#but equally a readers personal views can affect how they interpret a media

[mid-nighttiger]

ok here's the thing when people talk about fandom genocide apologia. do we think that people who call for the eradication of a fictional culture actually for-real wish death upon us & those who practice a similar culture? no of course not, everyone knows that killing people in real life is bad

however, do we think that they are the kind of people who complain that [x] culture isn't western enough or doesn't fit their personal experience enough and is inherently inferior/oppressive/etc, a sentiment we do see quite often in real life? yes, and in that sense people's fictional opinions can mirror their real life ones. especially if someone proposes 'outlawing a culture until it is forgotten' as the 'good' alternative to physically killing all the members of that culture, apparently without the single whit of self-awareness that that is exactly what happened in several real-life genocides

[itariilles]

My Statement on Tolkien 2019

[ French translation and German translation availible. ]

It has been incredibly difficult for me to speak on my experiences regarding my experiences of hostility and othering in spaces that I loved and still hold dear to my heart, and for that reason I have been silent. That is until now. 

I have decided that now is the right time for me to come forward with my experience and statement regarding my negative experience as a person of colour engaging in Tolkien spaces. 

I want people involved in the wider Tolkien community to reflect on their roles in the specific spaces they inhabit, and how you can foster a better environment for marginalised groups to interact and engage with those spaces in a safe and inclusive manner. 

Take your time to listen and put effort into listening to fans of colour when they are speaking about their lived experiences and their grievances especially when they are speaking about a topic as personal as racism. Being critical of a work you love and the media surrounding it is not easy thing, but we need to recognise that these criticisms are valid and deserve to be taken seriously when it affects a collective of people across different backgrounds. 

I want to preface this by stating that I am speaking only for myself and my own lived experience as a vocal young non-black POC in a predominantly white space. I acknowledge that my experience is by no means universal or indicative of all POC in Tolkien fandom spaces. 

I also understand that real life interactions differ widely from interactions on online fandom spaces, but there are disturbing similarities across both online and real life spaces with specific regard to the environment and treatment of vocal POC in both. 

The tragedy is many people do not realise their impact not only on the individuals involved, but on the wider attitude towards POC voices in fandom when the topic of racism is discussed. We need to build safe environments where critical discussions of diversity and race from the people most affected by them are taken to heart, not invalidated or spoken over as targets of microaggressions. 

To give a bit of context, Tolkien 2019 was an in person conference organised by the Tolkien Society (which I was a member of at the time). The official website for Tolkien 2019 has been taken down but the Tolkien Society has a nice summary written in August 2018 breaking down the event here. 

I was approached by the Education Secretary at the time about my possible involvement in a panel discussing the history and future of the Tolkien Society which I elaborate on further in my statement. It was the first time I had felt that I had a platform where I could freely express my voice as a diverse reader and consumer of Tolkien media who held diversity in Tolkien as a core value in the wider Tolkien brand. 

I felt that as the only non-white member on the panel I had an obligation to speak out on the topic of diversity when it was raised. I tried to speak briefly about some of the points and discourses I had heard on portrayals of diversity in Tolkien media with as much nuance as I could manage at the time. In response to some points I had made I was met with vocal disapproval by some audience members and visible signs of disapproval and hostile body language from others. 

This was made even more jarring when later during the course of the event when two white creators hinted at vague notions of diversity were met with a far greater degree of approval. The former instance was during the context of a panel regarding the upcoming LOTR on Prime series, and the latter was during a talk presented by the chair of the Tolkien Society.

I felt intimidated and reluctant to involve myself any further in the Tolkien fandom, especially in real life spaces as my experience at Tolkien 2019 had only solidified and reaffirmed my fears and unease I had engaging in a predominantly white fandom with few visible POC members and creators who tackle topics of diversity and racism in both the community and source texts.

Following this event I was approached by an affiliate of one of the attendees who very kindly took the time to listen to me and suggested that I should write a statement in response to my experience. To my knowledge, my statement has not been shared or published on any platform yet and this will be the first time I have ever spoken about it publicly. 

Since then some of my thoughts and opinions on certain aspects of Tolkien fandom and meta have shifted or evolved which I will hopefully expand on in the future, but I wanted to share my initial unchanged statement I wrote reflecting my immediate reaction to my experience. 

I want to be seen as a Tolkien creative and critical thinker above anything else, but I cannot move forward with my work without speaking about my lived experience in a space which has been consistently hostile to me and so many others across different Tolkien spaces for so many years starting with my account of this one experience.

I hope my statement finds itself in good hands and I will always be willing to engage with others about my experiences so long as you engage with me in good faith. 

The statement I wrote on 25/09/2019 is as follows:

From the 9th to 11th of August of this year I attended a conference held by the Tolkien society aptly named “Tolkien 2019” that advertised itself as the “largest celebration of Tolkien ever held by the Society” in which I both spoke as a panelist and independant speaker. The event itself was a mixture of both formal and informal panels, papers presented by selected members of the society, and evening social events.

My invitation to speak on the “History of the Tolkien Society” panel was presented as deliberate choice made by the panel organiser as a gateway for discussion about diversity and representation in Tolkien. On the official programme, the panel was described as a discussion concerning “what the Tolkien Society and Tolkien fandom in general may become as it encounters digital spaces, issues of representation and diversity, academic interest and a myriad other factors that make up our lived experience today”.

Although there was much excitement and anticipation on my half in the weeks and days leading up to the event, it soon turned to dread when the tone and climate of the discussion dawned on me when I took my seat alongside five other panelists ranging from seasoned Tolkien scholars, long-time members of the Society, and a member with a leadership position within the Society. On that four person panel, I was the only one racialised as non-white. In fact, I was one of only three people in a room of approximately fifty to sixty people racialised as non-white.

It wasn’t long before the true motive of placing me — a young, new member of the Society, who felt already out of place and out of my depth even being offered the opportunity to participate in the first place — on a panel of what I perceived to be more seasoned members of the society.

When the topic of diversity and representation in the Tolkien fandom was raised by the moderator, I saw it as an opportunity for me to share my own experiences as a young fan who predominantly consumed Tolkien content online, as well as some observations I had made regarding the current pop-cultural perception of Tolkien as being heavily influenced, if not wholly entered around the Peter Jackson trilogies and being deeply ingrained with the issues that seep from those interpretations into our overall perception of the Tolkien brand.

One of the talking points that seemed to have caused the biggest uproar and dissent was one in which I referred Tolkien’s description of Sam’s hands as brown in two instances — the first in the Two Towers, and the second instance in Return of the King and how this has been translated into film as both literal and symbolic interpretations. The former in the Ralph Bakshi’s the “Lord of the Rings” released in 1978 in which I noted that the decision to portray Sam as more ethnically ambiguous compared to the other Hobbits was a deliberate choice, whereas the latter was depicted in the recent Peter Jackson trilogy released in the early 2000’s took the description symbolically and cast the white American actor Sean Astin for the role.

The backlash I received for this was, I believe, absolutely disproportionate to the views I expressed. I saw members frown and grunt in disapproval, as well as some visibly shake their heads at me. In spite of me parroting how I saw both interpretations as equally valid as a defence mechanism in the face of such an aggressive response to what to me seemed like an innocuous observation made by a young person of colour who did not see many portrayals of people of colour in Tolkien. 

Comments such as “I don’t care who they cast as Sam whether he’s black, brown, yellow, blue or green!” and “Tolkien’s message is universal I don’t see how race factors into this!” were shouted in between points I was making, and countless others were made as an effort to dismiss the effort I put in to hopefully start an open dialogue about the lack of diversity in adaptations of Tolkien and how it has coloured our perception of the overall brand, and perhaps fantasy as a whole.

Some other talking points I decided to mention included Peter Jackson’s Easterlings (coded as being North African or Middle Eastern in the film) as being appallingly Orientalist and damaging in a post-911 world, as well as referring to Tolkien’s vague descriptions of certain characters and people groups that can be interpreted as ethnic coding or perhaps hint at a more diverse cast than the popular brand of Tolkien that may have us believe. I iterated that it is the responsibility of consumers of Tolkien and Tolkien related media to push for different interpretations of the text in order to break the perception that Tolkien’s works are entirely Anglo and Eurocentric with no place for people of colour in the vast world he had created in my opinion as a love letter to his own.

A month later it is still difficult for me to fully wrap my head around what I had experienced during the conference, much less articulating it in a statement, but if there is a note I would like to conclude on it would be this: it was never about changing Tolkien’s works, but reinterpreting his 20th century text littered with colonial artefacts and reimagining the foundations of his work through a 21st century lens in an attempt to decolonise the interpretation of his works in popular culture.

To change the way we read, write and depict the Tolkien brand is to fundamentally change the landscape of the entire genre of fantasy which has and still derives so heavily from Tolkien’s works and the global Tolkien brand.

End.

[wykedtrolls]

a dissertation nobody asked for, ft. my dysphoric trans ass (on the subject of truscum, cisgender medicine, and stupid assholes)

BOY HOWDY DID THIS GET LONG

I know that nobody asked for this post, and definitely nobody needed it, but you know what? Fuck it. You’re getting this post anyway.

Very recently someone in the community outed himself (himself, because I’m aware that he uses he/him pronouns and am not a piece of shit who will misgender someone under guise of offering anonymity. Cough cough.) as a transmedicalist. A truscum, if you will, because we all know that they mean the same thing and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is a bitchcoward and a bigot.

Very disappointing, yes, considering the amount of transgender people* I know exist in this community, myself included. Disappointing, frightening, and rage-inducing. Particularly because this revelation followed an encounter said truscum had with a close friend of mine. Which I admit might make me a little biased but shhh. Neither me nor my friend(s) started this. The contents of that conversation had between the truscum and my bro should have been handled privately like an adult but- hey, since we’re putting all this shit out there now, guess I get to put in my two cents! Awesome!

And because we apparently like to bring science into shit, let’s get a lil scientific up in this bitch.

*Note: transgender from here on will be used to refer to as the umbrella of non-cis gender identities just for context and ease of reference. And also because that’s what it is, fuck off.

So, guys. Let’s talk about dysphoria.

PART 1. SEMANTICS

Dysphoria. Most of you have heard of it, particularly those among us (both within and outside of the fantroll community) who happen to be transgender.

But what does it actually mean? Let’s look a little closer. Dysphoria, as defined by Merriam-Webster:

dysphoria (noun)

dys·​pho·​ria | \ dis-ˈfȯr-ē-ə  \

Definition of dysphoria

: a state of feeling very unhappy, uneasy, or dissatisfied

— see GENDER DYSPHORIA

But this is just semantics. Let’s look at it, and gender oriented dysphoria in particular from a mental health perspective-

“Gender dysphoria is the feeling of discomfort or distress that might accompany a difference between gender identity, sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics. This type of distress doesn't affect everyone who is transgender.

Gender dysphoria is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association to diagnose mental conditions. Gender dysphoria is a diagnosis that is given to individuals who are experiencing discomfort or distress due to the difference between gender identity, sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics.”

This is from the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit academic medical center based in Rochester, Minnesota, lauded as the best hospital in the nation for 2018-2019 by the U.S News and World Report. Do with that information what you will, but most would consider the Mayo Clinic (while not a good replacement for proper doctor’s visits and medical treatment) a pretty credible health resource.

But we’ll come back to this.

For now, let’s look at another definition. That of the word ‘opinion.’

PART 2: FACTS VS. OPINIONS VS. BELIEFS VS. PREJUDICE

opinion (noun)

opin·​ion | \ ə-ˈpin-yən  \

Definition of opinion

1a : a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter

We asked them for their opinions about the new stadium.

b : APPROVAL, ESTEEM

I have no great opinion of his work.

2a : belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge

a person of rigid opinions

Opinions are inherently biased. It may be influenced by facts, but opinions in and of themselves are not fact. To borrow and paraphrase from Fowler, H. Ramsey. The Little, Brown Handbook. Boston: Little, Brown, 1986.:

When forming personal convictions, we often interpret factual evidence through the filter of our values, feelings, tastes, and past experiences. Hence, most statements we make in speaking and writing are assertions of fact, opinion, belief, or prejudice. The usefulness and acceptability of an assertion can be improved or diminished by the nature of the assertion, depending on which of the following categories it falls into:

A fact is verifiable. [Determinable by] ...researching the evidence. This may involve numbers, dates, testimony, etc. (Ex.: "World War II ended in 1945.") The truth of the fact is beyond argument if one can assume that measuring devices or records or memories are correct. Facts provide crucial support for the assertion of an argument. However, facts by themselves are worthless unless we put them in context, draw conclusions, and, thus, give them meaning.

An opinion is a judgment based on facts, an honest attempt to draw a reasonable conclusion from factual evidence. [Opinions are] potentially changeable--depending on how the evidence is interpreted. By themselves, opinions have little power to convince. You must always let your reader know what your evidence is and how it led you to arrive at your opinion.

Unlike an opinion, a belief is a conviction based on cultural or personal faith, morality, or values. Statements such as "Capital punishment is legalized murder" are often called "opinions" because they express viewpoints, but they are not based on facts or other evidence. They cannot be disproved or even contested in a rational or logical manner. Since beliefs are inarguable, they cannot serve as the thesis of a formal argument. (Emotional appeals can, of course, be useful if you happen to know that your audience shares those beliefs.)

Y’all get what I’m getting at, right?

Oh, but one more thing I’d like to add- And I think this one is important.

“Another kind of assertion that has no place in serious argumentation is prejudice, a half-baked opinion based on insufficient or unexamined evidence. (Ex.: "Women are bad drivers.") Unlike a belief, a prejudice is testable: it can be contested and disproved on the basis of facts. We often form prejudices or accept them from others--family, friends, the media, etc.--without questioning their meaning or testing their truth. At best, prejudices are careless oversimplifications. At worst, they reflect a narrow-minded view of the world. Most of all, they are not likely to win the confidence or agreement of your readers.”

We’ve all encountered our fair share of these sorts of prejudices, disguised as “opinions.” Because isn’t that a much sweeter word for what it is? It’s not bigotry to delegitimize the experiences of other transgender people, it’s just an opinion. Like which is the best ice cream flavour, or something equally harmless.

But when your opinion involves the dehumanization, invalidation, exclusion and harm of other people… Well, that’s not so harmless, is it?

Racism is prejudice influenced by opinions and beliefs. Transphobia is prejudice influenced by opinions and beliefs. They are not fact, they are not based in rational thinking, and in many cases they cannot be argued because these prejudices are willingly cultivated and held.

‘But, Eli!’ I know at least one truscum who may or may not be reading this might cry, ‘It’s a scientifically proven fact that transgender people need to have dysphoria to be trans!’

To which I say fuck you, this is why that isn’t true.

Let’s go back to the definition of gender dysphoria, shall we?

“Gender dysphoria is the feeling of discomfort or distress that might accompany a difference between gender identity, sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics. This type of distress doesn't affect everyone who is transgender.”

MIGHT accompany a difference between those things, and DOESN’T affect everyone who is transgender. Interesting take coming from a scientific source, right? It’s almost like transmedicalist/truscum thinking is based off prejudice, rather than opinion; much less fact.

Especially considering dysphoria wasn’t even a word we (we meaning transgender people) chose for ourselves in the first place. It was picked by the American Psychiatric Association’s board of trustees to replace the term “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID)

Disorder. A sickness. Because Western medicine, practiced primarily by cisgender people (be they medical experts or not) has never been kind to transgender people. The word doesn’t mean what transmedicalists or truscum think it does. It doesn’t make you more valid than our fellow trans siblings just because the perceptions held by you or others of what your body and gender are worth make you miserable.

Wanna read up a little more on this? Check out these links: 

THIS IS WHAT I WISH PEOPLE WHO IDENTIFY AS ‘TRUSCUM’ WOULD TRY TO UNDERSTAND. 

Not All Transgender People Have Dysphoria – And Here Are 6 Reasons Why That Matters 

Transgender People, Gender Identity and Gender Expression

PART 3: THE COMMUNITY (™)

If you’re dysphoric, my heart goes out to you. I’m dysphoric too. Dysphoric enough to transition despite the medical costs- because I was tired of feeling trapped in other people’s perceptions of me. But you know what? I love that there are transgender people who don’t feel defined by this persistent sensation of wrongness.

You shouldn’t be defined by that. Even dysphoric trans people know (or should, for the sake of their health) that your unhappiness isn’t the only thing that makes you transgender. In fact, in the least unhealthy cases, it’s only the smallest fraction of the gender experience. Being transgender and exploring your gender identity consist of a broad spectrum of emotions. The fact that some of us (US. WE are a community, and have to treat each other as such) get to snip that little fraction out of the spectrum is beautiful.

We’re made stronger by how different we all are, not weaker.

PART 4: IN CLOSING

Whether you’re dysphoric or not, whether you identify with a gender binary or not, you are worthy of celebration and validation and love. All of us have it rough- frankly speaking, cisgender people as a whole barely tolerate us even when our identities do follow the narrative most commonly accept us. It’s not our place to judge, or shun, or invalidate one another.

And as both a personal goodbye and a TL;DR to truscum who like to treat gender identity like a competition, like something you get to gatekeep and police, fuck you. Our identities are ours to decide, our experiences to forge, and if that happens to not include transitioning or dysphoria, no matter what your reasons are that doesn’t make you less valid.

Fuck you, for painting your bigotry as an opinion. Fuck you for hurting the feelings of other transgender people. And fuck you for making posts trying to paint yourself as anything other than an asshole so full of internalized transphobia and misery that you can’t look past it to respect other people and act like that’s only your opinion UWU

Anyway, trans rights.

[readingsweetblueflowers]

Abusive relations revisited

Now that the Fujigaya production of Rokumeikan has ended the story of Sweet Blue Flowers moves on to other matters. After the congratulations to the actors and reviews of the performances, the chapter ends with Fumi Manjome being surprised with the news that her cousin Chizu has a new baby and is coming to visit. The next chapter (“After the Banquet”) opens with an image of a young and vulnerable Fumi, and is devoted to (re)telling the story of Fumi’s childhood relationship with Chizu.

I’ve already had my say about the abusive nature of this relationship. Does this chapter actually add anything to our understanding of Fumi and Chizu? What follows are my thoughts on this question. (For a variety of reasons I found this post more difficult to write than any other thus far, and am open to comments and suggested corrections from any and all.)

First, a brief comment about the title of the chapter. The translator’s notes for the Viz Media edition are silent as to its origin and meaning, but other sources speculate that it is a reference to Yukio Mishima’s 1960 novel After the Banquet (宴のあと, Utage no Ato)—appropriate if true, since the last few chapter focused on another Mishima work. The novel portrays an ill-fated marriage between an elderly politician and a middle-aged restaurant owner, who first meet at a banquet held at her restaurant. The New York Times review summarizes the novel’s conclusion as “Love is strong, but too weak to hold disparate natures together.”

The theme of “disparate natures” in an equally ill-fated relationship marked by an age gap is certainly apropos here. The purpose of the chapter seems to be to explore the nuances of Chizu’s and Fumi’s relationship, although it also (perhaps deliberately?) contains clues to just how wide the gap in their ages was.

The story starts with Fumi beginning second grade, having moved away from Akira, whom she met in first grade. (See the previous post “Ten years(?) after” for more on the chronology.) Fumi would thus now be seven years old. We see Fumi’s introduction to her new class, her feelings of loneliness and thoughts of Akira, her unwillingness to go back to school after the first day, and (after her return) the beginning of what appears to be a budding friendship with two girls in her class. And then Chizu comes to play.

At this point in the story Chizu appears to be on the cusp of being a teenager  (perhaps 12-13 years old?), “very rebellious” according to her mother, and not “obedient” like Fumi. Fumi clearly looks up to Chizu, looks forward to her visits, and is disappointed that she can’t sleep over.

Between page 126 and 127 of omnibus volume 3 the story then timeskips to a point when Fumi is in fifth grade, and thus at least ten years old. Chizu’s age is not referenced, but if we take her uniform as being that of a high schooler she is now at least 15 years old, and perhaps as old as 17—though her remark to Fumi that “You’re taller than me!” and her comment about “Girls these days!” seem to imply that Chizu herself sees the age gap between herself and Fumi as smaller than the five or more years it actually is.

Shortly thereafter Chizu’s family moves closer to Fumi’s, with the implication that the two girls will be seeing each other much more frequently. We then timeskip again between pages 128 and 129, with Chizu now headed off to university, and thus at least 17-18 years old, with Fumi presumably therefore around 12-13 years old, and perhaps slightly younger. The subsequent conversation over dinner and in bed highlights the pressure Chizu feels to marry, and Fumi’s lack of interest in boys.

Though it’s not spelled out in so many words, my sense is that the sexual activity between the two begins shortly after this. How frequent it was and long it continued are not clear, though it ended before the time that Fumi’s family moved back to Kamakura, Fumi began attending Matsuoka (at the age of 15), had her reunion with Akira, and was then surprised and shocked by Chizu’s marriage. (If we assume that the age gap between Fumi and Chizu is five years then at the time of her marriage Chizu would be 20 years old, now officially an adult, and would have completed at least two years of university.)

The final timeskip of the chapter is on the last panel of page 132 of omnibus volume 3, as we come back to the present day with an image of Chizu lost in rueful thought. She’s interrupted by Fumi bringing two cups of tea and a piece of cake—a hark back to earlier meetings between the two. (See pages 124 and 130.) Chizu enthuses about the possibility of moving to Kamakura near Fumi, stops and thinks better of it, and apologizes to Fumi: “Just kidding.” Fumi stares at her, drawn in a full-body profile view that echoes but reverses the image of a young and vulnerable Fumi with which the chapter begins.

The parallels to earlier scenes continue as Chizu again asks Fumi if she likes anyone. This time Fumi answers in the affirmative, and when further questioned as to the object of her affections replies “A girl.” Chizu apologizes again (“I’m the one who made you that way”), but Fumi seemingly resists this interpretation (”Don’t say it like that”).

As the conversation continues Chizu is seemingly overcome with regret and more than a hint of jealousy (“Do you like her more than me?”), muses on her daughter’s resemblance to Fumi, and finally breaks down in tears in contemplation of the path her own life has taken compared to Fumi’s (“I can’t be that kind of girl”).

The last (unspoken) words are Fumi’s. She thinks to herself, “My love for Chizu was real”, before seemingly drawing a line under the whole affair: “And that’s the truth.”

But of course we as readers can’t help wondering, what really is the truth here? It’s clear, at least to me, that Chizu thinks of herself, and by implication exonerates herself, as a victim of circumstances beyond her control—that she was pressured into marrying, and that social prejudices and ties of blood (“We’re girls ... and cousins”) kept her from having the relationship she wanted to have with Fumi.

What is less clear to me is whether Takako Shimura wants us to think of Chizu as a victim. Chizu was certainly hemmed in by the expectations of her family and society, expectations that limited whom she could love and have as a life partner. On the other hand, Fumi was just past childhood, and Chizu nearly an adult. If Chizu was drawn to women she could have and should have sought out someone closer to her own age, whether at high school or university. In Fumi she found and exploited a young girl for her own purposes, a girl who was predisposed to look up to her and follow her lead.

As for Fumi, I think it can be said that objectively speaking she was a victim of abuse, but she does not think of herself as such. I do not think this is because she was manipulated into this view (as abusers can do to those they abuse), but rather because this is consistent with her overall personality as portrayed in the manga.

To paraphrase what I previously wrote, Fumi is a person with a “steel core”, a deeply emotional person who ultimately does not let her emotions distract her from who she is and what she wants. To Fumi the question of whether Chizu “made [her] that way” is irrelevant. As she has already told Akira, and will tell others in chapters to come, she is “that kind of girl”, and that’s all there is to it. The final image of the chapter again echoes and reverses the chapter’s initial image of a young and vulnerable Fumi: eyes no longer cast down, she looks straight ahead, her glasses and her ponytail (a change from her typical more childish pigtails) marking the maturity that she is well on the way to achieving.

In the end I hark back to what I wrote earlier about Chizu: “Sweet Blue Flowers seems to valorize relationships between equals and implicitly criticize unequal relationships based on age or other hierarchies .... From this point of view Chizu’s relationship with Fumi provides the reader yet another example of the potential harms inherent in and inseparable from classic yuri tropes.”

Although Chizu is featured in character introductions later in omnibus volume 3 and volume 4, this is the last time she actually appears in the manga. As Chizu leaves the story of Sweet Blue Flowers, I say “good-bye and good luck” to her, but also “good riddance”.

[bettsfic]

a third stance on the moral dichotomy of fandom

i have one more thing to say, or i guess reiterate, on the topic of moral purity policing in fanfiction as perpetuated by minors, in a more rebloggable format than my previous asks. what i have to say is an incredibly unpopular opinion because it takes neither side of this dichotomized issue, and addresses, not the minors perpetuating the purity rhetoric, but the adults fighting against it. 

first i’ll offer a run-down of the overall issue at hand:

side 1, or what i call “think of the CHILDREN”: there is a large sect of people in fandom right now, mostly teens and young adults as far as i can tell, who believe that taboo works (noncon and underage) should not be allowed to exist. if they are written, they should be flagged and subsequently taken down. these people seem to hold these beliefs for several reasons, the prevailing ones being “fiction affects reality” and “children might read it!!” this stance is the active one, the (literal) minority, the side trying to enact change upon an established and (legally) supported status quo. these people do not separate the art from the artist. 

in practice, these beliefs are aggressive and toxic. we see them in rude or cruel anonymous asks urging writers to kill themselves. we see them in “only follow if” and “do not interact if” pages with lengthy bullet point lists of traits and behaviors that are Not Okay. we see them in yfip. we see them in anti tags. we see them in long, poorly researched and contextualized responses to well-meaning pro-”ship and let ship” posts. we see them in accusations of pedophilia for fics and ships that are not in fact pedophilic. we see them in phrases like “abuse apologists” and “problematic” and “romanticize” and “fetishize.” 

despite the seeming growth of what i’ve been calling the Gen Z Puritanical Movement, what we see on tumblr is only a narrow view of a much wider issue spanning outside fandom and into the world of art itself. it stems from problems of decades past, McCarthyism, the Hays Code, the nuclear family, for example, and the subsequent counterculture movements against them. right now Gen X has all the power and prestige in the enormous world art, and being the children of Baby Boomers, they simultaneously believe you must always separate the art from the artist, while also widely disbelieving (or having had to learn) that inequality and disenfranchisement have any bearing in the success of art. 

“the discourse” as we call it has its roots in every creative field and we are in midst of a revolution in the way we understand and interact with art. i believe, with any revolution, the answer is not in stalling it but negotiating with it, learning from it, interrogating it, and adapting. 

side 2, which i’ll unpack below, is comprised mostly of what i would venture are Millennials, and fall somewhere between Gen Z purity and Gen X freedom. and as much as i want to discuss this gaping chasm of beliefs further, i’m specifically talking about the way transformative art is presently policed by side 1.

which brings us to the other side.

side 2, or what i call “i do what i WANT”: these people believe that a fan writer/artist should be able to write, post, and share with the public any creative work the mind can devise as long as it is warned/tagged properly, and all people who do not want to view their art should walk away and not interact. key phrases include “ship and let ship” and “don’t like, don’t read.” the prevailing root of this belief is that all art is valid and important, all art belongs, even when that art is devised entirely by the id. additionally, they believe they do not have to justify, defend, or explain their art in order for it to exist, and most importantly, it is every reader/viewer’s responsibility to understand the difference between fiction and reality. these people separate art from the artist. 

in practice, these beliefs are poised to defend of the attacks from side 1. this is a reaction to a movement, an assertion of maintaining the status quo. we see posts speaking to an audience of side 1, pleading or at times demanding for them to learn not only the fraught history of fanworks but also the greater context of art and censorship. these posts are then reblogged by people with similar beliefs, attacked by side 1, and no one seems to really learn anything at all. the dichotomy is maintained. battles end as posts fall into obscurity, but the war rages on.

side 2 holds the status quo, the most common sense. it is the most educated perspective, upheld by the wiser and older parties of fandom, the transformative artists who have lived through strikethrough and boldthrough and have experienced the damaging consequences of the censorship and ideology of side 1. moreover, it is upheld by the actual people who built and run the archive on which our art rests. in this dichotomy, side 2 has all the power. side 2 is the majority. 

here’s where i get to my incredibly unpopular opinion:

people in positions of power have no reason to meet aggression with more aggression except to re-establish and assert that power over the minority opinion. aggression does not sway the minority opinion; it only fuels it. 

in other, more practical words, we are ADULTS sharing a public community space with CHILDREN, and some of those children have made it clear that they are angry. 

why do we meet that anger with anger when we are older and wiser and have all the authority? if a child is having a violent tantrum, do you punch them in the face? no, you hold their wrists. you calm them down. you ask them what’s wrong. you try to parse out what happened and work together to make sure it doesn’t happen again. you can’t expect them to articulate that anger; you have to ask questions. you have to listen to them.

side 1 says that taboo works are wrong and bad and shameful. i personally disagree with that belief, but my curiosity lies in the extreme emotional reaction and value judgments behind it. and when enough people are angry about something, if a movement becomes wide enough, it means there is something else going on, some seed of truth happening somewhere -- a needle in a haystack, an invisible shard of glass on the kitchen floor -- that needs to be found. i’m not saying side 1 is right, but i am saying that there is something in that anger which might ring true, even if the toxic rhetoric they are spouting is not. i don’t know what that truth is, and the point of this post is not to find it, but to encourage us to seek bigger answers about this very big problem.

side 2, you might be saying, they’re not children, they’re teenagers and young adults. you might be saying, when i was their age, i knew to obey the etiquette of fandom. you might be saying, we are not equals, they should be learning from us. you might be saying, it’s their responsibility to know fiction from reality. you might be saying, none of this is my responsibility. you might be saying, this movement is getting bigger and scarier and it may become an actual threat to our art. 

and you might be feeling: i have no interest in logically or morally defending the taboo nature my aesthetic interests. i know that they appeal to me, and i know i should not be tasked with or required to publicly explain myself. i should not have to assert that art is separate from the artist. i should not have to endure aggressive mobs of anons in my inbox. i should not be chased away by pitchforks held by my own community. i should not be accused of being a predator, rapist, abuse apologist, or pedophile. 

and maybe you know that you are not any of those things, and to be accused of them is ridiculous and appalling, but maybe it still hurts to be called all of that which makes life so dangerous and cruel. maybe it always hurts to have your art misunderstood.

this brings me back to anger. all anger is devised of pain and fear. we get angry when we’re hurt and scared. when i see two angry sides of a wide divide, all i see is that fear and pain, and all i want is to lessen it. 

on side 1, we have a group of young people whose only context is the present and whose only fear is the future. i put myself in the shoes of what it must be like to be a teenager in america in 2018, how different it is from when i was a teenager. teen stars on red carpet events in 2005 dressed in ugly cargo pants and sweatshirts. millie bobby brown at 13 was dressed like a supermodel at last year’s emmy’s. young people today have more and easier access to information pertaining to violence and sex, consume media steeped in those things, than they ever have. and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for parents to keep them from that interaction. side 2′s rhetoric around this is to wipe their hands free of it -- “your parents should monitor what you’re doing on the internet.” and they should, they absolutely should, but while technology has changed, teenage curiosity hasn’t. i clicked past every 18+ warning i’ve ever seen in my life, and that was my choice, and i handled the consequences. 

but just for a second imagine being 14 again, and curiosity getting the best of you, and clicking on something in which your physical equivalent is being hurt and abused and eroticized. can you imagine not having any understanding of the greater context of what you’ve just read, in art or in life? wouldn’t you be scared too, to know those things exist? wouldn’t you be reluctant to listen to the explanation of them when you are young and afraid and suddenly aware that you can be hurt? 

i am not encouraging writers to stop creating taboo fanworks. i think they have an important artistic purpose and function and place, and i value any mind that can conceive and face such darkness. but as someone who aims to understand as much as i possibly can about what it is to be human, to be alive today, i am inclined to consider the various interpretations of taboo art and its potential repercussions. 

teenagers today are more aware and attuned to -- and have constant access to -- current events than any other generation before, but that does not mean they have learned or educated themselves on the historical context of these events in order to understand them fully. they don’t have a wide perspective, but they do have their moral compasses guided by the abhorrence of the constant human rights violations that occur on macro and micro scales every single day, and it’s those compasses that place value judgments on the content they consume in fandom, the place where they feel, i speculate, the most valued. the place they have the most power and sway. the only place, maybe, that their voice and fear and anger is ever heard, witnessed, responded to, taken seriously. 

being a teenager today is a completely new and terrifying machine made of old parts. we, the adults in fandom, understand the parts but not the machine. how can all the same parts make something so different from us? who built this monster, and how to we destroy it? why is it attacking us when there are bigger and more important battles to fight? why doesn’t it go read a fucking book for once?

that brings us to side 2. if side 1 has the future, side 2 has the past. we see the toxic rhetoric of side 1 and we know what consequences can come of it because we’ve lived the worst of it. we have both the pain of the past and the fear of the future to handle, and neither are easy to cope with. 

so what do we do? we either get angry and fight back, or disengage. sometimes i think the latter is the most toxic of all, because i believe it’s every artist’s responsibility to understand the work they’re doing and the greater context of that work, how it fits in their given lexicon of art. they should not be required to defend it or speak for it, but they should know it. inside and out, they should know their art and why they make it. 

i also believe, if you know your art and why you make it, if you can separate yourself the artist from the art, why disengage from those who are repulsed but reaching out? it’s definitely my gut instinct to meet cruelty with anger and upsetness, but cruelty also piques my curiosity -- i want to know where the repulsion comes from. i want to ask questions. why are you offended by this art? how have you interpreted it? why are you afraid of it? how has its existence hurt you? if nothing else, it always gives me a broader understanding of my work and how it can be seen, which is invaluable feedback for any artist. 

if there is any bridge at all to be built between this divide, i think it is in our ability to ask questions, listen to the answers, and use those answers, not to argue with or defend ourselves or to become upset by, but to ask more questions. 

here are two ways this mentality has helped me -- 

in my old job (commercial finance real estate), i worked with upperclass middle-aged white men who got paid six figures a year to golf and cheat on their wives while i did all their paperwork. eventually i made a hobby of sitting in their offices and asking them questions, knowing they had authority over me, knowing our opinions differed. knowing i had no place to argue with them or leverage in telling them all the ways i felt they were wrong about politics and society at large. i pretended they were teaching me things, showing me the way of the world. i let them believe that, and i continued asking questions, forcing them to articulate aloud why they believed what they believed, hours and hours, slowly boxing them into corners from which they would eventually change their own minds.

in my current job (i’m a college instructor) i do something similar. i sit down with every single student one on one and i ask them questions about their political and social beliefs. often my students are 19, white, straight, affluent, conservative young adults who hold many of the same puritanical ideas as that of side 1 with less of the toxic rhetoric. at first, i was terrified to do this. it was different than my old job because suddenly i was the one with authority. i thought, what if i encounter racism? prejudice? sexism? what if they are fundamentally wrong on every level, and won’t listen to me, someone who knows the greater context of their opinions? what if i end up arguing with them? what if they don’t respect me? what if i can’t change their minds? and most importantly -- is it my responsibility to change their minds at all?

after the first semester, i realized how young they were, how much they still had left to grow, and learn, and live, and that my class would not be able to teach them everything they needed to know in order to strip away the prejudices and narrow-mindedness of their upbringings. i learned that all i could do was be a person in a position of authority listening to their beliefs and asking them tough questions no one has ever asked them. forcing them on the spot to articulate the beliefs they have not before had the opportunity to interrogate. i find i rarely agree with what they say, but i validate their right and ability to say it. to have a voice and space and responsibility in and to society. to think, itself. and most importantly to think through their ideals, which they cannot do if they are never given a chance to be heard, if they are never asked the questions whose answers will lead them to deeper and more meaningful insights.

i have never changed the mind of a single person by arguing, but i have changed several minds by asking. 

we have an entire generation of terrified young people who are lashing out, and i do not want to hate them. i do not want to meet their rage and toxicity with fear, defensiveness, and dismissal. i want to sympathize and listen. i want to know more about why they feel how they feel, what the real root of it is, the seeds of truth behind the rhetoric. i want to understand. and mostly, i want to help fix all the broken and awful things in the greater sociopolitical sphere that have built this terrifying machine and dug our moral divide.

[getanattitude]

Buzzwords, De-buzzed: 10 Other Ways to Say fireinsidemusic.com

“THE more you dig right into a bit of Ives, the more enjoyment you have from it,” the pianist Jeremy Denk mentioned not too long ago, sitting at a piano inside of a rehearsal Area on the Juilliard University. “It’s like solving a puzzle.”

Then he enthusiastically deconstructed Ives’s “Concord” Sonata, untangling and detailing the themes and motifs embedded within the complex textures of the interesting rating.

Mr. Denk is going to release a disc, “Jeremy Denk Plays Ives” (Think Denk Media), that includes two piano sonatas, an esoteric choice of repertory for the debut solo album. But then, there's nothing generic concerning this adventurous musician. His vivacious intellect is manifest both equally in his playing and on his blog site, Assume Denk, an outlet for astute musical observations and witty musings, whether a lament about inedible meatballs or simply a spoof job interview with Sarah Palin.

Mr. Denk will reveal his more mainstream qualifications when he performs Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. one with Charles Dutoit and also the Philadelphia Orchestra commencing on Thursday on the Kimmel Centre in Philadelphia and on Oct. 12 at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Denk argues which the Ives sonatas, composed early during the twentieth century, are mistakenly categorized as avant-garde works instead of “epic Intimate sonatas with Lisztian thematic transformations.” On the relaxed listener, the audio that Mr. Denk describes while in the CD booklet as “brilliant, ingenious, tender, edgy, wild, unique, witty, haunting” can unquestionably audio avant-garde. Ives, who built his residing in the coverage enterprise, integrated jazz, riffs on Beethoven and American hymns, marches and people songs into his daringly experimental piano sonatas, full of polytonality, thematic layering and rhythmic complexity.

“It’s so splendidly in-your-face,” Mr. Denk said, demonstrating a very maniacal passage while in the “Concord” Sonata. “It’s also pretty astonishingly unsightly. There is a thing maddening about his sense of humor. Ives is continually thumbing his nose at you in a method.”

But Mr. Denk suggests that Ives’s tenderness, which he illuminates superbly In this particular recording, is underappreciated. “Ives is frequently about things recalled,” he said, “or Recollections or visions fetched from some difficult position.”

He played the harmonically misty passages in the next movement with the “Concord,” where by Ives directs that a bit of wood be pressed over the higher keys to produce a cluster chord. “It doesn’t sense gimmicky at all to me,” Mr. Denk explained. “It’s all blues in The underside. Ives knew the way to use Those people tiny clichéd bits of Americana in a means that all of a sudden will get your intestine. You can’t believe how touching it's.”

Mr. Denk, forty, has been passionate about Ives because his undergraduate days at Oberlin in Ohio, where he carried a double big in piano functionality and chemistry. “My overall double diploma knowledge was to some degree of the continuous freakout of 1 type of A different,” he claimed.

He had been a “really nerdy high school scholar” by using a constrained social existence, he stated. “Ever considering the fact that I had been a kid I planned to head to Oberlin and preferred the liberal arts. Certainly I really get rigorous satisfaction outside of drawing connections between parts and poems and literature and concepts.”

Mr. Denk explained himself to be a “practice maniac,” but his horizons have prolonged considerably beyond the apply area since Oberlin. When nibbling a massive bit of chocolate cream pie at an Upper West Facet diner near the condominium he has rented due to the fact about 1999, Mr. Denk referred to his blog, contacting it “an surprisingly excellent outlet to release tensions of one form or Yet another.” He claimed it had drawn new listeners to his concerts. An avid reader of liberal political weblogs, Mr. Denk desires of creating a classical music Model of Wonkette, he reported, but that might be not easy to do devoid of offending individuals. And he attempts to steer clear of offending persons, he extra, while he did not long ago write-up a rant about plan notes.

Mr. Denk, who phone calls himself “an actual Francophile,” is gentle-spoken but intense, his dialogue peppered with references to numerous “obsessions”: espresso, Ives, Bach, Proust, Baudelaire and Emerson.

He went off on “a Balzac mania” a number of years in the past, he claimed.

“That was a perilous time, and almost everything in everyday life seemed drawn outside of a Balzac novel,” he extra. “I misplaced about three decades of my lifetime to Proust. I’m guaranteed it improved anything, including my playing.

“Sooner or later my supervisor was like, ‘Dude, You should deal with your occupation and receiving your stuff together.’ ” At that point, Mr. Denk claimed, “I had been bringing Proust to conferences.” He extra: “I’m unsure I really experienced a occupation route. I had been just undertaking my Odd issue, which most likely gave the impression of a disastrous nonroute to a lot of the individuals that have been viewing around me. I don't forget some exasperated conferences with my management, Nevertheless they were incredibly affected person and faithful, which I’m insanely grateful for.”

Mr. Denk grew up in Las Cruces, N.M., amongst two brothers, a son of audio-loving nonmusician parents. His father, who's got a doctorate in chemistry, has actually been (at diverse occasions) a Roman Catholic monk plus a director of Laptop or computer science at New Mexico Point out College.

Mr. Denk continues to be hooked on the chili peppers of Las Cruces, he said, seemingly only fifty percent joking: “The red and the green and The full spirituality of chili peppers. It’s nonetheless a large part of my everyday living. When I go house I go to this true dive and obsess in excess of their eco-friendly meat burrito.”

When not on tour, Mr. Denk spends time with his boyfriend, Patrick Posey, a saxophonist as well as director of orchestral things to do and preparing at Juilliard, wherever Mr. Denk been given his doctorate, researching with Herbert Stessin. Mr. Stessin recollects owning been impressed by “the maturity and intensity” of Mr. Denk’s participating in and remembers him as “an extraordinary university student who absorbed things pretty promptly.”

Mr. Denk said he “was in class permanently” until finally “at some time I made a decision to believe in my own instincts.” Now he teaches double-diploma undergraduates for the Bard Higher education Conservatory of Music. The pianist Allegra Chapman, who researched with him, explained he was “worried about quite a bit greater than the notes about the web site, constantly mentioning literary and historic references.”

“Now I attempt to technique songs within a more holistic viewpoint,” she additional. “He is incredibly passionate. He used to bounce around the area and bounce about and wave his arms. It was really enjoyable. He tried to get me to think about the music that has a sense of humor.”

This blend of passion, humor and intellect, so vibrant in both equally Mr. Denk’s enjoying and his creating, is what distinguishes him, according to the violinist Joshua Bell. The 2 have already been normal duo companions because 2004, when they carried out with the Spoleto Competition United states.

“You obtain the mental musicians or people that have on their coronary heart on their own sleeve without having a number of musical imagined,” Mr. Bell reported, “but Jeremy manages to accomplish each, Which’s great. Now we have lots of arguments in rehearsal, and that is the fun component at the same time. The very fact we don’t generally see eye to eye keeps issues clean and would make me problem anything I do.”

Mr. Bell, whose options of repertory are generally additional regular than those of his much more adventurous colleague, mentioned he wasn’t normally an Ives enthusiast: “Having a good deal of contemporary tunes I’m somewhat cautious. Despite Ives, right up until I read Jeremy. He just delivers it alive. He has this sort of a terrific creativity, and nothing at all is done randomly.”

Ives’s piano sonatas, Mr. Denk mentioned, “are in a way like animals that don’t wish to be tamed.”

“Each individual efficiency needs to be so distinct,” he included, a person purpose he was to begin with hesitant to file them. Like Bach, he said, Ives leaves quite a bit to the performer’s creativeness.

A wonderful interpretation of your “Goldberg” Variants at Symphony Area in 2008 discovered Mr. Denk’s profound affinity with Bach. Mr. Denk will complete the do the job and Books one and 2 of Ligeti’s Études at Zankel Corridor on Feb. sixteen.

To keep the “Goldberg” Variations fresh, Mr. Denk is incorporating new fingerings, he stated, “to reactivate the link involving my brain and my fingers After i’m enjoying it.”

“I believe it’s an actual magical put If you have the muscle mass memory,” he extra, “even so the Mind is ahead from the fingers.”

Switching the fingerings is one method to avoid routine, he explained. “I get real pleasure from producing in a very fantastic fingering. It is actually like relearning the piece, and it tends to make you not acquire any Observe as a right.”

The musical philosophy Mr. Denk relates to Bach, Ives and other repertory is probably best summed up in that website submit on system notes: “I’ve never been a major enthusiast of your ‘Picture how revolutionary this piece was when it absolutely was composed’ college of inspiration. For my dollars, it ought to be innovative now. (And it's.) Whatever else the composer might have meant, he or she didn’t want you to definitely Believe, ‘Boy, that have to happen to be interesting back again then.’ The most basic compositional intent, the absolute ur-intent, is that you Enjoy it now, you enable it to be take place now.”

[sociologyontherock]

The media’s Representation of Social Activism by Iranian Women

By Elahe Nezhadhossein

The Situation of Women in Iran

Political and religious events in Iran, especially since 1925, have had an impact on Iranian women’s social and economic activities. This includes Reza Khan and Pahlavi’s dynasty and their anti-hijab policies; and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution the compulsory hijab and oppressive laws against women. But what is poorly understood by most people in the West is that the major problems related to gender inequality come from an undemocratic political system rather than the Shi’a interpretation of Islam. Political systems can support patriarchy through the legal system, for example by supporting men through family laws (see, for example, Sylvia Walby).

Despite the oppression that occurs in fundamentalist political systems, women delaying marriage and completing high levels of education challenge patriarchy and fundamentalism (Homa Hoodfar & Fatemeh Sadeghi). Not only did religious laws after the Islamic Revolution not have a negative influence on the economic situations of women, their financial conditions actually improved much more quickly after the Revolution.

 Some feminist activists and scholars in the West as well as Western journalists have an inaccurate impression of the oppression and the veil wearing of Middle Eastern and Muslim women in general. Their misconceptions are based in part on ignorance, racism, and colonialism (Chandra Talpade Mohanty). In her studies of Iranian and other Middle Eastern women’s histories of wearing veils and their social and economic activities, Homa Hoodfar  asserts that Western images of oppression are far from the real situation of these women. Part of the reason why inaccurate and stereotyped images of contemporary women in Muslim countries are common in the West is because the present Iranian government tends to emphasize the more traditional pictures of women and does not portray their active roles in the economic, social, and political arenas of society. At the same time Western commercial mass media tend to focus on images of the more oppressed women because the main news values are novelty, negativity, and deviance.

 The irony of governments subsidizing organizations fostering minority empowerment is that it can lead to bureaucratization and economic dependence on the government. This can divert minority movements and institutions (including the women’s movement) from their radical demands (Roxana Ng). In a country like Iran, which has an ideological government, some women’s institutions poorly reflect the women’s movement. The official institutions for women in Iran support the government’s ideology and encourage the domestic role of women because they receive funding from the government (Valentine Moghadam). This is another reason why representations of Iranian women in that nation’s national media do not aptly represent the activities and situations of its female citizens.

 Comparing employment rates is one way of measuring gender inequality. Rates increased much more quickly for Iranian women in the 1990s than they did during the 1960s and 70s when a pro-Western secular regime was in power (Roksana Bahramitash). This sharp increase in women’s employment challenges the view that religion is responsible for the economic status of women in Muslim countries. Even though women were forced to wear the hijab after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, they have continued to be politically active (Faegheh Shirazi) and active in the economy, including education and business. Behind the hijabs that cover today’s women, there are great minds which are hard at work and committed to transforming their country.

 Social Movements, Media, and Women

 After the Iranian Presidential elections of June 2009, the Green Movement sprang up, protesting the election results that awarded Ahmadinejad a second Presidential term. In response to the widespread positive reaction to this movement, the government expelled in less than one week all international journalists and imprisoned many Iranian journalists and activists. Consequently, fewer free journalists were able to cover the events occurring in the streets in Tehran and other cities.

 Following this crackdown, ordinary citizens began to fill the gap in documenting the Green Movement. They posted the images and videos they took with their hand cams and cell phones on websites such as YouTube and Facebook. These images taken by ordinary citizens were the only record that documented the presence and activism of women.

 This movement was named the Green Movement because the reformist Presidential candidate Mousavi, who became the leader of the movement after the elections, had chosen the color green as a symbol for his party. After the election his supporters kept using green to show publicly that they had voted for him. The main demand of the activists was for democracy and the rejection of the thirty-year-old theocratic authoritarian regime. Iranian women played a huge role in the social uprising after the 2009 election. They believed the democratic movement would successfully help them gain their rights and freedom.

 During the protests of the Green Movement, many women were injured and killed by government forces. The brutality of the police forces left many women with scarred faces, which made it easy to identify them later. But this did not stop them from continuing their protests in the streets. Such bravery also reflects their physically active resistance and the limits of their oppression. Most of the women participating in the Green Movement did not completely cover their hair, resisting the government’s laws aimed at controlling women’s bodies and movement in public. These women have been labeled “bad hijabs” by the regime. Some women did cover their heads and faces but because they did not want the government to recognize them.

Most of the women in the Green Movement were not wearing the roosari properly, as is required by the government’s unwritten rules. This shows their resistance against discriminatory laws. At the same time, some women fully covered their hair or were wearing the chador, though there were not many in comparison to the other women called “bad hijabs.” This shows that even religious women (or women who prefer to cover their hair) were also asking for equal rights for all women and were fighting the government’s discrimination and gender inequality. Women’s participation in the Green Movement was as valuable as that of men.

 After facing increased oppression, women moved their spheres of activity from NGOs and the public to cyberspace, which was safer and more accessible (Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh). Comparing women’s participation in social movements in Iran, Egypt, and Tunisia shows that women were actively – though peacefully – fighting and changing the oppressive system against them (Elham Gheytanchi & Valentine Moghadam).

 Social movements are dependent on communication tools including person-to-person conversations, rumors, the press, the internet, etc. The tools of mass media help movements to organize their activities because they allow participants to share their ideas. New media and the Internet in particular help social movements communicate independently from traditional government control.

 In all societies mass media are under the surveillance of political elites. At the same time activists are likely to be critics of the prevailing power structures. Women’s movements, for instance, have often critiqued media representations of their activities because journalists perpetuate stereotypes about women (Jenn Goddu). But connections between mass media and social movements are multifaceted and dynamic (Suzanne Staggenborg). Social movements result in a wide range of effects, from changing a political regime or laws and policies to invisible changes which occur in people’s minds. Changing policies, laws, political and economic structures may be the main goals of social movements, but over time, their most impressive achievements are likely to be changing people’s perceptions and priorities (Mark CJ Stoddart).

 Drawing on theories of ideology, discourses in the media, networks of power, and the evolution of social movements, I explore Canadian and American mass media. I investigate the extent to which media discourses have been affected or challenged by women’s activities. The discourses disseminated in a nation’s media outlets can be tools for both maintaining – and challenging – power structures with respect to race, ethnicity, and gender. In exploring this phenomenon, I apply content analysis and critical discourse analysis to widely read Canadian and American newspapers. This includes analyzing the manifest and the latent content of news stories about Iranian women (Van Den Hoonard) and comparing images and texts from different time periods.

According to Laclau and Mouffe, discourses shape our views of political and social realities. Mainstream commercial media are likely to be one of the main battlefields for creating and disseminating dominant discourses. Ideologies and texts do not necessarily explain realities accurately. Thus the goal of any analysis of an ideology or discourse should be to expose the realities behind distortions (Stuart Hall). The complicating factor is that readers do not automatically believe something just because it appears in the news. After all, propaganda can be counterproductive. Sometimes the fundamental question is not about truth versus fake news. The reading and viewing practices of audiences can result in the production of counter-discourses. Questions like this then arise. Who benefits from a dominant discourse? What segment of society would benefit if a counter-discourse became more popular? Although a dominant discourse may characterize mainstream news stories, how much information is conveyed in these stories which would let readers come to different understandings of events than the one which is emphasized? In other words, can one-sided news stories encourage dialogue?

[taylorrosetalley]

Virtual Sketchbook 2

JOURNALING  – Make a visual outline of all the Principles of Design (Chapter 4) and define each one, interpreting the text’s definition of each one in your own words, so you fully understand it. Identify where you see examples of these principles in your everyday life or identify how an artist uses each element and principle by posting an example of an art form or drawing an example that uses that Principle next to the definition. (7 examples TOTAL)

unity and variety

Allan McCollum

This piece of art describes unity and variety to me because of its consistency and it's also diverse pieces. This is one whole piece of art, but its collective pieces and different shapes add to the variety.

balance

Jan Van Eyck

Balance in this art piece is depicted by equality and symmetry on both sides of the scene. The people on both sides are gathered with the people in the front bowing. There are an equal amount of people praying around the table with a centerpiece of a lamb to truly create a sense of balance. 

emphasis and subordination

Winslow Homer

Emphasis is drawn towards the woman because of the stark difference between her blue gown and the muted colors in the background. Subordination would be the lack of attention meant for the background of the painting. 

directional forces

Vincent van Gogh

I consider this piece of art to have a directional force because of the texture and flow of the sky. The night sky offers a winding path for your eyes to follow and wander on.

repetition and rhythm

Rene Magritte

Repetition and rhythm in the floating men is a noticeable aspect in this piece of art. The men are not irregularly placed, they have a rhythm but a noticeable variation to their placement. The repetition would be the cloning of the floating men all around the piece. 

scale and proportion

Clemens Wirth

The size and proportion of the hand to the people is made to look as though the real person is a giant in this photo. Thanks to the miniatures of real people and the camera angle of the person's hand, the photographer is able to capture something that makes the viewer view the relationship differently.

WRITING AND LOOKING – Just as a good cook assembles the perfect ingredients for a delicious recipe, an artist assembles the right elements for a successful artwork. Choose any artwork from your textbook and make a recipe of the composition. For example, Velásquez’s artwork, Las Meninas (figure 17.21, page 295) contains implied lines, linear perspective, a distinct vanishing point, neutral colors, highlights, focal points described by geometric shapes (triangles and rectangles) and achieves balance through placement of figures and rhythm between foreground and background etc. Make sure to include the title of your choice with the figure and page number. Don’t use my example.

Sassetta, The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul

Fig. 3.27

3.5 Time and Motion

Sassetta’s painting contains directional forces, movement in time, muted colors, and emphasis and subordination.

CONNECTING ART TO YOUR WORLD – Share a personal experience of how color has affected you (one paragraph). Make sure to use some of your new vocabulary (hue, value, intensity, saturation). If you had to pick a “color scheme” for your life, what would it be?

A color scheme for my life would be muted hues of orange, burgundy, green, grey, black, and other colors in that spectrum. I do not like the saturation and of bright and intense colors. Muted tones make me feel calm and natural, and wearing them makes me feel more confident. Having a pop of color can make me feel strange if it isn't in a muted tone, it seems to be too much for my eyes to handle at times.

ART PROJECT – ARTIST’S CHOICE - Draw a cartoon or make a painting. The form: If you choose the cartoon (comic) it must be at least 3 panels. The size is not important. The painting can be executed with any of the materials (media) outlined in your textbook (see Chapters 6 and 7) and note that painting involves the use of WET media, drawing usually refers to dry media – I want to see PAINTING if you choose to make a painting, DRAWING is NOT the same thing). The content: The subject matter should be something that you are passionate about – something that has a deep personal meaning for you. The comic or the painting should be able to tell some type of story that relates your feelings about your chosen subject matter. Post pics of the finished product (in-process photos are also interesting!).

I created this painting with the idea in mind of who I have become vs. who I was. My style and colors I associate myself with have changed so much in the past few years and I have never been happier with the person I am becoming.

PHOTO/DESIGN - Using magazines or the internet, each person needs to find two solid examples of photojournalism. Paste your examples in your Tumblr sketchbook and clearly label them – Photojournalism. Also in your sketchbook, please answer the following questions about your favorite of the two examples: What is the event being depicted? How does the photograph visually represent the story to the reader/viewer? (4 sentences total)

Franz Krieger

Group 5

This photo depicts two soldiers on the Eastern Front. These images are used to show people WWII from a german photographers perspective. This image shows an inside look at soldiers to the public. The event being depicted shows how soldiers would present themselves, and their serious but almost afraid facial expressions.

This image shows prisoners in WWII, it shows their neglected appearance and the effects of WWII on these people. Franz helped to release photos of the effects and reality of WWII. Without these images, we would have fewer sources of the depth to WWII.

[personalcoachingcenter]

The Beautiful Truths About Being a Highly Sensitive Human

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/the-beautiful-truths-about-being-a-highly-sensitive-human/

The Beautiful Truths About Being a Highly Sensitive Human

Being intense and sensitive—seeing the world through different eyes and feeling the world on a distinctive wavelength—does not lay an easy path.

You are most likely a deep thinker, an intuitive feeler, and an extraordinary observer. You are prone to existential depression and anxiety, but you also know beauty and rapture. When art or music moves you, you are flooded with waves of joy and ecstasy. As a natural empathiser, you have a gift; yet you are also overwhelmed by the constant waves of social nuances and others’ psychic energies.

You might have spent your whole life trying to fit in with the cultural “shoulds” and “musts In school, you wanted to be in the clique, but you were unable to make small talks or have shallow relationships.

At work, you want the authorities to recognise you, but your soul does not compromise on depth, authenticity and connections.

You feel hurt for being the black sheep in the family, but your success is not recognised in a conventional way.

In these following paragraphs, I want to remind you how precious your unique life path is. Rather than pretending to be who you are not, you only do yourself and the world justice by celebrating your sensitivity and intensity.

(Please click here for a full definition of what it means to be emotionally intense and sensitive)

SENSITIVITY AS A FORM OF BRAIN DIFFERENCE

Emotional sensitivity is a brain difference—an innate trait that makes one different from the normative way of functioning.

While the mass media and medical professionals are eager to use labels to diagnose people with a way of being that is different from the norm, findings in neuroscience are going in the opposite direction. More and more, the scientific community acknowledges “neurodiversity”—the biological reality that we are all wired differently. Rather than being an inconvenience to be eliminated, neurodiversity is an evolutionary advantage, something that is essential if we were to flourish as a species.

Like many brain differences, it is misunderstood. As people naturally reject what they do not understand, the emotionally sensitive ones are being pushed to the margin. Those who feel more, and seem to have a mind that operates outside of society’s norm are often outcasted. In the Victorian era, women who appeared emotional were given the humiliating label of “hysteria.” Even today, emotional people tend to be looked down upon, and sometimes criticised and shunned.

The stigma attached to sensitivity is made worse by trends in the mass media. In 2014, author Bret Easton Ellis branded Millennials as narcissistic, over-sensitive and sheltered; from there, the disparaging term “generation snowflake” went viral. The right-wing media ran with the insult. Last year, a Daily Mail article described young people as “a fragile, thin-skinned younger generation.” This notion is not only unfounded but also unjust and damaging.

The sensitive male is also misjudged and marginalised. Under the ”boys don’t cry!” macho culture, those who feel more are called “weak” or “sissies,” with little acknowledgement of their unique strengths. Many sensitive boys and men live lives of quiet suffering and have opted to numb their emotional pain of not fitting the male ideal with alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, or other addictions.

Being sensitive and intense is not an illness—in fact, it often points to intelligence, talents or creativity. However, after years of being misdiagnosed by health professionals, criticised by schools or workplace authority, and misunderstood by even those who are close to them, many sensitive people start to believe there is something wrong with them. Ironically, low self-esteem and loneliness make them more susceptible to having an actual mental disorder.

SOME OF US ARE BORN SENSITIVE

Since the 1990s, various scientific frameworks have emerged to explain our differences in sensitivity. Some of the most prominent being sensory processing sensitivity, “differential susceptibility theory,” and “biological sensitivity to context” (Lionetti et al., 2018).

From birth, we differ in our neurological makeup. Each baby has their style based on how well they react to external stimuli and how they organises sensation. Medical professionals use tools like the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) to measure such differences.

Harvard developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan was amongst the first scholars to examine sensitivity as a brain difference. In Kagan’s studies of infants, he found that a group of infants are more aroused and distressed by novel stimuli—a stranger coming into the room, a noxious smell. To these cautious infants, any new situation is a potential threat.

On closer examination, sensitive infants have different biochemical reactions when exposed to stress. Their system secrets higher levels of norepinephrine (our brain’s version of adrenaline) and stress hormones like cortisol. In other words, they have a fear system that is more active than most.

Since the regions of the brain that receive signals for potential threats are extra reactive, these children are not geared to process a wide range of sensations at a single moment. Even as adults, they are more vulnerable to stress-related disease, chronic pain and fatigue, migraine headaches, and environmental stimuli ranging from smell, sight, sound to electromagnetic influences.

In 1995, Elaine Aron published her book Highly Sensitive People, bringing the idea into the mainstream. Aron defines high sensitivity as a distinct personality trait that affects as many as 15-20 percent of the population—too many to be a disorder, but not enough to be well understood by the majority.

Here are a set of HSP traits in Aron’s original conception:

Noticing sounds, sensations and smells that others miss (e.g. clock ticking, the humming noise from a refrigerator, uncomfortable clothing)

Feeling moved on a visceral level by things like art, music and performance, or nature

“Pick up” others moods or have them affect you more than most

Being sensitive to pain or other physical sensations

A quiet environment is essential to you

Feel uneasy or overwhelmed in a busy and crowded environment

Sensitivity to caffeine

Startle/ blush easily

Dramatic impact on your mood

Having food sensitivities, allergies, asthma

THE ORCHIDS AND THE DANDELIONS

But does being born sensitive destine one to lifelong unhappiness and turmoil? To answer this question, Thomas Boyce, M.D., founded the “Orchid and Dandelion” theory.

Combining years of experience as a paediatrician, and results from empirical studies, Dr. Boyce and his team found that most children, approximately 80 percent of the population, are like dandelions—they can survive almost every environmental circumstances. The remaining 20 percent are like orchids; they are exquisitely sensitive to their environment and vulnerable under conditions of adversity. This theory explains why siblings brought up in the same family might respond differently to family stress. While orchid children are affected by even the most subtle differences in their parents’ feelings and behaviours, dandelion children are unperturbed.

But sensitivity does not equal vulnerability. Many of Dr. Boyce’s orchid children patients have grown up to become eminent adults, magnificent parents, intelligent and generous citizens of the world. As it turns out; sensitive children respond to not just the negative but also the positive. Their receptivity to the environment can also bring a reversal of fortune.

Orchid children’s receptivity applies to not just physical sensations, but also relational experiences such as warmth or indifference. In critical, undermining setting, they may devolve into despair, but in a supportive and nurturing environment, they thrive even further more than the dandelions.

The Orchid and Dandelion theory holds a provocative view of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most challenges also underlie the most remarkable qualities. Sensitivity is like a “highly leveraged evolutionary bets” that carry both high risks and potential rewards (Dobbs, 2009). The very sensitive children that suffer in a precarious childhood environment are the same children most likely to flourish and prosper. They may be more prone to upsets and physical sensitivities, but they also possess the most capacity to be unusually vital, creative, and successful.

In other words, the sensitive ones are not born “vulnerable”; they are simply more responsive to their surrounding system. With the right kind of knowledge, support and nurture—even if this means replenishing what one did not get in childhood in adulthood—they can thrive like no others.

THRIVING IN A NEW WORLD

Our world is changing. Qualities such as sensitivity, empathy, high perceptiveness—what the sensitive person excel at, are needed and celebrated.

In Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future, he pointed out that our society has arrived at a point in which systematisation, computerisation, and automation are giving way to new skills such as intuition, creativity, and empathy. For more than 100 years, the sequential, linear, and logical were praised. As we move towards a different economic era, the world’s leaders will need to be creators and empathisers. As Pink quoted: “I say, ‘Get me some poets as managers.’ Poets are our original systems thinkers. They contemplate the world in which we live and feel obligated to interpret and give expression to it in a way that makes the reader understand how that world runs. Poets, those unheralded systems thinkers, are our true digital thinkers. It is from their midst that I believe we will draw tomorrow’s new business leaders.”

It is clear that humanity is calling for a different way of being, and a redefinition of power. In today’s world, people yearn to be led by empathy, rather than force. Even in the most ego-driven corporate space, we hear people saying things like “trust your gut instinct,” “follow your intuition,” or “watch the energy in the room.” Sensitivity, emotional intensity, deep empathy—what were previously thought as weaknesses—are now much-valued qualities that make you stand out.

We are in a time where the previously highly sensitive and empathic misfits rise to become the leaders. Therefore, embracing your gift of sensitivity is not just something you do for yourself, but also those around you. If you can summon the courage to stand out as a sensitive leader, you set a solid example for all others like you. The more you can free yourself from the childlike need to trade “fitting in” for authenticity, the more you can channel your gifts and serve the world.

TRUE BELONGING

For years, you have desperately wanted to “fit in.”

But at times, you hear a tiny whispering voice that champions the truth. It asks:

What if what your inner self needs is to be allowed just to be you, even when it means not fitting in the crowd?

What if what your soul is destined to be different, like many rebels, the artists, and visionaries in history?

What if like all the honourable trailblazers and truth tellers, your seat in this world is indeed on the fringe?

Coming to terms with your authentic place in the world might mean accepting the reality that you will never “fit in” the conventional way.

This is not immediately easy.

After all, you want to belong, to be part of a tribe, to feel like a wider part of humanity.

But once you have released the old idea of what “fitting in” meant, you could make room for a new meaning of belongingness.

In true belongingness, fitting in means something different.

It means you have made a home for yourself.

It means you have committed never to reject yourself, even when the world says otherwise.

It means you have asserted your boundaries, and you honour only the opinions of those who have earned your respect.

It means you drop the task of peacemaking and align with the mission of truth-telling.

It means you stop buying membership with the cost of your true self, but instead create membership by making your mark in the world.

With the courageous acceptance of your authentic place in the world comes both beauty and terror, excitement and fear.

See if you can embrace both, but keep your eyes on the prize.

Soon, your courage will bring you what your deepest self have longed a lifetime for—a true sense of belonging.

(Original Post)

Source, N;

[aeiyyyah-blog]

“First Light” ​Arturo Luz (b. 1926) has been a painter, sculptor, and designer who was conferred the National Artist Award in 1997. Luz created masterpieces that exemplify an ideal of sublime austerity in expression and form. From the Carnival series of the late 1950s to the recent Cyclist paintings, Luz produced works that elevated Filipino aesthetic vision to new heights of sophisticated simplicity. (Ayala, 2017) From the artwork of Arturo Luz’s First Light, the painting traces an arc from the genre, color, and pictorial representation of Luz’s early works in the 1950”s to the muted colors and simplified lines and shapes of the 1960’s. According to Manila Art Scene, In 1952, Arturo Luz created a series of paintings that marked the beginning os his life as a professional artist. The paintings from this time typically depict scenes from Philippine Life. From that very first figurative phase, Luz in the 1960”s then progressed from exuberance of color and subject to a simplification into line and form. The transition of his work into having a more minimal and architectural dimension would later become the hallmark of his work. The elements found in the artwork are various elements that symbolize what a contemporary art should be. The appropriation of the artwork is an evident element because of the revival of the interesting forms of art, The lines and the forms were not used in a normal or usual way. Another element found is the space of the piece, there is this presence of space or emptiness and not too overly painted in a manner which you would see the painting in a minimalist point of view. The space of the artwork is seemingly comfortable. Next element is the lines, where by definition, it is a series of points in an art piece. It has the evidence of dynamism, loftiness and the calmness, all at the same time. It was brought together but in a harmonious visual manner. The shape and the form is very geometrical and abstract but brought together of such excellent time. Here, it is not just an art piece but it is rather one of the many highlights of the art piece because the lines somehow are the main visual art form you could see in the picture. In this artwork, it suggests the notoriously reticent and media-shy Mr. Luz has grown more enigmatic over time, while his work has become more minimal, his palette more austere, and his expression has been more direct as he aims for Da Vinci’s ideal of the simplicity as the ultimate sophistication. The paint actually completes a cycle that is alternating between the objects and the pictorial reality. The transition from picture to painting is complete at its finest. We are actually fixed with an object which speaks entirely in plastic terms, with little or no reference to the visible world, where the lines and the shapes and its colors are made to conform for their own sake, existing in just a visually created reality of its own. These serpentine lines of the painter actually represent him as an artist because most of his artworks are created using line that come in many shapes and sizes and then varied in one drawing.Hence, the symbolization present in the artwork called “First Light” is the starting point of the success of the paintor because he was still in his early teens when he first painted and given that it was in the 1950’s he was creative and loves to explore new things during that time, unlike other typical artists that would stick to tradition. Just like the lines of the man. The man was not made using soft, curvy lines but rather they are made with diagonal, vertical and horizontal lines that would result as the body of the person painting hence, it somehow symbolizes his hardwork over the past years of living as a paintor. There was a synchronization of the creativity and the lines of the artwork and its clarity of the message regarding the objective of the artist is quite evident. Overall, the contemporary art of Mr. Arturo Luz is very unique in a way that its contemporary elements of art are used in a different explorative, yet interesting manner. It is truly a masterpiece which gives satisfaction to the person seeing the artwork. The touch of an Asian looking architecture in its simplest, yet intricate form. The presence of the different kinds of materials were used for construction, hence it was a painting that is displayed through photographs which can be considered as a contemporary art nowadays, alongside with installation art. Source of Informations: Ayala Museum Website and Press Reader “Candle Vendors” Arturo Luz ​Arturo Luz is a Filipino Modernist painter, sculptor, printmaker which creates masterpiece that represents an ideal sublime authority in expression and form. From the carnival series of the late 1950s to recent Cyclist painting, Luz produced works that elevated aesthetics vision to new heights of sophisticated simplicity. By a prestigious influence over the generation of Filipino artist, Luz inspired and developed a Filipino artistic community that nurtured impeccable designs. Among of his major artworks are Candle Vendors, Bagong Taon, Cities of Past, and other artworks. ​Arturo Luz’s artwork “Candle Vendors” an oil painted artwork that contains such artistry and prestigious work of art which generally shows entitled by the artwork’s title itself, three Filipino women who makes candles and sell them on markets for a living. And painted during in the period of 1952-1954 and with a landscape size of 77 x123 centimeters or 30.3 x 48.4 inches. The artist applied the elements of art in this canvas that shows the spaces within the piece of each figure that was painted in the canvas such as the spaces of gap between the women of how accurate the place where they are positioned by the painter, the candles that are positioned at the front and the background, thus each figure was shown have exact placement by the artist to be able to show the essence of the painting; the lines that consists the artwork shows a direction which is the diagonal, straight, vertical and horizontal and each is present in the artwork, this then leads to the forming of the shape within the artwork which shows an organic and geometrical shapes that forms the piece into one art; its smooth texture indicates the artist used of oil paintings that forms this artwork; and with the color that gives the life of the piece which for this artwork mostly consist of dark colors and light colors on some figures in the piece, and with the colors that forms the artwork positively affects by the light it is expose to, and with its value, the light and dark colors blends the right way with the specific shades of the color and that forms an equal balance of both colors that are applicable to each other to form the beauty of the artwork in terms of its colors. ​ ​With this piece of artwork by Arturo Luz and his type of art which he paints the everyday living of the Filipinos of their day to day lives of reality, he depicts by his artwork the nature of common Filipino activities that he saw around Quiapo, Manila where he saw random people who sells a lot of things such as the candles, and which he also saw poverty around the area for selling cheap things for a living, thus shows him raising awareness for poverty through his artworks such as these specific artwork, the candle vendors, and the candles symbolizes as the light path of every one’s darkness. ​ ​Overall, the artwork of Arturo Luz would make a huge change of perspective within people with his artwork of “Candle Vendors” depending on what the person or the audience see and interprets with his artwork.

[b2binfographic]

Social Media Strategy Editor

Job Description The New York Times is looking for a social media editor with experience in journalism, social media strategy and co-producing projects that involve crowdsourcing, social media reporting and research and user-generated content (UGC). You will establish a vision for shaping and targeting our journalism for different platforms, and you will be responsible for understanding and developing new strategies, tools and workflows as those platforms evolve. This means you’ll be building our presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, chat apps and emerging platforms. Engaging our readers, monitoring on-site and off-platform conversations for story ideas and integrating readers’ contributions into our daily and enterprise report is essential. You will also work with reporters and editors across the newsroom in how social media and readers’ voices can inform our journalism, both pre and post publishing. Responsibilities: Leading The Times’s main presence on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram: providing coverage of breaking news and live events, conceiving and executing innovative social plans for enterprise projects and engaging readers in UGC projects Developing and refining the voice of The Times on all of our off-platform channels, exhibiting excellent news judgment and audience-sensitive framing Building creative social native content (e.g. Instagram stories) Suggesting story ideas, and partnering with desks across the newsroom to produce stories that: Anticipate readers’ prospective social and search needs sparked by a Times exclusive or a news event Respond to readers’ real-time social and search needs Benefit from crowdsourcing or UGC approach Developing testing strategies around medium (images, video) and message (headline, social share text), to inform a constantly updating set of best practices for engaging off-platform audiences (Social, Search, etc.) Partner with editors across newsdesk to workshop on-platform framing of articles that leverages off-platform performance and readers’ interest Interpreting data and signals to know what pieces are the right fit for what audiences both on and off our platforms Tracking success through engagement rates, growth statistics, reader responses and other metrics Working with journalists in the newsroom on best social media practices, including framing pieces for specific audiences Requirements: 3+ years of experience in social media or digital journalism Deep understanding of all mainstream and some emerging social channels Consistent record running Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for major media outlets Demonstrated interest in visual storytelling A passion for news and a dedication to The Times and its journalistic mission Skill at bridging specialties, including reporting, editing, product, analytics, design and user research Strong writing and editing skills, and knowledge of Times style or the ability to absorb and apply it quickly This is an excluded position. If you are an active employee at The New York Times or any affiliates, please do not apply here. Go to the Career Worklet on your Workday home page and View "Find Internal Jobs". Thank you! The New York Times Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of an individual's sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. About Us Help shape the future of The New York Times This is an important moment to work at The Times. Across the organization, we're taking advantage of the changing media landscape to pioneer a new era of journalism. With high-quality, original reporting at our core, we’re thinking more creatively about our reader relationships and how to deliver new and relevant offerings and experiences. We’re telling stories differently and playing with emerging formats like 360 video and VR. And we’re building a diverse and collaborative culture that can keep up with the rigors of the modern-day news cycle. Home to world-class talent To create journalism and supporting products that stand apart, we must recruit the finest talent in the world. Journalists, data designers, videographers, agile marketers, art directors, and many others, we’re looking for people at all stages of their careers to bring different perspectives and practices to our teams. Together, we can make our journalism more insightful, meaningful and essential to the daily lives and understanding of people around the world. Employee-driven benefits If you see a job opening here that might be a good fit for you, we encourage you to apply. We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision plans for employees and their families, health and wellness programs, a 401(k) plan, tuition reimbursement, paid vacation, paid parental leave and much more. Read the full article

[reflectingtonbear-blog]

180MC reading responses

The introduction to ‘Suspensions of perception: attention, spectacle, and modern culture’ outlines the key questions one asks about the effect that this digital age can have on our minds, and in this particular case, our ability to pay closer attention to detail. To not just see something with our eyes but to comprehend it in full and to take the time to observe it for all that it is without the help of our current technological advances. For example, now that we have autocorrect, we no longer have to pay attention to our own spellings and often find ourselves misspelling words more often than before when we can no longer turn to the help of autocorrect. Crary says he is going to focus on the idea of “reception in a state of distraction” with the intention of focusing on the time period that is roughly between 1879 and the early 1900’s and he says this is in order to “attempt to establish both, why attention became a decisively new kind of problem in the nineteenth century”…”and why it became inseparable from philosophical, psychological and aesthetic investigations” which points already to the way in which people’s attention span has reduced, and been debilitated by the newer developments in the world at the time, which certainly applies to the state of people’s minds today, with even more recent developments. During an ethnographic study that I carried out at the Coventry university library I found that technology, in this case, had a tendency interrupt work flow, and drew people’s attention away from their initial goal to work, which would actually make tasks take much longer to complete, even if they are simple assignments, and so the irony here is that, objects that have been created to make things simpler - such as work and communication - and thus propel productivity has in fact for some people, made it more difficult, and reduced the speed at which people can complete a task due to the introduction of so many options for distraction that are perhaps perceived to be more stimulating than the current task at hand. Crary goes on to say in reference to his previous discussion of the consequences of a shift into “instantaneity and a temporal nature of perception” specifically referencing “the emergence of attention as a model of how a subject maintains a coherent and practical sense of the world” which can be interpreted as though, the quicker a person can receive information, the more they begin to perceive the world to be this way; that perhaps there is a lack of patience for information and a reduction in most people’s ability to wait long enough to receive the full picture, and they will therefore leave with a condensed version of the. I found the idea behind this reading (teens sexting) difficult to determine until the interviewing of the students began as this was when the idea behind the article became clearer to me. This was due to the fact that it began by mentioning researchers who believed “that feminist goals of social and political equality have been met, making the need for feminism now obsolete” but then went on to discuss issues that suggested the opposite, and so I found it hard to understand what point was actually trying to be made. Once I understood it, I found this article to be very eye-opening as I was unaware to just how common sexting was among such young people and I feel that this is something that people need to be made aware of. It shows how important it is for young girls to be educated about feminism and their rights as human beings. They need to be shown that they do not need to take off their clothes in order to be seen, and that the attention brought on by this behaviour is inevitably negative. Some girls that were interviewed say that they have ways of avoiding sending nude images of themselves, “it appears to be a major compliment to be asked for photos, but girls also become proficient in negotiating requests.” “like, when you say no to people, like you fall out with them, so I just make excuses.” It is upsetting that a young girl feels as though she must make an excuse in order to get out of exploiting herself, and that a simple no, will in fact lead to more trouble for her. This reveals that while feminism is moving forward in a lot of ways, there are younger generations who are not being taught about it soon enough in their lives, and with the advancement of technology, young girls run the risk of doing permanent damage to their reputations. This reading helped me to further my work in that it gave me and my group the idea to show in our video essay the ways in which social media is negatively impacting people’s lives. Teens sexting is a clear example of how social media can blow up a person’s life from a young age. During the creation of our video essay we looked at a show called “the internet ruined my life” which helped us to understand the real risks of teens sexting beyond what is shown in the reading, as even adults who had been sexting had their private images posted online without their permission. I feel that this reading (feminism)has painted Twitter and Facebook as a “safe place” for people to use hashtag feminism to the advantage of their rights and the movement itself, and while it does bring a large amount of attention to the issues people face, it is also a nasty platform for people with opposing views to express themselves in a very negative way, that can sometimes severely affect those who were trying to make a difference. In my independent research I found that Suey Park, who was mentioned in the reading for being “the freelance writer and organizer behind the hashtag #NotYourAsianSidekick which encourages Asian women to express their feminism,” was on a TV show called “social media ruined my life” due to the fact that one of her feminist hashtags landed her in an interview from which she was misquoted and then turned into a target for death threats and constant intrusions to her life that permanently changed it. This link made within my group, gave us an idea as to the direction we would take our video essay, as we used footage from this show to further our argument about the dangers of social media. This reading helped me in my work as it made it easier to understand both the positives and negatives of using social media and develop my own opinion of it. It does weigh up the bigger issues of the use of social media for something as important as a feminist discussion and I personally concluded that while it is the best way to spread information with ease and in the quickest time, it is ultimately the riskiest. The reading mentions trolling and the ways in which it interferes with positive change, “The point of analysing such comments is showing how easy it is to disrupt the intentions of an online community rendering its goal of activism, worthless.” I feel that social media platforms and the people that are involved in the discussions within them, are far too sensitive and can often accidentally fall into a discussion that will later be misinterpreted. This will then lead to the spread of a negative connection with feminism in people’s minds. I very much enjoyed this reading and the whole concept of residual media, as I felt that it made the development of technology seem less scary and more exciting than previous readings have. The language that was used throughout the reading was not too complicated which made it much easier to understand and therefore more interesting to read. At times it even seemed almost informal, for example “old party pooper.” There is a concern expressed in the article, that the reinvention of older forms of media will lead to a lack of creativity “they will never read a book that has not already been written” but I believe that this is an outcome that is inevitable anyway, as there are only so many new and completely individual ideas that people can have, and the ability to reimagine old ideas, make them our own and warp them through our perception actually allows for an even broader variety of creations. For example, if only one person could write about zombies, only one adaptation of a zombie apocalypse would exist. While, yes, storylines can parallel and overlap, I just find that there is more to be studied and more ways and platforms from which to take in the information being given. I also feel that reinventing old technology in a modern image leads to a perfected idea and also gives younger generations the opportunity to connect with creations from the past. The article begins with a reference to Honore de Balzac’s colonel Charbert, which its perfectly as the idea of this story easily parallels with the concept of residual media; something that was buried and thought dead, and yet clambers to the surface again. This is not only a parallel but an example within an example, as it is the use of an old story being made relevant to the current modern issue of residual media. It also suggests to the reader that there may be a disturbing element to the discussion of residual media further into the article due to its literal connections with death and destruction.

[universeinform-blog]

Famous parenting blogger Jill Smokler is divorcing her gay husband

New Post has been published on https://universeinform.com/2017/03/11/famous-parenting-blogger-jill-smokler-is-divorcing-her-gay-husband/

Famous parenting blogger Jill Smokler is divorcing her gay husband

Just due to the fact your soulmates doesn’t always imply you’re in love.

This blogger become the case for the founder of Horrifying Mommy blog Jill Smokler and her husband Jeff when the pair introduced they’d be gay getting a divorcing after three kids, 17 years of marriage and “23 years of togetherness”. The purpose for their divorce — Jeff is homosexual. Jill took to Fb on Saturday to announce the split explaining “that is a truth which we’ve confronted collectively for many years. And, for a totally long time, the deep love we had for each other sustained us through the greater tough moments that our increasingly more diverging sexuality created.” And, even as they not “love each other as husband and wife” the couple hoped the experience “interprets into elevating empathetic, caring and open-minded children who discover ways to include their differences … And appreciate and appreciate that which makes others one-of-a-kind, too.”

And today, her husband Jeff decided to pen his own version of their story on Jill’s blog calling the heartwarming piece ‘while Love Isn’t Enough: Divorcing My Soulmate’. Jeff gets candid about his realization he changed into homosexual “4 or 5 years in the past”, admitting he “constantly knew he turned into exceptional”. “When you meet your soulmate While you’re 18 years old — best 5 years older than my very own daughter is now — and that person is a female, you actually suppose ‘thank God then, I will be homosexual’,” he wrote. After Jeff realized he turned into a gay, he knew he had two picks, which he says should’ve been.

The first became “to die” from his “intentional neglect of his health and health” or, to pop out and “desire to be surrounded by using the affection of my pals, circle of relatives, wife, and kids”. Despite believing it to be a smooth preference, Jeff chose The first alternative for years and allowed himself to “slip into dangerous behavior and depression”. The same day of writing his piece, Jeff and Jill bumped into each different at Target where they “laughed out loud and hugged”.

The previous couple, Jeff writes, have been “a million kilos lighter from the disclosure of our fact”. “Are you as happy as I’m?” Jill asked her former accomplice as they shopped for things for his or her new houses. And, he becomes. Jill genuinely loved the story, tweeting “I Simply love this publish from my homosexual husband. (What a freaking weird sentence to write.)” The couple has also obtained an amazing quantity of help on account that their respective posts which Jill said helped her to do not forget why she “fell in love with blogging first of all”.

Jill, who is also a The big apple Instances great-selling author for her parenting books, began her Scary Mommy blog in early 2008. 9 years on, the enterprise is now one of the international’s most famous parenting websites and boasts extra than three.five million followers throughout its social media channels.

Top 5 Pointers That could Make You a Successful Blogger

Running a blog is one of the first-class matters that you can do to bypass your time. It is able to easily growth your know-how and understanding on a particular situation. There are so many sorts of blogs like creative, historical past and humanities blogs that you’ll write. For this motive, there are also many tricks and Hints that may be used to get your profile raised within the Blogging enterprise or marketplace. The essential in addition to powerful Suggestions for appropriate Blogging were explained as under.

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The first actual project is choosing a Blogging platform. There are loads of alternatives which can be to be had for free like Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger and type Pad. All of these can offer you unfastened design themes and you could customize some of these to get your very very own blog began. There are also lots of tutorials available on line and you may use them in case you aren’t sure about how exactly to use them.

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in case you look at it from a Search engine optimization factor of view, It could be worth getting your blog integrated with an existing internet site in order to build the content material and also make the ships keen on your content. Seo is all about content material and which means you should concentrate on this factor as much as possible.

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At the same time as you are choosing an innovative topic for the reason of Running a blog, you may attempt to excellent a selected area of interest. Your blog ought to be about some thing extremely precise and you’ll be capable of pleasing each the readers in addition to the engines like google. also by no means attempt to be very standard and attention on a specific subject matter so that you can focus on.

4. Write approximately something that you love

While you write approximately some thing that you love, you’ll enjoy doing it and you’ll additionally be able to be accurate at it. if you aren’t able to have a positive amount of passion for it, your content will suffer. Consequently always find a subject matter which you are cozy with and only write content in relation with it.

5. offer something of price

The blogs you write should be something that the readers will value. which means you have to provide them some thing in return for spending time analyzing your weblog. Your weblog will in no way be a success in case you are not offering something of the price. 5 Pinnacle Questions Earlier than Divorcing A Passive Competitive Husband

Are You Considering Divorcing Your Passive Competitive Husband?

The choice to divorce anybody is a totally hard one, however, It could be in particular hard in case you are married to a passive Aggressive. Because one day he is appearing great to you, and seems as loving and nurturing as the day you married, after which the following day, he is making your existence hell, It can make you query your selections approximately divorcing your husband.

Today, we’ll be sharing with you the Top 5 questions you need to be asking your self.

How Do You make Your selection?

The word that those questions are troubles you need to answer order to prepare for what occurs after divorcing him:

1. How a lot Ache Do You have to suffer To Have the ability To say “Forestall, No Extra”?

Within your passive Competitive marriage, you have been giving up your personal goals to fulfill your husband’s child-like need for guide and attention. Whether out of affection or worry, you discovered to Forestall speaking about the matters which you desired, as it made him jealous and indignant.

Not only that, you have lost your dignity, via having to be a mother and a wife for your husband. You’ve needed to squash your personal thoughts, critiques and ideas to hold “the man of the house” pleased and calm – it is either your dignity or peace, and peace is what maintains an own family collectively, proper?

Except that, while your dignity is trashed, and When you cross permit together with his recreation of passive aggressiveness, he forces you to surrender your self-admire, as well. Remember the fact that he’s passive Aggressive – he won’t just take your 6ba8f6984f70c7ac4038c462a50eeca3 and self-respect, he’s going to make you provide it up willingly, which is all of the More heart-breaking.

How lots Is Sufficient? Is Today Enough? whilst Will Or not it’s?

2. Wherein Is yours?

Divorcing your husband requires a little 6ba8f6984f70c7ac4038c462a50eeca3 – You need to experience that you deserve equal treatment Before disturbing it. You may not be complete of confidence for a while (it will take the time to heal), however, you could get on the right track by using searching at how your husband has harmed your and the way divorcing your husband will help you get you again.

How do you realize which you have dwindled? You don’t accept as true with your ideas or gut feelings, you look forward to permission/affirmation from others about movements, you second bet choices approximately what’s excellent for you and choose terrible alternatives, you do not think that you can make a great life for you or your kids without someone else’s assist. All of those want to be diagnosed in yourself so you can see how deeply entrenched for your husband’s recreation you’re. You want to interrupt of the mentality that “I cannot stay with out this man as my husband.” you may, and you have to reveal him that you may.

3. How are you going to Avoid Feeling Responsible?

In a wedding In which gender roles are strict, or if you come from an own family In which you were taught to be a “proper” girl, being invited to recognition on your self and your existence purposes could make your experience Guilty. They advised you that you had been on this lifestyles to take care and serve others (particularly your husband), and specializing in making yourself satisfied can experience a horrible issue to do.

In the meantime, your husband has advised that you aren’t capable of continuing to exist without others supporting you (making you a psychic cripple). he’s going to do some thing he can to make you sense like you’re “leaving behind” a “loving” husband, a “best” circle of relatives, your youngsters, your livelihood, your dignity, or some thing else Inside attain he can throw at you.

How are you going to Keep away from his guilt experience, or that of society? a good area to start is questions 1 and a couple of. Evaluate what the guilt-trippers say to what you actually realize. Is there any possible logical motive, at all, that you ought to sense Responsible for leaving an abusive husband?

4. How will you Detach From Him Before Leaving?

Here’s a risk involved with divorcing your passive Competitive husband: your husband, understanding exactly what you’ve got been ready all those years to have (a loving, knowledge associate to share lifestyles), will now promise that all with the intention to appear. And a part of you thinks: what if I leave now and he was, in the end, going to deliver the answer to my desires? it is like anticipating a capturing big name to bypass: you have not visible one, but you are haunted via the idea that one will skip simply as you shrink back.

That is what you need to be organized for. What have to your response be? Tell your self the reality. Ask your self, why is he telling me this? What has been looking ahead to, if he is honestly capable of it? Realize that his speech is a verbal mirage that he is weaving to keep you here (without requesting Extra and or leaving, Because you will now wait patiently). He knows what you need and wants flawlessly; he has been manipulating you all this time (dangling the “satisfied marriage” carrot in the front of you), telling you that he may be the character you want.

Inform your self that it is a false promise; either he can’t or will No longer supply that form of relationship.

To detach Before divorcing your husband way looking reality inside the face and Inform yourself: “Anything he says, he turned into unable to deliver Earlier than, and he cannot supply this in the future. I ought to Not be lured by means of false guarantees; he’s doing this to break my resolve, knowing rattling properly what I’ve been wishing for and looking forward to all our married lifestyles.”

5. What will My New existence Appear like?

Imagining your new existence, Pain-free, abuse-free, is extremely crucial. Perhaps you’ll pursue that university degree you in no way acquired, or the placement at paintings that calls for you to transport to a brand new metropolis. Perhaps you are going to spend Greater time with the children or with some remote family. Some thing it is that your passive Aggressive husband has been protecting you again from, now is the time to seize it and Realize that you can eventually do it.

Your husband will try to trap you lower back with the aid of conjuring up pix of your “best marriage” and the “correct lifestyles” you’ve got together, about how he’s a “superb issuer” and a “loving partner.” You can need to rehearse a speech, or deliver playing cards, or have some thing different reminder with you that will help you recognition on what you’re absolutely attempting To mention: “You have harmed me, and that I might not let you do it anymore. I cannot stay with you.”

Your street to divorcing your passive Competitive husband can be a bumpy one, and you need a manual that you could accept as true with. Talk to our marriage teach, Dr. Nora, to get personal remarks to your scenario and in-depth relationship training on how to tell your passive Aggressive husband that you want a divorce. Homosexual Courting – How to Write A Splendid And Appealing Homosexual non-public Advert

The first step is to enroll in a Homosexual Dating singles web sites. There are two outstanding free ones if you don’t need to spend any money. When you grow to be a member of 1 or two Homosexual Dating websites it’s time to create your profile.

Firstly You need to consider you are Gay private Ad as an enterprise. The reason I say this is you’re in competition with the dozens or loads or Perhaps even lots of different Gay non-public commercials in your nearby region. Making your self Appealing in your very own profile is both essential and difficult. You want to ensure you entice the men you are interested in but on the equal time, you need to make sure you repel the ones you may not be interested in.

Such a lot of singles profiles say some thing very commonplace like ‘single Homosexual guy looking for any other Homosexual man’. Yea, with a view to working, it will get you tall dark-haired Homosexual single guys, it’s going to get you short bald single men, and the whole thing in among. With any luck, you are a little More selective than that.

Understand what you need – The primary and maximum important tip is to recognize exactly what you’re looking for. Consider there’s a paranormal Gay genie status Before you and he’s going to supply your dating desire. You have to describe to him exactly who it is you’re seeking out. The Greater specific you could get the higher. if you’re having the issue with this then consider what you certainly do No longer want. Memorable display screen name – That is quite a great deal The primary thing any other Gay unmarried at a Relationship web page will see about you is your display screen call. Make your display call a combination of 3 or so words which you suppose would great describe you in three phrases. I know that can seem very tough but do your first-class. also to make your screen call less difficult to study and to make it stand out Greater make The first letter of every of those three words capitalized. So as an example BodyBuildingHunk or HikingOutdoorGuy Profile Pics – One large mistake that many unmarried Gay guys make when uploading Snap shots to their profile is importing nude or semi-nude Pictures of themselves. Is that this clearly The primary influence you want to make? Except you’re simply seeking out a one night time hookup this gets men inquisitive about you for the wrong motives. you are No longer going to discover Mr. right with this type of photo in your profile. The fine Photographs show your face sincerely conducting a hobby which you are passionate about. in case you’re into trekking and feature a very good image of you scaling the face of the mountain. In relation to personal commercials your screen call the subsequent thing they see is your photograph. When it comes to your Courting profile of image is well worth 1,000,000 words.

[archetypenull]

Chp5 - American Women: Preferences, Feminism, Democracy

15/16 Jan:

This entire chapter is an argument against Christina Hoff Sommers' work, which is very much Nussbaum's style, though I don't really care about the quibbles one way or another. If I'd read (or even heard of the other author, I may care, and I see the worth in it for circles of academics and students "in the know". I read these essays less as arguments and more as vehicles for exhausting certain concepts, which allows me to better understand the theory; I don't take interest in the dichotomy between thinkers and their work, but the examples prove to be useful for developing logical errors and explanations, with or without the greater bodies of work. In this chapter, Nussbaum is arguing first that American women have good reasons to complain, though they should be aware of global issues, second, that Second Wave Feminism's impacts were in fact beneficial for liberal democracy, rather than detrimental, as suggested by Sommers, and, third, that women's preferences are distorted by legacies of injustice that may well affect democracy.

 Nussbaum argues that though American women may have difficulties with employment or societal pressures to look a certain way, their base standards of living and well-being are far greater than that of many women who live in nations where water is scarce, nutrition is not a priority for women at all, or where women's very being is restricted by numerous controls on their movement and communication. American women are "more free to avail themselves of life's opportunities without fear", Nussbaum suggests, largely (if not mainly) because of the work done by feminists in the 1970s (132). She dives into the gains and effects of the Second Wave by first constructing a frame through which the reader may view the mechanisms and climate of social and political structures in America from suffrage to the 1990s.

 One general rule of thumb for the basis of the arguments that follow is that there is an asymmetry of power between men and women in society. Nussbaum argues that this asymmetry was not removed with women's suffrage, due to the continual abuses of social relationships that have remained constant, affecting women's pay, their right to bodily integrity, and respect under the law. This leads to an argument for reparations, as well as examples of how the American justice system has incorporated reparations in ways covert to many who would take the laws and standards as given, especially in the early 21st century. The second general rule of thumb, that "almost all contemporary social thinkers in political thought and economics" have endorsed (directly or indirectly), is that existing preferences pertaining to issues in which gender plays a role are often distorted, and do not always form a good basis on which to build policy (133).  

 Nussbaum digs into the three arguments I presented in the beginning of this piece, beginning with statistics that show, overall, that Canada and Finland beat the US in almost every aspect of gender equality (education, health, etc.), but that the US is behind many nations large and small across the globe in respect to women's rights and equality. Wage inequity, poverty, and low political representation are sex/gender-linked and the sorest areas in the US, among world nations. I'm afraid that Trump's rise to power, however illegitimate, is the perfect illustration of the political and social inequities, now overt, in the US. The next few years under his cabinet's and the Republican majority's rule will show what American politicians and citizens care about, disagree on, and are willing to fight (each other) for. Nussbaum also highlights that women's work is seen as less valuable as men's, which I think has changed quite a bit from time of writing, as more women are being employed in roles previously held only by men (there is, of course, still a large gap in the number of women CEOs in the US, which speaks to the business climate, which is similar to the next section). This, however, is a great jump from women in poor nations who must walk miles to collect water or live without electricity or proper sanitation. Women in the US can support themselves, and are represented equally under the law (at least as far as it is written), but, Nussbaum points out, the US is a world leader in violence, and especially sexual violence, which affects women at a great disproportion to men.*

 Nussbaum's figures must be put aside as I discuss her interpretation of this issue, as reporting of sexual violence is inaccurate, to say the least, and has gained far more coverage in the years succeeding this book. In general, I think her assertion that "the United States is a violent nation, with the highest rates of violent crime for all violent crimes" is biased in several ways. First, the US has a more aggressive police institution than perhaps any other democratic nation in the world, so any figures relating to violence are biased by the police's use of force, means of policing communities unequally, and utilizing tactics that may in fact incite violence. Second, the US has "the largest prison population in the world" (https://thinkprogress.org/the-united-states-has-the-largest-prison-population-in-the-world-and-its-growing-d4a35bc9652f#.1p9rivy8p), so statistics on violence will be skewed here as well. Third, the measure by which this statement of violence is based is very important and changes the interpretation: is this per capita or by whole? Fourth, with consideration to my third point, how do nations such as Sudan or other continually violent nations compare? Does genocide count? And fifth, by what measure do we define violence? For if FGM, forcing women to obey their husbands, or imposing and enforcing inequalities against certain members of society (or all) are not counted as violence, then perhaps the definition may need addressed. Even in this last instance though, in a world where 1% of the population holds more wealth than the other 99% combined (https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/economy-99), and the US is one of the richest nations in the world, I would certainly designate it as a violent nation for its reinforcement of global inequality. Regardless, the US is violent, and especially so in terms of sexual violence perpetrated against women, by men, who often get away with it (Brock Turner, for example). This has been deemed "rape culture", and Nussbaum discusses this issue at length, describing it as both cause and result of deformations of preference rising out of a legacy of male-dominated social norms and traditions which allowed and urged men to act violently against women.

 Rape culture became embedded and silent in the minds of men, who, on a whole, were (are) often unaware that they were (are) even committing acts of violence against women. Rape culture was, and in many ways still is, an integral part of American culture, and acted both as cause and effect of the "gender chasm in perceptions of when sex was forced" (137). I don't think a dive into the support of these claims is necessary; it should be clear to most people by now that the culture of genders and their interaction in the US led to great misunderstandings between men and women concerning their relationships, and especially consent to physical and sexual activities. As a result of this, The Social Organization of Sexuality, a study by Edward Laumann et al., published in 1994, found that "22% of women [surveyed]** were forced sexually at some time after age 13", and this was almost entirely by men. Only 3% of men reported having forced a woman, illustrating the great chasm of misunderstanding of the various situations between men and women relating to sex. That means almost one in four women were forced to do something they didn't want to, but almost no man understood how coercive their actions had been (136-7). This is exactly why rape culture became a central focus for so many in the second decade of the 21st century. Nussbaum concedes that righting this imbalance will take great efforts to educate Americans and to change the norms of sexuality.

 Rape culture further belies a culture that has not respected or listened to women for a great many years. Nussbaum explains the various difficulties confronted by women when they attempted to charge a man with rape. Essentially, they either had to have other men testify for them, or prove that they had struggled diligently enough to show that they had not consented. Her piece is rich with information and anecdotes as to the situation women were put in time and time again because the law couldn't grasp the notion that no meant no, and no further action should have been necessary. Nussbaum's wonderful example of having one's wallet stolen shows that the act would be illegal whether the person from whom the wallet was stolen put up a fight or not: why should bodily integrity be any different? It took until 1992 for a judge to agree than no more force than for the act itself was necessary to illustrate that force enough was involved to constitute a violation of the law. Another judge, Judge Brown of the Appeals Court of Massachusettes,  ruled in 1985 that the "societal myths" that had prevailed until that point, pertaining to whether a woman was chaste or not and the relevance of such on the claim of rape, or that men "cannot control themselves" once aroused, had no legal relevance, announcing "a truly radical conclusion: When a woman says 'no,' it is never reasonable to believe that she means 'yes.'" These myths, however, have been reinforced by media, pornography, social situations, etc., embedding them within the psyche of Americans, creating and reinforcing distorted preferences, such as when women blame themselves for their sexual assault. Nussbaum's point is that Second Wave feminists fought against these societal myths, changing law that affects the ability of women to charge for sexual assault and harassment in a way that respects them as able human beings, as treats men as the same. This promotes a full democracy that treats men and women as rational and able to make choices, for which they must be responsible.

 This was the beginning of righting some of the imbalances in the American justice system, which has had a direct effect on how American interact on the basis of sex and gender. Though preferences are still distorted in that girls are often taught to form their behaviors to suit the tastes of men, young people and parents are beginning to understand, just like the law has been written, that men and women are equal, and must be treated as independent and able within their own rights as such. Internalization of social "norms" is still prevalent in a vast array of Americans' psyches (men, women, trans, gay, straight: everyone), impacting policy based on what may be termed "inauthentic preferences", which can be defined as the preferences exhibited within a biased and imbalanced social environment, but which would be vastly different if given full knowledge of the mechanisms of current preferences. Beyond a lack of options, as many women the world over must deal with, legacies of social power, or lack thereof, and the accompanying lack of criticism of that very social power and the reasons for it lead to continually deformed understandings of people's places in society. This is an issue with no easy fix, but how do we work with it in a political system reliant upon the votes of the people, derived from these deformed preferences: do we say democracy cannot work? First, let me divulge in one last problem.

 To tie these issues together full circle, one must realize that adaptive choice deformation, as when a person does not demand healthcare because all they have never known is that illness and injury are resolved only by prayer or ritual, leads to the fulfillment of false beliefs. For instance, Nussbaum refers to Gary Becker's argument that:

 [S]ocial prejudices of various sorts, especially 'the beliefs of employers, teachers, and other influential groups that minority members are less productive,' can be self-fulfilling, causing the members of the disadvantaged group to 'underinvest in education, training, and work skills' - and this underinvestment does subsequently make them less productive. (152)

 This internalization of second-class status perpetuates the status itself, reinforcing traditional hierarchies of race, gender, and class.

 Democracy is made up not only of citizens voting based on their preferences, but also of bodies that must ensure the liberties of those citizens, and that must include due education, as well as open critique and discussion about the issues up for vote. When so many preferences are deformed or adaptively construed, the governing body must be obligated to seek a situation in which citizens' preferences are more fully informed. In a liberal democracy, this means catering to the needs of the people, rather than a profit motive, and herein lies many of the issues in contemporary America and the pervasive resilience of deformed preferences, societal myths, and adaptations to situations of inequality and oppression. Indeed, a nation truly devoted to a liberal form of democracy would seek to ensure that its citizens have as complete knowledge as possible so as to vote consciously and in accordance with their true preferences. Were this the case, inequality would quickly cease to be an issue. The people must make their own choices, and respected for doing as much, but the choices must be informed. Consider how, if given more time and clearer pictures of the situations at hand, the US presidential race and election may have gone in late 2016.

     *This book doesn't mention trans people or any other minority, as its main focus is on cis-women. Please forgive the lack of inclusion in this respect, and many others; trans people's and people of color's plight is as urgent, if not more, than the issues discussed here.

 **The research group took painstaking measures to be sure that their research was done in a way that would reach the most diverse group possible within their means. They also structured surveys to elicit as honest answers as possible, totally avoiding the word "rape" because of its deep stigmatic meanings and seemingly unclear/inconsistent definition.

[uelfashionable-blog]

WORKING TREND MOODBOARD Blerta Emini 1532253 Melanie plank FT4101

                                        COVER SHEET What is the concept behind your project work?                                                    The concept behind our project work is to convey to everyone in our class that we are currently living in the most culturally diverse times in society and this in turn, affects the fashion business. There are pros and cons to discussing this topic as it has many different interpretations. Additionally, personal views are intercepted into this discussion from members in the group because; this group consisted of 5 people, including myself. Coming from diverse backgrounds this gave a 360 degree experience by including our personal views to back up points that were mentioned. We had primary data from ourselves that were created via discussions in the library. Furthermore, surfing the internet and accumulating secondary data from sources such as images from Pinterest or Google added an extra layer of confidence when an idea was brought forward. By being aware of our surroundings, this was a concept that has been relevant for a long time. There are fashion designers that receive major backlash for incorporating a traditional piece of clothing or hairstyle that belongs to a culture. For example, Marc Jacobs has received negative feedback from people on social media after he had his Caucasian models have their hair designed in dreadlocks. This was brought up in discussion also, because there were some members in our group that saw this as cultural appropriation and some members seeing this as cultural appreciation. Also, the university that we attend is very diverse and there are people from different backgrounds that attend and this gives a broader perspective into different cultures that are in London. This is fashion, political, environmental and cultural wise. My group wanted to have our project based on a concept that allows us to gain a ‘peripheral vision’. By understanding what my tutor has mentioned in class has given me understanding on why, in creative marketing, having an open mind and not being subjected to one view, will improve our calibre.

Why you chose the approach you did? Explain your intention and why you made the decisions you did? The creative approach we took was for productively good intentions by bringing our ideas together and forming a topic on what we wanted to base this project on. By each of us cooperating with one another on the ideas we each had, this had influenced each member’s creative input by acknowledging their opinion which is essential in group projects. For example, my initial idea was to base this project on making it affiliated with political affairs. This was something that has a lot of content as, whether we like it or not, it is something that affects fashion. Stability in the political field is needed for fashion because external factors affect fashion in the same way that it would affect any other business. Per se, the presidential election with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump had proved my point to be correct because there were celebrities endorsing Hillary Clinton by wearing a t-shirt of their face. When communicating my idea to the group, I had included Rihanna to emphasize why this is important and current to this day. Beyoncé was also brought up as she had capitalized the black lives matter movement to engage with her audience on a political level. Clarissa, Derrick and Gislene had all given their opinion via Pinterest by messaging their opinions. This had improved our communication in the aspect of making the necessary changes to our project so that we were all the same page on an idea that each of us had. For example, the figures that were included were previous ideas that I had for the project and so, myself and clarissa as well as gislene would converse on whether we should go ahead with this idea. Whenever a member of our team was not present for the discussion, we would communicate via inbox. This provided consistency by having awareness of what each member in the team thought about that idea, knowing when to continue with an dea is essential and to have different perspectives on an idea. After receiving feedback from derrick, I decided to continue searching for more references that our group could use.  However, after presenting my contribution to the class, my group received feedback on how to improve this project. Melanie said we should go back and research thoroughly. We made the decision to not go along with political affairs because, unfortunately, this was not cohesive with what our project was based on. In order to flow well and to make sense to my tutor and my class, we had to bring another topic forward to work on and make better decisions in terms of organization when going with an idea.   After careful consideration on how we could improve this, Clarissa had brought the idea of multiculturalism forward. This is an interesting topic as we could include many things that go along with that idea.                                                                                                                                                         .

Where did you source your imagery? Most of our imagery was secondary data so this was mainly sourced via Google that led us to online shops that have the imagery needed to be put on Pinterest. For reference purposes, I have included links that direct the reader straight to the source of where we acquired these images.  

Roles within the team: who did what everyone in this team had a very important role. Derrick had created a group chat so that we could all communicate on ideas presented on Pinterest. I found images from different sources to put on Pinterest and include a caption so that the rest of the team understands why the image was there and how it relates to the topic we were focusing on. Gislene communicated in the group chat and included images of her idea which was based on gender. Clarissa had included examples of images that she had spoken about in class so that we can understand what she was speaking about. All team members had contributed equally towards our goal of achieving clear understanding on what we were going to present to the class. Using Pinterest as platform to gather ideas had allowed each team member to become independent and find their images to back up their idea. Each member had come to the library to browse for images to put on the mood board. I brought the board the John Smiths so that we could stick our ideas on there to be ready for presentation. The process to developing this mood board is evident on Tumblr from figure 1 to figure 9.

[personalcoachingcenter]

The Beautiful Truths About Being a Highly Sensitive Human

New Post has been published on http://personalcoachingcenter.com/the-beautiful-truths-about-being-a-highly-sensitive-human/

The Beautiful Truths About Being a Highly Sensitive Human

Being intense and sensitive—seeing the world through different eyes and feeling the world on a distinctive wavelength—does not lay an easy path.

You are most likely a deep thinker, an intuitive feeler, and an extraordinary observer. You are prone to existential depression and anxiety, but you also know beauty and rapture. When art or music moves you, you are flooded with waves of joy and ecstasy. As a natural empathiser, you have a gift; yet you are also overwhelmed by the constant waves of social nuances and others’ psychic energies.

You might have spent your whole life trying to fit in with the cultural “shoulds” and “musts In school, you wanted to be in the clique, but you were unable to make small talks or have shallow relationships.

At work, you want the authorities to recognise you, but your soul does not compromise on depth, authenticity and connections.

You feel hurt for being the black sheep in the family, but your success is not recognised in a conventional way.

In these following paragraphs, I want to remind you how precious your unique life path is. Rather than pretending to be who you are not, you only do yourself and the world justice by celebrating your sensitivity and intensity.

(Please click here for a full definition of what it means to be emotionally intense and sensitive)

SENSITIVITY AS A FORM OF BRAIN DIFFERENCE

Emotional sensitivity is a brain difference—an innate trait that makes one different from the normative way of functioning.

While the mass media and medical professionals are eager to use labels to diagnose people with a way of being that is different from the norm, findings in neuroscience are going in the opposite direction. More and more, the scientific community acknowledges “neurodiversity”—the biological reality that we are all wired differently. Rather than being an inconvenience to be eliminated, neurodiversity is an evolutionary advantage, something that is essential if we were to flourish as a species.

Like many brain differences, it is misunderstood. As people naturally reject what they do not understand, the emotionally sensitive ones are being pushed to the margin. Those who feel more, and seem to have a mind that operates outside of society’s norm are often outcasted. In the Victorian era, women who appeared emotional were given the humiliating label of “hysteria.” Even today, emotional people tend to be looked down upon, and sometimes criticised and shunned.

The stigma attached to sensitivity is made worse by trends in the mass media. In 2014, author Bret Easton Ellis branded Millennials as narcissistic, over-sensitive and sheltered; from there, the disparaging term “generation snowflake” went viral. The right-wing media ran with the insult. Last year, a Daily Mail article described young people as “a fragile, thin-skinned younger generation.” This notion is not only unfounded but also unjust and damaging.

The sensitive male is also misjudged and marginalised. Under the ”boys don’t cry!” macho culture, those who feel more are called “weak” or “sissies,” with little acknowledgement of their unique strengths. Many sensitive boys and men live lives of quiet suffering and have opted to numb their emotional pain of not fitting the male ideal with alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, or other addictions.

Being sensitive and intense is not an illness—in fact, it often points to intelligence, talents or creativity. However, after years of being misdiagnosed by health professionals, criticised by schools or workplace authority, and misunderstood by even those who are close to them, many sensitive people start to believe there is something wrong with them. Ironically, low self-esteem and loneliness make them more susceptible to having an actual mental disorder.

SOME OF US ARE BORN SENSITIVE

Since the 1990s, various scientific frameworks have emerged to explain our differences in sensitivity. Some of the most prominent being sensory processing sensitivity, “differential susceptibility theory,” and “biological sensitivity to context” (Lionetti et al., 2018).

From birth, we differ in our neurological makeup. Each baby has their style based on how well they react to external stimuli and how they organises sensation. Medical professionals use tools like the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) to measure such differences.

Harvard developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan was amongst the first scholars to examine sensitivity as a brain difference. In Kagan’s studies of infants, he found that a group of infants are more aroused and distressed by novel stimuli—a stranger coming into the room, a noxious smell. To these cautious infants, any new situation is a potential threat.

On closer examination, sensitive infants have different biochemical reactions when exposed to stress. Their system secrets higher levels of norepinephrine (our brain’s version of adrenaline) and stress hormones like cortisol. In other words, they have a fear system that is more active than most.

Since the regions of the brain that receive signals for potential threats are extra reactive, these children are not geared to process a wide range of sensations at a single moment. Even as adults, they are more vulnerable to stress-related disease, chronic pain and fatigue, migraine headaches, and environmental stimuli ranging from smell, sight, sound to electromagnetic influences.

In 1995, Elaine Aron published her book Highly Sensitive People, bringing the idea into the mainstream. Aron defines high sensitivity as a distinct personality trait that affects as many as 15-20 percent of the population—too many to be a disorder, but not enough to be well understood by the majority.

Here are a set of HSP traits in Aron’s original conception:

Noticing sounds, sensations and smells that others miss (e.g. clock ticking, the humming noise from a refrigerator, uncomfortable clothing)

Feeling moved on a visceral level by things like art, music and performance, or nature

“Pick up” others moods or have them affect you more than most

Being sensitive to pain or other physical sensations

A quiet environment is essential to you

Feel uneasy or overwhelmed in a busy and crowded environment

Sensitivity to caffeine

Startle/ blush easily

Dramatic impact on your mood

Having food sensitivities, allergies, asthma

THE ORCHIDS AND THE DANDELIONS

But does being born sensitive destine one to lifelong unhappiness and turmoil? To answer this question, Thomas Boyce, M.D., founded the “Orchid and Dandelion” theory.

Combining years of experience as a paediatrician, and results from empirical studies, Dr. Boyce and his team found that most children, approximately 80 percent of the population, are like dandelions—they can survive almost every environmental circumstances. The remaining 20 percent are like orchids; they are exquisitely sensitive to their environment and vulnerable under conditions of adversity. This theory explains why siblings brought up in the same family might respond differently to family stress. While orchid children are affected by even the most subtle differences in their parents’ feelings and behaviours, dandelion children are unperturbed.

But sensitivity does not equal vulnerability. Many of Dr. Boyce’s orchid children patients have grown up to become eminent adults, magnificent parents, intelligent and generous citizens of the world. As it turns out; sensitive children respond to not just the negative but also the positive. Their receptivity to the environment can also bring a reversal of fortune.

Orchid children’s receptivity applies to not just physical sensations, but also relational experiences such as warmth or indifference. In critical, undermining setting, they may devolve into despair, but in a supportive and nurturing environment, they thrive even further more than the dandelions.

The Orchid and Dandelion theory holds a provocative view of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most challenges also underlie the most remarkable qualities. Sensitivity is like a “highly leveraged evolutionary bets” that carry both high risks and potential rewards (Dobbs, 2009). The very sensitive children that suffer in a precarious childhood environment are the same children most likely to flourish and prosper. They may be more prone to upsets and physical sensitivities, but they also possess the most capacity to be unusually vital, creative, and successful.

In other words, the sensitive ones are not born “vulnerable”; they are simply more responsive to their surrounding system. With the right kind of knowledge, support and nurture—even if this means replenishing what one did not get in childhood in adulthood—they can thrive like no others.

THRIVING IN A NEW WORLD

Our world is changing. Qualities such as sensitivity, empathy, high perceptiveness—what the sensitive person excel at, are needed and celebrated.

In Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future, he pointed out that our society has arrived at a point in which systematisation, computerisation, and automation are giving way to new skills such as intuition, creativity, and empathy. For more than 100 years, the sequential, linear, and logical were praised. As we move towards a different economic era, the world’s leaders will need to be creators and empathisers. As Pink quoted: “I say, ‘Get me some poets as managers.’ Poets are our original systems thinkers. They contemplate the world in which we live and feel obligated to interpret and give expression to it in a way that makes the reader understand how that world runs. Poets, those unheralded systems thinkers, are our true digital thinkers. It is from their midst that I believe we will draw tomorrow’s new business leaders.”

It is clear that humanity is calling for a different way of being, and a redefinition of power. In today’s world, people yearn to be led by empathy, rather than force. Even in the most ego-driven corporate space, we hear people saying things like “trust your gut instinct,” “follow your intuition,” or “watch the energy in the room.” Sensitivity, emotional intensity, deep empathy—what were previously thought as weaknesses—are now much-valued qualities that make you stand out.

We are in a time where the previously highly sensitive and empathic misfits rise to become the leaders. Therefore, embracing your gift of sensitivity is not just something you do for yourself, but also those around you. If you can summon the courage to stand out as a sensitive leader, you set a solid example for all others like you. The more you can free yourself from the childlike need to trade “fitting in” for authenticity, the more you can channel your gifts and serve the world.

TRUE BELONGING

For years, you have desperately wanted to “fit in.”

But at times, you hear a tiny whispering voice that champions the truth. It asks:

What if what your inner self needs is to be allowed just to be you, even when it means not fitting in the crowd?

What if what your soul is destined to be different, like many rebels, the artists, and visionaries in history?

What if like all the honourable trailblazers and truth tellers, your seat in this world is indeed on the fringe?

Coming to terms with your authentic place in the world might mean accepting the reality that you will never “fit in” the conventional way.

This is not immediately easy.

After all, you want to belong, to be part of a tribe, to feel like a wider part of humanity.

But once you have released the old idea of what “fitting in” meant, you could make room for a new meaning of belongingness.

In true belongingness, fitting in means something different.

It means you have made a home for yourself.

It means you have committed never to reject yourself, even when the world says otherwise.

It means you have asserted your boundaries, and you honour only the opinions of those who have earned your respect.

It means you drop the task of peacemaking and align with the mission of truth-telling.

It means you stop buying membership with the cost of your true self, but instead create membership by making your mark in the world.

With the courageous acceptance of your authentic place in the world comes both beauty and terror, excitement and fear.

See if you can embrace both, but keep your eyes on the prize.

Soon, your courage will bring you what your deepest self have longed a lifetime for—a true sense of belonging.

(Original Post)

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