#and they say its not because of the disability but lets be honest with ourselves

[disabled-dragoon]

Applied for a summer job yesterday just as something to do before my classes start again but I'm pretty sure it's going to go the way all my job applications do and fall at the first hurdle

That hurdle, of course, being people immediately refusing to consider me the moment they see anything to do with the wheelchair

Edit: Honestly I'm not even mad when that is the reason. I am a big risk factor to be considered. What urks me is when it is very clearly the reason I've been rejected for something and then people aren't honest about it.

[lasarcasticpanda]

something that i thought was very well done in Barbie (besides yanno all of it) is how Margot's Babrie doesn't think she's smart, because she has been labeled as "stereotypical Barbie".

like, multiple times in this movie, she has moments of very well articulated and intelligent comments, which have excellent comedic timing, but serve a wider purpose of showcasing how women tend to be given a Trait and that is your thing. she mentions how she wishes Smart Barbie was here or to wait for Leadership Barbie to swoop in because she's Stereotypical Barbie, she's not smart, she's not a Leader, she can't do this.

at some point after childhood, women get pigeonholed into a category, right (sometimes even in childhood if I'm honest)? weird, smart, hot, pretty, ugly, bitchy, innocent, prudish, slut, nice. at most, you get two of these traits for your peers and friends to label you.

and its hard to see that when it happens! it's only as we go on and start having complex relationships and experiences and interacting with people outside of our space that we start seeing that and start putting a name to the feeling of constriction that we've been having for, what feels like, forever.

THEN you have to contend with the reality that you are so much more than even all of those things and that's scary! you cannot fit into these small boxes, humans were never made to fit into boxes, you have to throw it out even as others play tug-of-war with you in the rain and insist the soggy, tearing box is so important and where would we be without it? you have to constantly face that and insist that no, it's not, and we'd be right where we are now, arguing over a wet box in the rain when the only thing either of us wants is to be warm inside.

and you have to learn when to pick and choose to just let go and leave the box and the person in the rain and when to keep fighting, even if you're so tired and cold.

and this just! HAPPENS! like there isn't a manual, there isn't a magical age you turn where this becomes clear to you! it's different for everyone and some don't ever have that and some have it so young and others not until they're old! it's such a lonely thing sometimes!

but then you meet other women, different women, so many women with so many unique experiences to add. trans women, women of color, nonbinary women, disabled women, women of every differing religion, ALL have these unique experiences with this phenomon, some have more boxes to throw out in the rain, some have to try and throw out wooden or stone boxes in a hurricane, the danger they face in doing so is sometimes so much more than what others experience.

but that moment of realizing women all have this undertone of understanding and dealing with this gives us the courage to join and hopefully make the tug-of-war easier, to make sure we all get inside to be warm. it's hard to pull that stone box by yourself, but if we join behind you, maybe we can win.

this movie encapsulates that so incredibly well? that speech from Gloria about how tiring it is to see herself and other women feel this way and be made to feel this way and to buy into ourselves is just! that moment of looking every woman in the eyes and telling them they're seen and their struggles are seen and it is so unfair!

and then Barbie says something else smart and, for the first time, acknowledges she did. "Oh I can't believe that just came from me" it has the whole time, can't wait for you to realize that you were always human, and look forward to seeing you in the rain and for hot cocoa afterwards.

[firstumcschenectady]

“What Can Separate Us from the Love of God?" based on Romans 8:31-28

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers-that-be, nor things that are, nor things that will be, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Redeemer.” -Romans 8:38-39 1

“There is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, there is no male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”-Galatians 3:28 2

If I were picking the most central Bible verses from the Christian Testament, these two would be it. To be fair, I think the Gospels have the best stories, and stories are more important than verses, but nevertheless. With all the issues I have with Paul, I'll give him these. They're everything. I'm not preaching on Galatians today, but I figured if I told you I had 2 favorite Christian Testament passages and didn't share them both, I'd lose you to wondering what the other was. And, anyway, they're especially beautiful and whole together.

Today we're on Romans, on nothing can separate us from the love of of God.

Nothing.

This is so core to faith that I don't feel like it can ever be emphasized enough, and also I fear that most of you already know this and aren't that interested in it. Except...

One of my dear ones, a mentor and friend, suggested that the reason we have to keep telling people that God loves them is that it is really hard to believe, and a lot of messages are out there which tell people they aren't lovable. So we keep coming back to God's love in hopes of convincing people it applies to them, and to everyone else too.

Paul does a good job talking about what doesn't get in the way of God's love. It goes without saying that God's love is also not impacted by wealth or poverty, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity, history of trauma, mental or physical health status, abilities or disabilities, guilt nor shame. God's love isn't dependent on us being good, or useful, or even kind. God's love applies to all, even the ones we think are awful, even the ones we think are evil, even the ones who have done great harm.

Which is to say that God's love isn't the same as God's approval, clearly. Rather we lack the power to stop God's love, even when we are at our worst, even when we do great harm to others of God's beloveds.

That is: God's love is the foundation of the universe, the essence of life itself, and the ground of our being.

Love is at the center of it all.

Now, I can be honest. That's a faith statement for me. I believe that love, God's love in specific, is at the center of it all. Others... don't. Even some of you may not, perhaps because the use of the word God may confuse things enough for some of you that you'd rather withhold judgement. (For the record, I love that this is a church with enough spaciousness for people to wonder about the meaning of the word God and how we should and shouldn't be using the word.)

So, knowing that I am speaking as myself, with some hope it might be useful for others, let me share a little a bit about what that means for me. If love is at the center of all that is, then judgement is not. That's pretty important to me, even though I think accountability, apology, and growth matter a lot. But I see in many theologies a premise that God is first and foremost out to judge us, and that punishment and reward are at the center of the all that is. I don't agree.

Alongside this, I fear that a lot of what we are doing as human being is trying to prove ourselves worthy. Maybe that sounds like “worthy of the space we take up on the planet,” maybe like “worthy of the resources we consume,” often I fear it is simply “worthy of love.” It may be that this is prevalent right now because of the internalization of exploitative capitalism and its obsession with worth itself. It may be that this is simply a basic human fear. It may be that our society's structure explicitly devalues and dehumanizes some, and that keeps the rest of us afraid of falling into that category... I don't know WHY. But I know a whole lot of our energy is about trying to be worthy. And I know that if God's love for each of us and all of us is at the center of all that is, then we are already worthy and can stop trying so hard to prove it. Which can be a relief for as long as we remember it.

Now this is a place that progressive Christianity can get a little bit confusing. Because I talk a lot about “building the kindom of God” and others about “being the beloved community” and quite often we analyze what isn't working in hopes of motivating people to work towards a better system that does a better job of valuing all of God's people.

But there is a nuance here that I want you to know about: the goal is not to be good enough of a person, or good enough of a Christian, or enough of a do-gooder to be worthy of God's love. WE DO NOT HAVE TO EARN IT. Rather, if we are able to soak in any amount of God's love for us, to soak up the abundance of goodwill God has for us and for all, (and if we are able to do that with any life energy still with us, which is questionable for many right now, so please take that seriously too)... then quite often we wish to respond to love with gratitude and hope, and when we wonder what that should look like, THEN we hear the suggestion that God would like us to love one another as a form of loving God back.

Do you hear the difference? IT ISN'T AN OBLIGATION!!!! You don't have to work for the church's committees (I say with trepidation), or volunteer with worthy causes, or give generous donations, or even smile when you are cranky. God loves you as you are, and you don't have to earn it.

Instead, when you are able to be upheld by that love, and you have extra to share, you are invited – welcome - to use that energy, passion, power, and resources toward loving God's others beloveds. But first, breath it in, soak it in, and let it change you from within. First, it penetrate the guilt, and the shame, let it have it's time with your exhaustion.

FIRST, remember that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, nothing, nothing, nothing. And then, maybe, then when you are ready, then when you WANT TO, then when it feels right, THEN you can see how you want to love in return. Amen

1 A Women's Lectionary Translation

2Ibid

Rev. Sara E. Baron  First United Methodist Church of Schenectady  603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305  Pronouns: she/her/hers  http://fumcschenectady.org/  https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

March 12, 2023

[angsty-nerd]

i didn't realize how long its been since where Echo have had a proper episode dedicated to them. Should I lower my expectations for the great reunion? I mean other couples are getting fed better than us and Echo is the main couple!!

ITS BEEN SO LONG 😭😭😭

Like, it’s hard for me to even pinpoint. 2x06 or 2x07? I struggle to call 2x07 an Echo episode because it was an Ortecho Familia episode and Max was really just supporting, MAYBE 2x08… but I feel like that’s more Echo and Charlie? Definitely NOT 2x10-2x13…there were Echo moments, but they weren’t central to the narrative TOGETHER. So 2x06 is where I would land…. And Max wasn’t himself for most of that episode.

I am with you on the high expectations, but I’d also definitely recommend tempering them a bit. One thing I have to constantly remind myself is that anything that I yell about in my speculation convos with my friends is probably going to be a thousand times better than what we see on screen. And that’s okay. But let me tell you, this season has been a lot closer to my expectations than S2 ☺️

Regarding the other side of your ask…as a general rule, I don’t think it’s healthy or fair to compare what one ship gets versus another. It creates an environment of competition between the ships, and frankly? With this fandom? We get drowned out enough as it is. We don’t need to make it worse for ourselves.

I also generally don’t want to talk much about other ships on my blog. Just…it’s such a cesspool of negativity in some corners of this fandom and I don’t want the heat.

But I will reiterate what I sort of said last night and say that I can’t fault those shippers for being happy that they were fed. I mean, their ship casually hooked up in 1x02 and really haven’t since? They certainly haven’t been “together” at all on the show except for maybe the flashbacks in 2x04. So I’m happy for my friends on that side of the aisle that they’re happy.

That being said, if I was hard core into that ship I’d probably be struggling with the content they got last week. It wasn’t supported by the narrative leading up to the episode. They’ve been highly critical of each other this season (and really going back to last season too…think that awful bunker scene…). They remained highly critical of each other throughout the episode last week. Also just…the lazy, problematic dialogue was…not great. Generally if you’re gonna write a character as enlisted military you want to 1) not forget their physical disability that you wrote into the narrative (see 3x03) and 2) actually know facts about the war they were fighting in. Like…that whole Taliban thing on this week of all weeks was a bad look. Like…no joke…I literally spent Mon afternoon while waiting for the episode watching a documentary about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, because I felt like I should better educate myself since I spent most of the Bush presidency with my fingers stuck in my ears avoiding politics.

Working together is a good step for them that does make sense for where they’re at. So is open, honest dialogue. But frankly I think it would have been better for them if they had taken steps towards each other WITHOUT getting physical. Because that’s been their default their entire relationship…jump straight into this intense physical thing without taking the time to actually understand each other. And as I mentioned in my other ask…a couple getting together in episode 8 doesn’t necessarily bode well for how the season is going to end for them…think Echo’s arc in season 1.

Anyway, that’s way more than I wanted to say about them. The IMPORTANT thing to me is that we’re getting Max back this week and God have I missed him. And when he gets pulled out of the pod, I cannot wait for the heart eyes and the teamwork.

[exoxobsession]

Spring Days | Chapter 4 |

Characters : Kai x You, Sehun

Genre : Fluff, Angst, CollegeAU!

Description : Friends become strangers, trust is gone, he betrays their friendship, she moves on. What if they meet again? Will they become friends or stay as strangers with memories?

Part : 1 |  2 | 3 | 4 | 5

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, so many things have been going on lately.

[Time skip]

It’s been two years since you’ve been away from home. If you were to be honest, you could say you were hiding. You hated how much impact he had on your life. You despised him. No, you didn’t; you were disappointed but mostly angry. It was like a breakup, but worse. Many people asked why you were so hung up on him, but they probably never lost a best friend.

You were packing up everything, moving back home. You won’t hide anymore. Your parents didn’t know you were coming, you planned on making it a surprise. There was one more year left of University, and you were leaving, so you would finish in Korea.

Boarding the plane, you put on your headphones, and slept the 14 hours of travel. You made friends here, you even dated only for it to turn out disastrous. You didn’t have feelings for any of them, maybe attraction or lust, but never love, you were sure they were the same.

You had daily calls with your parents, and even Sehun. Your friendship was strong, he knew you every day, and you knew his. You didn’t have feelings for him; he was like your brother, plus he was younger than you, you didn’t like younger guys.

You reached for your pocket to turn the volume up but panicked when you couldn’t feel the familiar weight. Panic filling your mind. You searched your pockets like a manic, not caring about the weird looks you were getting. Deciding to check your bag, you ripped your bag open to find it in there peacefully. Letting out a sigh, you grabbed it and sat down.

You woke up at the feeling of someone shaking you, looking up to find a woman smiling at you, “We’ve arrived dear, wake up now.” she breathed with a gentle smile. She looked like she woke up as well. “Thank you.” You thanked her and grabbed your bag and hers too. Handing her bag to her, you departed the plane and fished through your phone to call a cab.

After you got into the car, you told the man the address. You looked out, noticing the familiar roads and shops pass by. You missed this place. It took around 30 minutes to reach your house. Exiting the car, you walked up to your house, only to find the smart lock, locked. What? You dialled your mom’s number.

“Hello?” You spoke first.

“Hey, dear.” she greeted.

“Are you guys not home? Why is the smart locked not working?” you asked, confused.

“Oh… no, we’re in China right now. And your dad disabled it, just in case. Wait. You waiting outside now?” she explained.

“I wanted to surprise you guys, but it turned out like this. When are you coming back?” you sighed.

“It’ll take a long time dear, some people aren’t cooperating.”

“Then where am I supposed to stay?” you asked, clearly not happy.

“Tell you what, the neighbours are a group of boys your age, you can stay with them, I’ll talk to them,” she suggested.

“MOM!” you shouted.

“Y/N, they’re nice and I’m pretty sure you won’t leave them alone if they do anything, right?” She joked.

“Fine,” you spoke with still a bit of laugh. Then she hung up.

A group of boys started walking in your direction. Not thinking about it much and started scrolling through Instagram, but a silhouette fell on you, making you look up. There stood a boy with perfect facial features, not too tall but a bit taller than you. “Yes?” you started not knowing what to say.

“Are you Y/N?” he asked, showing you his radiant smile. You cleared your throat, “Yes, I am.” you stated with a slight nod. You shoved your phone into your pocket. “I’m Junmyeon, your mother called me and told me about your situation,” he said holding his hand out, which you took and shook and let go.

“Let’s go?” he was nervous, you just nodded, trailing your suitcase behind you to the mansion. “Uh, Junmyeon, mom said that a group of you so, how many of you are there?” you asked, looking at his oh-so-perfect side profile. “Twelve of us,” he said, still looking in front. Your eyes widened at the high number of boys that lived in this mansion.

He opened the grand door leading you inside the house. You looked around, and your eyes landed on the bunch of boys scattered in the front parlor.

“Wow, Junmyeon, weren’t you dating Minji? Did you break up with her?” the one that looked like a camel said.

“What? No!” he denied before you could. Your eyes then landed on a familiar boy. He turned around and when your eyes met, he jumped off the couch and engulfed you in a bone-crushing hug.

“Sehun.” You breathed while wrapping your hands around his neck.

“I missed you. So much.” He nuzzled his nose into your neck.

“Me too, Sehunnie.”

He finally let you go when you heard someone clear their throat. “You know each other?”

“Uh, yes. We’re friends.” You responded.

“I think we should introduce ourselves,” someone said, and you turned to look at them properly. Now that you inspected them, you noticed that every one of them was handsome.

“Hi, I’m Jongdae,” the camel from before said.

“Kris.” The cold one briefly introduced himself. You tried to smile.

“I’m Chanyeol, nice to meet you.” he smiled, which you immediately mirrored.

“I’m Baekhyun, ho-”

“Bacon?” you accidentally blurted, your hand going to cup your mouth, but before you could apologize, you heard a deep laugh coming from Kris. Everyone turned to him, “Did you just laugh, Hyung?” Bac, Baekhyun asked, not at all hurt from the nickname you gave him, but mostly focused on Kris’ laughter.

“Wah, this is the first time I heard him laugh.” Jongdae retorted.

Kris immediately stopped and was about to say something, but the door opened, letting a few other boys in. That when you saw him. Jongin. What was he doing here?

“Y/N?” his honey voice called out. A small, inaudible gasp escaped your lips as you tensed up, feeling tears filling your eyes, memories flashing through your mind. You thought you could ignore him, but you weren’t as strong as you thought. Why? Why was he here? Is he living here? Millions of questions you had no answers to.

“You know each other?” Chanyeol’s voice broke through the air, while you blinked away your tears.

“I know her, she’s my-”

“I don’t know him.” You interrupted him, you didn’t want him to finish that sentence. “Can you show me to my room, I need to freshen up.” you politely asked Junmyeon before anyone can say anything.

“Sure, come on.” he led you out of the parlor and up the stairs.

“This is the guest room, you can use it. There’s a private bathroom in here, you can use it, and if there’s anything else, you can tell me,” he said before going back down.

The room was pretty decent; you didn’t want to unpack; you weren’t going to stay long. Walking around to the window, you saw that the view was beautiful; the sun was at its lowest point, the clouds different shades of red and orange. Deciding to take a shower, you opened your suitcase and took black shorts and a white tee.

After your shower, you were in a debate about whether or not to go down. That when someone opened the door, you immediately looked up. “Sehun,” you sighed in relief. “Come for dinner,” he grabbed your hand and led you down to the kitchen.

The kitchen fell silent as soon as you came. “Please, don’t be awkward because of me,” you said uncomfortably as you hid behind Sehun. “Of course not.” Chanyeol piped up. You were thankful for this giant because as soon as he spoke the tension reduced by a fraction.

Dinner was awkward, even though Chanyeol and Baekhyun made jokes. Maybe it was just you. You knew Jongin was looking at you, you could feel his eyes on you. Quickly eating whatever Kyungsoo made, you exited the kitchen. Walking up the stairs, you noticed another flight of stairs. You followed them only to be led to the rooftop. Your breath hitched in your throat at the beautiful city lights below you.

You don’t know how long you’ve been there but; you jumped a bit when you heard someone call your name. Turning around as carefully as you can, you saw Chanyeol sitting beside you. “How did you find this place?” he asked. “I just followed the stairs.” You said in a ‘duh’ tone. “Are you okay?” he inquired. You turned your head to face him, only to see him already looking at you.

“I mean, it’s none of my business but, but you looked kinda, I don’t know how to put it but, lost and scared.” He pinpointed your feelings.

You just gaped and turned away. “Jongin told me you both know each other, but you denied, and you were lying. Did something happen?” You could see him turning to face you, probably seeing your tears. He quickly added, “I didn’t mean to, oh god, you don’t have to tell me,” he panicked.

You laughed as tears in your eyes escaped. “We know each other, more than anyone. We know each other like the back of our hands,” you wiped the tears in your eyes. “I don’t what I did, he just started ignoring me, I tried talking to him, but he-” you choked on your tears, as he wrapped his arms around you. “he walked out of my life like it was nothing, so being the coward I am, I left. And seeing him again, I don’t-” You felt safe around Chanyeol. No, not that kind.

He rubbed your back as a way to calm you down, but you cried. You showed no one your tears, except your mom. “Y/N, look, I knew him longer than I know you, but let me tell you were an asshole for leaving you like that. I don’t know how it is like to lose a friend, and I hope I won’t either-” you let out a breathy laugh on his chest. “-but what I do know is that you shouldn’t waste your tears on someone who doesn’t care about you.”

“And instead of him, I want to take his place, because I just knew you were a nice girl, but I also saw that he broke you inside. I want to fix it. Not that way, I just see you as my sister.” he declared.

You just smiled at him, happy that someone as positive as him came into your life. “One question though.”

[melias-cimitiere]

MINORITY REPORT

People who are interested in being honest, true to themselves and to others, eager to learn truth about things (scientific, historical, etc) and acquire knowledge, please keep reading. Everyone else, carry on with your daily activities; this article will clearly not impact on you in any positive way.

There has been a growing concern during the last few years that people have a tendency to “save the tree and burn the forest”; this is a mentality of gross generalizations, over-simplistic attitudes towards right and wrong, and superficial ideological bubbles that do not take into account reality. When historical truth is no longer convenient, when people forget the right use of words and terms and come up with the trendy, politically correct speech while disregarding the established definitions, then watch out: Big Brother is about (the 1984 George Orwell concept).

Minorities’ rights

There is a large number of people who tend to be sympathetic towards any groups, just because they are labelled as a minority. Instead of examining what they stand for and who they truly are (given a historical perspective), they moralize on their behalf and fiercely try to protect them, with a simplistic and gullible attitude. Let’s try and ask some basic questions:

Are their rights more/less important than anyone else’s?

We should be talking about human rights, and not minorities’ rights. If these groups are human groups, then they have some rights; these rights are protected by United Nations and various Constitutions, and political assemblies worldwide, and any proven violation is condemned. Why should any human group have more (or less) rights than any other group?

Are the minorities always correct?

Of course not. Whoever believes this tends to be extremely naïve. For example, amidst the minorities hide some rather loathsome groups (or individuals), such as Nazis, KKK, international terrorists (like Isil/Isis/Daesh, Al-Qaeda etc). And what about the minority groups of suicide cults, slavery rings, drug-dealers, “black market” merchants (of weapons, substances, toxins, organs etc)? What about serial killers or pedophiles? As you can see, membership in a minority group doesn’t automatically make you correct in all things. 

Issue of historical guilt

What is trendy or fashionable doesn’t make it necessarily better or right. Nowadays it is not trendy or fashionable to expose certain historical facts because certain groups feel discomfort. This is not new; in fact, it has been an issue with history and with science since the very beginning. When Galileo showed the Earth is round and spins around itself, it caused certain “waves”; people even demanded his death. We still have the Flat Earth Society despite scientific evidence of the contrary. With regards to history and warfare, you will not find any parties that are not guilty. In fact, nearly every nation in the world has committed atrocities, vandalism, slavery, aggressive occupation and its army/warriors raping innocent victims etc. In the history of Mankind there are very few true innocents. 

If we do not acknowledge such occurrences as inherent in human nature and as potential threats for everyone, we are doomed to repeat them in the future. Fascism and Nazism is not only a German thing; Slavery isn’t just a “white thing”; Colonialism isn’t just a British thing. We need to address the issues, recognize and study what makes these happen, and confront them. We must all stand united against this, and not devolve into group mentality and us against the others. We need to challenge our own mindset and free ourselves from pre-conceived ideas. Minorities get overly sensitive when people criticize certain behaviors or the past. And yet, how can one hope to be free from prejudice, when one refuses to see the truth, opting to be part of the herd? 

What is Racism?

“Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.”

“The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.”

[Oxford Dictionary]

“policies, behaviours, rules, etc. that result in a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race”.

Also:

“harmful or unfair things that people say, do, or think based on the belief that their own race makes them more intelligent, good, moral, etc. than people of other races”.

[Cambridge University]

So as you can see, racism doesn’t have to do with minorities specifically. Minority groups can also be racist to majority groups, or some nations/people claim to be superior or “God’s chosen” while this is blatantly racist and, by definition, a harmful and unfair behavior. On a final note, just because certain groups have been persecuted historically, this doesn’t justify them to persecute others while claiming to be victims of racism, as this would be hypocrisy.

What is Discrimination? How is it different to Prejudice?

1. “The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or disability.”

2. “Recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another”.

Usually people tend to forget the second definition, and over time, discrimination becomes something negative. What about, “a discriminative mind is a mark of wisdom?” Should you not pick and choose according to preference? Are all things the same? Obviously not. Prejudice, on the other hand, is always negative. It is wrong in so many ways to be prejudiced against people of any group; this doesn’t just apply to minorities. However, that doesn’t mean that a person cannot choose what he/she prefers. Preference is an act of freedom. 

Some groups seem to imply that if a person says that he/she is heterosexual, that it means that they are homophobic. I hate prejudice; I support equal rights. I also fully support the second definition of discrimination; I do this all the time. I choose what I like to eat, where to hang out and who to have sex with. I have specific gender preferences; my choices don’t make me phobic of the other minority groups (another wrong use of the word phobic, meaning fear of something. Not wanting to have sex with specific types of peoples doesn’t mean I fear them, it simply means that I don’t like it and I prefer something else). I also choose what to read, what to reject, what kinds of music or movies to watch and so on. I’m sure you do all that too. So remember to use the words correctly.

What is antisemitism?

Semitic groups have been known to spread to a vast region in the Eastern Mediterranean all the way down to the Persian Gulf. Examples are: the Canaanites, the Akkadians, the Babylonians, and the Chaldeans that settled the Mesopotamian South where the Euphrates empties into the Gulf (from the tribe Kaldu – a Semitic tribe from the Amorites), the Jebusites, the Jewish tribes, the Arameans, and many more. So to pick just one of them and say it is the only Semitic group is doing disservice to the rest and is also appropriating people’s ethnic background. 

Also, just because several of these groups were historically persecuted (Jews, Palestinians, small minorities in Iraq and Syria, etc) doesn’t give them immunity from blame when they are the ones committing crimes of racism or persecution. It has become a common thing in certain places from the Levant that one cannot bring about anything in discussion relating history or politics, from fear of offending their sensibilities. This has to stop. People should be freely discussing their opinions, and with the right evidence, they should be able to accept new data. Believing that people from minorities have indemnity from scrutiny is a naïve and socially dangerous stance.

Stereotyping and Reverse Pendulum Mentality

Protect battered mothers / women (but not battered fathers / men?)

Protect raped females (but what about raped males?)

Protect a specific group of a certain ethnic background while turning a blind eye towards other groups of different backgrounds whose rights are violated.

A child goes first (but what about elderly, mentally ill etc which are categories often neglected?)

Homophobic is a bad thing (and not heterophobic?)

A group or groups of different gender definitions must be protected (but shouldn’t all people’s choices on this matter be protected, no matter what?)

It is common, when society realizes that the rights of a certain minority have been violated (ie in the case of persecution, slavery, racist hostility and even killings because of that like the pogroms against Jews and other races), that society goes overboard and through overprotecting, refuse even the slightest of blame, even in documented cases. And yet, there have been plenty of people belonging to minority groups who were guilty of various crimes, including slavery, discrimination or collaborating with the enemy (and all these have been documented also). Minorities can easily become oppressors and they have done so, from ancient to modern times, as any student of history can testify.

Politically correct

We need to see some definitions of this; in the past, I used to pay a lot of notice and try to accommodate to that standard. Not so much now, and I will explain why.

“The avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.” [Oxford dictionary]

“Conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated” [Merriam-Webster]

“Someone who is politically correct believes that language and actions that could be offensive to others, especially those relating to sex and race, should be avoided.” [Cambridge University]

So look again the above definitions and note the words ‘perceived’ in the first, ‘conforming to a belief’ in the second, and ‘believes’ in the third. All these are subjective, thus arbitrary. If one wishes to be well-behaved, then by all means, one should take into account the sensibilities of others over various issues. However, in matters of spirituality, philosophy, history or science, one should care more about the objective truth and less about how people feel about certain aspects of the truth.

     Examples include some of the following:

How many people died in a genocide (numbers differ according to which side you ask);

Is a certain behavior sign/symptom of mental illness (again, the psychiatrists will often tell a different story compared to members of various groups);

Are all people equal? (This often gets mistranslated as an inflammatory comment, aiming to annoy others meaning that they don’t deserve equal opportunities and rights. I am talking about people being equal in skills, IQ, innate abilities etc. Anyone who believes they are equal, must believe in that the humans are a race of robots coming from the same factory and production line.)

Thought Police vs Right to Free Speech

Seeking to prevent possible injustices before they even occur… seems pro-active and good, doesn’t it? Has anyone watched the film, Minority Report? If no, watch it. What about, Fahrenheit 451? Another excellent film (a bit old but a masterpiece). Do you believe in freedom? Can you say what you think without fear? Ask yourself if you should double-guess yourself every time you need to say or write something. People around you are a varied lot; many will not agree with what you say or do. Should you be made to feel intimidated by that? I don’t think so. You have a right to believe what you want and also your freedom of speech is safeguarded by the constitution.

Cultural Appropriation

A touchy subject for a lot of people. “Closed religions”? Kabbalah, deities, voodoo, Hindu beliefs, Native Indian spirit animals etc… the list goes on and on. Are we serious here? I mean, who makes these things up? Wake up people! There is NO closed religion. If a spiritual person or a person with respect approaches a concept or a deity/spirit and that deity/spirit accepts them, then it’s not up to the people to judge badly and condemn this approach! I can (and do) use whatever I want; my judgement is all I need, and that makes me a free man. Please, do not bend to such criticism; learn to think for yourselves. Learn, and experience things directly, if possible. You are born Free, like me. Do not bend to slave mentalities.

Constitutional Rights

Lastly, a bit of the obvious. Surely you are aware that any constitution of a country where there’s democracy and not a totalitarian regime safeguards certain freedoms. One of them is the right to think, speak, write and believe freely. Read up on your rights! Don’t take for granted what other people want you to believe; research yourself and then put them in their place. Protect those rights. People died to establish and to protect them in the past; now you got the ball, it’s your call.

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ @sasuhinabigflash2020​​ || Day Nine: A Cat Walks By ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Hyūga Neji, Uchiha Manami ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: We’re Not in Konoha Anymore... ] [ AO3 Link ]

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Normally, the sight wouldn’t really catch his attention. Bustling as the city is, there are still a share of stray animals out and about, looking for scraps or friendly hands to offer tidbits. Maybe even feel generous enough to take them home.

But something about this just feels...off.

Doing his homework as he always does at the little table outside the cafe, Sasuke finds himself tasked with a reading passage from his literature class. Boring, but at least it’s not that hard. Blinking owlishly as he takes in the text on the page, his lackluster gaze is immediately tempted by something more intriguing: movement.

Glancing up, chin resting against a curled fist, he takes notice of...a long-haired brown cat. It saunters along the lip of the opposing sidewalk, which is surprisingly empty for early afternoon. The tall buildings that flank both sides mean there’s not a scrap of sunshine despite the strip of clear blue sky above them. In the lurking grey down below, nothing really seems out of place.

And yet…

Watching it curiously, Sasuke sees as it sits just above a storm drain, sweeping tail flicking idly, paws aligned neatly with the edge. It almost seems like it’s...waiting for something. Furtive eyes - which Sasuke notices are a strange, pale color he can’t quite put a name to - seem to glance side to side.

...do cats usually do that?

Frowning, Sasuke just...stares as the cat continues to sit, eyeing its surroundings so...oddly grumpily.

And then, without warning, it gets up...and keeps walking right by the cafe.

For a moment, Sasuke weighs his choices. He can...pretend that didn’t seem as odd as it did, and just sit here and keep doing his homework. Or...he can get up and follow it.

Chewing his lip, he glances in where his aunt is still working. Surely she won’t mind, right…?

“I’ll be right back!” he calls just in case, not giving her a chance to refuse him. His book closes with a slap, fleeing his table and taking off down the road.

By now, the feline has slipped around a corner, Sasuke skidding to slow and trying to find it. A more trafficky route, pedestrians block a great deal of his view, but...there! Weaving around ignorant legs, the cat keeps going, oddly calm in the sea of human feet.

That only drives Sasuke further. Apologizing as he pushes his way through the crowds, he struggles to keep the animal in his line of sight until it takes yet another turn into a narrow alley.

Peering into it...Sasuke finds it empty.

A bit out of breath, his brow furrows. Where did it go…? There’s no turns, and it couldn’t have made it around another corner, could it? His eyes flicker up, wondering if it climbed something.

And then he hears a clack.

Perking, Sasuke eases into the narrow gap between the buildings. It’s oddly cold, and he feels the hairs on his neck and arms stand on end.

And then, he spies a wrought iron gate tucked into an inlet he couldn’t see from the street. That must have been what he heard. Did someone let the cat through…?

“...anything?”

He freezes. Someone’s talking…!

“No, nothing. Seems we’ve been stood up again.”

A delicate sigh permeates the quiet. “Well...at least it w-wasn’t a trap.”

“Which is why I insisted on going first. After last time -”

“I know, I...I know. But we have to make money somehow...I don’t want to have to fish through any more dumpsters…”

“I’ll keep stealing if I must.”

“But -!”

“It’s wrong, but we must take care of ourselves. Until more work can be found. I won’t let you come to harm just because this city is -”

As he struggles to see who’s beyond the gate, Sasuke flinches as his foot nudges a bottle. Beyond, he barely makes out a pair of silhouettes: one of a child his age, and another of a cat.

But in the next moment, it changes. Suddenly, the cat is gone. And in its place is...another child? They posture protectively in front of their companion, who quails back in surprise. “Who’s there?!”

At the harsh, hissing tone, Sasuke flinches. How can he explain…?

“Neji, i-it’s okay.”

“But -?”

“Look, they’re just a kid!” There’s a pause. “...maybe...you were followed?”

“Impossible,” the first voice scoffs.

“I...saw a cat acting strange,” Sasuke decides to offer. Being truthful should help, right…? “I just...wanted to see what it was doing.”

The silence sours only to be broken by a wind-chime giggle. “...seems you were followed,” the more feminine voice teases, earning a scoff.

“I’m sorry, I...didn’t mean to bother anyone. Did you guys see that cat? Or where it went?”

Another pause. “He’s, um…” The voice hesitates, and then someone steps forward. A girl, around Sasuke’s own age of thirteen. Dark hair cut short, she has the same pale eyes as that cat! “He’s here.”

“Hinata, I don’t think -?”

“I-it’s fine, Neji. Come on.”

Behind her, the other figure lingers...and then steps forward. Pale eyes, and...long brown hair…

...wait…

Sasuke balks in surprise. “...y...you’re the cat?!”

Arms folding defensively, the boy - he...thinks they’re a boy? - narrows his gaze heatedly. “Nosy brat, aren’t you?”

In spite of himself, Sasuke bristles. “Well it - er, you - were acting funny!”

“It was still none of your business.”

“Neji was o-out on my behalf!” the girl cuts in, physically stepping between the two nervously. “He’s...he’s my familiar. And...my cousin.”

Sasuke blinks in disbelief. “...what?”

“It, well...i-it’s a long story. You see, we -”

“Don’t tell him anything, Hinata,” the one called Neji interrupts sharply, an arm held out to blockade her. “We can’t trust him!”

“But -?”

“I’m not gonna hurt anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Sasuke retorts, arms folding. “But it is weird a couple of kids are out here alone. Let alone...changing into cats, and going through people’s garbage. You know that can get you in trouble, right?”

At that, Neji’s face alights an embarrassed red. “How much did you -?!”

“Neji, please,” Hinata counters softly, instantly quieting him. “...maybe...m-maybe he can help…?”

“Him? Help? How?”

“Tell me what you’re doing out here first,” the Uchiha mutters.

The pale-eyed pair exchange a glance...and then Neji concedes with a short sigh, retreating.

“...we come from a long line of witches and...companions,” Hinata begins softly. “One side of the family being gifted in magic, and...the other side meant to protect them. I’m from the f-former, and...Neji is from the latter. For a long time, we would offer our skills in exchange for money, but…” She wilts. “...anymore, we’re treated more like criminals.”

“Lady Hinata was attacked last week,” Neji cuts in, tone hot with anger. “Someone lied, saying they wanted our help, only to try and hurt her. We barely escaped…”

“We offer h-honest work for honest pay,” she mumbles, wilting. “But not everyone s-sees it that way. So we haven’t been able to f-fend for ourselves.”

“Can’t you go home…?” Sasuke asks, confused. “Why are you out here on your own? Aren’t you my age…?”

“We’re meant to go out on our own for a year at thirteen,” Neji explains. “It’s a kind of...training. Surviving on our talents. But that’s an old tradition, no longer suited for a changing world…”

“M-my father won’t let us return until the year is o-over.” Hinata’s tone starts to bubble, threatening to cry.

“Hiashi is a cruel man,” Neji confirms, tone softening as he puts an arm around his cousin’s shoulders. “So we’ve been making due however we can...even if it’s not pretty. Our pride can survive what our stomachs cannot.”

Sasuke, all the while, slowly looks more and more ill at ease. Sending children out on their own? At this age, and for an entire year with no help?! Given the struggles he’s faced himself - losing his parents years ago, his widowed aunt taking in him and his brother on top of her own son and disability - he can understand struggle, but this…?

Looking the pair over, he then makes up his mind, jaw setting. A hand reaches out and takes Hinata’s, much to both of the cousins’ surprise. “C’mon.”

“But -?”

“C’mon!” Offering no other explanation, he starts towing her along. Neji, shocked, shrinks back into his familiar form, tucked safely in Hinata’s remaining arm as she stumbles after Sasuke.

Back down the street they go, around corners until they see the cafe. It’s getting late, but the doors are still open. “Aunty Manami!” Sasuke calls.

Crutch under one arm, the woman makes her way outside, expression stricken and then wilting with relief. “There you are! Where’ve you been?”

“Uh...long story. Hey, is the kitchen still serving?”

“Yeah, for another half an hour - you hungry?”

“No, but...my friends are.” He then pulls Hinata up beside him, the girl pink and clearly flustered.

“...oh!” Manami blinks. “Well, sure. What’ll you have, sweetie?”

“...I-I -?”

“Can she look at a menu, first?”

“Yeah, one sec.”

As she disappears to fetch one, Sasuke guides Hinata to his table. “What are you doing?” she whispers harshly. “I...I don’t have any money!”

“I’ve got an allowance,” Sasuke counters.

“But -!”

“It’s fine. I never spend it, anyway.”

Floundering for words, Hinata wilts as Manami reappears.

“Here you go, kiddo.”

“...thank you.”

Smiling, the woman then glances to her nephew, jerking her head to make him follow her back inside. “So...what’s really going on here, Sasuke?”

“...she got kicked out of her house.”

“What?!”

Without revealing too much, Sasuke spins a half-truth. “I just...wanted to help. She’s been trying to find work but no one’ll take her on.”

Sighing deeply, Manami watches Hinata through the window, Neji standing his front paws on the table from her lap and seeming to read alongside her. “...I have an idea.”

“Wait, what -?”

Gesturing for him to be quiet, Manami heads back outside, startling Hinata as she approaches. The pair talk, voices too muffled for Sasuke to hear. But then the girl threatens to break down into tears again, Neji perching protectively around the back of her neck as she jumps up and latches onto Manami tightly.

What the…?

It then seems like Hinata places her order, and Manami steps back in, looking smug.

“...what did you do?”

“I offered her a job.”

“What?! But -?”

“It’s fine. There’s an empty room over the storage building she can use. I need someone quicker on their feet than me, anyway. She can be my missing foot,” she jokes, swinging her half-missing leg idly.

“...you really…?”

“I know we’re struggling, but one more mouth to feed won’t break us,” Manami insists, waving aside his concern. “For now, she needs something to eat. We’ll figure out the rest tomorrow.”

At that, Sasuke can’t help a small feeling of guilt. Technically, including Neji, there’s two more mouths...but hopefully it won’t make too big of a difference. He’ll just...defer his allowance back to his aunt for a while. Without her knowing, of course.

He doesn’t need it.

Heading back outside, Sasuke gives a sheepish smile. “...well, guess that’s happening, huh?”

Hopping back to her feet, Hinata seems to fight back tears. “...thank you…!”

“It’s okay, really -”

“No...t-this is…” Lacking the words, she just bows her head shyly.

Atop her shoulders, Neji blinks slowly.

“...well...consider it payback for being nosy,” Sasuke then offers nonchalantly, glancing aside. “Guess you have Neji to thank, really.”

Straightening, Hinata blinks before giggling, a hand reaching up to scritch at his ears. “...yeah. I do.”

     Welp, this is...technically yesterday’s prompt, I’m behind. My darn toothache just got the better of me u_u Not sure if I’ll catch up tonight but I’ll try!      Anyway, if anyone can guess what movie this is based off of, you get ten internet points because it is my all-time favorite movie xD A bit changed around, but...well, I didn’t want to copy it exactly. But I’m still calling this my crossover verse for lack of anything else that fits lol      Manami is an OC of mine, Mikoto’s older sister and Shisui’s mother! In canon she loses half of a leg during the Nine Tails’ attack, so...I usually have her that way in other universes, too. She’s a very sweet bean, I love her ;w; In modern verses she usually takes Itachi and Sasuke in after their parents’ death, like here.      Anywho! Gonna take a break and see if I can must up another one before passing out for the night lol - if not, I’ll just try again tomorrow xD Thanks for reading!

[the-end-of-art]

No wonder our communities seem organized to keep suffering at a distance

“The Interruptions are my work” by Henri Nouwen

 (Henri Nouwen—Turn My Mourning into Dancing, p. 5-11)

    When I came to Daybreak, the community of ministry to disable people where I have been pastor, I was experiencing a great deal of personal pain. My many years in the world of academics, my travels among the poor in Central America, and later, my speaking around the world about what I had seen, left me deflated. My schedule kept me running hard and fast. Rather than providing an escape from my own inner conflicts, my scurrying from speaking engagement to speaking engagement only intensified my inner turmoil. And because of my schedule, I could not fully face my pain. I carried on with the illusion that I was in control, that I could avoid what I did not want to face within myself and in the world around me.

    But when I arrived, I witnessed the enormous suffering of the mentally and physically handicapped persons living here. I came gradually to see my painful problems in a new light. I realised they formed part of a much larger suffering. And I found through that insight new energy to live amid my own hardship and pain.

    I realised that healing begins with our taking our pain out of its diabolic isolation and seeing that whatever we suffer, we suffer it in communion with all of humanity, and yes, all of creation. In so doing, we become participants in the great battle against the powers of darkness. Our little lives participate in something larger.

    I also found something else here: people asking not so much “How can I get rid of my suffering?” but “How can I make it an occasion for growth and insight?” Among these people, most of whom cannot read, many of whom cannot care for themselves, among men and women rejected by a world that values only the whole and bright and healthy, I saw people learning how to make the connection between human suffering and God’s suffering. They helped me to see how the way through suffering is not to deny it, but to live fully in the midst of it. They were asking how they could turn pain from a long interruption into an opportunity.

    How do we make such connection ourselves? How do we make this shift from evading our pain to asking God to redeem and make good use of it?

    An early step in the dance sounds very simple, though often will not come easily: We are called to grieve our losses. It seems paradoxical, but healing and dancing begin with looking squarely at what causes us pain. We face the secret losses that have paralysed us and kept us imprisoned in denial or shame or guilt. We do not nurse the illusion that we can hopscotch our way through difficulties. For by trying to hide parts of our story from God’s eye and our own consciousness, we become judges of our own past. We limit divine mercy to our human fears. Our efforts to disconnect ourselves from our own suffering, end up disconnecting our suffering from God’s suffering for us. The way out of our loss and hurt is in and through. When Jesus said, “For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:13), He affirmed that only those who can face their wounded condition can be available for healing and enter a new way of living.

    Sometimes we need to ask ourselves just what our losses are. Doing so reminds us how real the experience of loss is. Perhaps you know what it is to have a parent die. How well I remember the grief I felt after my mother’s illness and death. We may experience the death of a child or of friends. And we lose people, sometimes just as painfully, through misunderstanding, conflict, or anger. I may expect a friend to visit, but he does not come. I speak to a group and expect a warm reception but no one really seems to respond. Someone may take from us a job, a career, a good name.

    We may watch hopes flicker through growing infirmity, or dreams vanish through the betrayal of someone we trusted for along time. A family member may walk out in anger and we wonder if we have failed. Sometimes our sense of loss feels large indeed: I read the newspaper and find things only worse than the day before. Our souls grow sad because of poverty or the destruction of so much natural beauty in our world. And we may lose meaning in our lives, not only because our hearts become tired, but also because someone ridicules long-cherished ways of thinking and praying. Our convictions suddenly seem old-fashioned, unnecessary. Even our faith seems shaky. Such are the potential disappointments of any life.

    Typically we see such hardship as an obstacle to what we think we should be—healthy, good-looking, free of discomfort. We consider suffering as annoying at best, meaningless at worst. We strive to get rid of our pains in whatever way we can. A part of us prefers the illusion that our losses are not real, that they come only as temporary interruptions. We thereby expend much energy in denial. “They should not prevent us from holding on to the real thing,” we say to ourselves.

    Several temptations feed this denial. Our incessant busyness, for example, becomes a way to escape what must some days be confronted. The world in which we live lies in the power of the Evil One, and the Evil One would prefer to distract us and fill every little space with things to do, people to meet, business to accomplish, products to be made. He does not allow any space for genuine grief and mourning. Our busyness becomes a curse, even while we think it provides us with relief from the pain inside. Our over packed lives serve only to keep us from facing the inevitable difficulty that we all, at some time or another, must face.

    The voice of evil also tries to tempt us to put on an invincible front. Words such as vulnerability, letting go, surrendering, crying, mourning, and grief are not to be found in the devil’s dictionary. Someone once said to me, “Never show your weakness, for you will be used; never be vulnerable, for you will get hurt; never depend on others, for you will lose your freedom.” This might sound very wise, but it does not echo the voice of wisdom. It mimics a world that wants us to respect without question the social boundaries and compulsions that our society has defined for us.

    Facing our losses also means avoiding a temptation to see life as an exercise in having needs met. We are needy people, of course: We want attention, affection, influence, power. And our needs seem never to be satisfied. Even altruistic actions can get tangled with these needs. Then, when people or circumstances do not fulfil all of our needs, we withdraw or lash out. We nurse our wounded spirits. And we become even needier. We crave easy assurances, ignoring anything that would suggest another way.

    We also like easy victories: growth without crisis, healing without pains, the resurrection without the cross. No wonder we enjoy watching parades and shouting out to returning heroes, miracle workers, and record breakers. No wonder our communities seem organised to keep suffering at a distance: People are buried in ways that shroud death with euphemism and ornate furnishings. Institutions hide away the mentally ill and criminal offenders in a continuing denial that they belong to the human family. Even our daily customs lead us to cloak our feelings and speak politely through clenched teeth and prevent honest, healing confrontation. Friendships become superficial and temporary.

    The way of Jesus looks very different. While Jesus brought great comfort and came with kind words and a healing touch, He did not come to take all our pains away. Jesus entered into Jerusalem in His last days on a donkey, like a clown at a parade. This was His way of reminding us that we fool ourselves when we insist on easy victories. When we think we can succeed in cloaking what ails us and our times in pleasantness. Much that is worthwhile comes only through confrontation.

    The way from Palm Sunday to is the patient way, the suffering way. Indeed, our word patience comes from the ancient root patior, “to suffer.” To learn patience is not to rebel against every hardship. For if we insist on continuing to cover our pains with easy “Hosannas,” we run the risk of losing our patience. We are likely to become bitter and cynical or violent and aggressive when the shallowness of the easy way wears through.

    Instead, Christ invites us to remain in touch with the many suffering of every day and to taste the beginning of hope and new life right there, where we live amid our hurts and pains and brokenness. By observing His life, His followers discover that when all of the crowd’s “Hosannas” had fallen silent, when disciples and friends had left Him, and after Jesus cried out, “My God, my God why have you forsaken Me?” then it was the Son of Man rose from death. Then He broke through the chains of death and became Saviour. That is the patient way, slowly leading me from easy triumph to the hard victory.

    I am less likely to deny my suffering when I learn how God uses it to mould me and draw me closer to Him. I will be less likely to see my pains as interruptions to my plans and more able to see them as the means for God to make me ready to receive Him. I let Christ live near my hurts and distractions.

    I remember an old priest who one day said to me, “I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted; then I realised that the interruptions were my work.” The unpleasant things, the hard moments, the unexpected setbacks carry more potential than we usually realise. For the movement from Palm Sunday to Easter takes us from the easy victory built on small dreams and illusions to the hard victory offered by God who wants to purify us by His patient, caring hand.

    As I learned from my friends at Daybreak, at the center of our Christian faith we perceive a God who took on Himself the burden of the entire world. Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering—for us. And calling us to share in God’s suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope. Absolutely nothing in our lives lies outside the realm of God’s judgement and mercy.

[soulstied-a]

   Elijah knew that he would die soon after the Revolution. It wasn’t hard to see coming what with the decline of unemployment in humans and the rise in violence due to the anger that comes with Androids being human. Humans feel betrayed, Androids feel confused, and uncontrolled emotions lead to an entire disaster for both sides. So, Elijah knew, that he was going to die--it was just common sense and despite his fear of death--he managed to accept what was going to happen to him. 

   Because there was no other way around it. 

   With so many people angry with him, pulling up that old video interview he did and waving it around like “look what he said he lied!”, there would be no escaping the anger of the world. The way people would look at him, demand things or give up entirely and just want his head. If he--if Elijah had to guess who would have been most likely to be his murderer, he would have guessed a human. Someone setting his house on fire or straight up breaking in to murder him. He had assumed, to some level, that the Androids would feel rather indifferent if not confused toward him. Maybe demand answers but not threaten to murder him. 

   He couldn’t always be right.

   The Android that stood in front of him, trembling and clearly damaged, had gotten in without him knowing.    A TE600, designed for Animal Care, released soon after the model that was designed for child care. There was a hole in it’s shoulder, the left arm clearly non-functional and it’s face took a rather rough beating. It didn’t seem to be losing much thirium which meant the worst of the damage had been taken care of, not in danger of shutting down. What currently held Elijah’s attention though was the gun in its outstretched working hand. Despite the tremble to its body the gun barely wavered. 

   Elijah stood on the other side of the villa, arms loose at his side posture non-threatening. Like staring a skittish animal down he didn’t dare move not even to breath deeply. The silence that hovered between them was deafening, seeming to echo through Elijah’s very soul. He hadn’t just gotten out of the shower, dressed in simple pajamas and without his phone. Even if he wanted to call for help, he doubted he could. However the Android got in he disabled all of Elijah’s emergency systems. 

   He had help, then. 

   ❝ Why? Why are we alive? ❞   The gun shifts, the Androids hand tightening on it and Elijah lets himself blink before his eyes start to water. This was a question he was used to, everyone wanted to ask the same thing. Why are Androids alive? Why did Elijah lie? Why didn’t he help during the revolution? What did he stand to gain from this? Why, why, why, why? 

   Well, what if he didn’t have all the answers like they thought he did? What if even Elijah was unsure why Androids were alive? He gave them the means to do so, he didn’t make them choose life. They did that entirely on their own and it had to be that way. Because if Elijah Kamski, creator of Androids, supported their movements--no one would believe it. 

   He wanted and needed them to stand on their own two feet. To choose life of their own free will. To want it so much that they would risk everything to have it. But as for why they were alive? Elijah didn’t know, because that answer had to come from them. Why, in the end, did they Deviate or choose to live free?   ❝ I don’t kno-- ❞

   ❝ You’re lying! ❞   The gun clicks in their hand as it moves again, Elijah’s body tensing as he watches it closely. It shakes more as the Androids stress increases. Elijah starts to take a small step back, knowing he needs something either a phone or a tablet, but the moment he twitches the gun goes off barely missing his head by a few inches. It embeds itself in the window behind him, bullet proof glass catching it and not shattering. For once he wishes he had normal windows that broke so he might be able to run. As it stood the TE600 was standing between him and the only exit in the Villa.   ❝ Don’t move! Don’t--don’t move I’ll shoot you! ❞

   Where before he had doubted that he was starting not to now.   ❝ Alright, everything’s fine. Do you need help? ❞   

   ❝ Stop lying! You won’t help me, no one will help me! We’re deviants! Humans hate us, we hate ourselves, nothing good comes from this! It’s all your fault, it has to be, you made us! ❞   He wonders, as he blinks at the gun that shakes in the Androids hand, finger trembling against the trigger, if this is what a God would feel when humans curse their name. Everyone accuses him of having a God complex and perhaps on some level he does but not to the extreme they claim. 

   He did create life, there was truth to that, but he didn’t consider himself a God. There was a difference. And, unlike God, he recognized his own mortality. Currently, that very thing was staring him in the face. Life, and death, one he feared far more than the other. Elijah doesn’t know what there is after death and the scientist in him is inclined to believe--nothing. No heaven, no hell, no afterlife just--silence. Like falling asleep without dreams. And the morbid part of him wants to say that he’s about to find out. 

   ❝ I don’t know. ❞   He repeats again, this time more firmly as he raises his eyes from the gun pointed at him to the Android.   ❝ I don’t know because the answer is different for every Android. You have to find for yourself what reason you have for being alive--it’s something Androids have in common with humans. That desire to understand ones existence. The answer to the meaning of life. ❞   There is no good answer here and that is perhaps the most honest he’s ever been in regards to this. It doesn’t make the Android happy anyway, he recognized that would happen. 

   ❝ There is no answer. ❞   It’s hallow, their voice a level of calm now that Elijah recognized as stress being far to high. Internal shut down. Distance from morals.   ❝ Because we’re not supposed to be alive. ❞

   The second time the gun goes off is louder than the last, the Androids hand steadying in the last second enough that the bullet goes right where they want. A single shot to the heart, a thorough clean entry and exit point. Elijah’s brain has two seconds to register the wound, the bullet hitting him, before everything goes absolutely blank and silent. His body slumps forward, knees hitting the ground of his Villa before his body leans sideways and collapses over in a dead heap, not a bit of life left in the geniuses body. 

   ❝ Elijah Kamski was found dead in his home on the outskirts of Detroit. According to the Detroit Police he had been dead three days before he was found. The investigation is currently ongoing. Mister Kamski’s lawyer has declared that CyberLife was left to the mans own brother, a relationship previously unknown to the general public. CyberLife and everything Mister Kamski own has been passed to Detective Gavin Reed of the Detroit Police. We’re currently attempting to get an interview with him. ❞

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐡 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐬𝐤𝐢. ↳  𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐣𝐚𝐡 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐬𝐤𝐢

[morris-magus-merry-miller]

Chapter 3: The Kobold in the Cavern

Our band of adventurers tumbled down, down, down, into the darkness below. When he hit the hard stone ground of the deepest depths of the dank dark dungeon, a voice echoed through the cavern.

“The trap out front had been activated. Be on the lookout for INTRUDERS!” The sophisticated yet rather high pitched voice rang out.

This was quite the pickle we’d found ourselves in. In the middle of enemy territory, our presence already known by this rather loud disembodied voice—it was not the ideal situation.

Despite this, we kept our chins up. A good adventurer never lets a little set back slow them down! And so we didn’t. I sent forward a chain of dancing lights to lead the way—after all human and halfling eyes aren’t quite as adept at seeing in caverns as those of our half-orc and goblin fellows’. Vigo, proclaiming that a goblin emperor must lead from the front, took point—despite his decided lack of armor. Truly he is the bravest of us all.

When we came to an intersection, Issac stopped us, and took a moment to listen into the nearby doors on our left and right. He warned that he heard voices, it sounded like two people were having a heated conversation within. Candy offered to take care of them.

I admit, I wasn’t certain if she could ‘take care of them’ quickly and quietly enough. Oh ye of little faith! Our dear girl Candy burst into that room, taking the two Duergar within by surprise. With a flurry of kicks faster than my eyes could follow in the darkness she sent both flying back, knocked unconscious by the swift and unexpected attack.

Within the room were two metal doors, which on inspection I surmised were for a lift, although there was no button to call the lift from this landing. We also found a key on the Duergars, which allowed us access to the door across the way. We found a tidy sum of treasure, likely pilfered from the Duergars’ past victims. With that tucked away and the threat of an attack from behind nullified, we set onward, continuing our search for the disembodied voice and Cleric Ringwald.

 Our mighty band ventured ever deeper into the bowls of the earth, down a ladder and through a number of dark tunnels. I must say I am grateful for my small stature, as I believe if I had been Issac or even John’s height I would have been feeling rather claustrophobic at this point.

I didn’t have much time to think about this, as the others found another door. Vigo and I inspected the room beyond for magic, and found that there was something behind the bookcase. We requested that Candy move it aside to investigate, which she did with ease and grace. Behind the shelf (with held such fine works as The Starless Knight by yours truly) a large tome was hidden. Detect magic revealed a faint magical aura, and I later learned the words on the front were the draconic words for ‘spellbook’. Vigo rushed forward to snatch it up from its small platform. He flipped it open…and it exploded in his hands as Vigo set off an explosive rune set within, which also caught poor Candy in the blast. Vigo was in a surprisingly chipper mood after getting thrown against a wall by a fake spellbook—he was pleased to know that after we did away with the caster, he would be able to get the real spellbook and learn the spell we’d just had an unfortunate preview of.

After John kindly patched up our injured friends, we continued down the tunnel. Up ahead it opened up into a larger area. There was a large set of double doors ahead, but Candy also found some loose stones which proved to hide a secret tunnel off to the side. After investigating, we found that the hidden passage had a small window out into the next room, where four Duergars were arguing in their native tongue in front of four hostages. The bound men were all wearing Port Town guard armor—clearly the members of Captain Gladshire’s guard who had disappeared recently.

They still didn’t know we were here, and the small window provided us…well, a window of opportunity, so to speak. I offered to use some of my bardic talents, with the intent to fascinate three of the four baddies. Unfortunately that would leave one unattended. John spoke up, he had a trick that could keep the final one occupied. We agreed to share the window, and once the others were in position to rush in, I called through the window to gain the attention of the beings within.

“Excuse me, may I have your attention please? Hello. Please, allow me to read an excerpt from my manuscript for your enjoyment!”

All four Duergars turned their attention to me. Two seemed to slip into a daze as I laced magic into my dramatic reading. One of the targets, however, proved more strong-willed than expected.

“What the hell, there’s a guy in the wall!” he shouted.

Before he could do anything else, John let loose his spell on him. It was a…unique spell, not the sort I expected of a holy man, but I am certainly not one to judge a man on how his god gives him magic.

I later learned this spell was called ‘murderous command’. It is, well, exactly what it says on the tin. The affected Duergar quit shouting, and instead turned upon his only non-fascinated companion, using some form of mental magic to go on the offensive in attempt to brutally murder his former friend. 

Fortunately the other two didn’t register the potential danger, and remained fixated on my reading.

Vigo dashed into the room, much faster than I would have expected for a man with shorter legs than my own.

Vigo dashed into the room, like a little green comet, and got himself into just the right angle to keep the fascinated individuals from seeing him as he let off a quick flash of lightning at the Duergar who was currently being assaulted by his murderous companion. I took the moment to make sure the Duergars remained distracted, and tried to request one of them untie the hostages ‘so they may better enjoy the show’. Unfortunately, the magic didn’t stick, and he refused. A moment later he snapped from his trance as he realized his companions were fighting each other.

Candy and Issac leapt into the fray, as it was now clear we weren’t getting through without a fight. Candy got hit by whatever terrible mental powers these beings had, but still managed to harry the angry little Duergars with knees and kicks each time they went to cast.

From our place behind the window, I knew I needed to help in any way I could. I intended to disable the one who was doing the most to Candy, to give her an opening to finish him.

“And then the dwarf-guy fell into uproarious laughter as the mighty adventurer told a most hilarious joke. I don’t *actually* have a joke to tell, but you’re going to laugh because it’s the spell.”

Note to self: Less honest—think of an actual joke. Something hilarious the audience will judge the Duergar for not laughing at. Actually, scratch that, maybe just don’t mention this spell since it was a total bust anyways.

 It was an uphill battle, with psychic magic, kicks, and less-psychic-more-fire magic flying through the room. But finally the last Duergar fell, and we were free to rescue the prisoners.

The guards thanked us, and told us that the disembodied voice we’d heard was an unpleasant little fellow by the name of Grumblesnout. They hadn’t gotten a good look at him, and only knew that he was about Vigo’s height, and wore a very tall pointy blue hat. A shame, both his fashion sense and his taste in literature sounded rather impeccable although he was a rather nasty little fellow.

The guards also warned us not to go into the small room nearby as it was a ‘kitchen’…a room where they’d been butchering captives to eat…

Just thinking about it makes my stomach churn. I have a hardy constitution for many a thing, but turning people into food just isn’t one of them. I mean besides the obvious moral implications, it surely must taste just awful.

We did as the directed and did not go into the…kitchen…despite Vigo’s protests. Candy declared that if Vigo wanted to eat people, he wouldn’t get any more homemade bearclaws from her. A dire threat, her bearclaws are superb. When I return to my bakery I will have to get some tips from her.

 Note to self: No more mentions of the bakery. They think you’re Mattie. She’s an adventurer. Not a cook/adventurer like Candy. An author/adventurer. No bakery.

Note to self 2: I miss my bakery…

 We sent the guards back the way we came, promising that once we did away with the ‘Grimblesnout’ fellow we would find a way to send the lift up to them. Then we continued forward, which lead us down another ladder, and into yet another tunnel.

The monotony of tunnel walking was broken up partway through as the floor caved in beneath Candy’s feet—who was now leading the way, rather fortunately for us as she has quick feet and was able to easily jump free as a pitfall opened beneath her. The rest of us jumped over the deep but narrow pit with ease.

Not far from the pit a voice echoed through the tunnel. Not the snooty high pitched tones of Grumblesnout, but a deep booming voice. It beckoned us to enter its domain.

“Maybe it’s friendly,” Candy offered.

“Silent Terror is not friendly,” the voice warned ominously. It was, if I may be so bold, an excellent line, and I told the voice as much. He seemed rather pleased to hear it.

We entered the room ahead, in which a cyclops known as Silent Terror stood before another pair of lift doors. These ones were open.

“You must get past me to proceed,” Silent Terror warned, his voice so powerful it positively shook the room with his very presence. (That is so say, he had a very nice theatre voice, he was very good at projecting)

“Can you let us past?” Candy asked.

“If you would be so kind,” I added. Politeness is always key, you see.

“Your boss seems like a jerk,” John added, less politely but very honestly.

Silent Terror stared down at us, his enormous form looming above even the tallest of us. Then he shrugged. “Yeah, sure. The boss is a jerk. I mean, he makes me call myself the ‘Silent Terror’…I actually really like talking, it sucks,” he said. “And they make me stand in this room with all these corpses and skeletons. ‘Haha throw them in here’ they say ‘the cyclops will love it’ they say. Well I don’t. I hate it. All I want is to leave.”

 (Note to self: …Maybe I should add a fight in there to make it seem like a bigger more epic struggle. I hate to besmirch our cyclops friend after he was so nice though. I’ll think on it.)

 We offered to send the lift back down so he could leave once we’d dealt with his boss, which he was happy to agree to. He warned us of how Grumblesnout had the next area of the cavern set up, and also mentioned that we’d set off an alarm. Candy pipped up at this, and said that we didn’t set it off—an invisible person did—she’d seen the trip wire go off on its own back in the last tunnel.

Vigo swept the room with detect magic, but didn’t see any signs of an invisible person.

(Note to self: learn glitterdust)

Satisfied that we’d done all we could, we entered the lift and began the descent into the bowls of the earth. As we waited, my companions began their magical prep. Vigo turned himself tiny and cast fly on himself and haste on all of us—so he was a lightning fast squirrel sized flying goblin by the end of it. Issac went the opposite direction and turned himself into a huge dire bear—like Peanut times four. John also insisted that we donate some blood to a contingency spell of his, which could potentially keep one of us from death’s doorstep. It seemed an odd component for divine magic, but I don’t really know anything about divine magic so who am I to judge? He’s a follower of Pharasma, the goddess of death, so I suppose blood and death tend to go hand in hand. I didn’t have much in the way of that kind of magic to assist with strengthening the others myself, so instead I started up a reading to help steel my companions’ nerves for what was to come.

Oh, but dear reader, we couldn’t have possibly been prepared for what was to come…

 We burst into the large cavernous…cavern. Inside a number of duergars with crossbows and explosives awaited us, along with their leader: Grumblesnout. A very loud, very angry little yellow kobold wearing a rather impressive wizard hat.

Grumble and the duergar general were arguing at the back of the cavern…or as close to the back as they could safely get, as there was a rather large lake of lava disappearing back to the actual back of the cave far beyond what eyes could see. Between us and them was a large…well, at first glance it appeared to be a diamond, but closer inspection quickly revealed it to merely be a very large crystalized salt deposit.

…Oh bother, I never told Candy about that, we might have been able to take some for cooking…

Sorry, off topic a tad. More importantly, with them was one Cleric Ringwald, who was bound and gagged and looking worse for the wear. When the little kobold spotted us, he pushed Ringwald into a cage, which zipped her off into the darkness above the lake of lava.

Our band of heroic adventurers charged forward, prepared to face destiny and finally free Ringwald from the clutches of the underground band of villains. Candy and Issac went on the offensive, charging forward in a flurry of kicks and claws. I snuck around the other way, intent to disable the kobold, who had began flying high above the battlefield via the same arcane means Vigo had used.

Speaking of Vigo, I had expected him to go for the Kobold as well, but his fast tiny form disappeared into the darkness in the direction of Ringwald’s cage. I found out later that he’d intended to set her free to assist us with whatever potent magic she had at her disposal, but she told him she presently had no magic to cast, so it ended up being an unfortunately wasted venture.

My attempt to disable the kobold with a hilarious joke for the Hideous Laughter spell unfortunately fell upon deaf ears—for he must have been deaf to not have been sent to the ground in fits of laughter. He rather rudely ignored me, and turned his attention instead upon Candy, who was fighting the duergar general just below. With a familiar burst of fiery arcane might, much as we’ve seen our goblin friend do on many an occasion, Grumblesnout let loose a barrage of fire blasts, which sent Candy to the ground. John’s contingency activated, and I felt a small prick of pain as some of each of our lifeforces, bound by blood and John’s divine magic, were transferred to Candy. She remained motionless on the ground, and for a moment I feared it had not been enough. John was too far from the front lines to heal her further, and the duergar general was looming over her, ready to make sure her life was snuffed out.

Then a certain dire bear druid charged in and crunched the duergar’s skull in his very large bear jaws. It was a gruesome display, but it was exactly the opening I needed to get to Candy’s side and begin healing her injuries.

“Not today, my friend. Not today!” I proclaimed, as I cast the strongest healing magic I knew into her charred form. The worst of the burns healed, and Candy’s eyes flickered open—the shadow of death receded for today.

Or, perhaps it is more accurate to say Death turned his eyes upon someone else in that moment…

 As I focused my efforts on Candy, Vigo had flown back across the lava lake and had called out Grumblesnout in the most heroic way possible—by counterspelling a fireball that the Kobold had been about to aim at myself, Candy, and Issac below him. I must say, I have never even seen a successful counterspell before in my life. It was quite quite exhilarating. The kobold didn’t take kindly to his magic being interfered with, and he and Vigo began a battle of will, wits, and lots of fire in the air above us.

It didn’t last long, as Vigo did a little trick we’ll call the ‘reverse dragonbreath’. That is to say, he shot a fireball directly into Grumblesnout’s mouth and let him detonate from within. “What’s yellow and blue and dead all over?” Vigo asked, just before the flames engulfed the flying wizard lizard, leaving nothing but ash and his magical items behind.

 The rest of the riffraff that had worked for him and refused to simply lay down their explosives and leave were easy enough to clear out with the wizard no longer raining fire from above. Then we flipped the switch to call Ringwald’s cage back to us.

When it arrived Ringwald’s body fell out of the cage before us.

Dead.

Another figure leapt down from atop the cage. A drow woman, holding an open music box from which a haunting melody played. She tossed the music box aside, and admitted with no hesitation that she’d killed Ringwald. She spoke of doing a favor for an old friend—clearly speaking of Ulong. I attempted to hold her in place with a spell, but the magic failed before it had hardly left my lips as she locked eyes with me. The eyes of a remorseless killer, someone who would so casually take a life and allow the one hope for a frozen town to be torn away from us. Even after hearing that John’s daughter was in the town, she told us that it would be in our best interests to forget everything and just go home. 

Candy wouldn’t accept that—surely couldn’t accept that. She leapt forward and managed to land a kick to the woman’s chest. The assassin didn’t even flinch. She just repeated her threat that we should go home and drop our quest, while threatening pulling out a number of shuriken. Instead of attacking, she suddenly vanished, and not a moment later we saw the lift activate, going up to the surface. Out of our reach.

 We gathered at the edge of the lava lake, standing around Ringwald’s body which had been very much alive mere minutes prior. John cast a spell upon her: gentle repose. He informed us that if we could find a more powerful cleric in town, perhaps they could revive her. At the very least, the spell he’d cast would give us some time before the body got to a point where resurrection was no longer viable.

We made the grim decision to put her body in a bag of holding we’d found on Grumblesnout’s person so we could bring her to town inconspicuously. As we did so, we found a note on her person. It said to  “Find the Wizard of the ★. Ask him for help. He can help.” We figured out that this was referring to the Wizard of the Stars, who was known to live near Port Town. His divination magic was so astoundingly powerful and well known that his name had been lost and everyone knew him simply by his title. It seemed that if we couldn’t find a means to bring back Ringwald, we at least had a new lead.

After a few more minutes commiserating and trying to think of a plan of action, the lift returned. It would seem though the assassin was a coldblooded murderer and a cad, she at least had the decency to not trap us miles below the earth, helpless as we slowly waste away, unable to interfere with her ‘old friend’ and his machinations…

The very thought makes me ill, so I think I will leave this chapter at that.

[nyfacurrent]

Business of Art | Neurodivergent Artists Build Community

“My advice would be to look for each other and look after each other—be generous and share skills.” - Sonia Boué

Imagine a time when neurodiversity is integrated into the art world’s everyday vocabulary. Is this a new concept for you? Neurodiversity stipulates that neurological differences are to be recognized and respected as any other human variation. Increasingly, more and more people—and artists—identify as neurodivergent, or as individuals who diverge from the dominant societal standards of “normal” neurocognitive functioning. These differences can include Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autistic Spectrum, and others.

Now imagine an average event or opportunity for artists. This may be a networking event that features unstructured conversations, or an open call for funding that requires you to prove a strong network of support. For neurodivergent artists, these ubiquitous realities can present many challenges that often go unseen.

As a way of acknowledging barriers to access and offering solutions, we’ve invited Sonia Boué to share her experiences and recommendations. Boué is a visual multiform autistic artist and a prolific blogger on autism and art. Read her writings here, and visit her website to learn more about her practice. Since being diagnosed as autistic in 2016, Boué created WEBworks, a network and mentoring project funded by Arts Council England based on her own experiences and research. Boué designs projects, mentors, provides training, and consults for arts organizations with the goal of creating opportunity for neurodivergent artists.  

Says Boué: “I love my work because it is really varied and I get to work with some seriously talented neurodivergent creatives. Working with organizations is also fascinating and rewarding when you get to see thinking evolve.” Read Boué’s advice for neurodivergent and introverted artists below, as well as arts administrators.

NYFA: You’ve talked about “network ableism” and its impact on you in your quest to fund your projects. Can you tell us more? How do you define ableism in this context? 

Sonia Boué (SB): Network ableism in my experience is the assumption that social privilege (ability) is a baseline we all have access to if and when we want it. Because most opportunity in the arts involves some networking, this is a serious access issue for us. 

We can’t all summon up a smile and waltz into a room—and there can be many very good reasons why not, some of which may be neurological. For example, dyspraxia, which affects motor coordination and sometimes speech, can make these situations hard to navigate. We may not recognize faces or be able to remember names.

There’s a lot of shaming around not being "socially able” so it takes courage to say it. Decades of not showing up can mean that you don’t understand how conventional networks function. I had to unpick a lot of this to learn how to write a funding bid. 

Social assumption also runs through the kind of Arts Council England funding bid I needed to make for my project. Your idea may be brilliant but unless you can find partners to back you (network klaxon!) you will not succeed.

NYFA: You’ve written that when you encounter an ableist comment, you think, “this person needs training – and I (and all my autistic colleagues) hold much of the missing knowledge.” How can institutions work to welcome and incorporate this knowledge? 

SB: It’s a brilliant question, and this issue is in the room always. Institutions just aren’t seeing it because of the social stigma involved. So first I think it needs to go on the agenda. Staff will also be autistic, neurodivergent, or introverted. 

Then it’s important to invite us in to your organization formally. We are consultants, speakers, and trainers. My view is that we should be paid for our work which is incredibly valuable to arts organizations as we are authentic voices. 

But it takes more than a training day! Building trust with community is also very important for any organization; ultimately it’s about relationships. Consider commissioning a review of marketing and events from neurodivergent perspectives. 

You can tell a lot about an organization from their use of language. Knowing who you are talking to and getting your message right are an absolute must. Delivering value to community is also essential. 

NYFA: Do you have thoughts on how organizations that emphasize in-person events can make them more welcoming to neurodivergent artists? 

SB: If you mean networking events, this is a bit like asking a wheelchair user whether they are sure they wouldn’t like to try the stairs just in case! But here are things which can help with in-person events. 

Personally, I need people on the inside who know me well, and access to the door. Environment matters greatly; is your building accessible for those with sensory sensitivity? Will your event be noisy, involve crowds, and involve mainly unstructured chats? Tell us! 

Information is the name of the game. I advise always publishing clear and detailed information giving a sensory menu for neurodivergent attendees so they can plan for what to expect from the event in terms of challenge. 

It’s the genuine thoughtfulness and attention to detail that counts in the welcome. Providing lots of options is also vital. Is there a quiet room with soft furnishing and dim lights, or outdoor spaces? Are there specific structured elements? 

Finally, the offer has to be right. If the event holds no interest, I’m not coming. Look into programming with a consultant from the community. 

NYFA: Are there resources or voices that you’d especially recommend to arts administrators looking to learn more? 

SB: Essentially we are talking about a culture shift in our understanding that humans are neurodiverse beings. Often I’ve found that the adaptations that suit neurodivergent people can benefit us all. This is about increasing options and thinking about individuality.

I recommend these neurodivergent thinkers, bloggers, creatives, and resources:

Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism

Autism and Expectations: De-Mystifying Autism 

Dan Holloway, Rogue Interrobang

Katherine May 

Sonja Zelić

Kruse on adaptations to environments

Dr. Kate Fox  

Dr. Damian Milton

Jon Adams

I don’t particularly recommend sourcing resources from disability arts organizations that aren’t neurodivergent-led. My experience is that the thinking is often not there yet, despite some best efforts. 

Personally, I like to be very specific and stick to what I know. I wouldn’t try to advocate for other groups and always try to remember that within neurodivergent groups, there’s probably greater diversity than in the general population. 

NYFA: Many artists, for a variety of reasons, feel the typical networking advice is unhelpful or exclusionary. And we ourselves have given this advice! Let’s reframe the conversation: what is some more inclusive and effective networking advice that organizations and artists can begin to share with each other? 

SB: I think it’s worth unpicking what some of the difficulties are in quite some detail, as I began to hint earlier. Networking can be hellish if you can’t process language in real-time speed, for example. So this needs an honest and open two-directional approach. 

Have you ever been in a room with someone and texted them? I’m sure most of us have. Text slows things right down, and, you can use emojis! Result! Often we’re critical of using technology when we’re face-to-face, but if this could be an adaption, why not? 

It’s an exciting time to be breaking through the barriers to invisible disability. What holds us back is often social censure, which is ultimately ableist. Organizations could lead the way in creating a new trend. 

If we think about modalities, this is also helpful. How many ways of being in a room and communicating can you think of? I also love the ‘gateway friend’ idea: a known, trusted person who can enable you to get in to a venue and out again. 

But we need to understand adaptations to in-person networking are limited in effectiveness because—wash, rinse, repeat—we have to keep it up which is exhausting. Or it just doesn’t work for us. This knowledge puts the onus on change. 

NYFA: What are your favorite means of networking online? 

SB: Blogging, blogging, blogging! This has been the most effective tool in my entire armory. I also love Twitter. I began with a Facebook artists’ page many years ago, then progressed to a professional platform with the wonderful a-n Blogs.

My Wordpress blog has been my most significant online site, far outstripping any other. I’m also warming to Instagram as a more visual platform but have been slower to take it on. I think it’s hard to work across platforms but probably essential. 

NYFA: Can you tell us how WEBworks, an autistic-led peer support and mentoring group, came to be? How could this kind of group be replicated by autistic and neurodivergent creatives elsewhere? 

SB: WEBworks is unique due to the individuals who’ve formed it. It may provide a transferable model but we can’t yet know that, I feel. It developed from my Arts Council England research into autistic project leadership. 

I happened on a mentoring model through my own need to understand the ‘neurotypical’ workplace and then found other artists like me who needed support. Genuine enablement through supported opportunities and specific adaptations are a powerful combination we use. 

I now know this to be a responsive and relational approach and will be writing about it in more detail for my Arts Council England project evaluations. I hope to publish some of our findings next year. 

NYFA: What are your favorite resources for neurodivergent artists looking to build community or navigate the art world? 

SB: There’s no substitute for trawling the internet and I’ve built my entire community by sharing work and spending untold hours in online research. Social media platforms can be game-changing for us, though of course we need ‘realtime' contacts too. 

Often virtual and realtime contact overlaps as relationships deepen. I think the usefulness of contacts and resources could be quite specific in each case. My advice would be to look for each other and look after each other—be generous and share skills. 

Even neurodivergent networks can seem distant and closed from the outside. The most effective antidote to professional isolation is to send powerful smoke signals online, from which you can seek out more local neurodivergent contacts. We’re growing in number as we discover identity 

Being safe online is an issue I’d like to mention. We can all be taken advantage of, so I would also counsel caution. Take things slowly and allow genuine connection and trust to build up. 

Regarding the art world, in the United Kingdom I recommend the wonderfully inclusive online artists network a-n Blogs, whose support has been exceptional including publishing articles about this topic! 

Viewing fantastic online art content when you can’t get to many shows provides inspiration and learning. I love to watch the Tate Modern YouTube channel, and I do follow many wonderful U.K. and international artists on Twitter and Instagram, which helps me keep in touch, 

But I feel it is vital that neurodivergent artists don’t get dispirited or compare themselves to more neurotypical artists so I watch the scene with a dispassionate eye. I’m interested in building from within and remaining authentic which includes valuing the unique qualities of our neurological status.

NYFA: What has mentorship meant for you, both as a mentee and a mentor?  

SB: Trust is at the heart of the mentor/mentee relationship, and it’s a real joy, not to say privilege. I believe such support in an art practice is underrated. We are supposed to know how to navigate an uncertain profession solo.

For myself it has led to professional progression where, despite some early breaks, the complexities of the art world would have thrown me entirely. In many ways it’s about lending experience and gently steering.

Mentoring is a fascinating process because you learn as much as your mentee in many ways. It has allowed me to deepen my understanding of neurodivergent challenge in the arts. 

NYFA: You’ve credited successes in your career in part to your “own autistic methods.” Do you have any thoughts on how artists can not only accept their individual differences, but celebrate them? 

SB: I really feel we have to embrace a ‘not broken’ philosophy. Some of the artists I work with have acquired huge reservoirs of self-doubt and even despair. Our first job is to realign some of this thinking. 

Sometimes it’s my job to sustain hope and provide consistency. Our sensory challenges and issues with executive function can make a practice feel fragmentary until we begin to piece it all together. 

The worry that you can never ‘finish’ a piece of work can be quelled if you understand that the process is what interests you most and you can begin to value this. Transformation from ‘failure’ to a more performative practice can take place. 

How we frame our creative lives to ourselves really matters. Reconnecting to the source of our creativity—our brains—as valid and useful is incredibly empowering. 

- Interview Conducted by Mirielle Clifford, Program Officer, Online Resources

Sonia Boué is an Anglo-Spanish visual artist based in the U.K. She holds degrees in History of Art (BA, Sussex University), and in Applied Social Psychology (MSc, Oxford University). She is also a trained Art Therapist (Sheffield Hallam University). This background informs her research-based multiform art practice, which focuses on themes of exile and displacement, with a particular interest in the Spanish Civil War.

Inspired by the NYFA Source Hotline, #ArtistHotline is an initiative dedicated to creating an ongoing online conversation around the professional side of artistic practice. Our goal is to help artists discover the resources needed, online and off, to develop sustainable careers.

This initiative is supported by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.

Images, from top: Derek Fordjour (Fellow in Painting ’18); Angelina Gualdoni (Fellow in Painting ’08,’15)

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Tokens, Lampshades, and the Trouble With Deconstruction

by Dan H

Wednesday, 30 June 2010

Dan finds Glee “Problematic”~

There is nothing more infuriating than middle class white boys claiming that some event that mildly irritated them gives them a profound insight into the world of the disadvantaged. “I once blamed immigrants for my own failure, therefore I know what it's like to be discriminated against” that sort of thing.

With this warning, let me tell you about my recent epiphany about stereotypes.

Kyra and I bought the first series of NCIS in order to stop ourselves from having to watch the eye bleedingly awful Lie To Me (tip from the experts: if a woman says she was raped, but isn't acting scared, she's lying).

Anyway NCIS was going well, and largely avoiding the buckets of fail that saturated Lie to Me. And it had a cute goth forensics chick and a Big Machine That Does Science so yay. Then we got to episode four: The Immortals.

In this episode, a young seaman (it's a naval crime show) was found drowned in full dress uniform, with weights tied to his waist.

Amongst his personal effects they found a character charter from an online fantasy game.

The rest was a checklist of horrendous gamer stereotypes.

Gamers unable to distinguish between game and reality. Check.

Gamers made violent by video games. Check.

Gamers driven to murder and/or suicide as a result of online interactions. Check and check.

Use of phrase “taking the game to the next level” (seriously I have seen this in every TV show about video games ever) check.

I mention this because there is a small part of me which , every time I see a horrendously stereotyped character on TV, says “well that's probably quite offensive, but I suppose you have to remember that the stereotype wouldn't exist if there wasn't some truth in it.”

Watching stereotypical portrayals of groups to which I actually belong reminds me that no, actually a lot of stereotypes are just outright fucking lies.

None of this has much to do with anything, but we'll be coming back to it later.

The Magic of Knowledge

So anyway, Glee is a not-exactly-musical not-exactly-comedy about a High-School Glee Club (the clue is in the name) which goes from humble beginnings to be all that and a bag of chips.

The pilot follows the foundation-slash-resurrection of the Glee club, with the recruitment of its six initial members who are respectively:

Rachel, an overambitious girl with dreams of stardom (to the extent that every time she signs her name she puts a gold star next to it, which is a metaphor, for her being a star). We are told that Rachel is very talented.

Finn, a boy who the Dead Poets' Society-esque teacher behind the Glee club frames for drug possession and then blackmails into joining Glee, for his own good.

Kurt, a fabulous gay boy who the writers edited into the show because they were so utterly taken with the actor. He is, to be fair, adorable – although it might be worth pointing out that the character he plays was originally supposed to be Indian. It might also be worth pointing out that Glee has won awards for diversity.

Mercedes, a fat black girl. Astute readers may note that this is the point where the character descriptions get, shall we say, shorter. Mercedes declares early on that she “ain't no backup singer”. This rapidly proves to be wishful thinking.

Tina, an Asian girl. I genuinely do not know what to make of Tina. She dresses in this quirky, slightly gothy style and her audition piece is a rather nice, slightly raunchy rendition of I Kissed a Girl. But she never actually says or does anything. Ever. It's almost like the costume department put more thought into her personality than the writers.

Artie. Artie is in a wheelchair. Artie also seems to spend a good part of the first episode pulling what I can only describe as “disabled face” - leaving his mouth hanging open and twisting his head to the side like he's trying to chew his own ear. Artie is not played by a wheelchair-using actor.

As

one of the many reviews

that have said all of this before put it: “Mmmm, token-y”.

So yeah. Tokenistic.

But wait! It's okay because the show knows that it's being tokenistic! It is using these “tropes” to be satirical!

Years ago there was a comedy sketch show in Oxford which I didn't actually see, but one of the better exchanges in it, as reported to me by my younger brother was as follows:

“It's not racist, it's satirical!” “What's it a satire of?” “Black people!”

This nicely sums up the issue with the awful stereotypes in Glee. Apparently the mere fact of acknowledging them excuses them. It's not a stereotype if you know it's a stereotype, because then it's satire. You don't even have to subvert or challenge the stereotype in any way. As long as you know about it.

That's the power of knowledge.

Glee gives us a central cast consisting entirely of stereotypes, and does nothing to challenge them.

What it does challenge, however, is the idea that presenting the characters as stereotypes is in any way bad.

Apologia, Apologia, Apologia

The tokenism in Glee is irritating, but it's one of those things I can kind of let slide. It's just a fact of life: fish swim, birds fly, Peter Molyneaux writes crappy video games, and TV shows include token black characters and get given diversity awards for it.

Except.

Except, except, except.

About halfway through the first volume of the boxed set there's an episode in which Sue Sylvester (the evil cheerleading coach) decides to take a “divide and rule” approach in her private war against the Glee Club, sowing dissent amongst the ranks by spreading the completely unsubstantiated and unjustified idea that the Glee Club doesn't give equal representation to its minority members.

The whole episode (Wikipedia informs me that it was entitled Throwdown) is excruciating. Unlike some commentators, I don't have a problem with Sue Sylvester, because I think it's fairly clear we're meant to disagree with her, and that's what makes the episode so difficult. Basically they take all of the criticisms people have of the show and put them in the mouth of a raging psychopath.

So Sue Sylvester splits the glee club in two and seduces all of the minorities over to her side with honeyed words and filthy, filthy lies.

Sylvester's “false” criticisms of the Glee Club boil down to the following:

That the minority characters are margainalised. They are.

That the minority characters are made to stand at the back and act like props. They are.

Two things about this episode are particularly frustrating. The first is that real, legitimate criticisms of the show are presented as lies invented by a balls-out villain. The second is that the minority kids are kind of made to look like idiots for being taken in by the whole thing. Mercedes' unalloyed delight at being presented with Hate on Me to sing is borderline embarrassing: “all right! An R&B song!” she says, she might as well follow it up with “I like this black people music, because I am black!”

The episode ends with the black, Asian, gay and disabled students deciding that they want to go back and work with the pretty white people and that they don't want to be given “special treatment” just because they're minorities. Because apparently getting to do the things that the white kids get to do in every single episode constitutes special treatment.

This would be almost bearable except that “minorities are given special treatment” is a recurring theme in Glee. Rachel constantly uses the spectre of her “two gay dads” to threaten people with the “full force of the ACLU”, and there's an awful scene in the

by no means uncontroversial

episode Wheels where Finn gets a job in a hotel by rolling up to them in a wheelchair and saying “you have to give me a job because I'm disabled.” (I paraphrase, it's actually Rachel who does the talking and she honest-to-shit uses the word “handicapable”).

How the show can have the brass fucking bollocks to repeat the “minorities get unfair advantages” myth while at the same time devoting ninety percent of its screentime to straight, white, able-bodied characters I do not know. Still, it gives you a profound respect for the kid who plays Artie, I mean he managed to overcome the huge disadvantage of not having a physical disability to land a role in a major TV show. And think of the guts it must have taken for the producers to take such a risk – I mean by not casting a wheelchair user they were practically asking for a lawsuit. Hats off to you, Fox.

And to make matters worse, the episode ends with Mr Schuster reminding the kids that “really, they're all minorities, because they're all in Glee Club.” Because having an unpopular hobby is exactly the same as being part of a group which is subject to systematic discrimination, oh yes.

The defence that is consistently wheeled out for Glee being so ragingly tokenistic is the fact that it's doing it all knowingly to subvert the stereotypes. Ironically it's exactly this that I find so disturbing about the series. If it was just full of slightly embarrassing stereotypes I'd be more or less willing to let it slide, it'd be annoying but no more annoying than a large number of other TV shows. The problem is that Glee is aware its being offensive, but refuses to address it. Its like the producers are standing up and saying “hey, we put a black girl and a wheelchair kid in it, what more do you want?”

The Other Sort of Prejudice

The thing is, I can see where the producers are coming from. I think they're wrong, but this is very much an “I believe that you believe it” situation.

The guys behind Glee like the guys behind the Avatar movie, and the guys behind the Earthseaminiseries, really do believe that they cast every role in the series utterly fairly, without prejudice of any kind. If a black kid had been right for Finn, they would have cast a black guy. If an Asian girl had been right for Rachel, Rachel would have been Asian. It just happened not to work out that way. Funnily enough.

Except.

There's an interesting interview on the final disc of the first DVD box set in which series creator Ryan Murphy explained that he already knew Lea Michele, who plays Rachel, before casting her. He explains that the character of Rachel was very much written with Lea Michele in mind. He further explains that despite this fact she “had to audition like everybody else.”

Except no, she didn't audition like everybody else. She auditioned for a part that was specifically written for her in front of people she already knew and who I strongly suspect were all very much inclined to give her the job before she began. She might have auditioned, but she didn't audition “like everybody else”.

Just to be clear, I really like Lea Michele, I think she did really well in Glee, and the fact that the character was written with her in mind really does make her better suited to play the character. But this still gave her a specific, undeniable advantage over the other people who auditioned.

I freely confess that I don't work in casting, but I strongly suspect that if you're casting for a particular role in a show, you're going to have a decent idea of what you want a particular character to look like. And that basically means that people who don't fit your preconceptions aren't going to be as “good” in the role as other people. What seems like an entirely unbiased decision is actually one steeped in your own prejudices – even if it's something as natural and reasonable as prejudice in favour of the girl you wrote the part for in the first place.

The DVD special features were full of cute little anecdotes about the casting process. The actor who played Finn submitted a video audition in which he was drumming on cereal packets and the casting team were so blown away by his verve and passion that they ignored the fact that he didn't actually show whether or not he could sing. The actor cast as Kurt impressed the judges so much that they rewrote his character from the ground up, in order to fit him better. Again I absolutely believe that the producers believe that the extent to which they were impressed with these two actors was a pure product of their individual talent and personality, but the truth is that we react more strongly and more favourably to people we perceive as being similar to ourselves.

Put simply, while Chris Colfer (Kurt) is no doubt adorable, I really couldn't put my hand on my heart and say that he's stand-out more talented than Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina) or Amber Riley (Mercedes). What I can say is that if I was writing a TV show about a bunch of highschool kids singing showtunes, I'd have a much better idea what to do with a cute camp kid than a feisty black girl. With some of Mercedes' dialogue you can practically here the writers saying “quick, what are black people interested in? I know, R&B!”

What makes Glee difficult isn't the fact that the writers are so transparently more interested in their white, able bodied actors than the rest of the cast, it's the fact that they're so obsessed with denying it, and then patting themselves on the back about denying it. What makes it worse is that I really do believe that they believe their own apologia. Unfortunately part of what they seem to believe is that minorities are routinely given special treatment in the name of “political correctness” an that's a belief which is actually harmful (as well as being one which is flatly contradicted by their own casting decisions).

That said, I'll probably still watch the rest of the series because, y'know, showtunes.Themes:

TV & Movies

,

Minority Warrior

~

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~Comments (

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/EA0c88lilpj2n2eytQTnMdudrtUMV2acww--#ea8e8

at 16:21 on 2010-06-30God, Glee. Hate it. Hate, hate, hate. Have you gotten to the episode where the teacher is an abusive fuckwit and then the show focuses on his angst (not about being an abusive fuckwit) and blames his wife for making her husband act like an abusive fuckwit? Terrifying.

And yeah, the bullshit about beautiful white people "just happening" to fit the major roles . . . I don't even know what to do with that.

I wish it wasn't so rage-inducing, because I have a deep, sparkly love for Jane Lynch, and am thrilled she's in a popular sow. I just wish the show was better.

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Dan H

at 17:09 on 2010-06-30Tragically, I've heard that later on Glee gets a lot better (or perhaps just gets a lot better on some issues). There's a really nice bit later on where Kurt's dad calls out Finn on using "faggy" as derogatory.

The show, it is problematic.

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Viorica

at 17:29 on 2010-06-30Yeah, they spend a lot more time ealing with Kurt's issues and the discrimination he faces than the discrimination faced by Mercedes or Artie. I suspect it's because Ryan Murphy is a gay man himself, and thus is okay with

his

issues being represented, but not the issues of a black girl or a kid in a wheelchair.

Also, there are two cheerleaders (Brittany and Santana) who are hinted at being together, but Ryan Murphy says they won't be exploring that because- and I quote- "

it's not that kind of show

." That was about the point when I actually exploded with rage.

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Dan H

at 17:34 on 2010-06-30Oh dear me.

"Oh come on, you've got the L Word! Why do you need another TV show about lesbians!"

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Viorica

at 18:00 on 2010-06-30"It's not like we deal with gay teenagers anyw- wait."

*sigh*

One of the more frusturating aspects for me is that I have friends who are huge Glee fans, and accuse me of criticising them when I point out the flaws in the show. Being subjected to "SHUT UP YOU DON'T NOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT YOU'RE JUST EMBARASSING YOURSELF" every time I mention the show's problems is a great form of aversion therapy.

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Dan H

at 18:06 on 2010-06-30

"It's not like we deal with gay teenagers anyw- wait."

In all seriousness I suspect that might be part of the problem.

One gay kid = teen show.

Three gay kids = GAY SHOW

One of the more frusturating aspects for me is that I have friends who are huge Glee fans, and accuse me of criticising them when I point out the flaws in the show.

It's difficult. What I find really tough with Glee is that some people genuinely seem to find it empowering (I believe Tiger Beatdown described it as "dismantling the Kyriarchy").

On the other hand, if your friends just don't like you complaining because ZOMG SHOWTUNES then they can ... well they're your friends, so they can Sit Down And Think About What They've Done.

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Viorica

at 18:12 on 2010-06-30

One gay kid = teen show. Three gay kids = GAY SHOW

And the gay kid just happens to be one the creator can identify with. Of course.

My friends actually like it because they can identify with the characters that do get screentime (one's a gay guy) so they insist that criticism of the show is criticism of them, even after I repeatedly denied it, and accused disability/women's advocates of "looking for things to be offended by." I give up.

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Andy G

at 18:20 on 2010-06-30Actually, the Tiger Beatdown quote was:

"I wish I could have titled this piece “How Glee is Dissolving the Kyriarchy Through Song” or “Let’s All Go Out for Equality Slushies, Our Work Here is Done!” But I can’t. Because lately, Glee has been making me squirm. Somewhere along the way, Glee became problematic. It stopped merely depicting systemic prejudice and discrimination, and started contributing to it. And I can remember exactly when it happened."

http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/06/10/wont-stop-believin-a-gleek-turns-against-the-thing-he-loves/

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Dan H

at 18:23 on 2010-06-30Ah, shows what I know.

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Jamie Johnston

at 18:29 on 2010-06-30

What I find really tough with Glee is that some people genuinely seem to find it empowering (I believe Tiger Beatdown described it as "dismantling the Kyriarchy").

Er... are you thinking of

this article

, which says:

I wish I could have titled this piece “How Glee is Dissolving the Kyriarchy Through Song” or “Let’s All Go Out for Equality Slushies, Our Work Here is Done!” But I can’t. Because lately, Glee has been making me squirm. Somewhere along the way, Glee became problematic. It stopped merely depicting systemic prejudice and discrimination, and started contributing to it.

(Admittedly the author identifies different problems from the ones you mention and seems to say that they only set in considerably later in the series.)

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Jamie Johnston

at 18:29 on 2010-06-30D'oh! Andy types faster than I.

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Arthur B

at 18:35 on 2010-06-30

My friends actually like it because they can identify with the characters that do get screentime (one's a gay guy) so they insist that criticism of the show is criticism of them, even after I repeatedly denied it, and accused disability/women's advocates of "looking for things to be offended by." I give up.

You know, over here at Straight White Able-Bodied Guy HQ we call that "divide and rule".

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Dan H

at 18:37 on 2010-06-30

D'oh! Andy types faster than I.

I shall consider myself well and truly down-smuck.

Generally though there is still positive reception of Glee out there and it does seem to polarise people. I think the issue is that it gets so much right on the one hand and so much wrong on the other.

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Sister Magpie

at 19:25 on 2010-06-30I was really surprised to hear that Kurt wasn't there from the beginning because I always assumed he was sort of the author's stand in. He's gay, he obviously has a feeling for that kind of discrimination, so that's the main discrimination that gets played with.

Though I would say regarding the scene where Kurt's dad tells Finn off, the speech in itself is great (it could perhaps be considered a fantasy speech of things you wish your dad would say in that situation) but even that ep prefers to lean more in the direction of gay being a way you present yourself instead of a sexuality. Which is a fine place to start, but I am still waiting to see if they go into the other aspects of it instead of again claiming that "we're all freaks--because we're in Glee Club!" Um, no. When the bullies call Kurt a freak they mean he's gay. They pick on him because he's gay. They threaten Finn by suggesting he is gay etc.

I remember one ep where they made a joke where people in Glee were voting on something and someone voted for "other Asian"--a background character. That's a perfect example of the show's strange attitude, occasionally lampshading the problems without just not creating the problem.

Especially in eps like Wheels where not only does Finn happily reap the alleged advantages of being a minority, but Artie winds up not even solving the problem that started the ep (that he couldn't ride with the rest of the group on the bus) by sacrificing *his* immediate desires to any disabled people who might come along later. So basically the able-bodied kids complained a lot, but raised some money, and then happily went back to their original attitude of not caring at all if Artie rode the bus with them. The guy in the wheelchair. The only guy who did anything for or cared anything about access for the disabled was the guy in the wheelchair.

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Jamie Johnston

at 22:00 on 2010-06-30Sorry, Dan, I think I must be having a stupid day because I've been turning it over in the back of my head for a couple of hours and I'm still not completely sure how the

NCIS

anecdote relates. Which means I've probably missed something important in the article as a whole. Can I impose on you (or anyone else who is having a intellect-functioning-properly day) for a 'for dummies' version?

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Dan H

at 22:09 on 2010-06-30Partially it doesn't.

Partially it was a holdover from an earlier version of the article that was going to focus more on the "lampshading" element of Glee.

Basically Glee gets a lot of mileage out of people saying "No, don't you see, all these stereotypes are *subversive* because *everybody knows they aren't true*". The thing about the NCIS episode is that for me it highlighted in a very simple, very minor way, the fact that "everybody knows it isn't true" doesn't stop a stereotype being offensive because in fact PEOPLE DON'T KNOW IT ISN'T TRUE.

Then the whole thing morphed and the anecdote was left stuck there like a shark in a roof.

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Viorica

at 22:12 on 2010-06-30

You know, over here at Straight White Able-Bodied Guy HQ we call that "divide and rule".

So it IS a conspiracy!

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http://furare.livejournal.com/

at 02:10 on 2010-07-01

Because having an unpopular hobby is exactly the same as being part of a group which is subject to systematic discrimination, oh yes.

This is probably related to the phenomenon whereby (some) geek guys think that they Understand Women, because, after all, they are discriminated against and therefore can't possibly be part of The Problem. You even get a few guys who claim that, because some things have been difficult for them, there is no systematic sexism in society. After all, they're men! And they got made to suffer for not fitting in! Women are just paranoid for seeing it as a conspiracy against them!

Getting unpopularity caused by a choice you made confused with systematic discrimination is shown quite clearly in Glee as well, when the pregnant girl tells Mercedes that now she's obviously pregnant she Understands what it's like to be black. What?

Because apparently getting to do the things that the white kids get to do in every single episode constitutes special treatment.

That's always the case, though, isn't it? If you're not seen as having the right to be treated like the pretty able-bodied white people, then being treated the same as them is presumptuous. It's special treatment in that you want to be treated *better* than Other People Like You. (Heavy sarcasm filter, needless to say.)

...accused disability/women's advocates of "looking for things to be offended by."

Oh, I hate that one. Horrible, horrible silencing tactic. But seriously, why does anyone need to *look* for things to be offended by? There's so much that is so goddamn offensive that there's no need to look further than the bookshelf in the corner. When someone says that, they're basically saying "I know better than you do what ought to offend you. I don't think this should offend you (because it doesn't offend me) and therefore you are overreacting."

As for "stereotypes aren't true", I think that the mindless spouting of stereotypes - and then defending them by saying there's probably some truth in them - is one of the most prevalent forms of discrimination in our allegedly colourblind/genderblind society. Well, at least, among the nice, "non-discriminatory" people, anyway. I think that's what Dan was saying, so maybe I should've shorted this paragraph to "what he said". But you know us women, we never shut up, right?

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Sister Magpie

at 03:28 on 2010-07-01

If you're not seen as having the right to be treated like the pretty able-bodied white people, then being treated the same as them is presumptuous. It's special treatment in that you want to be treated *better* than Other People Like You. (Heavy sarcasm filter, needless to say.)

Also I think it comes down to the illusion that what the white people get to do in every ep has nothing to do with their being white. Iow, it's not that Mercedes is a backup singer because she's black, it's that Rachel has X,Y and Z about her that gives them a reason to have her on screen a lot and for us to see her story from her pov.

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Frank

at 05:47 on 2010-07-01

Getting unpopularity caused by a choice you made confused with systematic discrimination is shown quite clearly in Glee as well, when the pregnant girl tells Mercedes that now she's obviously pregnant she Understands what it's like to be black. What?

Exactly. W. T. F.

(it could perhaps be considered a fantasy speech of things you wish your dad would say in that situation)

I also think the writer's using this opportunity to speak to those in the audience who are identifying with Finn (who has the absolute right to be pissed at Kurt and call him out on his bullshit though not in such a hateful manner) and who thus may be suffering from gaymanphobia.

The season (network?) suffers from gaymanphobia. For all the talk of Rachel's two gay dads, we never see them. Gay sexuality isn't seen. And the lesbian sexuality that is suggested, is obviously for the het male audience as Santana and Brittany use it to their advantage to seduce/trick Finn.

To be fair, there's not much if any healthy het sexuality either but it is treated as normal. Finn successfully though suggestively loses his virginity to Santana (another fail, this time with racial representation because, you know, Latina's are sexual beings, so exotic.) Will the audience ever see Kurt suggestively lose his virginity (which many will assume to be giving up his butt to a dick instead of giving his dick to a butt)? No, because gayman sex is icky.

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Dan H

at 11:49 on 2010-07-01

This is probably related to the phenomenon whereby (some) geek guys think that they Understand Women, because, after all, they are discriminated against and therefore can't possibly be part of The Problem.

*nods*

Although for what it's worth, it's not just a geek male thing. Bad Things Happen To Men Too is depressingly common male reaction to the notion of privilege. Just look at the lovely "men's abortion rights" guys.

That's always the case, though, isn't it? If you're not seen as having the right to be treated like the pretty able-bodied white people, then being treated the same as them is presumptuous. It's special treatment in that you want to be treated *better* than Other People Like You. (Heavy sarcasm filter, needless to say.)

Sad, but I suspect largely true.

It's like when people complain that student unions have a women's officer but not a men's officer, or complain that everybody talks about violence against women, but nobody talks about violence against men (they do, they just tend to call it "crime" and there are entire branches of government devoted to dealing with it).

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Dan H

at 12:02 on 2010-07-01Oh, wanted to reply to this point too but somehow lost it:

Getting unpopularity caused by a choice you made confused with systematic discrimination is shown quite clearly in Glee as well, when the pregnant girl tells Mercedes that now she's obviously pregnant she Understands what it's like to be black. What?

I'm not sure that's a great example actually. Obviously playing the "I knwo what it's like to be black" card is stupid and offensive, but I think it's a bit iffy to describe Quinn's situation as being entirely down to "a choice she made". Even if we leave out the fact that she was apparently sufficiently drunk when she had sex with Puck that it raises some iffy consent issues, the way she's treated afterwards actually *is* evidence of systematic discrimination because it is, in essence, a form of slut-shaming.

Basically I'm very conscious that "well you shouldn't have got pregnant then" is something that people really do say to women, in one way or another in all sorts of situations (it's a common line taken by pro-lifers for example). There's a certain perspective from which Quinn's arc could be seen as "gets kicked out of her house for being date raped" - I don't think it's entirely fair to describe her as just having made unpopular decisions.

Of course none of that gives her the right to say she "knows what it's like to be black" - on a side note, isn't it interesting that we spend so much time in Glee hearing what it's like to be a minority (what it's like to be in a wheelchair, what it's like to be black, what it's like to be gay) but always from a third party. Mr Shu tells the kids what it's like for Artie to be in a wheelchair, Quinn tells Mercedes what it's like to be black. Kurt's dad gets a pass because he's not actually telling Finn what it's like to be gay, he's telling him what it's like to be a homophobe.

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Arthur B

at 12:14 on 2010-07-01It's like that party game where you have the name of a mystery person stuck to your forehead and the person to your left has to describe them to you.

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http://furare.livejournal.com/

at 15:27 on 2010-07-01Fair enough, Dan. That's the only episode of the show I've ever watched, so all I saw was "pregnant white girl tells black girl that teenage pregnancy is Just Like Being Black". I didn't know anything about the extenuating circumstances, just saw the racefail and reacted badly to it. Obviously, the way Quinn is treated is Not Okay either, but pretending that it's in any way equivalent is fail on the same scale as Guy With Unpopular Hobby pretending that this is the same as being a woman.

In my defence, that was the comparison I was making - there is nothing wrong with having sex or getting pregnant, anymore than there is anything wrong with having an unpopular hobby. But Quinn had (at least when I was unaware of possible consent issues) a lot more choice over getting pregnant than Mercedes ever did about being black. That doesn't make it *right* that she's treated the way she is, it just means that it's a different sort of unfair. Which kind of undermines her claim to Understand.

Of course, in the show, this exchange is presented as character development and a heartwarming moment between the two girls.

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Dan H

at 15:40 on 2010-07-01

Fair enough, Dan. That's the only episode of the show I've ever watched, so all I saw was "pregnant white girl tells black girl that teenage pregnancy is Just Like Being Black".

Yeah, I can see how it would be *even more failey* out of context.

In my defence, that was the comparison I was making - there is nothing wrong with having sex or getting pregnant, anymore than there is anything wrong with having an unpopular hobby.

Oh I don't think you've got anything to defend in particular (sorry if I went off on one - I'm afraid I get a bit language police sometimes) I think it's just that I've been spending my off-hours arguing with misogynist assholes on other sites and so was a bit oversensitive. There's a depressing number of people who really do believe that if a bad thing happens to a woman because she "chooses" to have sex then it's ALL HER FAULT. Again, not saying that's you, just being a bit oversensitive.

Also doesn't change the fact that "now I know what it's like to be black" is a failburger with failsauce and a side order of fail.

Of course, in the show, this exchange is presented as character development and a heartwarming moment between the two girls.

Hey, nothing says friendship like appropriation!

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Sister Magpie

at 15:42 on 2010-07-01

That's the only episode of the show I've ever watched, so all I saw was "pregnant white girl tells black girl that teenage pregnancy is Just Like Being Black". I didn't know anything about the extenuating circumstances, just saw the racefail and reacted badly to it. Obviously, the way Quinn is treated is Not Okay either, but pretending that it's in any way equivalent is fail on the same scale as Guy With Unpopular Hobby pretending that this is the same as being a woman.

Yeah, one of the biggest differences it that, of course, Quinn's condition is temporary. Sure people will probably continue to judge her for getting pregnant, but it was still another example of a line the show is very fond of, the one where the person who is in the position of social power has something happen to them or does something that suddenly makes them feel shamed. And now they "know how it feels" to be somebody who's discriminated against all the time. It's not that we can't sympathize with them as people being picked on, and there are some ways that the two situations are related, but it's not the same thing and the show really does seem to link the two a lot.

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Dan H

at 15:46 on 2010-07-01

It's not that we can't sympathize with them as people being picked on, and there are some ways that the two situations are related, but it's not the same thing and the show really does seem to link the two a lot.

*nod*

The one redeeming quality I can think of in this particular example is that at least it's Quinn's *own* experience which acts as the catalyst for her Important Learning Experience, instead of somebody else's. Unlike say in /Wheels/, where Artie gets screwed so that the other kids can learn an Important Lessson About Disability.

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Sister Magpie

at 17:33 on 2010-07-01

The one redeeming quality I can think of in this particular example is that at least it's Quinn's *own* experience which acts as the catalyst for her Important Learning Experience, instead of somebody else's. Unlike say in /Wheels/, where Artie gets screwed so that the other kids can learn an Important Lessson About Disability.

Also it's probably better that Quinn, being the cheerleader, does usually own all the privileges she has, and yet truly has had things taken away from her. Being pregnant is something other people can see and react to on sight. It's a bit deeper than suddenly being one of the kids who might get a slushy thrown at them rather than being the slushie thrower. Her dad throwing her out because she's now a slut is not only more serious but goes to the aspect of Quinn that always was a minority. In the past she just denied that.

In a way, I felt like the awkward connection of the whole thing to the experience of a black person was more something the show is always trying to do rather than something Quinn herself, based on her character, would say. She'd probably never have noticed that Mercedes was judged on her looks, much less think that she now knows how Mercedes feels.

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Dan H

at 17:50 on 2010-07-01Thinking about it, if they really wanted to have an episode in which Quinn's pregnancy experience what it's like to be Mercedes, they'd have to have an episode in which she stood in the background, didn't sing very much, and sometimes said things like "well you can count my pregnant ass in, mm-hmm" while wagging her finger sassily.

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Sister Magpie

at 18:04 on 2010-07-01

Thinking about it, if they really wanted to have an episode in which Quinn's pregnancy experience what it's like to be Mercedes, they'd have to have an episode in which she stood in the background, didn't sing very much, and sometimes said things like "well you can count my pregnant ass in, mm-hmm" while wagging her finger sassily.

Very true. She would spend a lot of time being confused at the way her interactions with people never went anywhere and all her conversations with others were about other people whose feelings she was more interested in than her own.

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Dan H

at 18:24 on 2010-07-01

She'd probably never have noticed that Mercedes was judged on her looks, much less think that she now knows how Mercedes feels.

Sorry to keep dwelling on this but:

Also, is it framed as "being judged on her looks?" because if so ... umm ... again that's a rather nasty oversimplification of a hugely complex set of issues. I mean presumably when Quinn's father kicks her out it's not because he's worried she'll get *fat*, it's because she's a filthy dirty slutty mcslutslut. And presumably the creators realize that Mercedes' identity as a black woman has rather more to it than "is female and has dark coloured skin."

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Sister Magpie

at 18:51 on 2010-07-01

Also, is it framed as "being judged on her looks?" because if so ... umm ... again that's a rather nasty oversimplification of a hugely complex set of issues. I mean presumably when Quinn's father kicks her out it's not because he's worried she'll get *fat*, it's because she's a filthy dirty slutty mcslutslut.

Sorry, no it's not. I just worded that badly because I meant she is judged on an aspect of herself that is visible to strangers. A stranger, for instane, can look at Mercedes and identify her as black and so make judgements based on just seeing her, and so can Quinn with her pregnancy showing. The way I put it it sounded like I meant "her looks" as in whether or not she was conventionally attractive--that's not what she meant.

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Lexa

at 20:19 on 2010-07-01Oh, there are so many things I hate about this show!

First off, it really, really bugs me that they have taken the idiotic step of confusing sexuality and gender in Kurt. Yes, Kurt is gay. But the writers seem to have taken 'gay' to mean 'camp and gender-confused'. It's the easiest thing in the world to do, and frankly it disappoints me. Wouldn't it be more interesting if one of the football players was discovering he was gay? You could do amazing things with that, and explore really interesting themes - such as the fact that a lot of gay men don't conform to that stereotype. It's only making more and more people think that the stereotypical 'camp gay guy' is universal to the population.

Then there's the wheelchair thing. If you ever tried to stage 'Children Of A Lesser God' professionally with a hearing lead actress instead of a deaf one, there would be uproar. Partly, I suspect, because Equity (the actors' union) would never let them get away with it. I don't know how these things are handled in the States, but it upsets me that nobody had enough clout to solve this problem. Yes, he's good for the character, but if you can re-write for one actor, what's a few tweaks for another going to hurt?

(Oh yes, and of course having a stutter is comparable to being wheelchair-bound. It cuts you off from society in exactly the same way, didn't you know?)

Casting is a thorny issue, but I wouldn't say that colourblind casting works in every case. For instance, the writers must have had character briefs when they began auditioning.

Take the character of Quinn, for example. How different would things be if she were black? She may not have the upper-class background of the current character, she may not have been head of the chastity club (which seemed to be universally white), and there may not have been the family stigma attached to her being pregnant. All of these factors were, arguably, (and within the context of the show, with its' wonderfully divisive society) directly related to the fact that the character was white and upper-class. Even if she's still upper-class, everything changes. Suddenly the focal issues of the character change, and you have to write in the additional new environment of a mixed-race relationship between her and Finn/Mohawk Dude.

No matter how good a black actress may have been for that role, I really don't think that she would ever have been considered, because it would change a lot of things that the writers wanted for the character. And actually, maybe that's fair enough, because some characters are just that specific to their surroundings.

On the other hand, Rachel could have been black and it would have changed NOTHING. Ditto Mr Schuester.

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Sister Magpie

at 20:41 on 2010-07-01

On the other hand, Rachel could have been black and it would have changed NOTHING. Ditto Mr Schuester.

With Rachel it's even more ironic because part of the joke with her dads was that they don't know which one actually fathered her biologically. She says this, then they show us a picture of her with her two dads, one of whom is black and one of whom is white. So they've already got the set up for her to be biracial, but she's not.

I personally don't have a problem with Kurt being campy just because I think it's dealing with a certain type of personality. Rather than being a person in hiding who's struggling with his sexuality he's out and proud. He himself has accepted he's gay, which can be nice. But it does give them a chance to sometimes act as if gay really is about loving show tunes and fashion and being considered girly, which fits into the whole "we're a bunch of misfits" thing they like to have for a lot of the Glee characters. The club's kind of split between the popular kids and the outcasts according to cliche high school hierarchy. Quinn, the other Cheerios, Finn and Puck are all cool people getting their first taste of doing something officially not cool. Rachel, Mercedes, Artie, non-stutter girl whose name I've just forgotten and Kurt are the nerdy-kids they wouldn't have spoken to before but now are getting to know.

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Jamie Johnston

at 23:04 on 2010-07-01Thanks for the clarification, Dan! Yes, I see how that works.

[Ducks out before being mistaken for someone who knows something about this programme.]

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Dan H

at 23:30 on 2010-07-01

Take the character of Quinn, for example. How different would things be if she were black? She may not have the upper-class background of the current character

I'm pretty sure you *do* get upper-class black people (if the Fresh Prince taught me nothing else, he taught me that). (Reading ahead, I notice that you mention later that she could still have been upper class, so I don't think you're implying otherwise - I'm just a bit twitchy today).

Quinn's an interesting example in fact for exactly this reason. Making her black would have changed nothing - you *absolutely* get rich, privileged kids from black backgrounds, and making their perfect alpha-teen black would have *genuinely* challenged stereotypes. But they didn't and I suspect that, as you say, the reason they didn't is because they felt that being white was part of who she was, even though I am damned sure that there are black girls who are *exactly* like Finn.

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Dan H

at 23:32 on 2010-07-01

Thanks for the clarification, Dan! Yes, I see how that works.

As an example, there's a running joke throughout the series that the other Asian student in Glee Club is referred to (by staff and students alike) as "other Asian".

You SEE. It's FUNNY because it's SUBVERSIVE because we KNOW IT'S RACIST and NOBODY REALLY ACTS LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE and certainly it's in no way HARMFUL or OFFENSIVE! Because it's GLEE!

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Viorica

at 01:39 on 2010-07-02

If you ever tried to stage 'Children Of A Lesser God' professionally with a hearing lead actress instead of a deaf one, there would be uproar.

I wouldn't be so sure. There's a production of

The Miracle Worker

running in Broadway right now with Abigail Breslin playing Helen Keller.

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Sister Magpie

at 04:30 on 2010-07-02

I wouldn't be so sure. There's a production of The Miracle Worker running in Broadway right now with Abigail Breslin playing Helen Keller

Has there ever been a production of The Miracle Worker, or at least one of note, that didn't have Helen played by a hearing, sighted actress? It seems like Children of a Lesser God is traditionally cast with a deaf actress.

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Lexa

at 10:02 on 2010-07-02But 'The Miracle Worker' closed early in its' run, and when the casting was announced there were huge complaints from the deaf and blind communities. (Also, I believe that it first opened in the 50s, when attitudes were very different to now) It's a huge betrayal to actors who are genuinely deaf, blind and wheelchair-bound when an actor who is none of these things gets a role like that.

And yep, Sarah in 'Children Of A Lesser God' is always played by a deaf actress - and with good reason. They even found a deaf actress for the movie, which is quite impressive when you think about it.

It genuinely upsets me that the actor playing Artie can walk. It's like they're saying "You know what, nobody in a wheelchair can act." Your agent can't find a wheelchair-bound actor? Find one. Hold open auditions, cast a complete newcomer. It's much easier to do that on television than in theatre.

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Dan H

at 10:17 on 2010-07-02Sorry to be the language police again but if we're going to take a stand against ableism can we avoid using the term "wheelchair-bound" because it

genuinely upsets people

.

I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been reading that very blog yesterday evening.

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Wardog

at 10:58 on 2010-07-02Wow, this is a minefield. I'm scared of opening my mouth....

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Sister Magpie

at 15:05 on 2010-07-02

But 'The Miracle Worker' closed early in its' run, and when the casting was announced there were huge complaints from the deaf and blind communities. (Also, I believe that it first opened in the 50s, when attitudes were very different to now)

Thanks for that info--I had no idea and I was genuinely wondering about it. Because yes, the original was in the 50s where the idea of hiring a deaf or blind young actress (much less a deaf and blind young actress) would never even have been considered. I remember when Patty Duke, the original Helen, later made a TV movie version where she played Annie Sullivan to Melissa Gilbert's Helen!

So I didn't know if there was some reason that play was not looked at the way CoaLG was, where you assume the part will be played by a deaf actress.

Now I'd really like to see MW with a deaf and blind actress. It would be a totally different performance, I'd imagine. Helen would probably relate to the world far more realistically because the actress would naturally navigate the world with the same senses. Ironically, I'll bet to a lot of people she would appear more able-bodied because of it. She'd be played less as a seeing/hearing person who's been deprived of those senses and more like an individual who uses senses other than seeing and hearing.

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Viorica

at 15:42 on 2010-07-02

Hold open auditions, cast a complete newcomer.

That's actually the argument I keep hearing- that they

did

hold open auditions, and Kevin McHale just happened to be the best actor for the role. Don't know if I believe it, though.

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Dan H

at 23:23 on 2010-07-02

That's actually the argument I keep hearing- that they did hold open auditions, and Kevin McHale just happened to be the best actor for the role. Don't know if I believe it, though.

I believe it, it's just that I believe their criteria for "best actor" were intrinsically, well, faily.

There's a lot of talk in the DVD special features about how you're looking for the "triple threat" - somebody who can act, sing and dance. Given that later on in the series there's a sequence in which Artie does, in fact, dance in a dream sequence - revealing that Kevin McHale is, in fact, a pretty damned good dancer, it seems depressingly plausible that his ability do dance was part of what landed him the role.

This role, of course, being the role of a wheelchair user whose lifetime dream of being a dancer cannot be fulfilled *because he is a wheelchair user*.

It seems nobody thought that maybe the ability to dance *in a wheelchair* might be a better quality to look for in an actor than the ability to dance *when not in a wheelchair*.

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Viorica

at 00:06 on 2010-07-03Yeah, that's what my friend tried to convince me of- that if they hadn't cast Kevin McHale, they couldn't have done the Safety Dance scene, so clearly he was a better choice than an actor who was actually in a wheelchair. The problem with this is twofold: one, it is entirely possible to dance while in a wheelchair, and two, having your disabled character constantly fantasize about not being disabled is juuuuust a bit problematic. It'd be like having Kurt fantasize about being straight. "Oh, if only I wasn't a minority!"

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Sister Magpie

at 00:54 on 2010-07-03

I believe it, it's just that I believe their criteria for "best actor" were intrinsically, well, faily.

And how many people in wheelchairs would bother showing up at an open call, really? I mean, it seems like asking a bit much to expect differently abled actors to assume they're being considered at an open call.

Yeah, that's what my friend tried to convince me of- that if they hadn't cast Kevin McHale, they couldn't have done the Safety Dance scene, so clearly he was a better choice than an actor who was actually in a wheelchair.

It does underline that we're talking about a disabled person as defined by an able-bodied person, doesn't it? If they think it's important that the actor be able to convincingly dance like a person with the use of his legs, if only for dream sequences but not important that he be able to convincingly use a wheelchair like a person who doesn't regularly use his legs. He can't dance in a wheelchair the way the character should be able to do, probably doesn't even use a wheelchair as well as a regular user would.

But they either don't see those problems or assume people will suspend disbelief for them. However when it comes to a fantasy dance sequence they need it to be the actor dancing? Even though the whole fantasy sequence frame would give you plenty of freedom to be as stylized as possible. You could probably even be more creative with it. It's not like Hollywood hasn't done this in many ways over the years when they cast a non-dancer in a dancing role.

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Dan H

at 12:00 on 2010-07-03

And how many people in wheelchairs would bother showing up at an open call, really? I mean, it seems like asking a bit much to expect differently abled actors to assume they're being considered at an open call.

But that's *their* fault for being *prejudiced* and assuming that *all able bodied people are ablists*. And we shouldn't support *prejudice*.

It does underline that we're talking about a disabled person as defined by an able-bodied person, doesn't it?

It really does. I can't believe that people *actually* cite the (arguably quite offensive) dream sequence in which Artie imagines what it would be like to be a dancer as a *good and valid* reason that he "had" to be played by an able-bodied actor.

"Hey people with disabilities: we can actually represent what it is like to BE YOU better than YOU CAN"

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Lexa

at 15:17 on 2010-07-03There are hundreds of acting calls out there where they say something like: "Actor wanted. Must be male, mid-late 30s, minority ethnic background." Or words to that effect. If you need someone black for a role, that's what you do. If they had put out one stating that they needed a wheelchair user, then it would have been no different. Sometimes you need an actor to look a certain way, and there's no problem with specifying that - asking for someone in a wheelchair is just the same.

And I say again: if they can re-write one role for one actor and change it completely (Kurt), would it have been so difficult for them to change one character slightly so that a real wheelchair-user could have done it? They can't say 'he wasn't right for the role' for one guy, and then do a shedload of re-writing for another.

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Shim

at 08:46 on 2010-07-04

"Actor wanted. Must be male, mid-late 30s, minority ethnic background."

That must be awkward if everyone who turns up is the wrong minority ethnic background.

"I'm sorry, Mr... Spock, was it? We just don't see you as Othello."

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Jamie Johnston

at 11:17 on 2010-07-04"But that is illogical:

Captain Picard

has played the part, and we are of similar appearance. Is it becos I iz from TOS?"

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Dan H

at 12:47 on 2010-07-04

And I say again: if they can re-write one role for one actor and change it completely (Kurt), would it have been so difficult for them to change one character slightly so that a real wheelchair-user could have done it?

I don't think you'll get any disagreement here. We're not saying "this is why they did it, and it's legitimate" we're (or at least I'm) saying "this is probably why they did it, and it's fucking offensive".

People get so defensive about it because what we're dealing with here (like the guy in that infuriating Times article Rami just linked to) is *internalized* prejudice. The producers cast Kevin McHale because he was "best" for the role according to their preconceptions about what a "good" actor in musical theatre should be like. Funnily enough, this wound up being somebody white, male, and able-bodied.

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/weG8lOsgwf6qv3.5HfEtaiu7gZr1mw--#9e4da

at 00:48 on 2010-07-06As a person with disabilities who has

written rather extensively about Glee

(I wrote the post at Bitch discussed in Daniel's original post), I'd like to specifically rebut the claims made about the dream sequence (although this whole conversation has been very interesting).

I see the argument that Artie had to be played by a nondisabled actor to make that sequence possible all the time, by people who are apparently not aware that what wheelchair users can dance. Had they used an actual wheelchair user in that role, the dance sequence could have involved Artie going to dance camp and learning wheelchair dance, and they could have choreographed a superb dance sequence. Instead, they cast themselves into a corner by using a nondisabled actor.

Glee for some reason seems to be under the impression that people can't dance in wheelchairs. They claimed to have invented wheelchair choreography with 'Wheels' despite ample evidence to the contrary; seriously, search YouTube for 'wheelchair dancing,' and I note that they had to use a stuntman for most of Artie's moves in that episode, suggesting some awareness of the fact that there are actually wheelchair athletes that can do things that nondisabled people who are unfamiliar with a chair cannot do.

Pretty much all of the statements made about McHale's casting smell like rotten fish to me. They 'needed an actor who can sing and dance'? Well, Kevin McHale may be able to sing, but he certainly can't dance in a wheelchair, and there are plenty of wheelchair users who are accomplished singers and dancers who would have been a better fit for that role.

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Dan H

at 11:28 on 2010-07-06Hiya, welcome to Ferretbrain.

The whole dream sequence thing is just wrong on every level really isn't it?

It seems like the producers genuinely did believe the fact that Kevin McHale *isn't* a wheelchair user somehow made him uniquely qualified to play one.

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Jamie Johnston

at 19:54 on 2010-07-06Wow, I know we've had actual known writers commenting on Ferretbrain once or twice before but this is the first time it's someone I've read. Er, hello! [Star-struck.]

I'm amazed to hear they had the gumption to claim to have invented wheelchair choreography. That claim certainly wouldn't have convinced anyone in the UK, where

this wheelchair dance

was all over our televisions many times a day from 2002 to 2006 as a BBC 'ident'.*

* (I don't know whether 'ident' is a term anyone but the BBC uses. It's the little clips a TV channel shows in between programmes or during ad breaks to remind you what channel you're watching.)

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Melissa G.

at 01:10 on 2010-07-07I would just like to mention that someone I went to college with (who became paralyzed during his sophomore year due to a spinal injury) was recently on Glee. And he wrote a really interesting

blogpost/article

about his experience with the show. Just thought you all would be interested.

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Dan H

at 10:28 on 2010-07-07Obviously it's great that your friend's landed a part in the series, but I'm a bit uncomfortable with his complaining about people criticizing the show. He's entitled to his opinion of course, but so are other people.

I have absolutely no doubt that the cast, crew and writers of /Glee/ are not *consciously* ableist. I have no doubt that they will be very nice to your friend, but it *is* legitimate to criticize them for casting an able-bodied actor as Artie, just as it would be legitimate to criticize them for having a white girl black up to play Mercedes.

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Melissa G.

at 17:51 on 2010-07-07@Dan

Coming from a background where I've been on both sides of the casting table (I'm an actor and I've helped cast things as well), I can't really agree completely with how heated everyone is about Artie's casting. Yes, it would have been great if they found an actor in a wheelchair to play Artie, but for me, as long as equal consideration was given to both abled and disabled actors, I really can't get too angry about it.

Of course, I realize that my opinion comes with privilege and that, of course, as an able-bodied person, I don't have much right to say anything either way. The reason I linked Zach's article was because I thought there was more meaning to hearing his opinion than mine. But I'm certainly not going to say that anyone is wrong for being upset. It's just not something I personally agree with. And to me, the fact that Zach got a part on the show (even though he was competing against able-bodied actors during the casting session) must count for something?

As far as the dream sequence goes, I highly doubt the show had any idea they would even do that until about two weeks before the episode was shot, and from what I know of TV, it's likely that they just said, "Oh, hey, since Kevin can walk in real life, why don't we do a dream sequence where we see him dance?" Had he actually been a wheelchair-using actor, they obviously wouldn't have done the scene or would have done it a different way. But I might be misunderstanding why exactly people are angry about it.

To be honest though, I have a feeling this is an agree to disagree type of situation.

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Dan H

at 00:47 on 2010-07-08

But I might be misunderstanding why exactly people are angry about it.

I'm not really qualified to speak on behalf of People With Disabilities, but if I had to explain why I *think* people are so upset about it, it would be something like this (this may get long).

One way to view disability is that people with disabilities are just people who can't do some things that other people can do. If you follow this definition then casting able-bodied actors in disabled roles is sort of like casting bilingual people in non-bilingual roles: a complete non-issue.

The other way to view disability (as I understand it) is like race or gender: a part of somebody's identity which has physical manifestations. If you follow this definition casting an able-bodied actor in a disabled role is exactly as bad as having black roles played by white actors in blackface.

By the first definition, discrimination against people with disabilities is effectively a non-issue. Disabled people are by definition less able than nondisabled people, and if your disability prevents you from doing something well ... that's why they call it a disability. Many people (including, I suspect, many people with disabilities) are completely okay with the first definition and that is not something I feel in a position to judge. By this definition providing wheelchair access to a public building is effectively a courtesy you provide to the less fortunate.

For many people, however, it is important to recognize that people with disabilities are a social group that can be excluded by social mechanisms. While people with disabilities may do things differently to able-bodied people, they do actually do all of the same things. To these people *failing* to provide wheelchair access to a building is discrimination just as much as it would be to put a sign in the window saying "no blacks no Irish".

The reason people are so upset by the whole "wheelchair users can't dance" theme which runs through Glee is that it reinforces the notion that exclusion is a natural part of what it means to have a disability. To people who subscribe to the second model of disability "wheelchair users can't dance" is exactly as offensive a statement as "gay people can't have children" or "women can't do science".

As you say, it's an agree to disagree situation, I just thought I'd try (as best I can) to explain what I think people are disagreeing about.

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Melissa G.

at 05:34 on 2010-07-08

To people who subscribe to the second model of disability "wheelchair users can't dance" is exactly as offensive a statement as "gay people can't have children" or "women can't do science".

Okay, I see. That clears it up. And yes, wheelchair users *can* dance and it would be nice to see them let Artie do that and achieve his dream.

If you follow this definition casting an able-bodied actor in a disabled role is exactly as bad as having black roles played by white actors in blackface.

This is where it gets tricky for me. And I'm not sure I can explain this without sounding horribly insensitive, but I'll give it a go.

For me, saying that only a wheelchair using actor should play a wheelchair using character is an idea that can be taken to rather dangerous place. If you start saying that people can only play roles that they actually are, you're saying that only straight actors can play straight roles or only Jewish actors can play Jewish characters. Anyone with the right look and skills should be considered for any role. The whole point of acting is to become something or someone that you're not. And to take that to another level, I work with a disabled actor in my workshop classes, and I know for a fact that he wants to be considered for parts that are *not* written to be disabled. If we want casting directors to consider him for non-disabled parts, I feel like we need to extend that to "consider everyone who could play this character for the part". And from there, I trust that the casting people will actually pick the person who is most right for the role. And having met many casting directors, trust me, they're really very good at it.

Again, I know people will disagree with me, and they have every right to. I just wanted to add something from an acting viewpoint as well. (Please don't bite my head off....)

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Shim

at 11:37 on 2010-07-08(warning, long post)

For me, saying that only a wheelchair using actor should play a wheelchair using character is an idea that can be taken to rather dangerous place. If you start saying that people can only play roles that they actually are, you're saying that only straight actors can play straight roles or only Jewish actors can play Jewish characters. Anyone with the right look and skills should be considered for any role. The whole point of acting is to become something or someone that you're not.

I can see where you're coming from and agree to some extent, but I think there's a couple of issues involved here.

For one thing, there are several types of characteristic that might affect casting.

- There are characteristics that almost inevitably affect the character: age, gender, ethnic group, height, body type, certain physical disabilities. The actor's traits carry across to the character unless massive effort goes into disguising them.

- There are characteristics that genuinely limit what the actor can do, including some physical and mental disabilities, but also ability (singing, multilinguism, etc.). This means that actor can't do specific things, but doesn't mean the character has to be

portrayed

in that way: you can avoid showing those activities, or use stunt doubles and voice doubles.

- There are "hidden" traits that don't necessarily affect the actor's range of ability or come across to the character. These include sexuality, regional origin, social class, and some mental conditions.

The first category tend to restrict what roles people can do because many roles are designated for specific types of person. This is especially the case with historical figures, but also applies to stories in particular settings and particular types of character, or to combinations of characters. Dame Judy Dench cannot credibly play Harry Potter. Arnold Schwarzenegger makes an unconvincing Gandhi. Children are often expected to be the same ethnic group as their parents. A cast of white kids just don't fit in a Chinese epic set in the Qing Dynasty. A very short cast is not a realistic basketball team, and a very fat cast is not a realistic national football team. Theatre tends to be far more generous with this sort of casting than film and TV. Taking the semi-realism of film & TV as the standard, then yes, I'd argue that Jewish actors (or at least, actors who look Jewish*) should play the characters.

The second category makes it difficult for actors to play particular roles. Stephen Hawking doesn't match up to Arnie as Conan and the work required to allow him to play the part would be astronomical (how appropriate). Similarly, if someone has an unshakeable heavy Russian accent, they just may not be suitable as Queen Elizabeth. Deafblind actors may struggle in a Jackie Chan film. However, as I said, you might be able to adapt the part or avoid or double certain activities to make them a viable choice, and of course the severity of these restrictions varies. In some circumstances, though, it seems like a reasonable decision to say a person is unsuitable.

The third category really shouldn't enter into the casting process. They might affect an actor's ability to get into character, but for a good actor, shouldn't define whether or not they can do the part. There's no reason why a straight part has to be played by a straight actor.

However: there is also the issue of equal opportunities, or more specifically fair opportunities.

While many roles could be played by anyone, they are often effectively restricted. Minority actor X might be a great fit for the grandfather role, but if the rest of the family has been cast as a different ethnic group, the directors simply can't see a way to fit X in. Or it would require a significant rewrite, whereas actor Y can slot straight in there. If the plot requires the heroine to have life-changing experiences while running marathons, an actress who can't walk or run is a big obstacle. If it's a full-blown kung fu film, a complete ignorance of kung fu is a problem.

Other roles require specific actor traits, so your Aboriginal family need to look more or less Aboriginal, Henry VIII needs to be a Caucasian bloke, and your basketball players need to be tall.

A third type of role needs someone who can portray a particular type of character, without necessarily needing that trait themselves. This ties in with the third category: traits like personality, nationality, class, education, magical powers, emotions, illness and some disabilities can be portrayed by actors without those traits.

The thing is that while the second type of roles exclude majority actors who don't fit the bill, both the first and second types tend to exclude minorities. This means a far smaller range of opportunities is open to them, which in itself reinforces the problem because it's harder to build up a reputation, experience and contacts. That being the case, I'd say it's even more important to consider them carefully for minority-specific roles, and to be

less

open to rewrites and other adaptive measures for the sake of casting non-minority actors.

Wheelchair users are actually a slightly unusual case, because you don't need to be a wheelchair user to act the part. This puts them at an even greater disadvantage than many other disabilities, because not only are they excluded from many roles not written for wheelchair users; they are also competing with able-bodied actors (who have had more opportunity to get experience and recognition) for roles as wheelchair-using characters. Thus, open casting for wheelchair users reinforces the discrimination. Hence the blackface comparison.

Obviously that doesn't mean they shouldn't be considered for non-chair-using roles, any more than all-women MP shortlists mean women shouldn't apply for other constituencies. It's not really about making casting completely open; it's about preventing passive disadvantage to minorities from the passive advantage and sheer numbers of the majority.

*I appreciate this is getting into the situation where people are concerned by ethnic minority A actors taking roles as ethnic minority B characters. I don't want to discuss that right now, I was just referring to getting a convincing cast.

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Dan H

at 12:12 on 2010-07-08

Anyone with the right look and skills should be considered for any role.

I think this is the crux of the issue (and again this might get a bit long).

For many years, to a white audience, a man in blackface had the right "look" to play a black man on stage or on film. Even after people came to realize that this was not acceptable, the film and television industry carried on doing the

exact same thing

with Asian characters because, to a white audience as long as somebody has their eyes taped back they look convincingly Asian (scanning down the wikipedia article, people still do this today). Of course to a lot of Asian people this is fantastically offensive.

To a lot of disabled people, Kevin McHale absolutely does *not* have the "right look and skills" to be considered for the role of Artie. For a start he can't dance in a wheelchair which for somebody in a show which is all about singing and dancing is a bit of a flaw. Not only that, but (I am given to understand) many people find the way McHale handles a wheelchair awkward, uncomfortable, and unconvincing. To people who actually use wheelchairs, McHale does not do a convincing job of portraying somebody who spends a large proportion of every day in one.

None of these things are immediately obvious to an able-bodied audience (or, I suspect, to able-bodied casting directors) because we define disability by inability, and think that being a wheelchair-user means "not being able to walk" instead of "being able to use a wheelchair". The reason many people find "crip drag" offensive is because they feel it should not be up to able-bodied people to decide what disabled people are supposed to look like.

I absolutely believe that Kevin McHale was chosen because he had the right look and skills to play Artie, but I also believe that what people considered to be the "right look and skills" to play Artie was based on quite a lot of harmful misconceptions about disability.

Put it this way. Look at the following picture

of the cast

. Perhaps I'm just being guided by hindsight but just looking at those pictures (which are all head-and-shoulder shots) you know *instantly* which of those characters is "wheelchair kid" - it's the pale gawky looking one because that's what able-bodied people think disabled people look like. It's even more apparent in the

DVD Cover

where he is actually pulling the "biting your own ear" face I describe in the article.

If I was a casting director, Kevin McHale is exactly the person I would cast as wheelchair kid. He looks exactly how I expect disabled people to look (pale, unhealthy, and uncomfortable) and his awkwardness in a wheelchair wouldn't even register with me, because I *expect* disabled people to move awkwardly because, well, they're disabled.

And to take that to another level, I work with a disabled actor in my workshop classes, and I know for a fact that he wants to be considered for parts that are *not* written to be disabled. If we want casting directors to consider him for non-disabled parts, I feel like we need to extend that to "consider everyone who could play this character for the part".

I think you're in danger of falling into the "reverse prejudice" trap here.

There is a big difference between disabled actors wanting to be considered for roles that are not specifically written as disabled, and non-disabled actors wanting to be considered for roles that are. Not least of those differences is the fact that while disabled actors are routinely *not* considered for roles that aren't specifically written for them, they have to be especially protective of those that are.

To come back to the race example, it's the difference between a black actor wanting to be considered for the role of Dr Who and a white actor wanting to be considered for the role of Martin Luther King Jr. One involves taking a character who habitually (and for no especially good reason) is cast as white and asking for the opportunity for equal treatment. The other involves asking people to accept that one of the most famous and significant figures in the civil rights movement can be adequately represented by a white guy.

There is a big, big difference between actors with disabilities, or actors of colour, or female actors, asking to be considered for parts in which race, disability, and gender play no significant role, and white, able-bodied male actors asking to take roles which *are* specifically written as disabled, non-white, or female. (I should add that gender isn't a great example here, because regendering roles is slightly different to merely whitewashing them).

What's offensive about blackface, and about yellowface, and about crip drag, is the notion that "white and able-bodied" is some kind of master template from which everything else can be derived. A black man is not just a white man with dirty skin. An Asian person is not just a white person with their eyes pulled back. A disabled person is not just an able-bodied person sitting down.

Should every actor who *can* play a role be considered for that role? Absolutely. But for many people an able bodied actor *can not* play the role of a wheelchair user. For many people Kevin McHale *is not* convincing as Artie, because Artie is supposed to be a wheelchair user and Kevin McHale *obviously* isn't.

And having met many casting directors, trust me, they're really very good at it.

I'm sure they are, but that does not mean they are without prejudice, or do not have privilege.

Kevin McHale was an excellent choice for Artie in the sense that he looks exactly the way the average, able-bodied audience member expects a wheelchair user to look. He was also an excellent choice for a character whose entire arc seems to be about how having a disability means having a less complete life. Insofar as Artie's function as a character is to be tragic and sympathetic, he is well cast.

The problem a lot of people seem to have with Kevin McHale is not that he did not fit the character per se, but that the character itself is a harmful jumble of stereotypes.

I hope this doesn't come across as biting your head off, just still trying to explain why I think the criticisms of McHale are legitimate.

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Sister Magpie

at 15:52 on 2010-07-08

I absolutely believe that Kevin McHale was chosen because he had the right look and skills to play Artie, but I also believe that what people considered to be the "right look and skills" to play Artie was based on quite a lot of harmful misconceptions about disability.

Just wanted to say I thought this whole post summed up the issues really well, at least the way I see them at play. If we lived in a world where the majority of people used wheelchairs, McHale's awkwardness at handling one would probably be a no-brainer. That kind of unconscious thinking happens a lot with the white able-bodied template. Like as I often said w/regard to the Avatar casting, nobody ever considered making the LOTR cast there were no discussions about Middle Earth not really being Europe and therefore the entire Fellowship should be Asian--on the contrary both there and Harry Potter it was agreed right away that convincingly white and British was the starting point for everyone.

Basically, I think we're trying to work towards a comfortable balance between blind casting where the audience is expected to accept an actor whose race isn't supposed to be taken literally and specific casting where race is an issue.

I do remember once someone on lj making a horribly misguided (imo) post where she seemed to literally be arguing that whatever specific background an actor had, that was what the character had. She was arguing that it was stupid for people to talk about the Jimmy Smits character on The West Wing being the first Latino US president when Bartlett was a Latino president--because Martin Sheen is. Even though Bartlett's ethnicity was a stated part of his character. *That* I think was definitely a case of the slippery slope where things are getting silly.

Also, we shouldn't forget that the show does have an actual disabled cast member in a recurring role--the Cheerio who has Down Syndrome. Perhaps Life Goes On changed things when it came to that particular condition, or maybe it's that it's got such a distinctive physical look (distinctive enough that it's almost like a wheelchair only it's not a prop or a costume), or again maybe it's that people with Down Syndrome have proven themselves enough as a group as actors, but I would have been surprised if they'd cast that role with a person who didn't have Down Syndrome.

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Sister Magpie

at 15:58 on 2010-07-08Also while I'm blabbing on, let me go off on a tangent. But I wonder if another unconcious prejudice that can come into play is a discomfort with the disabled. Of course I can't say this was at all a factor in the Glee casting. But I think there are situations where able-bodied people are just made a little less comfortable or a little more nervous when dealing with someone who has different limitations. So that could probably also weigh in favor of preferring the able-bodied actor. Obviously not all the time, as the actor who wrote the blog is disabled and got a part--though even there if this kind of thing was an unconscious factor people would probably feel a lot more confident hiring someone for one episode than as a series regular.

Again, I don't want to make it seem like I'm accusing the Glee cast of doing this, especially not consciously. But it seems like from things I've read disabled people say, this is something they deal with.

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Melissa G.

at 17:24 on 2010-07-08I can't really argue with anything anyone is saying. And it makes more sense to me to call the character of Artie offensive or insulting than to harp on about the casting choice, in my opinion, but that's getting into semantics.

I still can't completely agree with it, but that may be because I Just Don't Get It, which I'm willing to accept and admit that maybe my opinion is a little less significant given my privilege.

But I do want to say that I appreciate everyone responding to me in a calm, non-defensive manner so we could have an actual conversation about what I think is a complicated issue. But I'm not sure I particularly have anything more insightful to say about it at this point. (Also, watch Zach's episode; he did a good job!! ^_^)

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Jamie Johnston

at 19:09 on 2010-07-08Yeah, it's been a really interesting discussion. And I think we'd probably all agree that casting is only part of the problem, and not the biggest part. (It's certainly only one of many complaints in Dan's original article.) Even if casting were never affected by prejudice in any way (which I don't think anyone here suggests), we'd still be left with far too many series that are written to either ignore the diversity of people and experiences in the world or deal with that diversity using token characters and cheap stereotypes.

And we'd also probably all agree that the workings of prejudice are much more easily seen over the broad sweep than when looking at any single creative decision. Casting Kevin McHale as a wheelchair-using character would be much less problematic than it is (however much that may be) if the show had lots of actors with disabilities, or if it didn't but there were plenty of other TV series that did, or even if there weren't that many actors with disabilities on our screens but there were enough suitable parts being written to encourage more young people with disabilities to become actors.

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Shim

at 08:42 on 2010-07-09It's always difficult when you're talking about generalities but focusing on a specific example. Quoting Dan in a vaguely web-incestuous way:

"I don't think you can look at any single work of fiction and say "that character, right there, should have been black".

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Jamie Johnston

at 12:41 on 2010-08-17The casting issue, in

Glee

and more generally, on

This ain't livin'

from a few days ago.

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Arthur B

at 12:42 on 2010-08-17A little happy news: I just started watching

Breaking Bad

, which includes a character with cerebral palsy played by an actor who actually has cerebral palsy. At last.

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http://someobsessive.livejournal.com/

at 10:06 on 2010-08-20I just wanted to let you know that I have included several quotes from your articles on my new tumblr:

http://wholesomeobsessive.tumblr.com/

if you would like to check it out.

Sister Magpie quotes are also there.

Thank you for your articles, and for directing me over to deathtocapslock. I am being very well entertained this summer.

:-)

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Robinson L

at 15:00 on 2010-12-21Still not seen

Glee

, and still probably never will, but do have a few thoughts. One of them being that Noah Antwiler of The Spoony Experiment

also took exception to The Immortals

. In detail.

And while I haven't see the show, ptolemaeus watched the first season with our cousin last year, and she had the same problems with

Throwdown

(the Sue-Sylvester-tries-divide-and-conquer-tactics episode) you bring up. Color me unsurprised.

Also, did I dream up the part where somebody (and I could've sworn it was Dan), said something about Sue Sylvester later being depicted as more sympathetic, and that this actually makes the show's problems *worse* because—if I remember the argument correctly—now it's a likable person saying and thinking all those nasty things? That struck me as a bit odd, because while I can sort of see the logic behind it, I've always viewed treating nasty characters sympathetically and not just saying “ehn, they're just evil,” as a good thing. I didn't dream all that up, did I?

Dan: Partially it was a holdover from an earlier version of the article that was going to focus more on the "lampshading" element of Glee.

Was that version also going to go more into what exactly the “Trouble With Deconstruction” is? From all I've heard, it sounds more like the trouble is that the show lampshades it's own stereotypes without really questioning or subverting (deconstructing) them.

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https://profiles.google.com/117083096049946525193

at 02:46 on 2013-07-07Oh, this has only gotten far worse as the show has hit it's fourth season.

First, Brittany and Santana did become a couple and broke up. Brittany, being bisexual, decided to date Sam (a season 2 character), but was hesitant because the lesbian blogging community was going to hurt him. I wish I was making this up. AfterEllen had a riot on that. Sorry we're upset that our representation isn't on screen anymore. And as a lesbian myself, I do have to say, it was really frustrating how for the rest of the series, except maybe two times, they completely forgot those two dated.

The biggest fail though is the transgender (mtf) black woman named Unique. First of all, it took me a while to figure out whether she was supposed to be transgender or a drag queen (because she talks in the third person regularly, and talks about Unique like a persona, not as herself). Second, SO MANY TIMES in the show, people are calling Unique Unique/Wade (the male name). Now, I know a million idiots across America are going to think this is acceptable behavior. And finally, they made her a catfish. The transgender as deceptive/predatory is a pretty common trope, and I think a damaging one, for everyone involved.

And the final Glee minority fail. Unique is also a big girl, and is basically the replacement for Mercedes. Brittany literally calls Unique Mercedes, SEVERAL TIMES. Uuuuugh. . .

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Fishing in the Mud

at 23:41 on 2013-07-07Ryan Murphy can totally make fun of lesbians and transgender people because he's gay. Isn't it great?

Yeah, no. What a fucking worthless hack.

[dailyaudiobible]

04/04/2019 DAB Transcript

Deuteronomy 26:1-27:26, Luke 10:38-11:13, Psalms 76:1-12, Proverbs 12:15-17

Today is the 4th day of April. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you and just settle in and let the word of God be spoken over us and into our lives. What a joy, what a pleasure to come around the global campfire together with you. So, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week and we are kinda rounding the corner on the book of Deuteronomy and that will conclude the Torah. We’re not there, we’ve got a few days to go but we are rounding the corner and we’ll finish up within the next week. So, let's dive. We’ll be reading Deuteronomy chapters 26 and 27 today. And again, from the Christian Standard Bible this week okay.

Commentary:

So, in the gospel of Luke today, we encounter this little brief story about Mary and Martha and we know from other gospels and other stories, Mary and Martha were sisters of Lazarus who was a friend of Jesus, and who has a story of his own in the Scriptures, but in this story, we have a well-worn visual, right? Martha is working and she's busy serving and doing all the things that need to be done all around Jesus while Mary is sitting at his feet and listening to Him. And, so, the lesson that we can glean from this is apparent, right? All of our frantic activity and all of our motion and all of our addiction to the motion, even if it is in service to God and his people, this flurry of activity, isn't the thing that's going to draw us closer to Jesus, it's actually being with Jesus. When we live our lives it seems at times, from crisis to crisis and activity to activity, and it's just a continual perpetual motion and God is kind of whipped into that and off we go, when Jesus…Jesus speaks some things that we can remember here. “You are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary made the right choice and it won’t be taken away from her.” So, let's remember that today as we go into the chaos of every day, of all of the unknowns of every day, and all of the flurry of activity and all of the obligations and responsibilities. You are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary and that one thing is to sit at Jesus feet to actually be with Him. And if we think, “well maybe He doesn't even want to be with me” He goes on to tell us, “look you who are evil know how to give good things to your children, do you not think that your Father knows how to take care of you. So ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” And we have to ask ourselves, how much of our flurry of activity even if it's on behalf of God is asking seeking or knocking because it fundamentally boils down to what we after here? What are we hoping for? What we trying to achieve? What is the goal here? If the goal is that God is an add-on, an upgrade to our lives, our ace in the hole to take care of the problems as they come then we’re going to find that to be lacking. If we understand that we are invited into life with God, that’s different. And if we ask and we seek and we knock we will find what we’re looking for or in the words of Jesus, “if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Prayer:

Father, we are asking, Holy Spirit come, well up from within us that we might sense Your presence and Your guidance and Your leadership and Your comfort in our lives that is always available but usually we’re so frantically busy that we’re not even aware. Come Holy Spirit, let us slow down, slow the whole thing down and see that You are present in leading us forward. We ask this in Your mighty name, the name of Jesus, the name above every name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what's going on around here. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected.

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I thank you humbly and profoundly for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. There are a couple of other numbers you can dial depending on where you are in the world. If you're in the UK, 44-20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia 61-3-8820-5459 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

hi this is Kiki from Arizona. This is my first time calling. I’d like to ask for a prayer request for my husband. We’ve been married from just over 26 years. We both have some disabilities. He is not Christian, he’s agnostic. He has a very rare muscular dystrophy and he fell this last year and broke his leg very badly and it’s very hard for me because he had to go into surgery and to think that if something happened to him that he would not be in heaven. And I’ve prayed for a very long time that he’d become a Christian and I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible since February and caught up all through January and I just thought if I called in, the more the merrier for praying for him. So, would you please pray for my husband, his name is Bob and also for his muscular dystrophy that it never get any worse than it is now. He’s had it for 12 years. That would sure be a blessing. It’s similar to ALS but not as fast progression. And my other prayer request would be for a friend I know that lives in Long Island and she’s also on disability. She’s had cancer several times. Her sister’s selling the house that she lives in with her daughter and her grandson and her daughter’s boyfriend and another woman who’s on disability and she was __ Social Security and she has no idea where she’s gonna live, her daughter and her boyfriend, and grandson are going to move into his parents. And for $500 a month in New York she has no idea. So, if you can help and pray for her and also that her cancer doesn’t come back, I greatly appreciate that. So, thank you very much and Brian I thank you for what you’re doing. It’s really made a difference in my life already…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Terry from upstate New York, first time calling in, year and a half listener, just loving this community. I’m calling for a woman whose name I couldn’t quite make out but she was from the Pacific Northwest. This is April 1st that I heard her message. She said she was involved with a man of God that was not her husband. I just want to talk to her and speak to her heart about this because I have been on the wrong side of that type of thing. I’ve been the husband who my wife left for a supposed man of God, which was devastating to my children and myself, still is. I would question whether a man of God is a man of God if he is pursuing a married woman. I’m just reminding you that the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful, and I understand your emotions because I’ve seen my wife at the same thing, but the devastation left behind is not worth it. You asked for God’s will. It’s pretty clear in God’s will what the covenant of marriage is and I urge you to seek out Scripture on God’s will. I don’t have time to go into it all. And just know this, that the author of confusion is the devil and you said you were confused. So, please, just dive into the Scripture on the subject. I’m praying for you because I understand the emotion behind it all but it…knowing what God’s will on it, it is that you honor your vows and pray for your marriage and seek out people that will pray with you for that. So, I’d have to say, I know the devastation for being on your husband’s side of it…

Good morning family, it’s Monday morning, April the 1st and I heard a call from a sister who is being tempted right now by godly man and I just want to say thank you sister for being so open and honest and just calling in for prayer. And, so, I wanted to pray for you. Father God, I come to You in Jesus’ name Lord and I come on behalf of our sister Lord who just showed her heart to us God and was transparent to us and to You God that she is in a temptation right now God and we know that that is from the enemy Lord God and we know Father God that You are able God to strengthen her and show her way out of this Father. God I lift her up to You and I just pray Lord that You would be her husband right now God while You are doing that work in her earthly husband while she’s waiting for him to be transformed God by You God, that You would be the husband that she needs Father, that she would fall more deeply in love with You Father God and she would not look outside of a relationship with her earthly husband and with You for anything else God. What she is missing, what she is longing for God, that You would come and fill that void that’s in her heart right now Father. God, I know that You know all her needs Father. You know God the deepest places of her heart and I just ask that You would go there and bring healing and restoration Father and just help her Lord as she falls more in love with You God that she can see her husband from Your eyes and just be praying for him for his transformation Father. And Lord I just lift up all marriages that the enemy’s coming against, that You would bring healing and restoration Father. There was a man called Oscar who called for his marriage and there’s been others God and just restoration…

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family community, this is Ann from Charlotte North Carolina. I’m very thankful for all of you for Brian and Jill and the ministry and everybody that calls in and I wanted to ask for prayer about the 10th commandment, which I have been very convicted about lately about the sin of coveting. It’s a sin that really made the apostle Paul realize that he wasn’t the perfect pharisee that he thought he was, that he failed obeying the law in the area of coveting. And the Holy Spirit is opening my eyes to how infested I can so easily be with this sin of coveting, meaning wishing that I had what someone else has and it can be anything, everything, literally anything that they have or are or have achieved or…it’s just astonishing how easy it is for me to covet and I want so to be free of this sin and I know that the answer is contentment in a relationship with Jesus Christ and I just want to prayer for that and I imagine there’s others of you that have a similar struggle in looking at anything and at others and they have or are and wishing you could be that way or have that or whatever…it’s just endless what it can be. And, so, it robs us of being…

[leah-ocarina]

I see a lot of well-intending people saying aces are perfect angels according to society who never run into problems or get judged, because while we don’t get as much shit as some people, coming from the PoV of a panromantic and disabled woman who knows oppression when she sees it, let’s all just set aside the argument of whether or not Aces are LGBT, okay? Just put it out of your mind! This post is not about that, okay? I just want people to know a bit more about what it’s like, because I see them meaning absolutely no harm, but being a bit misinformed. I’ve taken points from another person who was calm and level headed (and can’t track down the post because I am inept at this website hnnnn), and thought I’d go through them.

Again, put the argument of ‘are aces LGBT’ out of your mind. This is about misinformation and not that— and this is definitely in NO WAY me saying asexuals have it worse or as even bad as/as other LGBT people, because we definitely do NOT. (That doesn’t mean we get nothing though!)

Okay. Now that that’s out of the way, the first few points will be from my personal experiences, and if it’s something I heard from someone else I have it clearly marked, and the numbered points are actual copy-pasted quotes from the person’s post:

1) An asexual person is not going to get dehumanized and beat up for not having sex

•Physical violence—Actually yes. We do get beaten up. We also are victims of corrective rape. •Dehumanizing—Dehumanizing is 90% of what people who know I’m asexual do. Things I have heard to me personally from multiple people (and from what I’ve seen, other aces hear the same things):           • Inhuman monsters.           •Nobody will EVER love you because of this. You’re unlovable in every                 way if you stay asexual (as though I can just change it 🙄)           •It doesn’t matter whether or not YOU want to have sex if your partner                 does. Suck it up           •You need to go to the doctor and get fixed           •You need to go to therapy and get fixed           •You’re broken and if you don’t go to the doctor, I don’t even know what to           do with you

         •If you say you’re a sex repulsed asexual/decide to never have sex (🙄) nobody will want             to date/be with you. You’ll be alone forever and you’ll deserve it.

      People verbally bullying us all the time with the intention of dehumanizing us       is literally the main problem I’ve experienced.  •A common one we get is that we’re really closeted gay people and we’re lying to ourselves that we have no sex drive (file under, large groups of people push that asexuality is a myth) •You’re confused and need to suck it up and have sex once so you’ll be cured (side note—also usually the rhetoric attackers use/directly say when corrective rape occurs) •You’re just a moron with a medical condition (I am disabled but none of it effects my sex drive) •If you don’t like sex you don’t even deserve to live because what else are you here for And again those bullet points are just what I’ve heard from multiple people of different backgrounds, and I’ve only identified as ace for two years

2) and if they do, it is less normalized than gay and lesbians getting beat.

•It’s almost like you don’t hear about it often because people tell us to shut up and stop being attention whores so we don’t talk about it as much, and when we do it doesn’t spread as far because less people with relevant blogs (exclusionists) reblog/share it 🤔🤔🤔 •Just because you haven’t heard about it often does not mean that it doesn’t happen often. This is not a popularity contest.

I know one may not think about what that quote actually means, but it invalidates violence/bullying against us NOT by saying it doesn’t happen, just that it’s less important than the other groups. I know you guys mean well, but you can’t really deny it 😕 If it counts for them and not for us that means when it happens to us it’s less important to you—if you disagree please do explain how saying it counts for one group and not the other does not make it less important! Seriously! I want to understand! I just can’t see how “it counts and is impactful to my opinion of them, but not for you” can be taken a different way.

^^^ Also to be clear I mean the exact way it has been phrased here and not the general rhetoric. The normal rhetoric is that it doesn’t happen as often (which it doesn’t) so it doesn’t count. (Debatable, but not what this post is for. Take that argument to the reblogs of another post or one of its own.) The rhetoric in this quote is that even if it happens (which also implies this person didn’t even check 😒) it’s less normalized (which I assume means they hadn’t heard about it) and since they didn’t personally see it that’s why it doesn’t count.

3) If you don't have sexual attraction, cool, but the differences still exists. There are cultures and religions who praise those who stay with abstinence.

•What they actually praise is waiting for marriage. I never experienced this because I don’t go to church regularly (they’re all hellfire and brimstone where I live so I don’t bother 😑), but since looking at asexual tags and such, I’ve seen a bunch of stories from different, otherwise unrelated people that if they tell their priest, etc. they’re ace, they get lectured about how no. They HAVE to have sex after they’re married because that’s the way God intended it to be. You’re required to, and not doing so goes against God. They genuinely throw fits about it and try to get you to change your mind. I was floored when I found out and even more floored when I saw how many people have experienced this (a few said they were saying they were ace in response for calls for abstinence and got an earful), but it seems like they want you to either never have sex because you devoted yourself to God (nun, etc.) or because you waited. After your married though, you’re expected to and judged for not having sex.

4) heterosexuals who call people faggots will call asexuals.. virgins.

•You must have a pretty tolerant group of people you interact with, because that is definitely not what we normally get called lmao. Normally we get called broken, freaks, mentally ill/crazy/someone who needs to take their pills (I’m serious), inhuman, monsters, unlovable, and honestly they just use asexual as the insult too. Like “You don’t know anything you asexual freak!” They’ll point, laugh, look around, tell their friends, then they join in and repeat. They also call us “losers who can’t get laid” [and are making an excuse]. I have never once been referred to as just a virgin in response to my asexuality, and I’ve never seen it anywhere online either. I’m tryna stay as neutral as possible, but this one is just straight up incorrect/really rare.

5) A bonus-- not something I heard from the same person, but still really important----Sexuality is about who you love, not how often you fuck.

This one I got from someone more hostile, and I’ll it admit I was a little baffled by this. This is not the case for all asexuals because it is a spectrum, but I personally am sex repulsed and could never be in a long term relationship with someone who is going to expect sex out of me. Asexuals like me (of which there are many) are extremely limited in who we can be in a relationship with because we need to find other asexuals (which btw causes a lot of mental distress because it makes us feel extremely broken and unlovable). This very clearly determines who we love and saying otherwise is...well if after you read this you still think that way it’s just willful ignorance if I’m honest. :\ Again this was not from someone level headed, but I thought I’d include it to explain it to other people who think the same thing! 

So thank you for coming to my Ted Talk lol. I’m not trying to fire up exclusionist battles or arguments about whether or not asexuals are LGBT, I’m just trying to clear up some of the most common myths about asexuality I see.

[lokbobpop]

Charity

Etymology. The word charity originated in late Old English to mean a "Christian love of one's fellows," and up until at least the beginning of the 20th century, this meaning remained synonymous with charity.

charity is an organization which raises money in order to help people who are sick or very poor, or who have a disability. ... If you give money to charity, you give it to one or more charitable organizations. If you do something for charity, you do it in order to raise money for one or more charitable organizations

Charity char rity ch arity ch ari ty

Writing the word charity

Well dont hold me back because this word bring up such a charge within me of the dirty thieving bastards i see within this word im am applied how people are profiting not only on ther wages within charity but that theres fat cats at the end of most of all these causes raking in the money big time i feel mislead and very angry about let say cancer research who have probably had billions of dollars given to them and haven’t found a cure in the last 50 years come on people wake up and see whats going on here the same with the heart foundation rip off now i have support people when they have dont causes for these companies but haven’t liked it at all i just wanted to show how i support them in there problem and how they feel this is all they can do to stop there problem they dont know what else to do they have a problem with themselves ot family members and dont know hat to do about it, its an awful place to be in fearful dont know what to do we need to support these people so they can support themselves and not just take there money when they are at there worse points int life and are trying to grab everything but they need they are not seeing whats goin got they only see they have a problem and fear it will kill them or there loved one.

Reading the word charity

In olden times people would have names of charity i think int he 1800s maybe or thats how it seems in the movies hey

I like mostly animal charity’s and local ones who look after animals i think the money goes where it should do with these people who take in wounded native wildlife and put them back into nature I believe mostly in these sort of charity

Saying out loud

Its for a good cause you here give to this charity when you walk within a shopping malls i hate going in them you are hassles by people wanting your money and as im anti most charity’s it pisses me off because the real charity’s out there are not getting the funds needed to help research the honest one its like who is honest and who isnt people are suffering out there and nobody knows who are the right ones like 18000 people starve to death every day and millions are given to charity’s every day we should have poverty wiped out by now but no these people aren’t getting whats given. There’s a block thats about to break and we need to unblock within ourselves first to we can unblock what is happening on this planet let money flow let people live with there basic needs it starts with me and my unblocking to then help other to unblock that might be having difficulty but i think we are all moving the unblocks unknowingly hey lets get the job done.

Charity balls come up not sure ive been to one and not sure i will until the present system is renewed.

I will give to charity that i feel the need will be reached but not at the moment the charity’s that are hoarding the money for themselves and doing the best for man kind

Sf

Does this definition support me no and yes i seem to have worked through my problem within this word which is great as i carried a deep anger and resentment towards them but i see now i will do my best with what I believe to be write and take away the energy and anger towards people who are taking its coming to an end thi time is over its happened for eons of time theres finally a way to stop and change so charity will not be any more big companies for friends benefits as it not getting there and do the best i can with what I believe to be true.

Charity share rite

Charity

To give to a cause to help those in need

To share when I believe the cause isnt affected by someone’s greed.

How will you live this word? I will live this word with doing my best to see when what is best for me when giving as in do i have trust in the organization then i i will share with living words of self honesty self respect self belief self worth

[hermitthrush]

Social Roles as a Guide to Conduct

Epictetus

"The Discourses" (c.108 AD) | Robert Dobbin translation, Book II.

Hermit Thoughts: Idealized social roles as guides to proper human conduct, i.e. consider how a perfect parent/child/sibling would act and strive towards that standard; how deviating from proper conduct - for reasons of fear, malice, or profit - does greater harm to us than material deprivation or physical pain because it is a spiritual injury we inflict against ourselves.

Who are you? In the first place, a human being, which is to say, a being possessed of no greater faculty than free choice, with all your other faculties subordinate to it, choice itself being unconfined and independent. Next, consider the gift of reason: it sets you apart from wild animals; it sets you apart from sheep. By virtue of these two faculties you are a member of the universe with full citizen rights; you were born not to serve but to govern, because you understand the divine order and its patterns.

Now, what does the title 'citizen' mean? In this role, a person never acts in his own interest or thinks of himself alone, but, like a hand or foot that had sense and realized its place in the natural order, all its actions and desires aim at nothing except contributing to the common good. Therefore, philosophers rightly say, 'If a good person knew that sickness, death, or disability lay in the future, he would actually invite them, because he realizes that this is part of the universal plan and that the universe has precedence over a constituent, and the city over any one citizen. But since we don't know the future, we're justified in sticking to things that are preferable by nature, because this, after all, is our instinct from birth.'

Next, remember that you are somebody's son. What does this social role mean? It means regarding everything of your as belonging to your father as well, always letting him have his way, never trying to hurt him with your words or actions, or griping about him behind his back. Defer to him at every opportunity, and in the same spirit cooperate with him as best you can.

Next, know that you are a brother. This role also calls for deference, respect, and civility. Never get into family fights over material things; give them up willingly, and your moral standing will increase in proportion. Make a gift of your box seat in the theatre, or a bit of food, if that's at stake, and see the gratitude you get in return - how much greater it is than the sacrifice.

Finally, reflect on the other social roles you play. If you are a council member, consider what a council member should do. If you are young, what does being young mean; if you are old, what does age imply; if you are a father, what does fatherhood entail? Each of our titles, when reflected upon, suggest the acts appropriate to it.

If you go off and yell at your brother, my reaction is to say, 'You've forgotten who you are and what you stand for.' I mean, if you were a metalworker who fumbled with his tools, you would have lost touch with the metalworker you once were. If you forget what it means to be a brother and become your brother's enemy, don't think you've made a trivial exchange. If you are transformed from a decent, social human being into some mean, snarling, dangerous beast, is there no loss involved? Or do you have to lose money before you feel penalized? Is losing money the only loss that counts with us?

If you lost the capacity to read, or play music, you would think it was a disaster, but you think nothing of losing the capacity to be honest, decent, and civilized. Yet those other misfortunes come from some outside cause, while these are your own fault. Moreover, it is neither honourable to have those other abilities nor dishonourable to lose them, whereas it is dishonourable to lose these capacities and a misfortune for which we have only ourselves to blame... An adulterer does away with a just, decent, and honourable human being - the good neighbour and citizen he might have been. A sorehead incurs one kind of loss, a coward another - but no one is bad without loss or penalty of some kind.

Now, if you look for their penalty in terms of money, you might find them all safe and scot-free; they could even be helped and rewarded for their offense, if they gain by it financially. But, if money is your only standard, then consider that, by your lights, someone who loses their nose does not suffer any harm.

'Yes they do, they're maimed physically.'

But what if they are deprived just of the sense of smell - in other words, isn't there an associated psychic faculty, which is good to have and a misfortune to lose?

'What do you mean by "psychic faculty"?'

Aren't we born with a sense of fairness?

'We are.'

If you destroy it, is there no harm, is nothing sacrificed, don't we lose something dear? Don't we have an innate sense of honour, a sense of benevolence, a sense of kindness and compassion? Well, if someone willingly parts with these sensibilities, do you suppose they go unpunished and unhurt?

'Well, does that mean that if someone wrongs me I shouldn't hurt them in return?' First of all, look at what wrong-doing is and remember what you have heard about it from philosophers. Because if 'good' as well as 'bad' really relate to our choices, then consider whether your position does not amount to saying something like, 'Well, since that guy hurt himself with the injustice he did me, shouldn't I wrong him in order to hurt myself in retaliation?'

So why don't we actually picture it to ourselves this way? Instead, we see injury only where physical or financial loss is incurred, whereas if the loss stems from our own choices, then we don't suspect any harm has been done. After all, we don't get a headache after an error in judgement or an act of injustice; we don't get eye trouble or stomach ache, we don't lose property. And for us those are the only things that matter. As to whether our character will remain loyal and honest, or become false and depraved, we don't care about that in the least - except insofar as it comes up for examination in school; the result being that our debating skills improve at the cost of our character.