#but we do have our own smaller cultures that have formed outside the mainstream because of geographic isolation and bc poverty

[yardsards]

i think one of the most evil aspects of fundamentalist evangelical christianity is how it (and the general culture of those who follow it) encourages parents to treat children

first off, it treats having children as something EVERYONE should do, regardless of if they actually want and are capable of raising said children. in more extreme cases you get shit like the quiverfull movement, wherein couples are encouraged to have as many children as physically possible

and then, those children are referred to like they're their parents possessions, like they are just objects their parents were "gifted" with by god. they're not treated like their own human beings.

AND a core tenet of their religion is that humans are born inherently sinful. they think newborns, who can't even fully control their bodily functions yet, are automatically full of sin. an infant's crying for its basic needs to be met is seen as a sign of their inherent selfishness

a parents' main goal is supposed to be to "purify" that child's soul by any means necessary, the child's actual wellbeing is secondary to "saving their soul"

and, of course, free thought is discouraged in favour of obedience. they believe in a hierarchy: child < wife < husband < god. if you are to disobey the one above you, then you are considered to be disobeying god himself- even if the thing your parent or husband is commanding you not to do is not a sin in of itself. "honor thy father and thy mother"

and again, parents are taught that the best trait for a child to have is *obedience*. obedient to their parents and obedient to the church and scripture

parents are taught to force that obedience by corporal punishment. physical abuse (and yes. "spanking" is abuse. if you disagree then, well, i'm sorry that someone convinced you that raising a hand against someone so much smaller and weaker than you is anything short of abusive) is ENCOURAGED

in fact, if you DON'T hit your kids, you are seen as A BAD PARENT, who is failing to properly "train" their child, and who is dooming their child to a life of wickedness, sin, and suffering ("he who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." or, put more simply, "spare the rod spoil the child")

parents are told to ignore their own despair and revulsion towards the idea of harming their child, and to hit them anyway. hit the kid and ignore the voice in your head that says hitting kids is wrong. remind yourself that this is for the child's own good. remind yourself that this is god's will.

you're also supposed to remind the child that you are hurting them for their own good, because god commands it. teach them that people hurting them is a good thing.

and many suggest that after you beat them, give your child comfort (comfort from the distress caused by being beaten by you, who is supposed to protect them from harm) and to give them affection (to drive home the point that hurting them is how you show love). which, if you know about the cycle of abusive relationships (tension, violent incident, reconciliation, calm) then you can see how this is pretty much a mirror image of that

it's fucking evil

look up the book "to train up a child" if you want to see this taken to the extreme. even many fundamentalists thing the methodology is too extreme, but they generally agree with the ideology/principles behind it

[rapeculturerealities]

Jalaiah Harmon is coming up in a dance world completely reshaped by the internet.

She trains in all the traditional ways, taking classes in hip-hop, ballet, lyrical, jazz, tumbling and tap after school at a dance studio near her home in the Atlanta suburbs. She is also building a career online, studying viral dances, collaborating with peers and posting original choreography.

Recently, a sequence of hers turned into one of the most viral dances online: the Renegade.

There’s basically nothing bigger right now. Teenagers are doing the dance in the halls of high schools, at pep rallies and across the internet. Lizzo, Kourtney Kardashian, David Dobrik and members of the K-pop band Stray Kids have all performed it. Charli D’Amelio, TikTok’s biggest homegrown star, with nearly 26 million followers on the platform, has been affectionately deemed the dance’s “C.E.O.” for popularizing it.

But the one person who hasn’t been able to capitalize on the attention is Jalaiah, the Renegade’s 14-year-old creator.

“I was happy when I saw my dance all over,” she said. “But I wanted credit for it.”

TikTok, one of the biggest video apps in the world, has become synonymous with dance culture. Yet many of its most popular dances, including the Renegade, Holy Moly Donut Shop, the Mmmxneil and Cookie Shop have come from young black creators on myriad smaller apps.

Most of these dancers identify as Dubsmashers. This means, in essence, that they use the Dubsmash app and other short-form social video apps, like Funimate, ‎Likee and Triller, to document choreography to songs they love. They then post (or cross-post) the videos to Instagram, where they can reach a wider audience. If it’s popular there, it’s only a matter of time before the dance is co-opted by the TikTok masses.

“TikTok is like a mainstream Dubsmash,” said Kayla Nicole Jones, 18, a YouTube star and music artist. “They take from Dubsmash and they run off with the sauce.”

Polow da Don, a producer, songwriter and rapper who has worked with Usher and Missy Elliott, said: “Dubsmash catches things at the roots when they’re culturally relevant. TikTok is the suburban kids that take things on when it’s already the style and bring it to their community.”

Though Jalaiah is very much a suburban kid herself — she lives in a picturesque home on a quiet street outside of Atlanta — she is part of the young, cutting-edge dance community online that more mainstream influencers co-opt.

The Renegade dance followed this exact path. On Sept. 25, 2019, Jalaiah came home from school and asked a friend she had met through Instagram, Kaliyah Davis, 12, if she wanted to create a post together. Jalaiah listened to the beats in the song “Lottery” by the Atlanta rapper K-Camp and then choreographed a difficult sequence to its chorus, incorporating other viral moves like the wave and the whoa.

She filmed herself and posted it, first to Funimate (where she has more than 1,700 followers) and then to her more than 20,000 followers on Instagram (with a side-by-side shot of Kaliyah and her performing it together).

“I posted on Instagram and it got about 13,000 views, and people started doing it over and over again,” Jalaiah said. In October, a user named @global.jones brought it to TikTok, changing up some of the moves at the end, and the dance spread like wildfire. Before long, Charli D’Amelio had posted a video of herself doing it, as did many other TikTok influencers. None gave Jalaiah credit.

After long days in the ninth grade and between dance classes, Jalaiah tried to get the word out. She hopped in the comments of several videos, asking influencers to tag her. For the most part she was ridiculed or ignored.

She even set up her own TikTok account and created a video of herself in front of a green screen, Googling the question “who created the Renegade dance?” in an attempt to set the record straight. “I was upset,” she said. “It wasn’t fair.”

To be robbed of credit on TikTok is to be robbed of real opportunities. In 2020, virality means income: Creators of popular dances, like the Backpack Kid or Shiggy, often amass large online followings and become influencers themselves. That, in turn, opens the door to brand deals, media opportunities and, most important for Jalaiah, introductions to those in the professional dance and choreography community.

Obtaining credit isn’t easy, though. As the writer Rebecca Jennings noted in Vox in an article about the online dance world’s thorny ethics: “Dances are virtually impossible to legally claim as one’s own.”

But credit and attention are valuable even without legal ownership. “I think I could have gotten money for it, promos for it, I could have gotten famous off it, get noticed,” Jalaiah said. “I don’t think any of that stuff has happened for me because no one knows I made the dance.”

Cross-platform sharing — of dances, of memes, of information — is how things are made on the internet. Popular tweets go viral on Instagram, videos made on Instagram make their way onto YouTube. But in recent years, several large Instagram meme accounts have faced backlash for sharing jokes that went viral without crediting the creator.

TikTok was introduced in the United States only a year and a half ago. Norms, particularly around credit, are still being established. But for Dubsmashers and those in the Instagram dance community, it’s common courtesy to tag the handles of dance creators and musicians, and use hashtags to track the evolution of a dance.

It has set up a culture clash between the two influencer communities. “On TikTok they don’t give people credit,” said Raemoni Johnson, a 15-year-old Dubsmasher. “They just do the video and they don’t tag us.” (This acrimony is exacerbated by the fact that TikTok does not make it easy to find the creator of a dance.)

On Jan. 17, tensions boiled over after Barrie Segal, the head of content at Dubsmash, posted a series of videos asking Charli D’Amelio to give a dance credit to D1 Nayah, a popular Dubsmash dancer with more than one million followers on Instagram, for her Donut Shop dance. TikTok Room, a gossip account on Instagram, picked up the controversy, and spurred a sea of comments.

“Why is it so hard to give black creators their credit,” said one Instagram commenter, referring to the mostly white TikTokers who have taken dances from Dubsmashers and posted them without credit. “Instead of using dubsmash, use tiktok and then ppl would credit you maybe,” a TikToker fan said.

“I’m not an argumentative person on social media — I don’t want beef or anything like that,” said Jhacari Blunt, an 18-year-old Dubsmasher who has had some of his dances co-opted by TikTokers. “But it’s like, we all know where that dance came from.”

At this point, if a TikToker doesn’t initially know who did a dance, commenters will usually tag the original creator’s handle. Charli D’Amelio and other stars have started giving dance credits and tagging creators in their captions.

And the creators who are flooding into TikTok from Instagram and Dubsmash are leading the way by example. “We have 1.7 million followers and we always give credit whether the person has zero followers or not,” said Yoni Wicker, 14, one half of the TheWickerTwinz. “We know how important it is. That person who made that dance, they might be a fan of ours. Us tagging them makes their day.”

Onward and Upward

Stefanie Harmon, Jalaiah’s mother, learned the true extent of Jalaiah’s online success only recently. “She told me, ‘Mommy, I made a dance and it went viral,’” Ms. Harmon said.

“She wasn’t kicking and screaming about the fact that she wasn’t getting credit,” she added, “but I could tell it had affected her. I said, ‘Why do you care whether you’re not getting credit? Just make another one.’”

Jalaiah continues to post a steady stream of dance videos to Funimate, Dubsmash, and Instagram. She said she doesn’t harbor any hard feelings against Charli D’Amelio for popularizing the Renegade without naming her. Instead, she hopes she can collaborate with her one day.

Charli D’Amelio, through a publicist, said that she was “so glad to know” who created the dance. “I know it’s so associated with me,” she said, “but I’m so happy to give Jalaiah credit and I’d love to collaborate with her.”

“We’re all inspired by other people,” Jalaiah said. “We make up a dance and it grows.”

Off the internet, she continues to compete in dance competitions with her studio and hopes to one day take classes at Dance 411, a prestigious dance school in Atlanta. Ultimately, it’s the art form that she loves. “It makes me happy to dance,” she said.

[jollyzinetacohorse]

Final major project blog

Final major project: blog

Day 1: For my final major project, I am considering exploring the concept of religious belief and the preservation of artefacts from history in museums and galleries. What I find interesting about these subject areas is the idea of blind belief in someone or something that has no true evidence behind it. Also, the idea of creating a story or meaning behind a group of objects or images would be very interesting, exploring the meta narrative construct and the values held by postmodernists.

Day 2: Looking into how religion has operated in the past using textbooks on Tudor history in the mid 1540s-1560s, and sociology books exploring how and what role religion plays in early to late modern society has been very impactful on my concept and the direction my artistic research is taking. Recently, I have been thinking about how future generations may look back on us and what we have preserved for them to look at. It might be interesting to create an archetype that lives 1000 years in the future and is currently looking through the archives of our actions.  I have been looking at Daniel Arshams work[1], using film to depict a future civilisation before and after earth goes through a major ecological crisis.

I think it’s vital I try to weave the importance of the environment into my final major project. Not only is it a pressing issue of my generation but also future ones too, also looking at the bigger picture of how my work has progressed and starting to develop a common theme of addressing the environmental crisis in some way, I think that’s important to keep that fuelled and able to develop.

Day 3: Starting to look into meaning behind material and presentation in an art gallery, and how smaller things that I may have previously not attached much importance to, might play a larger part in the way my work is looked at and processed by people. Having attended a talk on Materials and meaning, this had opened my eyes to new ways of displaying a message or my meaning behind a piece through lighting, position in relation to other works, and the history behind the material I am using.

Re-visiting the tree roots[2] I had used previously in a project, its interesting thinking about the age of the roots and how I grew up with them moving around underneath my garden.

Visiting the British museum[3] was useful. I was interested in the display cabinets as a way of presenting work in. I was also looking at how the artefacts are preserved and protected behind glass and security alarms, yet there’s no true way we can be sure that these weren’t faked. In a core skill project, I had constructed a large confessionary for a performance piece[4]. Currently thinking about converting it into a large display case for a museum.

Day 4: studying the space within the confessionary box, I am considering looking into what might be considered as historical in our age. Looking at cultural icons of today, and people who are idolised for their success like Kanye West, Elon Musk, Barak Obama, and Operah Winfrey.

I have started to look at what artefacts might be considered as historical in our modern world. Smart phones, Cars, and portable items of technology.

Considering the idea of brand loyalty, materialism and consumption in the economy. Looking at examples of companies who have generated a large amount of profit in a short amount of time. Generating its own separate economy where people invest in product only to resell it because of its rarity and uniqueness.  

Day 5: looking back at the British museum visit, I am thinking about experimenting on a smaller scale than I usually do in my projects. Started to look at Max Hooper’s work using containers and filling them with various pieces of greenery and lighting to combine the features of modern-day architecture with biological forms. To me what’s important here is the presentation and the forms the materials take, although he was largely influenced by his background in biology, he remains a key influence in my ideas due to the consideration of his materials and there meaning.

Day 6: I have started to look at how people place value on objects and how that may affect their belief in its background.

Interested in the gold leafing technique. Using a material that is considered extremely valuable and applying this onto things that are tossed aside in daily life. Does the value increase due to its aesthetics, or its actual material value?

Day 7: Looking at how I can weave these ideas of value and materialism into religious belief and spiritualty.

I have been re-reading some sociology textbook entries, looking at what religion meant in traditional society to what it now means. Looking at the varying levels of spirituality in Europe and America, it’s interesting to see how many new age religions have grown in America which heavily rely on material consumption by selling various consumables and artefacts. Comparing this to European society where a monopoly was in power, new age belief systems haven’t been as popular. Is religious commodification the future? Will we still believe in spirits and outer world powers 1000 years in the future?

Day 8: Taking a broader look at what religion has meant to people by looking back onto the mid Tudor crisis, where religion was a key factor of insecurity of the monarchy and control. Looking at the period where Protestantism separated itself from mainstream Catholicism, this had created huge amounts of instability.

Comparing this to what religion is now, it’s interesting how the power of religion has declined over time, yet still remains to have a small grip in modern society.

Day 9: Justine Smith[5] is a contemporary artist who creates work regarding the role of money in our society. She has taken part in an on-going exhibition about the history of the Bank of England, celebrating its 325th anniversary[6]. The exhibition consists of 325 objects from the years the Bank of England has existed. I am going to visit to gain a greater understanding of what type of objects I should be looking at to include in my project. Justine Smith used £50 notes to create a collection of delicate flowers. A very interesting way to look at money as a material to create, it’s interesting to think that if this work is to ever to be valued, would it consider how much money is physically in it, or is that part disregarded and the pieces concept is valued.

Day 10: Started experimenting with gilding on different materials, plastic, leather, metal. Very effective way of faking gold onto any surface, I will definitely continue to experiment and play with covering objects with gold, perhaps start to think about photography and if there’s any way of adding value through that medium.

Re visiting the work, I did on the core skills one with photography, where we looked at advertising, the media, and consumption.

One of our tasks was to take a mundane object and make it look a certain way, using different contexts and props to do so.

Perhaps another avenue to take on this project is to experiment with photography and look at photographers who generate photos for advertisement reasons.

Day 11: started to look into photographers and artists who look at religion in their work. David La Chapelle’s[7][8]work was very interesting as it placed a traditional religious figure into modern day setting. In one of the photos in his collection, Jesus stands in a holy light, dressed in robes, in a run-down room with grubby walls. La Chapelle’s uses iconography in a lot of his photos and reframes famous paintings from the bible. This idea of reframing or adjusting such a known part of a belief system is quite interesting.

With regards to my ideas for my project, this work has furthered my research into religion and questioning its legitimacy, and perhaps creating my own belief system based on a set of artefacts.

Weaving my ideas regarding history and preservation would be quite interesting. What I will attempt to do now is find the proper materials and techniques to embody my thoughts and findings in my final piece.

Day 12: Starting to apply this project to the wider narrative of my work. Looking back at my works, I usually attempt to address our relationship with nature in my work. Using a variety of materials and techniques, I try to juxtapose man-made objects or processes with natural forms and occurrences.

With this project, I want to diversify my skill set. Working in sculpture and installations for a lot of my projects, I think its time for me to still incorporate those elements in my work, but perhaps look into digital work or finer techniques, like gilding.

I do see some similarities to older works appearing in this project as well. For example, the tree roots I used in my third project are going to be reduced to a smaller scale and re used potentially as artefacts of the past. I do see more colourful elements of nature appearing in this project as well, like various types of natural growth e.g. moss, grass and foliage.

However, I do see some differences in this project to others; I expect myself to escape my comfort zone and work on smaller elements as well, which will rely a lot more on the finer details of the piece rather than its scale and mass. This projects also going to be a lot more conceptually driven then passed ones as well, drawing on elements from history, sociology, modern and contemporary art and day to day life.

Overall, I would say that in this project, I want to be able to work outside my comfort zone as efficiently as I do inside it, with regards to conceptuality and realising the meanings behind the finer details of the processes and techniques I work with.

[1] Collection one: see next post for reference

[2] Collection two: see next post for reference

[3] Collection three: see next post for reference

[4] Collection four: see next post for reference

[5]

https://www.justinesmith.net

[6]

[7]

[8] Collection five: See next post for reference

[timeisacephalopod]

You know, I see a lot of discourse on why femslash is less popular overall and I think some of the reasons that are brought up (misogyny, less female characters, female characters not being just ‘boring’ like male characters, but outright misogynistic tropes, which makes them far harder to build than bland male characters on account of needing to completely remake them rather than just imagine more for them) are valid. I’ve often wondered why I gravitate towards almost exclusively m/m in writing and reading fanfic and considered misogyny, which is the most cited reason for the phenomenon. 

Here’s the thing though- if its original writing my leads are almost always women or female coded, and if they’re not there’s a strict split in genders (unless I’m writing something that has nonbinary characters). When I read original fiction I almost never read stories about men written by men- my entire library is female authors writing female characters. Obviously misogyny and not enjoying lady characters isn’t my problem, so what’s the deal? My proposed reason, or rather a partial reason on account of the reasons for why femslash is less popular depends on individuals and the fandom at large (ie, fandoms with more women characters have more femslash). But I think a lot of it is that there’s not much of a model for female sexuality outside of men. Culturally speaking, we don’t talk about women’s sexuality and when we do its almost never within the context of just women- ie the male gaze. Shit, even lesbian porn is meant for men. We know this, so it doesn’t entirely seem surprising that there’s less femslash because of it.

One might mention that there’s not a huge model for gay men either, but men’s sexuality isn’t exactly something we shy away from. We know how men work, its easy to imagine how they might look together and when all else fails we can stick them into a heteronormative framework (that top/bottom discourse that often falls into thinly veiled misogyny that relegates the smaller therefore more ‘feminine’ one to the ‘bottom’ and therefore submissive role. To be clear penetration is not a form of power or dominance, its just sex. Hop off it). Lesbians face this too, like the weird assumption that femmes only date butches, but its also really difficult to shove someone into heteronormative assumptions when penetration, the biggest part of heteronormative assumptions in sex, is often synthetic. 

All our models for sex and sexuality treat penetration as the ultimate form of sex, and lesbians don’t fit neatly into that narrative. That’s where you get wild assumptions like lesbians using realistic dildos means they’re secretly attracted to men- we as a culture have a very hard time with accepting that women have a sexuality that’s completely independent of men whether or not men are involved. (And to be clear it doesn’t matter how realistic that dildo is, its not a man and never will be. Lesbians are lesbians regardless of what fucking toys they use jfc). I think this plays a large role in how and why fanfiction looks the way it does, just the simple difficulty people have imagining women’s sexuality with each other. Which is a bit upsetting considering most fanfic writers are women, but culturally we don’t give women their own space to express their sexuality either. And if they try we often punish them for it (ie straight women being sluts, lesbians being into men actually, they just haven’t found the right one yet, etc). Then there’s the way women’s love is often written off or ignored, ie. the Gal Pal garbage we see all the time. Women don’t often get the luxury of existing sexually outside of men, and thus we don’t have a lot of models on how to depict women loving women because their romance is written off as friendship, and their sex is written off as secretly for men or experimental.

Point is, women don’t get a place to express their sexuality independent of men pretty much ever, even if they’re lesbians just existing like that. We often do a lot of work to reframe female sexuality as for men, actually, including in instances where lesbian women are having sex with each other for each other. To me, its not entirely surprising that some of that cultural fallout might have landed in fandom spaces too, especially where so many women in canon works are clearly male fantasies (yes, this is a Joss Whedon callout). Once again it results in fans separating out women from male fantasy, which makes them a lot more work than male characters. Which, more than likely, is why you see more femslash in works with more women- there’s a good chance women were involved with the production of those works and suddenly a lot of the work around dealing with female characters disappears. The dynamics come easy and fast because they’re abundant and well written, plus they come with the added benefit of not having to pull a bunch of misogyny or homophobia (lesbophobia specifically) out of the fabric of their creation.

I’ve never seen anyone mention this, and technically it falls into the misogyny explanation, but its a real specific brand of it that’s highly lesbian specific. I think there’s a reasonable chance that this has something to do with less femslash, especially in canons where there are less lady characters or where they’re already flimsy male fantasies. Recreating that into something that doesn’t read like bad mainstream lesbian porn is a lot more work than well written male characters romancing each other, or even taking a couple bland male characters and building them up some more to make them romance each other. But women are almost never just bland, they’re sexy lamps, and that makes giving them sexualities independent of the misogyny they were created into a pain in the ass.

[floraone]

Hi, I ADORE your smut! I just binged through all of it this long weekend! I really think it stands out in the way you stress importance on consent in particular! Usually I'm actually more into dub-con (I don't know why, but I just find it really sexy? probably not good??) but YOU manage to write consent extremely sexily? I'm sorry if this sounds totally weird, but I wanted to say that. And I also wanted to ask you why consent plays such a big role in your writing? I find it really striking!

Hello my dear anon!!! Thank you so much for this ask AND for reading my smut, and I am SO happy that you enjoy it!

Now, warning ahead. You asked why consent is important to me, and even told me I managed to show you some sexy in it, even though you usually don’t go for it, which is SO FRIGGING GREAT TO ME, but so my answer will be both personal, and science-y, and LENGTHY, so… at your own risk, lol? You asked a psychologist sex researcher this question. And so this is the answer you are getting.

So, to answer your question, let me start a little broader:

Sexual desires are pretty damn diverse. And what you desire can be immensely specific. And that’s a good thing – just like you wouldn’t want everyone to be into wearing the same sparkly hoodie and nothing else but that, you wouldn’t want them to only desire gals with red nail polish. So, here, as with anything else, diversity is something that makes us richer.

Among the diversity in sexual desires are factors we can distinguish, though. Where we can group them specifically. Gender and bodytype are among those. Many people desire one specific gender in the gender spectrum, some don’t, you know this one. But sexual desires and orientations really don’t stop at one gender. Just because you’re into guys doesn’t mean you’re into every man that ever walked this earth. Your desires are more specific than that. So, there are other factors than just gender. One example that I already named is bodytype. And it is also a factor on which I can illustrate the following very well: Variance and diversity is good. But bodytype preference specifically shows us that we are not as diverse as we should be in this regard. If this were a normal distribution, we should have way more variance in what bodytypes people desire. And in fact, statistically seen, we do see that desired bodytypes vary slightly more between both hetero- and homosexual women than they do in men; but in no gender they still vary as much as they “should”. One possible and plausable explanation for this (tho not exclusive! Looking at you, evolutional psychology) is: We are influenced in our preference. By media, by zeitgeist, by the judgemental comments of those around you, by mere exposure even (i.e.: what you’re used to seeing more often!). Heterosexual cis-men might so overwhelmlingly prefer smaller, slender, tight, overtly youthful bodytypes in part  because so many accumulating influences have taught them to. And, because once preference is formed (during and around puberty) it’s highly fucking stable and can not be nudged (see those harmful streams of psychology and pseudo-psychology that have tried to “convert” homosexuality in the much-too-recent past!), these influences are a very powerful and lasting influencial thing! Because we don’t CHOOSE what we desire. It forms without our will, and stays like that (though obviously you can discover sides to it later on that you never even knew were there! Especially because in most cases, we are not exclusive in our desires, and there are more sides to it we have yet to discover!)

So. Anyway.All this I said to make the following point:

Another factor (just like bodytype or gender) in which we statistically distinguish sexual desires in the scientific literature about it, is if people sexually desire consenting sex vs. non-consenting sex. As we saw with bodytypes, what we see and what we’re used to seeing has an effect on what we end up desiring once puberty has finished forming our from-then-on stable desires. Now, please remember we tend to live in what we commonly name a “rape culture” almost everywhere around the world, some places more overwhelmingly “heavy” on it than others. And we do tend to see the correlation that in countries where pornographic material contains exponentially more depictions of rape and non-consenting sex and coercion, where the overcoming of a “no” and the exploitation of helpless sexual partners gets romanticized a lot (looking at you, Japanese porn), more people desire non-consensual sex over consentual sex than in countries where more explicitly non-consentual content is banned. And while way more motivation is needed to commit a sex crime than just sexual arousal towards an individually desired stimulus, it is certainly a risk factor (one that goes both ways, mind you: if you’re into the idea of non-consexual sex, for whatever reason, you’re both more likely to become a perpetrator OR a victim!)

So, what I’m saying here very lenghtily (sorry!): With my fics I write sexual media. From my own experience I can very much attest to the fact that pubescent kids read smutty fanfiction. I did back then. It was my first introduction into sexual media as a kid. And lots of sexual media, especially mainstream pornography but not exclusively, contains non-consenting sex which seems to be one factor among many that has the power to influence kids in their puberty to develop sexual desires for those depicted stimuli.

This is of course not to say that it’s bad to be into a little “dub-con”, as you say. I myself enjoy consentual powerplay A LOT. You know, depictions of sex where one of the partners gets restrained by the wrists, or frantic sex that can turn a little rough (even when, for me, it’s important that this is ok by both partners very much explicitly!), or quickies without much foreplay and a lot of frenzy that are incredibly arousing to me if the emotions are all laid out for me to read! But I also know I had no choice in desiring this, this is the result of the cocktail of influences both internal and external that I was exposed to until my sexuality fully formed. And I can’t tell you if depictions of dominance and powerplays however consensual might not absolutely turn me off if I’d not grown up in an environment that romanticizes this as I grew up! I might have learned this, in part, through sexual media that I consumed during the onset of my puberty.

And this is one of the many reasons why depictions of consent in the sexual media that I put out is so important to me. I play a teeny tiny part in this grand picture. My fics might be what two, three, ten kids during their puberty consume. And I feel a responsibility towards these two, three, maybe 10 kids that read my content, to put out something where I have the power to not contribute to this rape culture, and instead depict a sexuality that can be communicative, consensual, mostly realistic and still arousing. At least I strive towards that goal, and find some meaning in it!

ESPECIALLY because of my field of work in sexual aggression research, AND because in mainstream media, outside of porn, sex either gets censored completely, or it gets only depicted if it’s problematic! We tend to see a lot of rape in media. In books, in shows, in films. It always tells a narrative. But we rarely get shown explicit, healthy, empowered sexual content where both partners are into exploring every last kink they share!

So yes, there are many people who find a little dub-con, or even non-con, very stimulating. And there is nothing at all wrong with that! (You know, as long as you don’t harm anyone, this goes without saying!) Nobody chooses what floats their boat and it should be completely judgement-free as long as no one is harmed by it. And some people suffer a lot by what they like, too, even if they had no hand in deciting what got them going, which is a whole different topic in and on itself.

It doesn’t mean people aren’t valid in their desires whatever way they are formed sexually.

But I choose to contribute in this teensy-tiny way that I can, that someone who gets exposed to sexual media by me first, might find some kink in consent and communicating their needs to each other. I believe the world would be a safer place if more people were to get turned on by consent. So that is one reason why I always address it, and try to work it into even the most problematic of tropes, because I believe it can be done and I believe it can be done in very arousing ways!

(And yeah, sorry for the length… I was very happy about getting this ask?)

[rawliverandcigarettes]

Thoughts on Fanfiction

Hey.

Today I have thoughts. Not that I didn’t have thoughts on this for a very long time, but for some complex, private-ish reasons it really culminated today into near anger, and I want to put it out here.

I’ve put it under a cut because maybe people don’t want to read me being moody about fanfiction. Sometimes, the day just isn’t right for salt, and I get that.

TLDR: I feel like we are solely enabling fanfiction authors to write stuff for them that immediately feels good, and not enabling each other enough to also have the nerve of writing stuff of consequence, that matters, that takes advantage of this political medium with intent, and that jokingly calling each other trash all the time to cope with external disdain of transformative works is not pushing us to craft stories of greater impact.

So the thing is. Fanfiction is not legal. We can turn it on its head, slap the « transformative works » on it (zero shade, I love this term, but this is still a way to make fanfiction more acceptable to the current system), it remains illegal on a fundamental level based on how it disagrees with the way our northern culture decided the belonging of ideas is a concept that exists, that there is a state of purity of thought that then can be profited from and needs to be protected from external devaluation. Fanfiction is by nature very anticapitalist – it disagrees with these values by its very nature. Myself, I do not see the point of creation that doesn’t become a chain reaction. Anything that refuses to be transformative, that desperately wants to remain pure (and stagnant) is as good as wasted work, because it’s trying to fight the very way ideas are formed, and the purpose of art, which remains communication at its core.

So to me there are a lot of similitudes between hacker communities and fanwork creators, because the act of refusing the concept of property of content as eternal, unmoving and to be consumed passively, is politic (because it involves money down the line, and controlling who gets to create products, who gets to consume them and how). I think that’s very interesting, because there lies the ground for counterculture, stuff happening, conversations, explorations and experimentations that will not suffer the gatekeeping of traditional businesses in charge of ensuring quality and controlling the market (nooot saying they are not necessary or don’t do a great job in the context in which we live, which is under capitalism, but they are still guardians of worth, distribution, and serve as a tool to maintain said market into place). But… Yeah, needless to say, this is not how fanfiction is perceived by the outside world, and not even by its own authors.

I have a particular disdain for how fanfiction turned into this joke, a joke perpetuated by people who never invested in the medium in good faith. Fanfiction have this sexist, queerphobic connotation of amateurism, of being unworthy of honest investment and serious consideration. As authors, we hide it with shame and share it under the anonymity of internet. We make up excuses for our interest: « I know it’s trash, but it’s my guily pleasure », « Sure most of them are bad, but there’s some really good ones in there, I promise! (please believe me, I’m not like other girls fanfiction readers/authors) ».

As if most of any art medium, especially easily accessible one, isn’t amateurish and hollow, and also an amazing ground to grow in and experience ideas as well. But that’s a tale we have been told, that we are trash, and we kept telling it to ourselves, until at some point, we got to that part that really annoys me; we started to believe it.

I am honestly tired of seeing all this enabling echo-chamber about how we are valid because we want to write this popular trope, this coffeeshop AU even though everybody else did it already and we have nothing special to contribute to it, that it’s all about having fun because life is too short not to. I agree with these posts. I am against cringe culture as well. I agreed a lot, before I saw literally hundreds of posts like that on my dash, and yet I was seeing no post that says: maybe you have it in you to say something important. Maybe you could challenge yourself to more than the absolute minimum for your immediate enjoyment. Maybe your perspective is important, so do it justice and get your voice out there. Maybe try to leave something behind you that fuels change, and not stagnation. Maybe disagree. Maybe you won’t be able to make it perfectly right, but maybe try still.

This wouldn’t bother me as much if the state of mainstream culture aesthetic right now wasn’t so worringly unnuanced, concise and entertainment-driven, with immediate power fantasies of vague progressism and very little hard work of subtext and understanding of larger systems that don’t feel as simple and easy to break. But that’s just what mainstream culture does. We don’t have to be that –nobody is paying us for doing so.

And I understand we live hard historic times that are scary, scarring, hard to swallow, that we crave black and white, and simplicity of the interpersonnal, that most people are driven by the need to be loved romantically and feel warm at least in their own head, and that fanfiction is free work –I get that.  And I’m not saying that we should stop doing fluff and unconsequence either, because it is important too, and it is important to cultures and lives that maybe are not mine. But writing is essentially assembling smaller ideas into bigger ones, so making sure they say something worthwhile about who you are, your experience of the world, what matters to you, is only giving justice to your own voice. I find it jarring that I sometimes see people bullying each other on the base of personal interpretation of fiction that challenges some sort of statut quo –wasn’t this the entire point?

I just want us to remind ourselves of the political nerve of what we are doing. And that we are as entitled to write unconsequence and fluff than we are on writing stuff that digs, criticizes, matters.

[ogxref]

DIGITAL TARKOVSKY NOTES (Strelka Press) / Metahaven

In US alone, an average adult spends 2 hours and 51 minutes on their smartphone everyday → that is 8 minutes longer than Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker...

We surround ourselves with and immerse ourselves in digital devices that command this type of duration → the fact that we spend so much time on it prompts a question: we wish to investigate the kind of duration that we experience whilst staring at, and interacting with these tiny screens, our little beacons of orientation in an increasingly uncertain and illegible world…

In an age of seemingly omnipresent attention deficit syndrome, we never hesitate to spend hours on end, immersed in a flat world that is each person’s own private universe, each person’s process of motion and emotion, horizontal and vertical, taking place on a surface no larger than the smallest pocket book, but infinitely smaller than the largest film screen. And we are interested in calling this something else than smartphone addiction → We are interested in calling it cinema...

Duration is measured with time, and appears as irreversible.

Philosophical, mathematical and physical speculations about time all face the practical confrontation with the moving “Now” that forces itself to the foreground every time we are trying to think temporal abstractions, or better, every time we are trying to escape time.

“Early cinema was a revolutionary art form that was served by a new technology. Nowadays, going to the cinema is already a bit like going back in time, to a velvet-upholstered chair equipped with a cup holder, fixing one’s spatial position in front of a giant moving image as if it were the only thing in the world that matters.”

In comparison with their surrounding visual culture, cinemas → have become spaces of enforced watching. Moviegoers are told to switch off their phones before a film begins. And this is understandable: the phone competes with, and distracts from, the big film playing out on the big screen.

That being true, there still is something odd about the no phones warning. In spite of film having already ostentatiously “won” the competition for biggest screen, it still deems it necessary to set rules to avoid distraction from other durational devices. Film aggressively enforces its claims in space, because it may have lost its monopoly on controlling time.

Since the early days of cinema the moviegoer has been imagined as a human being, but in the early 21st century, moving image is also created, as well as “watched,” by artificial intelligence (AI) → Unlike a human being, to see, an AI does not need to even look at anything visual; it can experience the image without vision. All the temporal rules of cinema are also ignored by AI, because these rules were based on human limitations that the AI overcomes.

In postwar France → the historian Fernand Braudel introduced an equivalent of the cinematic long take: the longue durée. It was nothing short of a paradigm shift in what it meant to write history and how this was supposed to happen. Braudel criticized how economists reduced historical time to cycles of growth and decline. The focus on the “short time” (as opposed to the longue durée) had been au bénéfice de l’histoire économique et sociale, au détriment de l’histoire politique.

The idea that the perceptual experience of the Now in the everyday is opposed to the longer historical trajectory, or, that there is more than just one social time, shifts the perceptual frame up to a scale where the “heat of the moment” comes to form a dialectic opposition to that scale itself. In a sense, Braudel’s analysis of long-term historical change is a bit like pattern recognition beyond the human frame of experience

Unsurprisingly, a field for which Braudel’s work holds a special significance is that of climatology → The massive, irreversible, climate change associated with the anthropocene is a development that can politically uniquely be assessed as one of longue durée, as it is not simply the tragedy of a natural inevitability, but an outcome of an accumulation of distinct developments usually described by distinct scientific and scholarly disciplines. The longue durée is a frame of understanding that is especially suited to assess these fundamental shifts.

Notion of the “fallacy of the Now”

Notion of interpreting and appreciating the time we spend on our smartphones, and our intention to see this as a form of cinema, of cinematic duration. And perhaps ask another question, why are we doing this? → Why then bother cinema’s temple with its surrounding digital camping grounds, with social media fluff, YouTube clips, disappearing Snapchat pictures, manic text messages, gifs, heavily doctored Wikipedia articles, Instagram stories, fake news websites, failing Skype calls, Pokemon Go, stickers, overlays… → why bother cinema with interface?

Watching Tarkovsky films is neither a short, nor a light pastime, but the difference between them and all mainstream films is no accident. → They are conceived outside the normative, visual and narrative standardization of cinematic time by the rules of commercial film production studios and television broadcasters. They are also intimidating on a conceptual, philosophical level.

Tarkovsky’s films are long and slow. On a superficial level this seems to put them out of touch with contemporary reality, or rather, contemporary reality out of touch with them. Indeed, some fear that we may be losing the very sensory and mental capacities to engage with their time and duration. The writer Geoff Dyer complains that “we move further and further away from Tarkovsky-time towards moron-time in which nothing can last—and no one can concentrate on anything—for longer than about two seconds.” → One way to see this is that the films become simply inaccessible over time; another is that they become more like Dostoevsky novels or Mounts Everest, harder to conquer and more resilient and demanding as artworks whose very texture and “temporal weight” resists quick consumption. If this is true it would make Tarkovsky’s films still better and more profound as artworks; the troubling confrontation with time itself would become progressively more difficult, but also, more meaningful.

It’s hard to sit and watch a clock tick, to experience time consciously, and to watch, feel it happen → There seems to be a kind of “horizontal gravity” at work on the timeline, a backward drag, the presence of which is as hardly acknowledged in most films as it is in most lives. Insipidity, drowsiness, all of these are closely related to the slow passing of time and our ability, or inability, to achieve goals and realize what we desire.”

“Some artists who make us feel the true measure of things. It is a burden which they carry throughout their lives, and we must be thankful to them.”

Tarkovsky →  the script has to “die in the film”

Dyer →  whilst Tarkovsky often felt frustrated by the control exercised by the state over his and others’ artistic freedom, in the West, a subtler kind of censorship and tyranny (that of the market) would have made it extremely unlikely that he could ever have obtained permission (raised the funds) to make Mirror or Stalker...

Tarkovsky → “An image is not some idea as expressed by the director, but an entire world reflected in a drop of water.”

“We suggest that in Tarkovsky there’s not so much a typical storyline with its irreversible turning points and cliffhangers, but an ambient plot.”

The ubiquity of screens destroys our ability to see film as a distinct medium anymore. Will Self → film is dead now because it is replicating “our own neurological capacity for absorbing imagery.”

[sprob002-blog]

A Little About New Zealand

Like many other people, what intentionally made me interested in traveling to New Zealand was the breathtaking scenery and to visit the set of the Lord of the Rings. Just one minute into this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo4ueevKfdE), and I am ready to pack my bags and book the next flight. This beautiful country is split into the North Island and South Island, and its remoteness from the rest of the world has allowed the creation of some beautiful animals. I study marine biology, so it would be really amazing to experience evolution’s works and see things that you can not see anywhere else in the world. New Zealand is home to some unique creatures, like the kiwi, which has become the unofficial symbol for the country as well as a nickname for the native people. Another native species is the yellow-eyed penguin, which is one of the six types of penguins found around the country. 

My knowledge of New Zealand is quite limited, but I was aware that it once was under British rule until they gained independence in 1947. Even though they are now a sovereign nation, the countries flag still represents a time they were under the crown. The interactions with Great Britain and the native Maori people of New Zealand have shaped the culture of the society. An important day in history that is celebrated annually is when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed on February 6, 1880. The treaty was designed to determine who had authority over the land, but the natives and English had disagreements which subsequently led to The New Zealand Wars just five years later. One interesting fact is that New Zealand was the first self-governing nation to give women the right to vote in 1893. 

 English is the common language, but many natives can speak Maori which is the second popular language in the country. The English language in New Zealand is similar to that of Australian English in the way its pronounced, but there are some differences. They say you can tell an Australian accent from a New Zealand accent by the way they pronounce vows and by the slang that is used. Australians tend to draw out their vows more, and have their own unique slang for things such as sandals that they call thongs. Even if you have an ear for accents, I’m sure it would take a couple time visiting to truly be able to tell the difference between the two. 

Prior to searching and collecting images, I was not informed of the rich history that New Zealand has. Its culture is influence mainly by western culture, the isolation of the islands, and the indigenous Maori people. In present day, the majority of inhabitants are of European decent and the Maori have become a minority, but their influence is still strong. A big component of New Zealand culture is Kapa haka, which is the term for Maori performing arts, and is a cultural dance to express heritage through song. It has even been performed before sporting events by their national rugby team, the All Blacks. When traveling to any foreign country, it is a good idea to become familiar with traditions and cultures. This short video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB3m5Nc1BzM) was a good start for me when brushing up on New Zealand traditions. 

The Maori have a traditional way of cooking that involves digging a deep hole in the ground and using hot stones to cook meat and vegetables that are wrapped in leaves. This method is called hangi, and lets you embrace the authentic experience of New Zealand cooking. I found it interesting that schools will have a hangi because this differs greatly from the food that is known to be served in US lunchrooms. 

Another popular dish is whitebait fritter, which is juvenile fish cooked in egg whites to create an omelet. This is considered a delicacy and alternative to fish and chips, and it is a must try when I visit. It’s no surprise that seafood is a big part of New Zealand diet consider the country is an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 

Food gatherings are a popular and common social event in New Zealand. If a native says they are “shouting” it means that they are providing the meal at their cost. If you are invited over for dinner, the same social manners follow as in the US. It is proper to offer to bring a dish or something to drink, and to be sure if you can bring an additional guest. Also, the drinking age in NZ is 18! Some people follow Maori customs within the home by not having shoes on, not sitting on tables or pillows, and saying a karakia to bless the food before the meal. Do not be alarmed if someone greets you with a kiss on the cheek, as it is a friendly and common thing to do. After dinner a favorite New Zealand dessert is hokey pokey ice cream, vanilla ice cream with clumps of honeycomb toffee, and they apparently eat 23 liters per capita a year alone! New Zealanders also like their lolly, which is slang for candy. 

Despite having deep cultural roots, New Zealand is not immune to acts of racism. Unfortunately, they have been at the forefront of world news recently because of the terror attacked at various mosques that left over 50 dead and many others injured. (https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/03/14/witness-many-dead-in-new-zealand-mosque-shooting)

It is incredibly sad that we must fear for our lives when we walk outside, but it is especially heinous to prey on innocent people at a place of worship. This incident is the worst attack in New Zealand history, and in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sOKzcd0Uxg) the Prime Minister explains that she dose not plan to do nothing about it. She vows that the gun laws will change to prevent further incidents like this one. However, it is uplifting to see an article in the NZ Herald that schools in the country are stepping up and trying to help students with their mental health (https://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=12212778). Many schools, like ones in the US, believe teachers should not intervene in a student’s life, but perhaps if we took a more proactive action to help mental illnesses then maybe terrible acts like this recent one will no longer occur. 

New Zealand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1952, and this basically means that Queen Elizabeth II reigns, but it is the government and people who do the ruling. They do not have a formal constitution, but rather a collection of documents, such as the Treaty of Waitangi, that help lay the framework for their government. The country has their own form of currency, and one New Zealand dollar equals $0.66 US dollars. Their government functions in the same way as the United States by having three separate branches: the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. However, unlike the US their legislature branch is only made out of the House of Representatives. Another notable difference in their government is that they are a unitary state and not a federation. Their central government limits the authority of the regions and even is in charge of police and education. I am not sure if I would like the idea of a more powerful central government, but it does seem that the country would be more uniform in their actions.  

There are many aspects about New Zealand life that remind me of the United States. For starters, the gender roles are about the same in each country. Men are supposed to be the breadwinners while women stay at home with the children. For New Zealand, this role began because back in 1840 the majority of Europeans were men that came for work, and the women slowly started to move to the islands to create permanent homes. These roles were fairly common and constant and woman did not really start joining the workforce until the late 1900′s. In today’s world, women in both United States and in New Zealand are working to break that stereotype and are taking on more unconventional roles. Another similarity between the two countries is that Christianity is the main religion, and in New Zealand almost 50% of people claim to be Christians. Even though Anglicanism is the religion of the monarch of New Zealand, the country does not have an established church. The country has had the basic right of freedom of religion since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Also, the mainstream music in New Zealand is not much different from music I hear in America. I looked up their top 100 popular songs, and I was not familiar with #1 which was a song called “Days Go By” by a welsh band called High Contrast (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9pUR1QV3yQ). However, I was familiar with many of the other songs I saw on the list. Before researching popular artist, I had no knowledge that Lorde, who is played on many radio stations in the US, is from New Zealand. One of her most popular songs, “Royals” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlcIKh6sBtc), has an astonishing 757 million views on Youtube. I enjoyed many of the artist that I came across, like Marlon Williams. The first video of him that I saw was on NPR Music’s channel, and I was familiar with the segment they do called Tiny Desk Concert (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab8YnmHB6tE). I found it very interesting to learn that many of the artist I have come across I’ve had no idea they were from places such as New Zealand. 

Besides Lord of the Rings I did not know of any movies made in New Zealand or by a NZ company. The film industry is definitely smaller than in the US, and many of their films do not receive international credit. The highest grossing film in their country is called Hunt for the Wilderpeople and made almost 10 billion dollars in 2016. The movie is a comedy/drama about a boy and his foster father running through the NZ wilderness because there is a manhunt after them. I came across the site “NZ On Screen” (https://www.nzonscreen.com/explore) that broadcast all different types of TV shows, movies, music videos, and even cultural art performances that have been made in New Zealand. I found this site really useful in trying to explore popular media as well as a way to learn more about their society. 

Before traveling to New Zealand, I believe it is a good idea to look up some travel blogs to get an idea of what it might feel like to be a tourist in a foreign land. One I found very useful was “The Do’s and Dont’s of a New Zealand Road Trip” (https://youngadventuress.com/2014/08/new-zealand-road-trip.html). It covers everything from the perfect campervan to rent, a review of popular tourist sites, and even to driving in New Zealand because lets be honest driving in a foreign country can be a little scary. However, the most informative blog I came across was “How to Plan Your Ideal New Zealand Trip” (https://misstourist.com/how-to-plan-your-ideal-trip-to-new-zealand/). This blog has all the information you need in terms of the best time to visit, how much you can expect to spend, and even some tips on how to score the best deals because it can become rather expensive. 

After researching and collecting images about New Zealand, I have a better understanding of their cultural roots and some of the traditions that are popular. I plan to expand my knowledge by keeping up with current news and exploring more of their popular movies and music. The collection I have so far will help me be more respectful when I travel to New Zealand, and it has made me more comfortable when I travel abroad. 

[tigerbeepress]

Indie Vs. ...Not

When news first came out that Milo YouKnowWhoPoulos had been offered a book deal with Simon & Schuster, and various conscientious S&S writers were publicly speaking out—with Roxanne Gay, remarkably, even pulling her forthcoming book from them—I kept thinking one thing: this will never happen to TigerBee’s authors. 

The thought wasn’t smug, it was simply persistent, especially after I saw Gay’s poignant “please don’t let it be my publisher” tweet. We can’t offer our authors $250k book deals (yet—maybe in 2018, ha) but we can offer them the peace of mind that their work will be in a catalog permanently free from fascists, neo-Nazis, professional racists, career Islamphobes, etc. While that’s among the faintest praise possible, it’s also, sadly, not a guarantee many mainstream publishers can make.* We’re a small press without a huge budget; we will take whatever marks of distinction we can get.

Then in February, with this confidence/pride still relatively fresh, I was at a party where a poet mentioned to me she regretted publishing her first book with a brand new press because it didn’t get much distribution, and I immediately felt bad. What if the authors we work with feel that one someday, or feel that way now? That would make me so sad. I want our authors to feel served by us; on the semi-rare occasions I try to sell someone on working with us, my solicitation always involves a lot of let me help you. (Use TB as a resource! Tell us what you need! I am your collaborator and cheerleader! I am here for you!) Because that’s how I really feel. And I believe we do the best we can to fulfill that explicit and implicit promise.

With these two ideas in mind, I started thinking of a really basic pro/con list when it comes to trusting an indie press with your writing (or your visual art, or both) as compared to taking it to a mainstream press, and here’s what I came up with. You should know, if you don’t already, that we are still new to publishing, so while I’m sharing everything I can think of, I’m sure there’s more. And if you notice something I’ve overlooked, tell me! Tweet at us, reply to this post, send an email, a Facebook message, whatever. We would love to hear. 

MAINSTREAM PUBLISHERS:

have cache, like pledging with a certain sorority/fraternity. People who pay attention to these things are going to have an informed reaction to your book landing at FSG or Little Brown or Simon & Schuster. They’re going to presume things about the work (and you) without having read the book, possibly before the book even exists, like how literary it is, how sellable it is, etc. They’re going to be impressed, or they’re going to be snide, or they’ll just be happy for you. Likewise, the acquisition might make you feel extra good, or you might feel disappointed. You might feel insecure because it’s not as elite an association as you wanted, or you might feel good and insecure, as in: holy shit I can’t believe this publisher wanted me, now I have to make sure the book is really good and a bestseller and gets no bad reviews, etc. Or so I’ve heard + seen from my friends. I’m pretty much clueless when it comes to the reputation of imprints, like which one is supposed to be for respected esoteric geniuses who never make money, and which is known for pop psychology/science titles, and so on. It’s all a big question mark to me. But to plenty of other people, it’s important, or at least relevant. Of course, to even more people, it’s not. 

have money, some of which they might give to you. At the risk of stating the obvious, even very large and very rich publishers buy books for tiny sums. But I find it nearly inconceivable that an indie press has ever given a six figure advance or even a high five figure one. (Though I could be wrong, and if you know of some exceptions, please tell me who/when/what book!) If you have your heart set on a massive advance, you’ll probably find it hard to get excited about any small publisher. Because $$$$$$$. I get it. 

have excellent distribution. I am in awe of the seamless, colossal endeavor that is book distribution for mainstream publishers. It’s like magic to me, and there’s so much more I could say about it but it would probably bore you so I’m just going to leave it at: if someone wants to order your book from a Barnes & Noble branch and you’re with a large publisher, B&N can probably do that with no problem. Of course, it’s baffling to me that someone would order a book from a big box bookstore instead of requesting it from an indie bookstore or just using Amazon, but I digress. 

(They'll take care of foreign distribution, too, probably.) This is, like, something we cannot even begin to think about right now. Though we do fulfill lots of international orders on our website.

have ~connections~. Big publishing houses are well-positioned to get you press in the form of TV interviews, book reviews, readings, etc, though—and more on this in a minute—it’s not a guarantee they’ll use their resources wisely, or at all. 

I think those are the highlights. Now for the home team:

SMALL/INDIE PRESSES:

give a shit. How can they not? They’re definitely not in it for the money, which does not exist, or the glory (because, ditto.) They’re doing it because they really love poetry/experimental fiction/brilliant nonfiction/etc. and want the world to have more of it. I’m not implying people in mainstream publishing don’t feel the same way, because I know some do. But obviously the “culture” is different, and the intimacy is different, the familiarity and sense of investment is different, because with a small press, you’re dealing with a much smaller group of people and it’s hard to evade responsibility if you’re one of ten, one of five, or one of two people who constitute the whole enterprise. In that vein, an indie publisher....

can (probably) give you more time and attention. A big publishing house takes on a lot of projects and runs them through a lot of people. This is great when it comes to say, copyediting (aka the bane of my entire existence from now until eternity, my god I hate it so much,) but not so good when it comes to, say, promotion, when you’re trying to have a conversation with people about how your book should be sold and those people probably haven’t even read your book. (That’s a link to one of my all-time favorite essays, “Into The Woods” by Emily Gould, and if you have even a little bit of interest in writing as a career, you should read the whole thing more than once, more than twice, even, although you may stop short of reading it the 20 times that I likely have.)  

have less reach but more close connections. Over the past two years, between dropping off copies of Prostitute Laundry and arranging Bad Advice readings, I’ve gotten to know staff members at so many independent bookstores, and—shockingly—that includes bookstores outside of New York. It’s been a great pleasure because not only are these people fun to know in their own rights, but it also fosters a sense of community and keeps me from feeling like I’m sending emails and books into an uncaring void. As a result of those connections, I suspect, not only have the booksellers agreed to stock future TigerBee titles in the first place, but they often give those titles prominent placement, which makes a huge difference for in-store sales. (I say I suspect because who knows, maybe me always showing my face around these places exhausts the folks who work there, but the TigerBee books are just that good that they have to be kept on display tables and end caps.)  

by which I mean: Friends who’ve published with mainstream presses have told me (what I receive as) horror stories about them not being encouraged to do readings or a proper tour, having their book(s) routinely shelved in the wrong sections, billed as something they’re not, and otherwise mismanaged. Everyone makes mistakes, and it’s not as if everyone at an indie press is guaranteed to be spectacular at their job, but I’d guess most of them at least understand the importance of clear and accurate presentation and communication, especially in brick and mortar spaces.

have some cache, too. An indie publisher is still a publisher, and so it sounds better and is more legitimizing to go with a small press than to have no titles to your name, or to be self-published. (Obviously I didn’t really care about the taint of self-publishing, and I don’t think you need to either, or that anyone does, but there’s no denying it, it *is* nice to feel legitimized.) There’s also something impossibly alluring about a limited edition book that feels sort of secret. Who wouldn’t want bragging rights that they’ve got a first edition or the only edition of a chapbook by someone who goes on to be widely recognized as the genius they always were? It’s badass when you (meaning, I,) click on the first book by someone who’s a bigger deal now than they were then, and see that it’s sold out. It’s so maddening! I want that book! But everyone involved seems about 10 points cooler than they did when I thought the book was still available.** 

let you own your masters. I can’t speak for other small publishers, but our contracts are extremely generous to authors while remaining fair to us (i.e., giving us a chance to recoup some of the costs associated with the project.) We have exclusive rights for a period but then it all reverts to you, which means you can put it in an anthology, resell it, make a TV show about it, whatever, and you won’t have to pay or consult us. As a writer, I find this state of affairs really exciting. I love knowing that no one is going to get the rights to turn Prostitute Laundry into a movie unless I trust them with those rights. (And not only do I alone make the decision, I alone get paid. Sweet.)

don’t require that you have an agent. If you’ve got an agent, we are happy to work with them. But we don’t require that manuscripts be sent to us by an agent, so it’s one less thing for you to worry about if you don’t already have one. (Though by all means, please, if it gets to that point: have someone knowledgable look at our contract with you before you sign.)

gives you lots of control. I hear a lot about how writers are supposed to be divas and sometimes I see it, for sure, but I see a lot more writers being really, really nervous to voice their concerns or opinions on their books’ presentation, by which I mean the title, the cover, the marketing, etc. I have friends who’ve sucked up crappy titles assigned by their mainstream publisher in the hope that they’ll feel entitled to more leeway when they’re negotiating cover designs, or vice versa, and friends who feel like they can’t tell the truth about any of it (all of which they hate.) I’ve also seen a lot of hideous covers, like inexcusably hideous, as possibilities and as final decisions—I’m sure you’ve seen them, too. (Our nation’s ugly cover crisis is a topic for another time, like when xanax is on hand.) We have great taste, so all our products will always look beautiful, but we also care very, very much about making sure our creators are happy, so we will solicit your approval again and again at various stages of the process. Perhaps even too much! 

Sooooo, I don't know—was that useful? Clarifying? I really want every creator to end up at the place that fits them the best, whether that’s us or the biggest publisher on the planet, or a tumblr, or twitter, no publisher at all. And if you’re thinking about going with a small press but we seem too small or new for you, Birds LLC and Coffeehouse are two indie publishers I admire and respect very much, and there are tons of other worthy ones. Research, think about it, talk with friends about. I hope you find the fit that’s right for you because if you put care into your work, your work deserves it. 

—Charlotte

*Lest some pedantic person come along and be like, “what about Mein Kampf, isn’t there a responsibility to keep repugnant historical texts in print so we can learn from the past, etc. etc.”: yes, I get it, duh. That’s obviously not what I’m pointing at here. I’m referring to publishing *new* repugnant works without historical significance and furthermore, I don’t see us taking on the task of printing things that are public domain and/or part of deceased fascist author’s estate anyway, so the odds of this specific scenario presenting itself to us seem low. 

**I want your book to sell and sell and sell, and be available to everyone who would benefit from reading it, and I think it’s my job as a publisher to accurately judge existing interest and further whip up an audience, so I will always strive to do that well. But still: unattainability is hot, with people and with objects. Just ask any luxury brand that lives and dies by their artificial scarcity.

[allenfromthetc]

Blog post #2: Participatory Culture

So, what is participation theory, anyway? I can’t speak for the rest of you, but I had never truly discussed this topic prior to entering this class, much less even hearing the phrase. However, that doesn’t mean I hadn’t thought of some of its concepts as I grew up in the digital world, specifically how our usage of social media isn’t simply a means of passing time, but rather is a shared collective experience in which we both contribute and take in other people’s work, opinions, and language. In our week 6 agenda, it is mentioned that participation is a part of our skill set for digital literacy, and through that being able to actively engage and be a part of our communities; the digital era has allowed us to not be restricted to our geographical location, and actively explore the communities we are involved in on a larger scale and explore things that can become a part of our identity. Henry Jenkins in Participatory Culture in a Networked Era, defines culture as as the “sum of total human experience”, and with that views participatory culture as “one which embraces the values of diversity and democracy through every aspect of our interactions with one another”, bringing up the idea that this culture may not be something completely dynamic or groundbreaking, but rather found in the things that we do everyday (Jenkins, ITo, & boyd, 2016, p.2). With constant tweets, snaps, emails, and instagram updates becoming the common place for how we interact with each other, our culture is heavily influenced by the digital interactions of our lives. With more and more people having access to social media and tailoring it to their social needs as opposed to professional, it has transitioned from a technological asset to now a mundane constant. I view participatory culture as people using social media in order to create, comment, and share content that is easily accessible and contributable with a purpose. One way in which I have seen social media trends be prime examples of participatory culture is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge of 2014In 2014, to raise awareness for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, people on social media would dump buckets full of ice on their head and tag people they know, under the condition that they either continue the trend of donate an amount of money to the ALS association. This swept through both Facebook and Instagram, becoming a common post to see with many of people's friends engaging in the conversation through comments or shares. A simple act, video taping someone dumping ice on themselves, yet because of its simplicity people were able to replicate, contribute traffic to the videos as well as funds, and with that able to support an association with a higher purpose. These types of videos are mentioned in chapter 4 of the book Participation and User Generated Content, in what is referred to as User Created Content, or UCC. The section brings up the fact that high quality cameras and the ever improving smartphones continue to become a more commonplace item, and with that the ability to produce media. This has paved the way for “vernacular creativity”, or creativity that is easily accessible and more concurrent with the everyday things of our lives (Hinton & Hjorth, 2013) With TikTok becoming one of the most popular social media sites, solely based on video creation, it exemplifies easily accessible and connected culture. TikTok provides music, “sounds”, audio sound effects, and filters to allow anyone with a smartphone to easily customize and create content. One of the most popular features of TikTok is their “sounds”, which is audio created by one user which can be used for anyone else’s videos, allowing people to replicate and put their own twist on trends. This has allowed a wave of dance trends, workouts, and other activities that people can watch and recreate- specifically in the movement #Flattenthecurve. This movement is dedicated to encouraging people to stay inside and practice social distancing, all the while having fun and being enjoyable to the average users. Even something as simple as a hashtag can advocate for the good of society, while still being accessible and recreational. 

In Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, they mention that scholars “suggest potential benefits of these forms of participatory culture”, in the same way that connected learning allows for an education separate from the traditional institutions; that is, peer to peer communication, development of skills, and collaboration (Jenkins, Puroshotma, Clinton, Weigel, & Robison, 2009). While our technology is advancing and becoming more accessible, it doesn’t mean that everyone has the same access to it or the same experience and exposure. They acknowledge that as a Participation Gap, and I have seen that firsthand. While studying at University, unrelated to studies people are connected and communicating through social media and experiencing culture through information, memes, and videos- and while this might be commonplace there, this isn’t the same in all places where technology and staying up to date with pop culture is not the forefront. Though it may not be imperative to living, smaller communities or less advantage don’t experience or use them in the same way, and may not have a full grasp of how much social media affects the world as a whole. 

Something that I have been doing to involve myself in online communities both to enrich my personal identity and reach out to others that share similar experiences with me is actively following Filipino tik tokers and other minority creators, as well as joining multiple Facebook groups (namely, Subtle Asian Traits, Subtle Filipino Traits, and Subtle Asian Veterans). Though I have yet to create my own content for Tik Tok, being able to see other people that look like me and have experienced similar upbringings create humor based upon their own upbringing in the culture or post content (music, dancing) that is trending within these communities has allowed me to have that exposure that I hadn’t had while overseas or as much experience while I was at University. Instead of having to rely on visiting family or meeting up with members of the Phillipine Student Association on campus, I can instead turn to the internet and still feel engaged with my heritage and people my age. Though it’s important to have these real life communities and in the case of PSA, it’s important to congregate in real life- however, being able to participate and engage with a community that would otherwise be a niche subculture in certain locations, allows people to contribute more and have more connectivity. And this certainly doesn’t mean that real life groups can’t use social media, it’s quite the opposite in fact. Having social media linked to groups and using it to promote, communicate, and coordinate, allows for culture to grow outside of meetings. It can promote and enhance friendships, and be a place where culture can cultivate and thrive. I have been able to laugh at memes that I wouldn’t find in “mainstream” social media streams, as well as have viewpoints tailored more to my experience; while opinions differ, as a collective I am able to relate more and discuss topics with people who have a better understanding about the Asian-American/Asian/Minority Experience. 

I also joined the Subtle Asian Veterans group, due to me recently serving overseas and feeling as if I was the only Asian a part of the group I had been serving with. While there aren’t quite that many Asian/Asian Americans serving in the Armed Forces, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist- and with that meaning that I wasn’t quite so alone, after all. I participate in discussions often; as a new soldier I often ask for advice on career planning and people’s experiences with their service, as well as networking and finding out how to use my benefits and experience back into the civilian world. Currently on the page, people are posting different T-Shirt and Hoodie designs that are customized with the flags of both our heritage, as well as the country we currently serve or have served. I’m currently in the works of my own design, as the proceeds of all the designs will be going to a charity supporting the healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only has their group allowed me to connect culturally in both humor and professional development, but has allowed us to contribute to something bigger than ourselves, and show our support for healthcare workers in this time. 

[delhi-architect2]

Journal - Silver Linings: Amid Lockdown, Architect Andrew Franz Glimpses the Future of Live/Work

As a pandemic sweeps across the United States, some designers and architects see an acceleration of workplace and lifestyle trends that were being slowly assimilated already into mainstream culture: remote work, digital socializing and relying largely on online sources for goods and services. On the other hand, some cultural norms are being completely reversed, such as traveling long distance, practicing daily commutes, and outsourcing childcare.

Architects like Andrew Franz, AIA, LEED AP, a native New Yorker and founder of the nationally active design firm Andrew Franz Architect, PLLC, are carefully observing and analyzing these rapid, simultaneous shifts in daily life as they unfold — and finding some useful lessons and even some positivity in the current crisis. From an architectural and planning perspective, Franz sees many opportunities being exposed by the collective societal pause.

“This crisis is a compulsory social experiment,” says Franz. “It has forced many people around the world to quickly and fully adopt new technologies, ways of living, and approaches to doing business that were already becoming the ‘new normal,’ albeit very slowly.” The COVID-19 pandemic, Franz asserts, has merely fanned the flames of the technological revolution — a movement that has been spreading around the globe for decades and has the potential to support a better work/life balance for all people, as well as a smarter, more energy-efficient built environment.

“More people — specifically, more clients and bosses — are recognizing that face-face physical meetings and physical office attendance aren’t as critical for job performance and efficiency as they believed. “In fact, some loosening of old-school professional rules may enhance employee or personal performance,” acknowledges Franz.

Additionally, he adds that “because so many people — very unfortunately — aren’t working right now, or are working from home, they aren’t moving about as much on a daily basis.” This has meant more personal time for family, but also fewer cars and vehicles on the road and ultimately less pollution. “If we get used to this new, less mobile lifestyle and we end up maintaining it past the end of quarantine, the impacts for the future of transportation and the future of office buildings with their reduced occupancies might be massive.”

Hill Office, Location: New York, NY, Architect: Andrew Franz Architect

Franz expects that offices may become smaller and more flexible, allowing for more shared desks on a “rotating” basis as professionals integrate working remotely into their permanent routine. However, he notes that offices will likely still serve a critical role, providing much needed moments of casual social interaction that is as critical to team building and creating company culture as it is to professional collaboration. “After all, many of us have spent more time with our peers than we have with our families, sleep time discounted,” says Franz.

He speculates that, short-term, individual desks and personal work stations may regain popularity as people slowly relax social distancing protocols and return to the office, but remain vigilant and protective of personal space.  “Expect less density in the workplace whether that is less bench seating and more cubicles, or spread-out desks and private offices,” predicts Franz.

Still, he says, many people have seen how our homes can absorb and become our own personal offices, studios and laboratories. Emphasizing that while many of the stringent lifestyle habits people are currently compelled to practice will eventually be relaxed — and many will fade away — Franz anticipates a continued and ongoing desire in people to work from home, especially once the family (or roommates) are not all there with you.

As the home once again becomes the epicenter of life for so many Americans, domestic design and architecture is in the spotlight more than at any other time in recent memory. “Right now, houses and apartments have to be so much more than just a place to shower and sleep,” says Franz. “This crisis is not only revalidating the importance of having a home to go to in times like this, but almost more importantly it is asking us to question the nature of our dwellings — whether they are comfortable, functional, efficient and even inspiring to us.”

With these expanded needs, the home must now serve as a workplace, a gym, a daycare, a school, a restaurant, and even a hospice. To better optimize dwellings for this wide range of functions, Franz offers some time-tested design guidance:

1. Differentiate spaces with physical dividers — and schedule activities.

Especially in smaller houses and apartments, designated spaces aren’t available for each activity or need. Oftentimes people have to take office work or homework to their kitchens or bedrooms with inadequate lighting or distracting smells and amidst noisy or nosy family members and roommates.

East End House, Location: Shelter Island NY, Architect: Andrew Franz Architect

Dividing spaces with physical barriers or partitions to create flexible zones within bigger rooms, says Franz, is one solution. “We’ve seen the same issues people were facing in open offices taking place now inside people’s homes,” he notes. “People who have to do focused tasks need a quiet environment, and meanwhile the kids need to play and the groceries need to get put away while the music or television is turned up too loud.” Physical dividers — even something as simple as hanging a curtain or fabric — can create boundaries and define different zones. Franz also adds that scheduling spaces for needed activities at different times can also help mitigate friction in cramped quarters.

2. Take advantage of natural light and brighten up all interiors.

An enthusiastic advocate of using daylight, Franz points to the scientific effects of sunlight and good electric sources on human psychology, which backs up his ample and creative use of natural light in his buildings and interiors. “Natural light is proven to boost mood and productivity, so ideally you would have it coming in from multiple directions and sources,” he says.

Martha’s Vineyard Residence, Location: Martha’s Vineyard MA, Architect: Andrew Franz Architect

“Even if you only have one window in a room, don’t cover it — let the light spill in.” If a house or apartment doesn’t get much light, Franz suggests the next best thing: multiple electric illumination sources to flood more active spaces from multiple directions and most importantly, whether in the case of a small desk or large work room, an LED task light.

3. Bring as much nature indoors as possible, or step outside.

Franz stresses the importance of experiencing nature in some form every day. “Whether it’s a plant on your windowsill, or a view of the tree outside your window, or even a little balcony you can step out onto for some fresh air — don’t take it for granted,” says Franz. “In my case, I have an exterior stair and balcony that I sit out on and catch some sun, take a call or vertically socialize with my great neighbors. Some people are fortunate enough to have access to a roof garden, a yard or adjacent green space,” he adds, noting that hopefully one day all urban residential buildings will have mandatory green space.

Tribeca Loft, Location: New York NY, Architect: Andrew Franz Architect

“At the very least, choose items made of natural materials for furnishing your home — real wood tables or chairs, stone sculptures or countertops, and artwork that represents nature are all great options. Think of Scandinavian interiors and how they introduce pattern into them to animate the long dark winters.”

4. Get good wifi.

“Staying connected is everything in our increasingly virtual world,” explains Franz, “so having a great quality data connection installed in your home — perhaps even with a backup system should the first one fail — is a good idea.” Also, make sure you are creating a hard copy of your data if you’ve transitioned fully to the cloud, cautions the architect.

As millennials and generation Z come of age, their preferences for a nomadic lifestyle and untethered existence has led to a steady national decline in homeownership rates. Crash pads, monthly rentals, and a slew of other temporary accommodations are clearly favored by up and coming generations, who also largely prefer to live in urban or urban-feeling areas. But according to Franz, “this crisis is reminding many of us how good it feels to have stable roots —to have a shelter to retreat to that reflects our deepest values, supports our needs, and gives us the true sense of safety, control and total belonging that we all crave.”

About Andrew Franz Architect PLLC:

Based in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, Andrew Franz Architect, PLLC, is a full-service architecture, planning and design firm that established a strong reputation for high-end residential works and today is increasingly called on for larger-scale projects including civic and public commissions, arts and performance venues, and facilities for nonprofits and foundations.

Andrew Franz Architect creates original and imaginative expressions that bridge classic themes and a decidedly modern sensibility. The firm’s rigorous, client-focused design process favors engagement, craft, and inventiveness. From master planning, site selection and feasibility studies through design, construction administration and interior design and decorating, the firm offers a full range of services. For more, see www.andrewfranz.com.

The post Silver Linings: Amid Lockdown, Architect Andrew Franz Glimpses the Future of Live/Work appeared first on Journal.

from Journal https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/stories/architecture-andrew-franz-live-work/ Originally published on ARCHITIZER RSS Feed: https://architizer.com/blog

[mastcomm]

Meet the Original Renegade Dance Creator: Jalaiah Harmon

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — Jalaiah Harmon is coming up in a dance world completely reshaped by the internet.

She trains in all the traditional ways, taking classes in hip-hop, ballet, lyrical, jazz, tumbling and tap after school at a dance studio near her home in the Atlanta suburbs. She is also building a career online, studying viral dances, collaborating with peers and posting original choreography.

Recently, a sequence of hers turned into one of the most viral dances online: the Renegade.

There’s basically nothing bigger right now. Teenagers are doing the dance in the halls of high schools, at pep rallies and across the internet. Lizzo, Kourtney Kardashian, David Dobrik and members of the K-pop band Stray Kids have all performed it. Charli D’Amelio, TikTok’s biggest homegrown star, with nearly 26 million followers on the platform, has been affectionately deemed the dance’s “C.E.O.” for popularizing it.

But the one person who hasn’t been able to capitalize on the attention is Jalaiah, the Renegade’s 14-year-old creator.

“I was happy when I saw my dance all over,” she said. “But I wanted credit for it.”

The Viral Dance-iearchy

TikTok, one of the biggest video apps in the world, has become synonymous with dance culture. Yet many of its most popular dances, including the Renegade, Holy Moly Donut Shop, the Mmmxneil and Cookie Shop have come from young black creators on myriad smaller apps.

Most of these dancers identify as Dubsmashers. This means, in essence, that they use the Dubsmash app and other short-form social video apps, like Funimate, ‎Likee and Triller, to document choreography to songs they love. They then post (or cross-post) the videos to Instagram, where they can reach a wider audience. If it’s popular there, it’s only a matter of time before the dance is co-opted by the TikTok masses.

“TikTok is like a mainstream Dubsmash,” said Kayla Nicole Jones, 18, a YouTube star and music artist. “They take from Dubsmash and they run off with the sauce.”

Polow da Don, a producer, songwriter and rapper who has worked with Usher and Missy Elliott, said: “Dubsmash catches things at the roots when they’re culturally relevant. TikTok is the suburban kids that take things on when it’s already the style and bring it to their community.”

Though Jalaiah is very much a suburban kid herself — she lives in a picturesque home on a quiet street outside of Atlanta — she is part of the young, cutting-edge dance community online that more mainstream influencers co-opt.

The Renegade dance followed this exact path. On Sept. 25, 2019, Jalaiah came home from school and asked a friend she had met through Instagram, Kaliyah Davis, 12, if she wanted to create a post together. Jalaiah listened to the beats in the song “Lottery” by the Atlanta rapper K-Camp and then choreographed a difficult sequence to its chorus, incorporating other viral moves like the wave and the whoa.

She filmed herself and posted it, first to Funimate (where she has more than 1,700 followers) and then to her more than 20,000 followers on Instagram (with a side-by-side shot of Kaliyah and her performing it together).

“I posted on Instagram and it got about 13,000 views, and people started doing it over and over again,” Jalaiah said. In October, a user named @global.jones brought it to TikTok, changing up some of the moves at the end, and the dance spread like wildfire. Before long, Charli D’Amelio had posted a video of herself doing it, as did many other TikTok influencers. None gave Jalaiah credit.

After long days in the ninth grade and between dance classes, Jalaiah tried to get the word out. She hopped in the comments of several videos, asking influencers to tag her. For the most part she was ridiculed or ignored.

She even set up her own TikTok account and created a video of herself in front of a green screen, Googling the question “who created the Renegade dance?” in an attempt to set the record straight. “I was upset,” she said. “It wasn’t fair.”

To be robbed of credit on TikTok is to be robbed of real opportunities. In 2020, virality means income: Creators of popular dances, like the Backpack Kid or Shiggy, often amass large online followings and become influencers themselves. That, in turn, opens the door to brand deals, media opportunities and, most important for Jalaiah, introductions to those in the professional dance and choreography community.

Obtaining credit isn’t easy, though. As the writer Rebecca Jennings noted in Vox in an article about the online dance world’s thorny ethics: “Dances are virtually impossible to legally claim as one’s own.”

But credit and attention are valuable even without legal ownership. “I think I could have gotten money for it, promos for it, I could have gotten famous off it, get noticed,” Jalaiah said. “I don’t think any of that stuff has happened for me because no one knows I made the dance.”

Scares of the Share Economy

Cross-platform sharing — of dances, of memes, of information — is how things are made on the internet. Popular tweets go viral on Instagram, videos made on Instagram make their way onto YouTube. But in recent years, several large Instagram meme accounts have faced backlash for sharing jokes that went viral without crediting the creator.

TikTok was introduced in the United States only a year and a half ago. Norms, particularly around credit, are still being established. But for Dubsmashers and those in the Instagram dance community, it’s common courtesy to tag the handles of dance creators and musicians, and use hashtags to track the evolution of a dance.

It has set up a culture clash between the two influencer communities. “On TikTok they don’t give people credit,” said Raemoni Johnson, a 15-year-old Dubsmasher. “They just do the video and they don’t tag us.” (This acrimony is exacerbated by the fact that TikTok does not make it easy to find the creator of a dance.)

On Jan. 17, tensions boiled over after Barrie Segal, the head of content at Dubsmash, posted a series of videos asking Charli D’Amelio to give a dance credit to D1 Nayah, a popular Dubsmash dancer with more than one million followers on Instagram, for her Donut Shop dance. TikTok Room, a gossip account on Instagram, picked up the controversy, and spurred a sea of comments.

“Why is it so hard to give black creators their credit,” said one Instagram commenter, referring to the mostly white TikTokers who have taken dances from Dubsmashers and posted them without credit. “Instead of using dubsmash, use tiktok and then ppl would credit you maybe,” a TikToker fan said.

“I’m not an argumentative person on social media — I don’t want beef or anything like that,” said Jhacari Blunt, an 18-year-old Dubsmasher who has had some of his dances co-opted by TikTokers. “But it’s like, we all know where that dance came from.”

At this point, if a TikToker doesn’t initially know who did a dance, commenters will usually tag the original creator’s handle. Charli D’Amelio and other stars have started giving dance credits and tagging creators in their captions.

And the creators who are flooding into TikTok from Instagram and Dubsmash are leading the way by example. “We have 1.7 million followers and we always give credit whether the person has zero followers or not,” said Yoni Wicker, 14, one half of the TheWickerTwinz. “We know how important it is. That person who made that dance, they might be a fan of ours. Us tagging them makes their day.”

Onward and Upward

Stefanie Harmon, Jalaiah’s mother, learned the true extent of Jalaiah’s online success only recently. “She told me, ‘Mommy, I made a dance and it went viral,’” Ms. Harmon said.

“She wasn’t kicking and screaming about the fact that she wasn’t getting credit,” she added, “but I could tell it had affected her. I said, ‘Why do you care whether you’re not getting credit? Just make another one.’”

Jalaiah continues to post a steady stream of dance videos to Funimate, Dubsmash, and Instagram. She said she doesn’t harbor any hard feelings against Charli D’Amelio for popularizing the Renegade without naming her. Instead, she hopes she can collaborate with her one day.

Charli D’Amelio, through a publicist, said that she was “so glad to know” who created the dance. “I know it’s so associated with me,” she said, “but I’m so happy to give Jalaiah credit and I’d love to collaborate with her.”

“We’re all inspired by other people,” Jalaiah said. “We make up a dance and it grows.”

Off the internet, she continues to compete in dance competitions with her studio and hopes to one day take classes at Dance 411, a prestigious dance school in Atlanta. Ultimately, it’s the art form that she loves. “It makes me happy to dance,” she said.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/life-style/meet-the-original-renegade-dance-creator-jalaiah-harmon/

[isaiahrippinus]

The Drag Brunch Industrial Complex

In April 2016, drag queen Ritzy Bitz received a message on social media from Voss Events warning her that a popular show she hosted would have to change its name. Voss Events, run by the notorious Brandon Voss, in the years before sending ominous threats had become one of the leading production and marketing companies for LGBTQ talent. The burgeoning brand is widely considered a pioneer of world tours and media blitzes for top-level drag artists — something that would have been inconceivable only a decade ago

before the rise of RuPaul’s “Drag Race.” Having conquered nightclubs and global nightlife, Voss was setting its sights on a new territory: brunch.

“When it was first drawn to my attention [they told me] something like, ‘Hey, we’ve trademarked Drag Brunch, can you stop using that on your advertisements?’ And I thought that was pretty aggressive — but whatever. I understand. I thought: I’m doing brunch locally, but they’re doing brunch globally,” says Bitz. “I also laughed because they had only made the trademark just weeks after I had been joking about making my own trademark for Drag Brunch. It could have been me. I took it as a challenge to personalize my show and not just call it Drag Brunch.”

Indeed, Voss had trademarked the phrase “drag brunch” in 2018, but for some reason news of their menacing forewarning went viral much later, in December of 2019. The old news suddenly sparked ire from local drag talent in New York and beyond. It seemed pretty obvious that Voss’s tactic was largely unenforceable on a legal level, but many were stunned by the audacity of the move.

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Pariah Sinclar, a self-described “up-and-coming housewife” who runs a drag brunch at Of Love And Regret in Baltimore, felt that Voss was going against the true spirit of drag with this strategy.

“That’s so ridiculous!” said Sinclair. “It’s the opposite of what drag is: Drag, in its essence, was about civil rights. It was about sticking up for what you believe in — and now, these people are just trying to make themselves into a monopoly.”

The Voss situation remains unresolved. (A request for comment from Voss Events was not returned.) At least one brunch provocatively changed its name in hopes of triggering litigation, but nothing resulted from the rebranding.

Economic Opportunity

The struggles that have played out around something as seemingly innocuous as brunch are a microcosm of bigger dynamics within the LGBTQ community. As drag becomes an increasingly mainstream art form, performers will have to decide if their shows are art or just another form of money-making entertainment: Is drag a creative and generative exploration of gender identity, or are drag performers just gender jesters for hire? Brunch has become the strange stage on which this battle now plays out.

It’s hard to say exactly when the popularity of drag brunch really intensified. The tradition had certainly existed on a smaller scale in gay bars or small-scale, queer-owned restaurants before “Drag Race,” but its rise in ubiquity quite clearly coincides with the show’s massive and growing popularity.

Svetlana Stoli, a drag performer who manages the legendary Lucky Cheng’s drag brunch in New York City, says that “it really started slowly growing in 2016. In 2018 and 2019 there was a real explosion. Last summer almost everyone started throwing it out there. It was ‘Drag Race’s’ move to VH1 that really got restaurants interested.”

Thotyssey, a website that shares info about drag events in New York, now lists approximately 20 separate drag brunches hosted in the five boroughs every weekend at both queer-owned and -operated venues and in spaces that otherwise have no connection to the LGBTQ community.

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Until rather recently, the idea of seeing drag outside the confines of a gay bar was unheard of. Drag performances were necessarily held in nightlife venues — largely because being seen in drag essentially magnetized hate crimes. LGBTQs survived by hiding their lives in literal darkness. Drag events, like ballroom competitions, started so late because the performers were quite frequently sex workers coming from other jobs. But as drag has moved from a denigrated art form into art galleries and beyond, the medium is now being seen by the light of day — although there’s widespread disagreement within the community as to whether drag makeup looks good in sunlight.

As drag no longer only exists after midnight, suddenly hoards of new audiences are being drawn to the art form now that it’s more accessible. Like RuPaul’s “Drag Race,” drag brunches often appeal to audiences of straight women from a variety of economic backgrounds. Private drag brunches have become chic events for the hyper-wealthy, as seen in several episodes of “The Real Housewives” franchise. In fact, drag brunch has become so lucrative that some performers, like Ritzy, no longer work at nightclubs at all.

“Brunch is becoming the new gay nightlife,” she says. “I was able to survive working brunch and only brunch as my only gig for three years. And for the first two years that was only Sunday!”

Katrina Colby, a drag performer who works brunches at City Tap in Washington, D.C., and Red Star in Baltimore, says she sometimes makes close to 10 times as much money at a brunch than she would working a gig at night.

“For brunch shows I make anywhere from $150 to $1,200 dollars. A night-time show is somewhere between $30 and $150, but it really doesn’t get much past that,” says Colby.

Is Nightlife Over?

Considering the immense labor issues that drag performers are up against to this day, these kinds of earnings represent newfound freedom for artists who would otherwise likely be relegated to lives of poverty and strife. And it’s not just the queens who are making bank. The bars and restaurants themselves are raking in considerable profits from these events. Ethan Ashley, a manager at Nellie’s Sports Bar in Washington, D.C., broke down the numbers:

“Drag brunch is our bread and butter on weekends,” he says. “It makes up to $20,000 if we sell out. It depends a bit on how much people are drinking” during the two rounds of brunch seatings on any given Saturday. Compare that to a Monday night, which Ashley says is their slowest day of the week: “We would normally do like $2,000 or $3,000 on that night.”

Ryan Overberg, a manager at Therapy in New York City, didn’t offer specific estimates of profits, but agreed that brunch is a boon to his business, essentially adding a full night’s worth of profits to the week: “It’s an expensive thing to put on because it’s one of our biggest shows,” Overberg says. “It can sometimes be the equivalent of a really great Thursday night. It’s not quite [as profitable as] a weekend night, but we do well. … We’ve been sold out for the past two months.”

Many drag performers think that an added bonus of drag brunch is getting to act as ambassadors for the queer community, in that a lot of drag-brunch audiences may have never seen drag before. Because drag has become so commonplace — perhaps even oversaturated — within the gay community, some artists relish the opportunity to finally showcase their talents in front of audiences who show actual enthusiasm.

“Gay men are so fucking judgmental, you know this!” says Sinclair. “The straight, drunk women are easier to entertain. You don’t have to do as much to get their money. Gay men expect more because they go to shows regularly. … I appreciate drag brunch because it allows me to reach people who’ve never seen a drag show in their lives.”

“If you’re doing drag brunch you have to cater to a straight crowd,” Colby concurs. “But they appreciate you more. I don’t really like working for gays anymore unless the check is high-dollar. Gays couldn’t give a fuck less. Gays don’t come out to the gay bars anymore anyway, because they don’t — excuse my language — need to find dick at a bar anymore. Night shows are becoming more and more obsolete.”

Drag As Art

But a growing contingent of drag performers is increasingly critical of the drag brunch industrial complex. Because drag has traditionally served as a conduit of community healing or as a political act of gender transgression, many younger and anti-capitalist queers are questioning the assimilationist strain of drag brunch as a practice: If drag had been the artistic medium through which many queers found political liberation, what does it mean that drag is now becoming entertainment for predominantly heterosexual audiences? Can regurgitating heterosexual pop culture for heterosexual crowds even be considered an act of resistance or defiance — even if it serves an ambassadorial purpose? Does drag need to have artistic aspirations at all, or is earning a living enough of a goal for drag performers?

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Qhirst With a Q, a New York-based, non-binary drag performer, was deeply critical of what they see happening in the scene.

“It’s very hard for people to take [drag] seriously or give it any kind of respect as an actual art form,” Qhirst says. “It’s very hard for us to get out of bars and to be recognized as anything other than low-stakes, lowbrow, drunk entertainment. And brunch is already this stupid, cosmopolitan, urbanite thing — it’s just this frou-frou, gentrified, bougey thing. The best you can hope for is that it’s a really good racket. Drag brunch is the equivalent of if you want to be a real writer but the best you can hope for is writing product descriptions for a website.”

“I think of what I do as a form of self-expression,” Qhirst continues. “Drag is kind of special to me. I want me doing it to be an opportunity to connect with people that I care about, for us to share a space, and to have fun. I’m doing it for myself. But I guess I’m an outlier in that way — because of ‘Drag Race’ and all of these brands and corporations clamoring to get a cut of the drag pie.”

Another fear expressed by both Qhrist and Pariah was that the drag brunch would eventually go the way of jazzercise, Beanie Babies, and Furbies — that it’s simply a faddish bubble that will eventually burst, potentially leaving many unemployed or under-employed.

“We’re all going to look back and say, ‘God, remember drag brunch? Remember when everyone wanted to go to fucking drag brunch?’” Qhrist moaned sarcastically.

Brunch Beyond the Binary

In scanning advertisements for endless drag brunches, it’s rare to see performers outside the gender binary. What’s more common is a kind of traditional or conservative drag defined by high glamour and feminine glitz.

“It’s limiting,” explains Sinclair. “If you’re more of a club kid, or if your drag is not really what is considered mainstream or conventional — some drag performers don’t want to be a woman! — that’s a little more difficult to sell at a brunch.”

But if drag brunch has become unfriendly to those outside of the binary, to what extent is this genre of drag reinforcing gender stereotypes rather than subverting them? To what extent are bar owners just ruthlessly capitalizing on the newfound popularity of LGBTQ culture? These were precisely the questions Velma Blair had in mind when she started running the midnight drag brunch at AllWays Lounge and Theater in New Orleans.

“Most drag brunches are just commodifying queer culture,” says Blair. “A lot of people producing [drag brunches] don’t really have any stake in the drag community — they’re trying to do something that will make them money. The people there just think it’s a funny thing to do — they aren’t there for the artistry of it. It’s very entry-level, basic, non-threatening drag. In some ways it can approach the queer equivalent of a minstrel show? … With the midnight drag brunch I try to give audiences something more diverse, and for the brunch aspect I try to focus on queer food vendors that do pop-ups in town so that I’m able to support local businesses at the same time.”

Like Velma’s event, it’s slowly becoming more common for “alt” drag performers to create their own drag brunches — like the recently announced “Manmosa” show, a drag king showcase in Queens, N.Y. Whether these events will also begin to attract heterosexual onlookers as their main source of income remains to be seen.

Although there’s something inherently silly about drag brunch, the new paradigms that are playing out at these showcases represent bigger struggles for the queer community as LGBTQs are increasingly considered “normal” in the First World. Can the queer community retain its sense of individuality and identity, or will it increasingly bend to the whims of heterosexuals who continue to exert control over our civil rights?

The article The Drag Brunch Industrial Complex appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/drag-brunch-industrial-complex/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/190626266844

[johnboothus]

The Drag Brunch Industrial Complex

In April 2016, drag queen Ritzy Bitz received a message on social media from Voss Events warning her that a popular show she hosted would have to change its name. Voss Events, run by the notorious Brandon Voss, in the years before sending ominous threats had become one of the leading production and marketing companies for LGBTQ talent. The burgeoning brand is widely considered a pioneer of world tours and media blitzes for top-level drag artists — something that would have been inconceivable only a decade ago

before the rise of RuPaul’s “Drag Race.” Having conquered nightclubs and global nightlife, Voss was setting its sights on a new territory: brunch.

“When it was first drawn to my attention [they told me] something like, ‘Hey, we’ve trademarked Drag Brunch, can you stop using that on your advertisements?’ And I thought that was pretty aggressive — but whatever. I understand. I thought: I’m doing brunch locally, but they’re doing brunch globally,” says Bitz. “I also laughed because they had only made the trademark just weeks after I had been joking about making my own trademark for Drag Brunch. It could have been me. I took it as a challenge to personalize my show and not just call it Drag Brunch.”

Indeed, Voss had trademarked the phrase “drag brunch” in 2018, but for some reason news of their menacing forewarning went viral much later, in December of 2019. The old news suddenly sparked ire from local drag talent in New York and beyond. It seemed pretty obvious that Voss’s tactic was largely unenforceable on a legal level, but many were stunned by the audacity of the move.

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Pariah Sinclar, a self-described “up-and-coming housewife” who runs a drag brunch at Of Love And Regret in Baltimore, felt that Voss was going against the true spirit of drag with this strategy.

“That’s so ridiculous!” said Sinclair. “It’s the opposite of what drag is: Drag, in its essence, was about civil rights. It was about sticking up for what you believe in — and now, these people are just trying to make themselves into a monopoly.”

The Voss situation remains unresolved. (A request for comment from Voss Events was not returned.) At least one brunch provocatively changed its name in hopes of triggering litigation, but nothing resulted from the rebranding.

Economic Opportunity

The struggles that have played out around something as seemingly innocuous as brunch are a microcosm of bigger dynamics within the LGBTQ community. As drag becomes an increasingly mainstream art form, performers will have to decide if their shows are art or just another form of money-making entertainment: Is drag a creative and generative exploration of gender identity, or are drag performers just gender jesters for hire? Brunch has become the strange stage on which this battle now plays out.

It’s hard to say exactly when the popularity of drag brunch really intensified. The tradition had certainly existed on a smaller scale in gay bars or small-scale, queer-owned restaurants before “Drag Race,” but its rise in ubiquity quite clearly coincides with the show’s massive and growing popularity.

Svetlana Stoli, a drag performer who manages the legendary Lucky Cheng’s drag brunch in New York City, says that “it really started slowly growing in 2016. In 2018 and 2019 there was a real explosion. Last summer almost everyone started throwing it out there. It was ‘Drag Race’s’ move to VH1 that really got restaurants interested.”

Thotyssey, a website that shares info about drag events in New York, now lists approximately 20 separate drag brunches hosted in the five boroughs every weekend at both queer-owned and -operated venues and in spaces that otherwise have no connection to the LGBTQ community.

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Until rather recently, the idea of seeing drag outside the confines of a gay bar was unheard of. Drag performances were necessarily held in nightlife venues — largely because being seen in drag essentially magnetized hate crimes. LGBTQs survived by hiding their lives in literal darkness. Drag events, like ballroom competitions, started so late because the performers were quite frequently sex workers coming from other jobs. But as drag has moved from a denigrated art form into art galleries and beyond, the medium is now being seen by the light of day — although there’s widespread disagreement within the community as to whether drag makeup looks good in sunlight.

As drag no longer only exists after midnight, suddenly hoards of new audiences are being drawn to the art form now that it’s more accessible. Like RuPaul’s “Drag Race,” drag brunches often appeal to audiences of straight women from a variety of economic backgrounds. Private drag brunches have become chic events for the hyper-wealthy, as seen in several episodes of “The Real Housewives” franchise. In fact, drag brunch has become so lucrative that some performers, like Ritzy, no longer work at nightclubs at all.

“Brunch is becoming the new gay nightlife,” she says. “I was able to survive working brunch and only brunch as my only gig for three years. And for the first two years that was only Sunday!”

Katrina Colby, a drag performer who works brunches at City Tap in Washington, D.C., and Red Star in Baltimore, says she sometimes makes close to 10 times as much money at a brunch than she would working a gig at night.

“For brunch shows I make anywhere from $150 to $1,200 dollars. A night-time show is somewhere between $30 and $150, but it really doesn’t get much past that,” says Colby.

Is Nightlife Over?

Considering the immense labor issues that drag performers are up against to this day, these kinds of earnings represent newfound freedom for artists who would otherwise likely be relegated to lives of poverty and strife. And it’s not just the queens who are making bank. The bars and restaurants themselves are raking in considerable profits from these events. Ethan Ashley, a manager at Nellie’s Sports Bar in Washington, D.C., broke down the numbers:

“Drag brunch is our bread and butter on weekends,” he says. “It makes up to $20,000 if we sell out. It depends a bit on how much people are drinking” during the two rounds of brunch seatings on any given Saturday. Compare that to a Monday night, which Ashley says is their slowest day of the week: “We would normally do like $2,000 or $3,000 on that night.”

Ryan Overberg, a manager at Therapy in New York City, didn’t offer specific estimates of profits, but agreed that brunch is a boon to his business, essentially adding a full night’s worth of profits to the week: “It’s an expensive thing to put on because it’s one of our biggest shows,” Overberg says. “It can sometimes be the equivalent of a really great Thursday night. It’s not quite [as profitable as] a weekend night, but we do well. … We’ve been sold out for the past two months.”

Many drag performers think that an added bonus of drag brunch is getting to act as ambassadors for the queer community, in that a lot of drag-brunch audiences may have never seen drag before. Because drag has become so commonplace — perhaps even oversaturated — within the gay community, some artists relish the opportunity to finally showcase their talents in front of audiences who show actual enthusiasm.

“Gay men are so fucking judgmental, you know this!” says Sinclair. “The straight, drunk women are easier to entertain. You don’t have to do as much to get their money. Gay men expect more because they go to shows regularly. … I appreciate drag brunch because it allows me to reach people who’ve never seen a drag show in their lives.”

“If you’re doing drag brunch you have to cater to a straight crowd,” Colby concurs. “But they appreciate you more. I don’t really like working for gays anymore unless the check is high-dollar. Gays couldn’t give a fuck less. Gays don’t come out to the gay bars anymore anyway, because they don’t — excuse my language — need to find dick at a bar anymore. Night shows are becoming more and more obsolete.”

Drag As Art

But a growing contingent of drag performers is increasingly critical of the drag brunch industrial complex. Because drag has traditionally served as a conduit of community healing or as a political act of gender transgression, many younger and anti-capitalist queers are questioning the assimilationist strain of drag brunch as a practice: If drag had been the artistic medium through which many queers found political liberation, what does it mean that drag is now becoming entertainment for predominantly heterosexual audiences? Can regurgitating heterosexual pop culture for heterosexual crowds even be considered an act of resistance or defiance — even if it serves an ambassadorial purpose? Does drag need to have artistic aspirations at all, or is earning a living enough of a goal for drag performers?

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Qhirst With a Q, a New York-based, non-binary drag performer, was deeply critical of what they see happening in the scene.

“It’s very hard for people to take [drag] seriously or give it any kind of respect as an actual art form,” Qhirst says. “It’s very hard for us to get out of bars and to be recognized as anything other than low-stakes, lowbrow, drunk entertainment. And brunch is already this stupid, cosmopolitan, urbanite thing — it’s just this frou-frou, gentrified, bougey thing. The best you can hope for is that it’s a really good racket. Drag brunch is the equivalent of if you want to be a real writer but the best you can hope for is writing product descriptions for a website.”

“I think of what I do as a form of self-expression,” Qhirst continues. “Drag is kind of special to me. I want me doing it to be an opportunity to connect with people that I care about, for us to share a space, and to have fun. I’m doing it for myself. But I guess I’m an outlier in that way — because of ‘Drag Race’ and all of these brands and corporations clamoring to get a cut of the drag pie.”

Another fear expressed by both Qhrist and Pariah was that the drag brunch would eventually go the way of jazzercise, Beanie Babies, and Furbies — that it’s simply a faddish bubble that will eventually burst, potentially leaving many unemployed or under-employed.

“We’re all going to look back and say, ‘God, remember drag brunch? Remember when everyone wanted to go to fucking drag brunch?’” Qhrist moaned sarcastically.

Brunch Beyond the Binary

In scanning advertisements for endless drag brunches, it’s rare to see performers outside the gender binary. What’s more common is a kind of traditional or conservative drag defined by high glamour and feminine glitz.

“It’s limiting,” explains Sinclair. “If you’re more of a club kid, or if your drag is not really what is considered mainstream or conventional — some drag performers don’t want to be a woman! — that’s a little more difficult to sell at a brunch.”

But if drag brunch has become unfriendly to those outside of the binary, to what extent is this genre of drag reinforcing gender stereotypes rather than subverting them? To what extent are bar owners just ruthlessly capitalizing on the newfound popularity of LGBTQ culture? These were precisely the questions Velma Blair had in mind when she started running the midnight drag brunch at AllWays Lounge and Theater in New Orleans.

“Most drag brunches are just commodifying queer culture,” says Blair. “A lot of people producing [drag brunches] don’t really have any stake in the drag community — they’re trying to do something that will make them money. The people there just think it’s a funny thing to do — they aren’t there for the artistry of it. It’s very entry-level, basic, non-threatening drag. In some ways it can approach the queer equivalent of a minstrel show? … With the midnight drag brunch I try to give audiences something more diverse, and for the brunch aspect I try to focus on queer food vendors that do pop-ups in town so that I’m able to support local businesses at the same time.”

Like Velma’s event, it’s slowly becoming more common for “alt” drag performers to create their own drag brunches — like the recently announced “Manmosa” show, a drag king showcase in Queens, N.Y. Whether these events will also begin to attract heterosexual onlookers as their main source of income remains to be seen.

Although there’s something inherently silly about drag brunch, the new paradigms that are playing out at these showcases represent bigger struggles for the queer community as LGBTQs are increasingly considered “normal” in the First World. Can the queer community retain its sense of individuality and identity, or will it increasingly bend to the whims of heterosexuals who continue to exert control over our civil rights?

The article The Drag Brunch Industrial Complex appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/drag-brunch-industrial-complex/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/the-drag-brunch-industrial-complex

[wineanddinosaur]

The Drag Brunch Industrial Complex

In April 2016, drag queen Ritzy Bitz received a message on social media from Voss Events warning her that a popular show she hosted would have to change its name. Voss Events, run by the notorious Brandon Voss, in the years before sending ominous threats had become one of the leading production and marketing companies for LGBTQ talent. The burgeoning brand is widely considered a pioneer of world tours and media blitzes for top-level drag artists — something that would have been inconceivable only a decade ago

before the rise of RuPaul’s “Drag Race.” Having conquered nightclubs and global nightlife, Voss was setting its sights on a new territory: brunch.

“When it was first drawn to my attention [they told me] something like, ‘Hey, we’ve trademarked Drag Brunch, can you stop using that on your advertisements?’ And I thought that was pretty aggressive — but whatever. I understand. I thought: I’m doing brunch locally, but they’re doing brunch globally,” says Bitz. “I also laughed because they had only made the trademark just weeks after I had been joking about making my own trademark for Drag Brunch. It could have been me. I took it as a challenge to personalize my show and not just call it Drag Brunch.”

Indeed, Voss had trademarked the phrase “drag brunch” in 2018, but for some reason news of their menacing forewarning went viral much later, in December of 2019. The old news suddenly sparked ire from local drag talent in New York and beyond. It seemed pretty obvious that Voss’s tactic was largely unenforceable on a legal level, but many were stunned by the audacity of the move.

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Pariah Sinclar, a self-described “up-and-coming housewife” who runs a drag brunch at Of Love And Regret in Baltimore, felt that Voss was going against the true spirit of drag with this strategy.

“That’s so ridiculous!” said Sinclair. “It’s the opposite of what drag is: Drag, in its essence, was about civil rights. It was about sticking up for what you believe in — and now, these people are just trying to make themselves into a monopoly.”

The Voss situation remains unresolved. (A request for comment from Voss Events was not returned.) At least one brunch provocatively changed its name in hopes of triggering litigation, but nothing resulted from the rebranding.

Economic Opportunity

The struggles that have played out around something as seemingly innocuous as brunch are a microcosm of bigger dynamics within the LGBTQ community. As drag becomes an increasingly mainstream art form, performers will have to decide if their shows are art or just another form of money-making entertainment: Is drag a creative and generative exploration of gender identity, or are drag performers just gender jesters for hire? Brunch has become the strange stage on which this battle now plays out.

It’s hard to say exactly when the popularity of drag brunch really intensified. The tradition had certainly existed on a smaller scale in gay bars or small-scale, queer-owned restaurants before “Drag Race,” but its rise in ubiquity quite clearly coincides with the show’s massive and growing popularity.

Svetlana Stoli, a drag performer who manages the legendary Lucky Cheng’s drag brunch in New York City, says that “it really started slowly growing in 2016. In 2018 and 2019 there was a real explosion. Last summer almost everyone started throwing it out there. It was ‘Drag Race’s’ move to VH1 that really got restaurants interested.”

Thotyssey, a website that shares info about drag events in New York, now lists approximately 20 separate drag brunches hosted in the five boroughs every weekend at both queer-owned and -operated venues and in spaces that otherwise have no connection to the LGBTQ community.

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Until rather recently, the idea of seeing drag outside the confines of a gay bar was unheard of. Drag performances were necessarily held in nightlife venues — largely because being seen in drag essentially magnetized hate crimes. LGBTQs survived by hiding their lives in literal darkness. Drag events, like ballroom competitions, started so late because the performers were quite frequently sex workers coming from other jobs. But as drag has moved from a denigrated art form into art galleries and beyond, the medium is now being seen by the light of day — although there’s widespread disagreement within the community as to whether drag makeup looks good in sunlight.

As drag no longer only exists after midnight, suddenly hoards of new audiences are being drawn to the art form now that it’s more accessible. Like RuPaul’s “Drag Race,” drag brunches often appeal to audiences of straight women from a variety of economic backgrounds. Private drag brunches have become chic events for the hyper-wealthy, as seen in several episodes of “The Real Housewives” franchise. In fact, drag brunch has become so lucrative that some performers, like Ritzy, no longer work at nightclubs at all.

“Brunch is becoming the new gay nightlife,” she says. “I was able to survive working brunch and only brunch as my only gig for three years. And for the first two years that was only Sunday!”

Katrina Colby, a drag performer who works brunches at City Tap in Washington, D.C., and Red Star in Baltimore, says she sometimes makes close to 10 times as much money at a brunch than she would working a gig at night.

“For brunch shows I make anywhere from $150 to $1,200 dollars. A night-time show is somewhere between $30 and $150, but it really doesn’t get much past that,” says Colby.

Is Nightlife Over?

Considering the immense labor issues that drag performers are up against to this day, these kinds of earnings represent newfound freedom for artists who would otherwise likely be relegated to lives of poverty and strife. And it’s not just the queens who are making bank. The bars and restaurants themselves are raking in considerable profits from these events. Ethan Ashley, a manager at Nellie’s Sports Bar in Washington, D.C., broke down the numbers:

“Drag brunch is our bread and butter on weekends,” he says. “It makes up to $20,000 if we sell out. It depends a bit on how much people are drinking” during the two rounds of brunch seatings on any given Saturday. Compare that to a Monday night, which Ashley says is their slowest day of the week: “We would normally do like $2,000 or $3,000 on that night.”

Ryan Overberg, a manager at Therapy in New York City, didn’t offer specific estimates of profits, but agreed that brunch is a boon to his business, essentially adding a full night’s worth of profits to the week: “It’s an expensive thing to put on because it’s one of our biggest shows,” Overberg says. “It can sometimes be the equivalent of a really great Thursday night. It’s not quite [as profitable as] a weekend night, but we do well. … We’ve been sold out for the past two months.”

Many drag performers think that an added bonus of drag brunch is getting to act as ambassadors for the queer community, in that a lot of drag-brunch audiences may have never seen drag before. Because drag has become so commonplace — perhaps even oversaturated — within the gay community, some artists relish the opportunity to finally showcase their talents in front of audiences who show actual enthusiasm.

“Gay men are so fucking judgmental, you know this!” says Sinclair. “The straight, drunk women are easier to entertain. You don’t have to do as much to get their money. Gay men expect more because they go to shows regularly. … I appreciate drag brunch because it allows me to reach people who’ve never seen a drag show in their lives.”

“If you’re doing drag brunch you have to cater to a straight crowd,” Colby concurs. “But they appreciate you more. I don’t really like working for gays anymore unless the check is high-dollar. Gays couldn’t give a fuck less. Gays don’t come out to the gay bars anymore anyway, because they don’t — excuse my language — need to find dick at a bar anymore. Night shows are becoming more and more obsolete.”

Drag As Art

But a growing contingent of drag performers is increasingly critical of the drag brunch industrial complex. Because drag has traditionally served as a conduit of community healing or as a political act of gender transgression, many younger and anti-capitalist queers are questioning the assimilationist strain of drag brunch as a practice: If drag had been the artistic medium through which many queers found political liberation, what does it mean that drag is now becoming entertainment for predominantly heterosexual audiences? Can regurgitating heterosexual pop culture for heterosexual crowds even be considered an act of resistance or defiance — even if it serves an ambassadorial purpose? Does drag need to have artistic aspirations at all, or is earning a living enough of a goal for drag performers?

Credit: Voss Events / Facebook.com

Qhirst With a Q, a New York-based, non-binary drag performer, was deeply critical of what they see happening in the scene.

“It’s very hard for people to take [drag] seriously or give it any kind of respect as an actual art form,” Qhirst says. “It’s very hard for us to get out of bars and to be recognized as anything other than low-stakes, lowbrow, drunk entertainment. And brunch is already this stupid, cosmopolitan, urbanite thing — it’s just this frou-frou, gentrified, bougey thing. The best you can hope for is that it’s a really good racket. Drag brunch is the equivalent of if you want to be a real writer but the best you can hope for is writing product descriptions for a website.”

“I think of what I do as a form of self-expression,” Qhirst continues. “Drag is kind of special to me. I want me doing it to be an opportunity to connect with people that I care about, for us to share a space, and to have fun. I’m doing it for myself. But I guess I’m an outlier in that way — because of ‘Drag Race’ and all of these brands and corporations clamoring to get a cut of the drag pie.”

Another fear expressed by both Qhrist and Pariah was that the drag brunch would eventually go the way of jazzercise, Beanie Babies, and Furbies — that it’s simply a faddish bubble that will eventually burst, potentially leaving many unemployed or under-employed.

“We’re all going to look back and say, ‘God, remember drag brunch? Remember when everyone wanted to go to fucking drag brunch?’” Qhrist moaned sarcastically.

Brunch Beyond the Binary

In scanning advertisements for endless drag brunches, it’s rare to see performers outside the gender binary. What’s more common is a kind of traditional or conservative drag defined by high glamour and feminine glitz.

“It’s limiting,” explains Sinclair. “If you’re more of a club kid, or if your drag is not really what is considered mainstream or conventional — some drag performers don’t want to be a woman! — that’s a little more difficult to sell at a brunch.”

But if drag brunch has become unfriendly to those outside of the binary, to what extent is this genre of drag reinforcing gender stereotypes rather than subverting them? To what extent are bar owners just ruthlessly capitalizing on the newfound popularity of LGBTQ culture? These were precisely the questions Velma Blair had in mind when she started running the midnight drag brunch at AllWays Lounge and Theater in New Orleans.

“Most drag brunches are just commodifying queer culture,” says Blair. “A lot of people producing [drag brunches] don’t really have any stake in the drag community — they’re trying to do something that will make them money. The people there just think it’s a funny thing to do — they aren’t there for the artistry of it. It’s very entry-level, basic, non-threatening drag. In some ways it can approach the queer equivalent of a minstrel show? … With the midnight drag brunch I try to give audiences something more diverse, and for the brunch aspect I try to focus on queer food vendors that do pop-ups in town so that I’m able to support local businesses at the same time.”

Like Velma’s event, it’s slowly becoming more common for “alt” drag performers to create their own drag brunches — like the recently announced “Manmosa” show, a drag king showcase in Queens, N.Y. Whether these events will also begin to attract heterosexual onlookers as their main source of income remains to be seen.

Although there’s something inherently silly about drag brunch, the new paradigms that are playing out at these showcases represent bigger struggles for the queer community as LGBTQs are increasingly considered “normal” in the First World. Can the queer community retain its sense of individuality and identity, or will it increasingly bend to the whims of heterosexuals who continue to exert control over our civil rights?

The article The Drag Brunch Industrial Complex appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/drag-brunch-industrial-complex/

[epistolizer]

Hit and Run Commentary #126

Antifa insurgent Willlem Van Spronsen is being heralded as an hero in the mainstream media for his attack on a Seattle immigration facility. Wonder how long until New Wave Baptists hand down an edict demanding mere pewfillers flagellate themselves in homage to this revolutionary martyr.

Am trying to wrap my mind around New Wave Baptist thinking. Apparently a pewfilling angler that skipped three Sundays in row to go fishing should be subject to formalized church discipline. Likewise, a member wanting to resign from a congregation over the refusal to remove a book from the church bookstore by an author that allegedly abetted child molestation was denied PERMISSION to leave. Yet there is no outcry for discipline on the part of these sorts when ministries eagerly link to CD’s with cover art depicting the puffing of recreational cannabis or when a theologian calls for the hacking of the U.S. electoral system to prevent a Trump reelection. In fact both offenders are still upheld as beloved brothers in the faith most likely simply because they are Black.  

Apparently this is the debate topic of the day: I resolve that overall one is better off overall being a “momma’s boy” than “p---y whipped”. In most instances, a mother does not have an incentive to financially ruin her son and in most cases strives to ensure that he is not mistreated. The woman controlling a man through sex has no reason not to ruin the life of a man she can no longer manipulate or who no longer keeps her attention in a carnal manner.  What these woman jacked out of shape are actually articulating is a frustration and the inability to acquire the resources accumulated by a man that is a momma’s boy or adopted some iteration of MGTOW ideology. 

In an episode of the City Of Man podcast, Capitol Hill Baptist-linked theologian Thabiti Anyabwile denounced as a tendency the White church the reluctance to accept those as Christians who do not vote conservative.  But he himself recently remarked that you are satanic if you do not support reparations.  

In an episode of the podcast The City Of Man, Capitol Hill Baptist-linked theologian Thabiti Anyabwile denounced elevating White normativity to the level of Christian obligation. As an example, he referenced a panel on worship responding negatively to the possibility of Christian hop hop. If culturally expansive ministries want to make the case for the legitimacy of such artistic productions, perhaps these organizations should link to albums other than one depicting an image of an individual puffing what one assumes is recreational cannabis given that the title of the CD itself alludes to words associated with the use of controlled substances.   Furthermore, if Black people don’t like White folks’ worship music and vice versa, why not just go to a church where your preferred demographic predominates? These are not the days of the Pre-Reformation in which we live with only one church game in town.  

There is nothing in the Pledge of Allegiance insinuating that because an individual articulates its phraseology in reference to the United States that God is not the God of other nations. So just what other aspects of life internal to America must be curtailed and altered from the perspective of being concerned regarding what other countries think? And I was the one accused of spreading fear for daring to raise the question of what would happen to a congregation’s flag should a merger take place with a congregation where one of its elder’s claim to fame is his antipathy to ecclesiastical displays of patriotism.  

It’s been claimed that childless millennials that go to Disney parks are sad and weird.  Maybe so. But they are entitled to spend their excess vacation dollars anyway they want.  Vacation is about doing what you enjoy. Not pleasing those around you that in no sense provide for you. Maybe childless millennials that go to Disney are weird. But they are less disturbing than the gays that go to Disney and stick their tongues down each other’s throats in front of young children.  

If this is the route we want things to go, I would say that a church should be more ashamed over having a Wrestlemania style jumbotron, smoke machines, and effect lighting than a simple American flag.  

Apparently Pastor Matt Chandler speaks at Dallas Theological Seminary.  I remember when respectable dispensationalism considered you little better than a Catholic if you were a holy roller such as a Pentacostal or Charismatic.  

According to Pastor Matt Chandler in a sermon on racial reconciliation, it is insinuated that you ought to confess your “racial sins” to someone solely on the basis of what color they happen to be.  At that point, one really ought to leave such a church and never look back. That is especially sound advice in regards to Chandler’s own Village Church which is also facing a multimillion dollar molestation lawsuit.

In a Matt Chandler sermon at Dallas Theological Seminary on overcoming prejudice, an institution functionary admonished the need to repent of the cultural sins of our forefathers even if these misdeeds are more perceived than actual. Now does that include things said about and done to Catholics or are they not usually Black enough?

Just because a pastor or minister is wracked with White guilt over his lack of diverse friends, there is no reason an entire congregation needs to be beaten over the head about it. In all fairness, I don’t really hang out with all that many White people either.

If the Obama’s are so outraged at President Trump’s characterization of Baltimore, why didn’t the former first couple settle on property there for their post-presidential residence rather than in a swanky, upscale section of Washington, DC.   Aren’t there a number of open air markets in Baltimore of the sort that Michelle claims to adore?  

In a Matt Chandler video on racial reconciliation, it was insinuated that the true church is obligated to listen to the music of and eat the food of different cultures.  If you attend a church, there might not be much you can do about assorted rhythms assaulting your tympanic membranes. But the moment you are told what you are obligated to eat in order to receive the approval of the COMMUNITY, you have begun taking dangerous steps into cult territory.  

In a video on racial reconciliation posted by Matt Chandler of Village Church, it was lamented that most Americans will only have friends of another race if the person thinks like they do.  So just how deep into our closest confidences are we obligated to bring those advocating the forcible redistribution of property and resources or the proponents of assorted forms of revolutionary violence and jihadism? To what extent are conservatives and related traditionalists obligated to alter their own underlying worldview to placate ecumenicalist social engineers?  

In a video by Matt Chandler of Village Church on racial reconciliation, it is emphasized that the individual’s preference does not matter in regards to worship music. That might be true if you want to remain at a church as a paid staff member. But has news about the Protestant Reformation not yet reached certain people? Dear reader, if things are that onerous at your church, you have the freedom to go elsewhere if you are already driving wherever else you want to go.  You don’t even have to go back at all if things have burdened your conscience to that degree and there is no hope of improvement or you derive no sense of purpose or satisfaction playing the gadfly role.  

It was insinuated by Pastor Matt Chandler in a video on racial reconciliation that you are racist if you do not welcome racial minorities into your home. Frankly, I don’t really welcome that many other Caucasians. They really have no reason to be there.  

American cities are so overrun with rodents that the nation is on the verge of a bubonic plague outbreak.  Should that happen, any categorizing the epidemic as anything other than a glorious environmental correction will be condemned as an enemy of sound ecology.  

Too bad tolerancemongers are not as concerned about rodents infesting Baltimore as they are about Trump’s characterization of the situation.

In a sermon on racial reconciliation, Pastor Matt Chandler insinuated that there needs to be verbalized confession of sins between those of various racial groups. So how does this work: “Hey mommacita or brown sugar, I’m sorry that I like your jiggle when you strut.”  

In agitating about White privilege, Gospel Coalition operative Matt Chandler lamented how in his youth the local high school football games were diverse but the churches were not. That is because the town probably only had the one football team but most likely multiple churches.  So who decides what congregation closes up shop to placate some leftwing activist’s arbitrary preferences? Chandler can’t even let enough control go of the churches he has planted for them to operate as autonomous independent congregations. His preferred ecclesiastical modality is the multisite paradigm.  That is where in most instances you go to a satellite campus to watch a live stream feed from central headquarters.  

Does it really matter if White folks worship in churches composed primarily of other White people and Black people in  churches composed primarily mostly of Black people so long as one congregation is not planning to go vandalize or firebomb their counterparts?  

In condemning seminarians establishing independent congregations rather than coming under the authority of megachurch potentates, how is Matt Chandler appreciably different than a medieval pontiff insisting that there is no legitimate church outside of Rome’s direct authority?  Maybe if Chandler did not oversee a church of 14,000, if the average church had an average attendance of 100 people, maybe nearly 150 people would be able to be employed by smaller independent congregations.  

If you are so mentally weak that seeing the flag of a country in a church building in that country inflicts upon you irrevocable psychological harm, perhaps it might be best if you avoided international travel.

In ramblings psyching himself up to perpetrate his atrocity, mass murderer Santino Legen wrote, “Why overcrowd towns and pave more open space to make room for hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white tw**s?” In attempting to cast this incident solely as racial, the comment directed against Whites is largely being ignored. If we are obligated to delve into the philosophical causes of these sorts of tragedies, isn’t population control and radical environmentalism just as much to blamed in this incident?  

Considerable debate has erupted over remarks regarding the propriety of childless millennials vacationing at Disney parks. But what about scrutinizing an assertion made in the initial tirade suggesting that simply because a woman has a child she should be allowed to skip the line because neither she nor her whelp have the patience to wait and are too important to be bothered with the inconveniences that beset mere mortals?  So unless a customer is willing to pay extra for some sort of timed access permit, just because you have spawned that does not entitle an individual to resources where access is based upon other objective market criteria.  

By Frederick Meekins