Barf. I know Kristina and Dean spent a week road tripping across Kentucky during the shutdown but it just feels extra harsh that Dean’s doing this now.

Dean seems really desperate to be The Good Guy in every single way and thus makes himself look like The Bad Guy because he’s emotionally unintelligent. He goes up to the girls’ room awkwardly and waits until they’re like, “Sooo… do… you want to talk to Kristina?”; and then when they’re talking, he downplays the kiss he had with Danielle as just a “peck” and tells Kristina missed her. They share a pinky promise that they’ll be together forever and ever and ever because these are two emotionally mature adults.

Pinky promises ain’t shit, and Dean ain’t shit.

It gets worse when they’re having a bonfire and Dean and Kristina are with the rest of the group at a bonfire, and then jumps up and gets a slice of watermelon with whipped cream on it for Danielle’s half-birthday. I fuckin’ love my birthday and I would never celebrate my half-birthday like this, especially with that not-cake insult of a cake. Dean flat out disrespected Kristina in front of everyone.

Dean can’t have his not-cake and eat it too. I don’t feel bad for Kristina, either, because she can do and deserves better, but this was a public humiliation.

Oooh, Dean’s not the internet’s boyfriend anymore, is he?

End Act One. Enter Act Two.

There’s some horrible wordplay with “Dean’s Dilemma with D-Lo” nd I hate everyone. Chris Harrison, BYEEEEE.

Also, I refuse to give commentary on the DeMario interview. Y’all can go visit Ali Barthwell at Vulture for that.

The next day, shit’s still tense on the Dean/Danielle/Kristina front. Kristina pretty much can’t stop crying because she hates being vulnerable7 and she’s shutting down. No one knows who’s going to give Kristina a rose if Dean doesn’t.

I haven’t talked about My Ex-Boyfriend Wells being the Jorge replacement this season. I am not okay with it whatsoever. My Ex-Boyfriend Wells is slowly becoming the Nick Viall of this franchise and imma need him to disappear right quick. I don’t want to date a guy whose main life goal is Bachelor Nation Personality, that sounds fucking terrible.

Raven’s excited about pursuing Adam because Raven is Hot Shit and Knows Every Guy Wants Her8 but she’s afraid another girl will come in and ruin what they have going.

Enter Sarah!

The Amanda Mitchell Standard of Dislikability on Sarah: Resting your hand on the hot spot where your flat iron was

Sarah, who is basically a walking wand curler, and Raven’s terrified because during the shutdown, Raven caught Adam and Sarah having a snuggle. Soooo, Raven’s on the “Protect Ya Dick” path and basically tells Sarah “If you want Adam, get Adam, but we’re all still getting to know Adam since he just got here, and we already know Ben, so we’d love for you to take Ben instead!” AKA “GO ON A DATE WITH BEN”.

Why do they have to sell Ben to anyone? He’s so hot. Then again, his entire personality is being a good dad to his dog. Ben.

Ben.

Why do you do this. JUST BE QUIET AND LET US SALIVATE OVER YOUR BODY.

Sarah gets the most generic date card which is perfect for her personality, and she chooses Adam despite all of Raven’s dreams and desires. I like seeing Raven getting cut off at the knees so getcha man, Sarah. We get an amazing scene of Adam saying he’s happy to be on an one-on-one with Rachel because they literally could have copy-and-pasted that from Rachel’s season and I wouldn’t have known. Adam and Sarah go on the thirstiest date of all time. Adam literally says he jumps into relationships too quickly and Sarah’s like I’M ALL IN PICK ME PICK ME PICK ME. Sarah loses me when she says that Paradise is a Nicholas Sparks book in real life and I barf.

Back at the resort, Danielle’s losing hope because she’s not feeling it with anyone there. Danielle sees My Ex-Boyfriend Wells as dateable - just not in Paradise - but they agree to a My Best Friend’s Wedding type deal where Danielle M is a much less likeable Julia Roberts and My Ex-Boyfriend Wells WISHES he could be Dermot Mulroney. He’s barely even Rupert Grint, let alone Rupert Everett. Pfft.

Meanwhile, Lacey’s been put on ice by pretty much everyone in Paradise. I can’t tell it’s because it’s 2017 and she’s still lining her entire eye with black eyeliner like she’s Avril Lavigne in 2002 or because she’s a whiner. I’m thinking it’s the former, but more likely it’s the latter. She never had a one-on-one in her time on The Bachelor and she just wants her GREAT RELATIONSHIP. Perfect timing, because Lacey gets a date card.

They need to give Jorge’s Tour-ges some publicity, so Lacey’s card is from Jorge. Lacey asks Ben first, but pretty much no one is DTF Lacey. Raven even says “I think the guys want to go on a date… but not necessarily with Lacey.”

Raven is such an underground bitch sometimes and I much prefer her that way. Jasmine says she would choke Lacey if she took Matt on a date. Lacey’s pretty much asking all the guys if she took them on her date would it be as friends or as something possibly more. But Lucky Lacey, because Diggy agrees to go on a date with her! And Jorge!

Lacey calls a Bachelor one-on-one the Holy Grail of dating and I’m just… what? WHY. They meet with Jorge, who’s with some horses! Jorge-ses. They ride horses to get to know each other and Lacey’s like, “I probably never would have met you without Paradise.” I know she didn’t mean it that way, but it feels like she’s saying “I’ve never dated a black dude before!” Jorge brought Lacey and Diggy to the place where Jorge was conceived, and I love it.

BRING BACK JORGE. CAN I START A CHANGE.ORG PETITION.

Lacey and Diggy make out next to the ocean and I just noticed that Lacey’s hair is basically pulled back with a Chip Clip.

Meanwhile, Danielle M. and My Ex-Boyfriend Wells are discussing each other with different people. My Ex-Boyfriend Wells doesn’t want to ruin his friendship with her by pursuing something more, and Danielle M. isn’t feeling it with anyone there and is going to leave. She gave up a great opportunity to come and try to find love in Paradise and that’s not happening, so.

Diggy and Lacey return from their date and Lacey’s over the moon, so of course the producers decide to shit all over that party by sending in Dominique, and Diggy’s THRILLED. I have no memory of Dominique but she was on Nick’s season and is rockin the twists. Lacey’s afraid that because Taylor doesn’t like Lacey and Taylor loves Dom, that Taylor’s gonna meddle.

And meddle Taylor does. Lacey’s already nervous because she knows Diggy wants to go out with Dominique and vice versa. Taylor basically tells Dominique that Diggy’s actually excited about her, which she hasn’t seen in him with anyone else. I’m cackling. Taylor is such a menace and I love it.

Dominique asks Diggy on the date, and Lacey’s pissed and takes it out on Taylor, of course. Taylor goes to Lacey and tries to explain herself - it wasn’t done maliciously, she just thinks they’re a better fit. Lacey just wants everyone to stop playing matchmaker and that her great date was ruined less than 15 minutes after she returned. Taylor feels bad but also, that’s how the game works, girl. I love that Taylor’s like, “Come on. Lacey would have done the same damn thing if the tables were turned.”

‘Cause it’s true.

Diggy feeds Dom some strawberries and they kiss and their date seems to be a non-factor. I’m bored. I’m more intrigued by the Lacey shit.

Danielle’s at home packing up all of her stuff because she’s officially left Paradise. Everyone’s sad to see her go and she says all of the blanket platitudes. She’s going to miss My Ex-Boyfriend Wells the most, though. She’s sad nothing developed between the two of them during Paradise, but if they’d had more time, maybe something could have come out of it. My Ex-Boyfriend Wells walks her out to her Van of Doom and then THEY KISS.

Good for you, Danielle.

Fuck off, My Ex-Boyfriend Wells.

See you next week!

Random Assessments from the Desk of Amanda:

Derek and Taylor look gorgeous together.

“Please sit down. So you’re Jewish,” made me cackle. Iggy’s the worst.

Does Lacey look like an Olsen to anyone else?

OMG Alexis saying that Nick was the worst Bachelor in history and all the Nick shade in general in this episode.

Fuck Jasmine for saying Taylor wasn’t well liked on her season, gross.

I keep forgetting Amanda is even there. This is for the best.

These girls seem cliquey as hell. I felt bad for Lacey at points.

And if you know anything about me, while I’m not a “spiritual” person, spirits and demons freak me the fuck out. I hated This Is The End. ↩︎

I’m talking about The Revenant, and the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio has an Oscar for grunting and not for Django Unchained, like he SHOULD HAVE. ↩︎

Raven is the #1 Girl on that island apparently. ↩︎

God bless Lacey for not picking Iggy because I would like to never see him on my television ever again. ↩︎

I couldn’t help myself. ↩︎

Someone must have had a Groupon. ↩︎

Did I hear an unedited “shit” come out of Kristina?!?! ABC, living on the edge. ↩︎

I literally think that’s why I hate her so much, she’s got this level of arrogance that isn’t blatant but she disguises it behind a Southern accent. ↩︎

#bachelor in paradise #why does this show still exist

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jessicawaite-blog1 · 5 years

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References

Ang, I 2017, ‘Claiming Chinatown: Asian Australians, Public Art and the Making of Urban Culture, Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 336–350.

Barker, C 2007, ‘Issues of subjectivity and identity’, in Cultural studies: theory and practice, 3rd edn, Sage Publications, London, pp. 218-223.

Baughman, ML & Vernon, M 1972, ‘Art, Madness and Human Interaction’, Art Journal, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 413–420.

Bennett, A & Royle, N 2016, ‘Me’ in An introduction to literature, criticism and theory, 5th edn, Routledge, New York, pp. 150-158.

Bennett, T, Grossberg, L & Morris, M 2005, New keywords: a revised vocabulary of culture and society, Blackwell Publishers, Malden.

Blum, HP 2010, ‘Van Gogh’s Fantasies of Replacement: Being a Double and a Twin’, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 1311–1326.

Brodsky, D 2016, Gone, artwork, viewed 27 March 2019, <http://dinabrodsky.com/one-more-shelter/gone1website-2/>.

‘Deconstructing subjectivity: an interview with artists Devin Kelly’, Amadeus Magazine, 7 April 2014, viewed 28 March 2019, <http://amadeusmag.com/blog/deconstructing-subjectivity-an-interview-with-artist-devin-kelly/>

DeKooning, W 1982, Untitled III, artwork, Museum of Modern Art, <https://www.moma.org/collection/works/84181>.

Emin, T 2018, It was all too Much, artwork, Armitage, <https://www.artimage.org.uk/27640/tracey-emin/it-was-all-too-much--2018>.

Fink, B 1995, ‘Language and otherness’, in The Lacanian Subject, Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp. 3- 13.

Geller, J 1993, ‘Painting, Parapraxes, and Unconscious Intentions’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 377–387.

Glaveanu, VP & Tanggaard, L 2014, ‘Creativity, identity, and representation: Towards a socio-cultural theory of creative identity’, New Ideas in Psychology, vol. 34, pp. 12–31.

Hall, S, Held, D, Hubert, D, Thompson, K 1996, Modernity: an introductionto modern societies, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.

Howes, D 2005, ‘Skinscapes: embodiment, culture, and environment’, in C Classen (ed.), The book of touch, Berg, New York, pp. 27-39.

Kelly, D 2014, Untitled, artwork, Artslant, <https://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/338413-devin-kelly?tab=PROFILE>.

Kerrigan, F, Brownlie, D, Hewer, P & Daza-LeTouse, C 2011, ‘‘Spinning’ Warhol: Celebrity brand theoretics and the logic of the celebrity brand’, Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 27, pp. 13–14.

Lauwrens, J 2012, ‘Welcome to the revolution: The sensory turn and art history”, Journal of Art Historiography, no. 7, pp. 1–17.

Mansfield, N 2000, ‘Freud and the split subject’, in Subjectivity: theories of the self from Freud to Haraway, New York University Press, New York, pp. 25-37.

Manson, G, ‘Creative Identity: An Artist Interview with Art87JR’, Medium, 18 May 2017, viewed 28 March 2019, <https://medium.com/@riseoverrun/creative-identity-an-artist-interview-with-art87jr-1fc7e0b2dc03>.

Moore, A 2002, ‘Authenticity as Authentication’, Popular Music, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 209–223.

Moore, M 2012, Still Sounds, artwork, MargaretMooreArt, <http://www.margaretmooreart.com/installations/>.

Pollock, J 1953, The Deep, artwork, JacksonPollockPrints, <http://pollockprints.org/the-deep/>.

Rodrigues, J 2017, Creative Identity, artwork, Medium, <https://medium.com/@riseoverrun/creative-identity-an-artist-interview-with-art87jr-1fc7e0b2dc03>.

Ryder, WW 1987, ‘The Role of Art in Self-Actualization’, Art Education, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 22–24.

Schapiro, S 1965, “IT” Parade, image, Vanity Fair, viewed 28 March 2019, <https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/12/andy-warhol-and-edie-sedgwick-a-brief-white-hot-and-totally-doomed-romance>.

Smith, LL 2017, ‘Telling stories: performing authenticity in the confessional art of Tracey Emin’, Rethinking History, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 296–309.

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Van Gogh, V 1989, Self-Portrait, artwork, National Gallery of Art, <https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/self-portraits/van-gogh.html>.

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creepingsharia · 7 years

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New Jersey: Is Muslim mayor who declared amnesty for illegals linked to Syrian terrorists?

It sure appears that way.

Last week we told you about a Muslim mayor in New Jersey who declared his town a sanctuary for illegal aliens. The media was quick to highlight the mayor’s decision not to abide by federal laws but has been silent on his numerous trips to Syria (taxpayer funded?) and apparent personal links to jihad fighters in Syria. The Syrian Free Press has the details.

Source: Terrorist Supporter US Mayor Mohamed T Khairullah Plans 4th Trip to Syria | h/t The Geller Report

The mayor of Prospect Park New Jersey, Mohamed T Khairullah, is planning his 4th trip into Syria soon. He is asking via his facebook for donations, and has set up a few charities to help fund his trip. (Hopefully, he discloses all these monies to the Internal Revenue Service). He has video of himself going into Syria, as he claims he has family in Aleppo, delivering food, fuel, and supplies to “Syrians.”

He does have video, and pictures of himself with rebels. However, its unclear who he travels through Syria with. I can only imagine.

He claims his grand father was an Imam in Aleppo, and his father a dentist, but his family left in 1980, when the mayor was 5 years old and moved to Saudi.

He fought hard to influence whoever possible through public appearances in rallys and in interviews for the US to intervene in Syria to give the rebels a chance to win, and topple the President, Bashar al-Assad.

If I believed this mayor was JUST bringing food and clothing to Syrians, regardless of where they lived, I wouldnt have the problem I do. However, knowing he attends many rallys (inside Syria and inside the USA), and speaks negatively about Syrias president while rallying with those who carry the Black Flag of War, I do have a problem with what he is doing.

When I see him with young American guys fighting against the SAA in Syria (trips probably funded through his charities), I have a problem with that. Is this even legal Mr Mayor?

When I see the mayor wearing the same scarf as the crooked charity running aid and funding terrorists (exposed in my past article, and in a video I made), I have a problem with that. Especially being in politics in the USA!

When I see the comments about Syrias Grand Mufti, I have a problem with that.

When I see him calling terrorists who are behind the murdering of innocent Syrians “Heroes,” I have a BIG problem with that.

With Ahmed Chiasna

Calling Christains bigots because they fight to keep Sharia Law out of New Jersey

I suggest the people of the state of New Jersey learn who their elected officials are, and what they are doing. Go to his facebook pictured above, and see his many videos, and pictures. You may not like what you find…

More: A separate Free Syrian Press article about the Muslim mayor: EXPOSED: US Mayor Mohamed T Khairulla

Mayor Mohamed Taher Khairullah claims to have been born in Aleppo Syria in 1975, but moved to Saudi Arabia in 1980 at the age of 5. He lived in Saudi until 1991 when he was 16, then moved to the US. His father was Mohamed Basheer Khairullah, who died in 1995 at the age of 48 in the US. He states on his facebook, he is engaged to Mona Obaid since 29 March 2015. He has been previously married at least once to Marwa Homsi, possibly twice to a woman whose last name is Kabbani. The mayor was allegedly involved in a “domestic violence” act (aggravated assault), against his wife and father-in-law in 2002. Might explain why he isnt married, or at least doesnt live with his wife today. Although, his financial statement to the State of New Jersey Department of Education School Ethics Commission Personal Disclosure Statement dated 30 January 2015 states he is married. He now resides in Prospect Park New Jersey, where he is the mayor.

A special interest for the Americans to pay a great deal of attention to… This is a picture of Mayor Mohamed T Khairullah, the mayor of an American city. Here he is pictured with his relative Yassin Khairullah. In the insert photo, I added a photo of the mayor with another person in the crowd he knows. Notice VERY CAREFULLY, what the sign reads next to his male relative Yassin…

“WAIT FOR US WHITE HOUSE! BLACK FLAG IS COMING SOON!!!”

Read the entirety of both Syrian Free Press posts linked above for more details and ask yourselves how did this Saudi-raised, Syrian Muslim get elected in New Jersey?

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#Creeping Sharia #fbi #islam #law #Legal #Life #Media #Muslim #News #Politics #Random #Religion #Sharia #terrorism #travel

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titushartmann · 7 years

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Notebook 2: Intersectionality of Blue Jeans

Changelog:

Translational contexts: San Francisco, 1850-1873 and Moscow, 1957

Added image and quote sources

Added national binds: whiteness - class - property

Added intersectional analysis: gender - class / nationality - class

Blue Jean pants are a staple of today’s fashion all over the world. They are worn by people of all ages and genders everywhere and have become the most popular apparel in the history of fashion. Obviously, jeans have not been around for ever and, like most fashion trends, started out completely differently from what they are used as nowadays and under different circumstances.

Most people know that the jeans of today had been invented by Levi Strauss (the founder of Levi Strauss Co., or Levi’s jeans). Tracing them back to their origin I found that the word jeans most likely comes from Gênes, the french word for Genoa. The French in the city of Nimes really appreciated this new garment and tried to recreate it in the 17th century. They failed. However, they did create a fabric, different from the Genoan kind. Today it is called denim (de Nimes) (Damian, 23).

Blue Jeans as we know them, a symbol of fashion and conformity nowadays, began their history very differently. Levi Strauss created them in 1873 with rivets for the working class. Miners, farmers, and anyone who needed durable clothing were the target audience for his product. Levi’s story as a German immigrant is a classic one, with his family moving to New York seeking a better life like many Jewish immigrants. Moving to San Francisco during the gold rush, he opened a small dry goods business, importing fine dry goods from his brothers in New York. When a Latvian-Jewish tailor named Jacob Davis approached him for the riveted pants business idea, Levi knew he had struck gold. Together they created the first pair of blue jeans with iconic copper rivets and received a patent in 1873 (Davis).

In the 19th century jeans were seen and used as a simple working tool and only later evolved into a symbol of fashion and rebellion in the fifties. Today, jeans are worn everywhere. Through rapid globalization, companies all over the world began developing their own styles and types of jeans while still keeping the original, unique, Western look. In the 1950s, in the USSR people saw them as a symbol of the western world and wearing jeans became a symbol of wealth. The globalization of Western products and ideas was inherently linked to a simple garment. The earlier addition of indigo to denim material to create the iconic blue jeans may be a cause of this symbolism as, due to its expensive nature, indigo was seen as sign of wealth and power for a long time. This now obsolete meaning may have transferred and become the cause of the rapid success and status achievement of jeans. Of course, the fast globalization of blue jeans was not due to their blue color but their association to western culture and the American Dream.

San Francisco, a small town in the 1840s, had become a booming city due to the California Gold Rush in the 1850s. Many were seeking their fortune and found it, but most failed. Life was extremely competitive as a miner and many found themselves with less money than they had started with. Other lost their land and larger gold-mining businesses began to take over, making life as an individual even harder. Levi Strauss himself profited greatly in 1873 when he created the extremely durable, riveted jeans as miner’s pants that wouldn't tear or break. These miners searching for gold would place it in their pockets and their pockets would tear, so denim overalls or jeans became very popular. Poor working conditions created a need for inventions like these. Starting off as utility items in the US, jeans moved to become an icon of rebellion in teenages in the 1950s and were banned in many schools (Geller).

Something important to consider is that almost all customers of Levi’s would have been men at the time. Here, gender intersects with some of the previously mentioned ideas of class and moving up in the world. As men were miners, they were the ones to wear jeans, they were the ones working hard to earn a living, successful or not. I feel that this connects with the later use of jeans by the cowboys of the wild west, and the development of jeans into a symbol of pure, raw masculinity. Other genders needed to be protected by the man, the one who worked, who needed something that could contain his spirit and would not break under rough usage. Something like jeans.

Interestingly, these pants then moved to the USSR in the 1950s as well and became extremely popular under communist rule. Jeans became symbol of the west, of freedom, and of independence. The extremely poor social conditions in the post war Soviet Union and a lack of freedom catapulted jeans to a symbol of status. Seeing Americans wearing jeans in films, many Russians began to believe that if you could afford jeans you had made it and done well for yourself. In 1957 in Moscow the World Festival of Youth Students took place exposing many to the American jeans that they had previously only seen in movies (Rudevich). Jeans were then also quickly banned as they became more popular, just like in the United States and the contexts echo themselves in 1950s at different places. In both situations, jeans became symbols of rebellion of the working class and of teenagers.

The intersection of class and nationality or race becomes important to consider as these freedom-seeking russians were really, in addition to seeking freedom and a better life, seeking a change in their perceived nationality. The whiteness exuded by Westerners who wore jeans and who were free and who had a high class was so alluring that by purchasing the mere symbol of wealth - jeans - one could change one’s pseudo-nationality and race. The western culture that influenced many Russians in the 1950s was the epitome of whiteness and jeans played a small but integral role in the perpetuation of this ideology. By owning a simple piece of property, one could have created a higher class for oneself, and changed one’s nationality to the more desired and white race.

1850s working conditions in San Francisco and 1950s social conditions in Moscow can be compared in their lack of care for the individual and their harsh nature. Jeans presented themselves in both cases as quasi-solutions, with actual utility in San Francisco, and social status and achievement in Moscow.

Today, due to the immense globalization of industry, everyone wears jeans and they have become a standard fashion statement with purpose and style. A good pair of jeans will most likely always be a symbol of freedom, of Western Culture, of the American Dream, and really of anyone’s dream.

Sources:

Images:

Image 1: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Levi's_logo.svg/2000px-Levi's_logo.svg.png

Image 2:

https://yesteryearsnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/gold-rush-caligoldmine.gif

Image 3: http://rbth.com/arts/2014/09/16/worth_going_to_prison_for_getting_hold_of_jeans_in_the_ussr_39833.html

Information:

Davis, Jacob W. "Patent US139121 - Improvement in Fastening Pocket-openings." Google Books. N.p., 20 May 1873. Web. 23 Jan. 2017. https://www.google.com/patents/US139121

Rudevich, Alexéi, and Russkaya Semyorka. "Worth Going to Prison For: Getting Hold of Jeans in the USSR." Russia Beyond The Headlines. RBTH, 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2017. http://rbth.com/arts/2014/09/16/worth_going_to_prison_for_getting_hold_of_jeans_in_the_ussr_39833.html

Geller, Marine W. "Eureka! The Surprising Stories Behind the Ideas That Shaped the World." Google Books. Penguin, 6 July 20101. Web. 23 Jan. 2017. https://books.google.com/books?id=IvRg_38ToLQC&pg=PT17#v=onepage&q=jeans&f=false

Damian, Véronique “The Master of the Blue Jeans: A New Painter of Reality in Late 17th Century Europe”. Paris: Galerie Canesso. 2010. p. 23. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Master_of_the_Blue_Jeans.html?id=QHsRtwAACAAJ

#ethn206

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