#i want to maximize my servitude

[dollservant]

mmmbbbb my master is soooo perfect and sweet and sexy and kind aansbdhdhrhsmvn i swear i've never been happier in my life, my desire to make sure this man never has to lift a finger if he doesn't feel like it grows daily i want to dedicate my life to maximizing my master's pleasure

[publius-library]

What was Hamilton's opinion on people of color? (Outside of slavery, like just them in general)

Well, firstly I'd like to narrow down which people of color we're discussing. Hamilton's opinion of Indigenous people is pretty much the same as his opinion of black people, which generally boils down to being that they are people and not property. However, he was very suspicious of the natives and their loyalty. Federalists did not support westward expansion, so there's that. Hamilton, as someone highly invested in finance and economy, believed that the country's best bet was to maintain amiable relations with Indigenous tribes.

As for people of color outside of Indigenous and black people, I do not know anything of his opinion.

Now, to the elephant in the room. Hamilton explicitly discusses his views on slavery and African Americans in a letter to John Jay on March 14, 1779. I just had to analyze this letter not too long ago, so it's fresh on my mind.

In this letter, he defends John Laurens' plan to raise black battalions to fill the extreme need for more men in the war. Hamilton endorses this plan to Jay, who was serving as the president of the Continental Congress, where Laurens would be presenting his plan. In this letter, he states,

"The contempt we have been taught to entertain for the blacks, makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience; and an unwillingness to part with property of so valuable a kind will furnish a thousand arguments to show the impracticability or pernicious tendency of a scheme which requires such a sacrifice."

What I find interesting here is his acknowledgment of the fact that racism is learned, not inherited. I haven't seen anyone else make this specification from this time period, so that is very interesting to me. The next sentence seems contradictory from a modern perspective, since if the previous clause hadn't been there, it could seem as if it came from someone who was more moderate or centrist. Knowing that, during this period, Hamilton was the most opposed to slavery that he would be, I see this as almost foreshadowing his near apathy towards slavery later in life. We're not talking about slavery specifically here, but that is noteworthy.

Hamilton also comments on his opinion of what kind of soldiers black people will be:

I have not the least doubt, that the negroes will make, very excellent soldiers, with proper management... It is a maxim with some great military judges, that the sensible officers can hardly be too stupid; and on this principle it is thought that the Russians would make the best troops in the world, if they were under other officers than their own... I mention this, because I frequently hear it object to the scheme of embodying negroes that they are too stupid to make soldiers. This is so far from appearing to me a valid objection that I think their want of cultivation (for their natural faculties are probably as good as ours) joined to that habit of subordination which they acquire from a life of servitude will make them sooner became soldiers than our White inhabitants. Let officers be men of sense and sentiment, and nearer the soldiers approach to machines perhaps the better.

That's a long quote, but trust me, the actual paragraph is far longer.

So, Hamilton's overall point here is that good officers make good soldiers, but in that he gives a very good picture of how he views black soldiers. He says that their natural faculties are probably as good as that of white soldiers (whether you think this is him not fully believing it, or attempting to avoid offending Jay, that's up to you). He also mentions that he believes their "habit of subordination" results from being enslaved, which is something his contemporaries, such as Jefferson, have only stated as being a possibility. He, unlike Jefferson, believed that it is the factual origin of this stereotype.

His final comment may draw some attention, since the use of the word "machine" can appear quite dehumanizing. In this instance, he is referring to the behaviors of soldiers as being machinelike. Where I believe the dehumanization aspect comes in is where he believes it is easier for black people to fit this characteristic than white people. Though, taking into consideration his previous statement, it makes sense. Hamilton was very careful with his words, and this choice seems a bit harsh to me, so that's why I think its noteworthy.

Overall, the impression that we get from this letter is that Hamilton believes those enslaved people of African consent are inherently equal to the white population, however the centuries of enslavement have greatly limited their opportunities that would typically be awarded to white people, such as basic education, and, you know, freedom.

After Laurens' death, Hamilton's anti-slavery passion highly fades. He does become a part of the New York Manumission Society, and he never says anything that contradicts the ideas stated in the above letter, he doesn't say much else to add to this. Hamilton knew, even back in 1779, that abolition was unattainable at the time, but I also believe that it wasn't as much of a priority to him. Unlike Laurens, it wasn't a core value of his.

I hope this helps. It's pretty hard to discuss race outside of the context of slavery in this time period, but I work with what I've got. Thanks for the ask!!

[mousegard]

for the ask thing

rhea

favorite thing about them

oh god. where do i start. she's so fucked up and she's so hot. she's an absolute mess on every level. my daughter who has every disease. my poor little meow meow. she did everything wrong and i love her for it. she's so bad and it makes me want to clap my hands and rub them together with glee. all of the rest of my answers to this meme are my favorite thing about her

least favorite thing about them

the fandom

aside from that, her lack of relevance in azure moon sucks. i'm glad that at least she got more focus in azure gleam, as much of a cursed route as that was, if only because it just makes it so obvious how incredibly and delightfully toxic rhea has been for fodlan and its people

favorite line

every line rhea gets is just fucking. so good. cherami leigh is perfectly cast in the english dub. her lines are dripping with menace when they need to be, unsettling when they need to be, and vulnerable exactly when they need to be. every fucking line she gets in cf is just so, so good and the voice acting brings it all to life perfectly.

rhea's lines when byleth chooses to protect edelgard in the holy tomb are my favorite. especially the sheer contempt you can hear in "you are just another failure"

chills every time. the truth comes out there. exactly how she sees byleth and exactly how she sees humanity as a whole

brOTP

one of the fascinating things about rhea is that nobody is on an equal footing to her. not seteth or flayn, her fellow nabateans, whom she never answers to for any of the decisions she makes, despite seteth being nominally her advisor. not catherine or jeralt, who were brought under her wing in exchange for their servitude as knights, one of whom was successfully groomed by her and one of whom wasn't and got out while he still had a chance.

honestly cyril is the only human character in the game that rhea doesn't appear to have a purely transactional relationship with, and... he's a child. a child who cleans her room and does chores for her. okay that's pretty transactional now that i think about it.

so, given that rhea doesn't have anyone she can be bros with, my brotp for rhea is...

rhea/catherine. you get the more wholesome ending of a deposed rhea retreating from the world and catherine looking after her, which is quite bittersweet. but you can also be delightfully fucked up with it. imagine if cf ended with the black eagle strike force being routed in fhirdiad and fresh off a decisive church victory over the empire catherine had to live with the thousands of civilians she'd murdered on rhea's orders, with nowhere to go but deeper into rhea's arms. hhhhhhhhhh

OTP

i don't think rhea is capable of having a healthy romantic or sexual relationship with any other playable character in the game (she might have had one with wilhelm, but that was 1000 years ago), but a relationship doesn't have to be healthy to be incredibly fascinating and compelling. that is why my rhea otp is rhea and cf!dimitri. the feedback loop of bloodthirsty revenge they would enforce for each other would be fun to watch... from several miles away.

nOTP

rhea/byleth. like... rhea outright doesn't see byleth as a person (in stark contrast to the other humans in her life, who she at least understands are people and not merely vessels) until the end of ss/vw and tried to erase their entire identity without their foreknowledge or consent. that's not something i can ship. i can fantasize about how fucked up it is i guess but as a ship? nah

also rhea/edelgard is one of those ships which i like mainly for horny reasons but under certain circumstances it goes instantly to squick. and it's a fine line but a line nonetheless.

random headcanon

this isn't so much of a headcanon as it is an interpretation of sothis' characterization through her behavior in 3 hopes, but i believe that sothis felt no affection for the nabateans she created; they were just tools to her, and she cared about them as much as a paperclip maximizer cares about the paperclips it makes. and that makes it extra tragic for rhea, who wastes her entire life after slaying nemesis trying to recapture a maternal love that only really existed in her own head.

gives me real nier automata vibes. isn't that hilarious? doesn't it make you laugh?

unpopular opinion

rhea is the villain everyone accuses edelgard of being. she's a sympathetic and fascinating character, but at the end of the day she's an alien colonizer who spent 1000 years fucking up an entire continent. and she didn't have to be any of those things. you know it. i know it. she knows it

song i associate with them

See these eyes so green I can stare for a thousand years Colder than the moon

It's been so long

Feel my blood enraged It's just the fear of losing you Don't you know my name?

You've been so long

And I've been putting out the fire with gasoline

favorite picture of them

SageOfAnys

frogbians

[loverofpaperwork]

F.A. Hayek Road to Serfdom

A sometimes quoted gospel of the conserative base in America is F. A. Hayek's work Road to Surfdom, usually quoted alongside other problematic works like the Black Book of Communism or Thomas payne's numerous works calling for separation from England. Problematic in the sense of being a highly persuasive text rather than academic. I would point out that Hayek disagrees with many aspects of American politics, especially the parties.

Hayek was born in Austria in 1899 and graduated from the college of Vienna after the First World War. He would later go to London for education in economics. I only point this out that he experienced England at the height of its colonial power, and Europe during a time of great political turmoil. His theories are likewise shaped and molded by the great maddening of the world. Communism itself would become popular in much of the world during this time and perhaps he saw it as a threatening force to the liberties of many of his countrymen.

His work is not a refutation of any government system, but a critique of government power. He believes that any rights enshrined to the people will naturally be surrender to the government in the course of business. That governments inherently require a subjugation of the rights of individuals in order to function.

So my issue with his theory is that he cannot model the behavior of thousands of different groups. His assumptions are invalid because people do not have inherent rights other to think for themselves and to die. All other privileges are social constructs, which is why countries have to keep spelling them out. What he calls the road to serfdom is *check notes* paying taxes? owning property? being able to use a bank? employees washing their hands after using the bathroom?

Hayek's extreme libertarian views undermine the value his work has. Economics theories are both mathematical formulas that explains markets, and legislative suggestions to politicians. I find it wise to ignore the proscription side of economics and focus more on how the math works, its assumptions are more important than its conclusions.

Every person performs complex economic value statements every day with how they spend their time and their money. A wise rule of thumb is that people do not act in their own best interest. Another rule is that when left alone, people tend to maximize happiness in the short term. Applying these two assumptions to government, then we can understand that long term projects must needs be influenced by the countries government. A group of individuals will not build hospitals, roads. factories, etc. if they can get something more useful now. This is one of the many reasons billionaires suck ass. They only act for their own best interest in the short term, like buy twitter, launch cars into space for no reason, build a metaverse that doesn't work, scam bitcoin, scam people looking to lose weight. The list goes on. But the actual important stuff is being done by the government.

What hayek calls the road to surfdom is just how human nature works. It isn't a bad thing. When I read it I thought it was going to be some sort of Ayn Aand kind of thing, and yep, it is basically academic Atlas Shrugged. it doesn't know what it wants to say, and it meanders all over the place. The funny thing is that Hayek had literal servants in London, and wrote a book about the road to servitude. I don't think he asked them about why they serve. Its capitalism at its finest being exercised in a class system. People serve because they want to survive, not because they surrendered rights to the government. Maybe that is what it looks like when examining multiple generations of people, but individuals when put to the sword often choose to live. Serfs existed in Europe and England as landless tenants living off the welfare of the lord, welfare being taxed most of their property every year. As landless individuals they had very little rights, but they weren't slaves. The lord controlled marriages, and often had exclusive rights to claim their children as servants/concubines.

So what did each individual surrender to the government on their own road to surfdom. According to Hayek, specific rights, but in reality, they choose to live instead of being slaughtered, or starved. They had a choice between life and death. This is what Hayek ignores in his book. He uses such a whitewashed version of what serfdom is and British history that the books message is lost. But to be fair it was inpolitic to talk about these kind of things in 1940's Europe, what with what was going on.

[headspace-hotel]

okay so one of the most interesting/relevant things my current history class has taught me

I learned in high school that the first African slaves were brought to America in 1619. But here’s the thing. We don’t actually know if they were slaves or indentured servants.

And here’s why that’s significant: Slavery hadn’t really fully become racialized back then. Likewise, there wasn’t yet the idea that African=slave, necessarily. In the years following 1619, there were African slaves, indentures, and free people in North America. In the 1600’s, race wasn’t really even a fully mature concept. From my reading, people didn’t necessarily see skin color as constituting “race” or see “race” as an immutable, biological quality.

What changed? European countries wanted to maximize their profits from their colonies in the Americas, and it was most profitable to own people as slaves. Literally what caused it was just that life expectancy in the colonies increased and it was more profitable to own a person’s labor for life.

It’s insane; in Virginian laws in the 1600’s you can see the transition to a racialized view of the world. In 1643 laws regulating the behavior of “servants” didn’t even mention race. Punishments for indentured servants, for things such as running away, often involved having more years added to their servitude.

In 1661, a law is passed in Virginia that uses the term “negroe.” In 1680, the law regulates the behavior of enslaved people further, making it illegal for any “negroe or other slave” to move about freely without a permit or to carry a weapon. Runaways who resist being apprehended can now be punished with death. The 1680 law has a bit that is interestingly worded: “...if any negroe or any other slave shall presume to lift up his hand in opposition against any Christian...” This is an echo of the viewpoint that religious identity was the most important part of a person’s identity. Watch what happens:

In 1691, the law punishes and prohibits “negroes, mulattoes, and Indians intermarrying with English, or other white” people, and prohibits people from setting “negroes” and “mulattoes” free. The law has fully constructed the idea of racial identity (notice that “white” exists now). Words denoting a person’s status of servitude have become increasingly replaced by “racial” indentifying terms (the law doesn’t say ‘you can’t free slaves,’ it says ‘you can’t free black people.’) IIRC, around this time laws were passed making enslaved status hereditary as well.

(All of these can be found in the book Colonial and Revolutionary America by Alan Gallay (it’s a textbook and I don’t particularly recommend it but it has some good resources) who in turn is quoting from The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619.)

I guess my point here is that it tends to be taught like “Europeans thought Africans were inferior so they thought it was ok to enslave them” but it seems to be closer to the truth that “slavery was profitable so Africans were increasingly considered inferior so enslaving them could be justified.” Like the belief in race didn’t create racialized slavery; it was the other way around. People think of the idea of “race” as being obvious and racism being a Just How It Was In Ye Olden Days, but “race” as we know it? Was literally just constructed as a justification for evil. It’s not something that people naturally construct in their understanding of the world.

Likewise before like 1650 or so, we don’t see English eyewitnesses to Native American nations assigning the idea of “race” to them. English people literally thought that if English people were born and brought up in the Americas, they would look like Native Americans because they thought characteristics like skin color were at least partially environmental. (The book I read about this is Indians and English by Karen Ordahl Kupperman and I highly recommend it.) Kupperman goes so far as to argue that it’s likely that English depictions at the time showed Native Americans as having more “European” features not because the artists were intentionally white-washing them, but because from their perspective a person’s features were not important in portraiture for depicting who they were; it was their clothing and posture and dress and the objects they were portrayed with that was supposed to depict that. (She then goes into a tangent about English portraiture at the time and it slaps.)

I don’t know. I have a problem with how racism in the past is treated with “they didn’t know any better” or painted with ignorance. The idea of race isn’t even that old.

Like, literally, the Europeans didn’t think it was okay to pillage and exploit the Americas because of their belief in race. The idea of “race” was formed out of their desire to pillage and exploit.

[ladykissingfish]

The Great Akatsuki Bake-Off

*this was a request in my inbox, I’m so sorry Anonymous I accidentally deleted it before I could reply, but I saw your message and here’s the response! ❤️*

Premise: The Akatsuki is broke af (again), and Pein comes up with the idea of having a bake sale to earn money. Every member of the Akatsuki makes a dessert to sell; chaos (or hilarity) ensues.

**Also I picture them setting up tables outside of one of the Akatsuki hideout caves which of course is equipped with a fully functioning kitchen because why not Jim**

Pein

It was his idea, he’s the leader, so naturally he ain’t cooking. The most the Pein-body will do is sit in the kitchen with Konan while she cooks, offering his opinion or praise.

Kisame

Kisame isn’t the biggest fan of sweets, so is at a bit of a loss for what to make. In the end, he decides to go with something that’s decidedly more savory than sweet; bacon-flavored scones with a maple syrup glazing. This requires some kneading and precise shaping, the latter of which requires small, delicate fingers that Kisame borrows Konan for. Should be noted that he wears a pink Kiss The Cook apron, and he blushes like crazy when Konan reads it and delivers one to his cheek. He gets a bit over-exuberant with the icing, getting more of it on the table than the actual scones. However, the end result is light, fluffy, and absolutely delicious. Deidara especially loves the bacon aspect, and is able to snitch a great number of these until Kakuzu catches him and forces him to pay up.

Deidara

Deidara would make a classic lava cake. He’d know absolutely nothing about this dessert beforehand; he’d be going through a cookbook, his eyes would fixate on the word “lava”, and he’d be sold. Sasori insists that he put on rubber gloves beforehand, because “Nobody wants your hand-drool in their food, brat.” Lava cake requires a very delicate touch and precise timing, something that Deidara has had to become familiar with when deploying his arsenal of bombs. Yet despite being careful he would have to start and re-start this mix many times; maybe he gets eggshells in the batter here, or mistakes oil for milk there. The inside of a lava cake has to smooth and liquid-y but the outside has to be soft yet firm; a single minute in the oven can make the difference between wonderful and awful for these little cakes. When he finally perfects one, he’s ecstatic; but the rest of the group is horrified, at how destroyed the kitchen is. Chocolate batter and powdered sugar covering every wall; yet, somehow, the guy himself remains spotless. Also, Deidara has made another critical error; he assumed that because the recipe was for a cake, it was for a LARGE cake that he could cut into sections and sell piece by piece. However, lava cakes are always small, individual desserts ... and Deidara has only made ONE. Still, he’ll take his one beauty and sell it almost immediately, leaving him time to wander around and filch “free samples” from everyone else’s dishes.

Zetsu

Nobody wants Zetsu trying to cook, because everyone is terrified of what he’d put into his creations. However, White Zetsu insists that (t)he(y) wants to participate, so the others hesitantly let him do so (with everyone periodically coming in to monitor him). His contribution? Pie. Zetsu knows that the key to delicious pie is in the light flakiness of the crust, and he creates several pies that literally melt in the mouth. And he doesn’t just do one flavor; he does apple, blueberry, cherry, and something he calls “surprise berry” ((which is really just a mix of raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry). Before Tobi goes to help Itachi, he’s in charge of helping Zetsu gather up the fruit, and he helps to peel and core and pit and wash until “my hands are really sleepy Zetsu-san!” Zetsu thinks his pies are perfect creations as a whole but Kakuzu insists he cuts them into individual slices to maximize profits, which White Zetsu balks over but Black Zetsu tells him to be quiet about.

Konan

Konan is a delicate, beautiful flower, so naturally anything she makes would reflect this. After much deliberation, she decides to make her version of a layered lemon mascarpone cake. The cake itself is a wonderfully moist vanilla sponge infused with lemon curd, layered with a thick lemon, honey and mascarpone cream, topped with fresh berries, and a light sprinkle of chopped pecans. At first she was only going to make one cake and portion it out into about 20 small pieces; but the demand for it was so high that Kakuzu told her he’d stay and sell the rest while she got back into the kitchen and made another. She’s by far the neatest chef in the kitchen, as she cleans up her mess as she goes so when she’s through, all she has to wash is the empty cake pan itself. She makes sure to save a large piece to secretly take to Nagato later; it’s been a long time since he’s had anything sweet to eat.

Kakuzu

Kakuzu doesn’t want to cook; he’d rather be the one running the sale. However he recognizes that the more desserts they have the more profit they can make, so he grudgingly makes a few trays of brownies. His secret ingredient? Sour cream. At first everyone sees him putting this into his mix and think he’s gone crazy; however, after they try one ((and don’t think for a second he’s not charging his fellow teammates for even a tiny sliver)) they’re blown away by how good they are. After he sets his items on the table, he’s the one who collects the money from the customers. Has to be talked down from the exorbitant prices that he tries to charge people at first. “How much for a piece of blueberry pie?” “500,000 ¥.”

Sasori

He really isn’t into baking (because why would he be? he doesn’t eat) but he knows how to read and follow a recipe. After some careful thought, he chooses to make cupcakes. At first he resolves only to make a dozen, and to keep it all one simple flavor: the chocolate with vanilla frosting that’s in the recipe. Yet as he stands there, a feeling takes hold of him; he remembers happier times, perched on a stool in the kitchen and watching/helping his grandmother as she cooked. That nostalgia drives him to get more creative, and make MUCH more than intended. Some of his creations are great; such as his ginger-chocolate cupcakes with fudge icing. But others, like his broccoli and carrot cake topped with “spicy” cream cheese, not so much. Regardless, the majority of his creations sell, which Sasori’s pleased about. Should be noted that Kakuzu did not entirely trust Sasori not to put some kind of poison into his dessert, so he forced Hidan to sneak and taste-test everything (as he’s the only one who would regenerate from certain death). But Hidan wouldn’t know arsenic from cinnamon; and he winds up with a hell of a stomach-ache after his forced culinary servitude.

Itachi and Tobi

Seeing as how he loves dango so much, Itachi decides to make several dozen sticks of the tri-colored sweet rice dumplings. He keeps the pink dumpling the common strawberry flavor, and the white plain, but he does something special with the green ball, flavoring it with vanilla extract and green tea. Because Tobi is a nightmare in the kitchen (and because he needs supervision when it comes to sweets), Itachi allows him to help, mainly in the form of sticking the dumplings neatly on the stick once they’re shaped. He’s a good helper, except for when Itachi takes his eyes off of him, as he likes to add icing, sprinkles, and a variety of decadent extras that don’t belong on this simple dessert. And it’s a good thing that Itachi makes so many, seeing as they BOTH sneak and eat quite a few when the other is distracted. Tobi is very helpful when it comes to pushing their wares, as his carefree, childlike demeanor attracts customers to their table.

Hidan

Hidan wants something that’s visually representative of him, so what does he make? Red velvet cake bars. The outside is covered with a white-silver frosting, but when you cut into it, the deep red of the cake greatly resembles blood. Hidan isn’t the best at baking (or cooking in general) so he asks Konan to help him when she’s not occupied with her own dish. He’s surprisingly calm and conscientious in the kitchen, keeping his swearing to a minimum and being extra-careful with measuring out ingredients and waiting on the oven to do its thing. He borrows Kisame’s Kiss The Cook apron, only he crosses out the second O and replaces it with a C. His bars come out slightly uneven but really good nonetheless. However, being Hidan, he can’t resist throwing in a prank; he saves some of the cake batter and holds it in his mouth, then, after taking a bite of someone else’s fare, claims that it’s poisoned and spits “blood” out of his mouth, which freaks out their early customers until Kakuzu catches him and exiles him back inside.

[dollydeez]

Chapter One Sneak Peek

I’m currently rewriting the ending and haven’t done final edits yet, but I thought I’d go ahead and post the first chapter of Lesbian Robots From Space to give people an idea of what I’m going for with this project. So here it is, Chapter One: Get Lost!

I spent most of my free time wandering around the space station. There wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen, but I’m well known enough in this sector that I pick up just as much business wandering around as sitting in my office. It’s a rough part of the galaxy, so it’s not uncommon for your affairs to get FUBAR. There’s four levels to the thing, going from the hangar at the gravitational bottom to the flats at the top, with a shopping centre and office section respectively in between. I don’t know why old space movies liked spherical buildings, can you imagine how annoying that’d be? Use a cube like a thinking being and maximize your available space. If my flat had a curved ceiling I’d start a riot. And having the hangar in the middle, I mean I guess for military constructions but what the fat cats want for their civilian developments is for people to have to walk through as much commercial space as possible.

My favourite part was checking out the hangar, and not just because it was a hotspot for people on the run. So many ships, from all over, docked here. Swear to god, I saw one that looked exactly like a pickle. Funniest shit I’ve ever seen. I mean, until the crew started spilling out and medics had to be called. People don’t land here because they want to check it out, they land here because they are out of options. We are the Saint Jude of scum. The regular clientele had an effect on the shops offered. Shite specific for those living here were automated, usually owned by the station. Stuff like furniture stores, clothes shops and the grocer’s. There were a couple people trying to hack out a living with their cooking, but… let’s just say if they were good they’d be elsewhere. Hell do I know, I never went into any of those disease factories. Most of the other shops sold guns, parts and medical supplies. It wasn’t the worst place in the world to poke around, it was always entertaining to see some lost yokel argue with someone, who’s surrounded by guns mind you, seemingly unaware that this is absolutely the place your annoying corpse would be chucked into space. I was good friends with Doc, the lad who ran the station’s main medical bay. He was a good kid, just made some mistakes early on and had to move his practice off world. Well, he wasn’t bad. Every so often he’d get bored doing his work. You’d know when to keep your issues to yourself when you saw some poor bastard limping around the food court with the wrong number of limbs, or the right number but on the wrong side. He usually stayed up in his office, however, across from mine. We were friendly enough, and he told his staff to let me wander around the wards.

The limited number of staff made this an absolutely desperate place to seek medical attention. If you weren’t of the species represented in the OR, you might have to cling to life as some doofus flips through a book trying to figure out what the hell you are. So, why not have a little conversation? I’d swoop in, say something about how they seemed to be in some heap of trouble, and most of the time I’d get a job. Money up front of course, and if they argued this point I’d make sure they were clear on how friendly I was with the medic bay. This tactic meant that sometimes they’d take my card and never be heard from again. Which is fine, credits spend the same, but it doesn’t do much for word of mouth. I knew I’d hit the jackpot when someone, gushing blood, would look up with wide eyes and ask if I was Lisa Dean. Why yes, and your price just doubled. Hey, if they know my track record I can put it up front rather than racking up bullshit expenses. If they argue about the rate their buddy got, I’d tell them that if I wasn’t worth it I wouldn’t get recommended. Here I hand them my card, because if they’re bleeding there’s someone who caused that blood and they can get looked for somewhere else. But if they approach me as I’m wandering the rest of the station, I’d invite them up to my office.

I’m still proud of how well I fixed up the place; when I moved in it was little more than a ratty little hole in the wall, wallpaper peeling, lightbulb flickering, dark and damp, reeking of mold, somehow there was a leak from the flats upstairs despite the fact this is a space station and, well, that feels concerning. But I’d moved in with plenty of disposable income and plenty of time, so I made use of the automated stores down stairs. I thought it’d be neat to get some wood inside there, so there was a jarring feeling when you walk in from the outside. Most of the station is boring polished steel, blinking lights, then you enter my office and it’s wood. Getting books for the shelf was a pain, it’s the one thing the station doesn’t sell, so for a while I looked like a real cunt with plenty of shelf space and a handful of books. People would ask about it, which was annoying but, alright, it was a compounding factor on how shady it all seemed, and I’d tell them I’d lost most of my books in the move and was waiting for them to arrive. Which was true enough, at least enough to shut them up about it. But they’d sit across from my desk and tell me the details of their woes, then I’d tell them how I’d solve it for them. It was a pretty good system. Sometimes, I’d have to get them back into the office to go over some details or expenses. I started out my practice letting the expenses slide in exchange for a favour, which people are usually grateful enough to accept, so at this point it was generally understood that you should pay your expenses when I tell you to. When I wanted to get out of the flat but didn’t want to wander around the station, I’d hang out in my office. People coming in at these times were the most annoying, because usually if I don’t want to do a job I can get out of it easily. In the medbay, they’re dying so they’re not in the position to chase after me. Elsewhere, I can either pretend they’ve got the wrong person or give some extravagant price that they won’t concede to. Every so often, I got roped into a job I don’t want to do and I resent it. I even resent it when people come into my office uninvited and put me in the awkward position of turning them away. Usually if I’m upfront about how I find their case boring or trivial, they’ll get all offended and leave. Some require more pushing.

The day began normally. I got up, got ready, and headed out into the world. I didn’t have much going on, and was on the edge of liking it that way. The station was pretty dead for once, with the usually chaotic and filled hangar being nearly empty. I think the only ships there might have belonged to the few residents that owned one. I felt sorry, and still do, for the poor fuckers stuck on that hellhole. Usually what happened was that someone, not knowing better, would land from a nearby planet with little more than a dream and an idea of the cheap real estate. Then they’d chop their ship at one of the shops upstairs, grab a place and a store front, and slowly regret their decision. It was cheap real estate, almost offensively so, but that was because no one in their right mind would show up unless under duress. Sure, Doc might get a poor family that’d gained just enough capital to get up there for his skills, but with orderlies mostly running the OR they usually were disappointed. Then they’d have a “well, we’re here, sad and hungry” meal from one of the subpar restaurants before heading back to their planet. So those who sold their way off to settle here were more or less stuck in relative poverty. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be happy if a legitimately talented chef or whatever risked everything to set up shop here and succeeded their way back off, but I’ve never seen it happen. Even when someone has been somewhat of a draw, it was never enough to get a ship and enough money to set up somewhere nicer. The only one I’ve seen get close is Synthia Gray, who garnered good reviews and quite a few people going out of their way to try her food. But the area’s too dangerous for anyone who could have a real impact, or the masses that might do the same, to come by. I just remember them packing up all her stuff one day, saying it’d been auctioned off. Turns out she decided to try her luck leaving the station, only without a ship or a suit. Sweet girl, I was always sorry it happened to her, but it was inevitable as soon as she stepped foot here. People don’t leave, not when they’re attached to it financially.

My theory is that the owners rig the price just so in order to attract desperate people. Those people pay rent, usually two forms of rent, while buying all their goods from the company and paying “taxes” on all the money they make. It’s an absolute racket, designed to keep this sorry excuse of a space station staffed enough to keep it used and profitable. Most people end up going into debt after settling. If the company had a heart, they’d offer some sort of way off when people go broke, but instead they allow people to run up the score. It’s indentured servitude to make the station seem full and welcoming to anyone willing to put money into a bad investment.

In any case, I was one of the few fortunate enough to have a ship still in the hangar. Which was good news for both me and the station itself, as I needed it to work. Can’t quite look into things if I’m stuck on a hunk of metal orbiting aimlessly around some nothing gas giant. I like to keep it tuned up, making sure it’s ready to go at a moment’s notice and taking it for a short spin every so often to make sure it can, in fact, work. I love my ship, but I feel like other people feel that on an entirely different level. It’s a reliable and necessary tool, but I don’t see much need in worrying about it being clean or looking nice or whatever. I’ll get a Wash Me on the window if I haven’t taken it out in too long, but I’ll just scrub it off. As long as it gets me from point A to point B I’m happy with it. After I gave it a good look over, because what the fuck else was I going to do, I headed up to the shopping area to wander around for a little bit. It was boring. Even Doc’s was mostly empty, with the one person being looked after having cut himself deeply out of sheer clumsiness. I wasn’t quite ready to go back to the flat, I wanted to keep it a space I felt good in, so I headed back to my office. And there was someone waiting for me. I did not like this, and I’m still not super happy about it.

She was sat in my office chair, usually reserved for active clients, and dressed in all black. Even when I walked in, she continued boohooing into her snot rag, you know how these mucus gremlins are, with loud and halting cries. I could see flakes of red hair poking out of her garish black hat, complete with a little veil in front of her face. I cleared my throat and she finally turned around.

“Are you Lisa Dean?”

“That’s what it says on the door.”

I made my way to my desk, and she looked up at me from her hunched posture with wet eyes. I had to awkwardly shimmy between the close wall and my desk, an act I don’t like doing in front of people who might be deciding to pay me, before sitting down. She could hardly put words together and babbled incoherently.

“I’m guessing someone’s dead?”

Mistake. This set her off with a loud wail and I had to wait it out. I flipped through an old magazine on my desk and cursed myself for not picking up a newspaper. Apparently those skis were still available with an exclusive discount. Eventually her sobs started to stabilize and it seemed as though she were about to speak, so I tilted the magazine down.

“My wife… she’s gone!”

This had my attention. A lover, possibly murdered, possibly missing, but either way a mystery? Grand, sounds to be quite the adventure.

“So, in your words, what’s happened?”

She sniffled a bit, then took a few deep breaths to collect herself.

“I woke up one day and she was gone, with a note left saying she’d left and her ship was gone. But I know she would have never done something like that!”

“I’m not saying I won’t take the case, but given the evidence she just left don’t you think this getup is a bit much?”

“She would never! She would never do such a thing, the possibility wouldn’t even be in her programming it’s so antithetical-”

“Whoa, stop right there. Her programming?”

“She was a robot, but what we had was so real.”

“Buy another.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your bot babe was defective. Buy. Another.”

I brought the magazine back up to my face and let her spit and sputter. She seemed the type to have always gotten her way, daddy’s favourite, and I’ll be honest I took some joy in saying no. She composed herself and stood, placing a calling card on my desk.

“Regardless, I’ve heard you’re the best. If you change your mind, please give me a call.”

“Mkay.”

She kept standing there, looming over me, until I placed the square into my desk drawer. Who even does that? A square card? Where is that meant to go? A purse I suppose, so I’ll respect the specificity of use, but if she was married it was an oversight to not update it for easier storage. That said, I’m probably over analysing it and should concentrate on telling the story. That’s what’s important, the story, not any of these bullshit details. In all honesty, I might just be bored and pointing out shite like this for the drama. In any case, she took her leave and I went back to reading my magazine. Halfway into an article on exercise routines, for whatever reason, I put it down to go buy a paper because if I had to keep reading this sports magazine I’d punch a hole in the station wall.

I was sitting in the local saloon, watching Doc get absolutely hammered. From that and the blood drenching his coat, you’d assume he’d had a rough day and was having to work through some heavy shite. You would be wrong. Not to suggest he is drenched in blood on a daily basis, although it isn’t an unusual occurrence, but he did enjoy drinking until he had to be carried back upstairs. It was a bad idea to say it, or even imply it, but there was a common understanding that this habit most likely landed him on the station. It was generally accepted that you do not want to piss off the person who has a say in you getting patched up, and if you’re going to be doing something especially dangerous, do it early to be on the safe side. So he’s leaning on the bar, gripping his beer as if it was about to float away, and grimacing. The poor busboy was holding his mop by the tip of the handle to mop up the pool of blood slowly forming underneath Doc’s stool and holding his breath in an effort not to be noticed. I wouldn’t call Doc a mean drunk, as that would imply he was different the rest of the time. Bless him, he was a bastard but wholly honest about it. I leaned forward as he started mumbling, the reek of beer and whisky pouring from his mouth more freely than from the taps, just in case he was trying to talk to me. He bolted upright and grabbed me by the lapel, pulling me close and forcing eye contact.

“No one here today! Only the cunts showed! Cunts, all of them, screaming and bleeding and all but pissing themselves, whining for their mammies!”

He slumped back against the bar and placed his face into his arms, and Frankie, our bartender, looked over to me. I nodded, resenting the fact I’d need a wash after taking him to his place. He turned his head, ear now pressed firmly against the bar and seemed like he was looking for a response.

“Yeah, Doc, absolutely awful. Only job offer I got was to locate a missing bot, wasn’t about to take a salvage job.”

He pushed himself up, working his way into a maniacal laugh, and I had to put a hand on his back to keep him from going arse over teakettle.

“What’s her name?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I have her card upstairs, she wouldn’t leave until I took it.”

“She fit?”

“Not your type, I don’t think.”

“Certainly ways to change that. ‘Not my type’, feh! Insult my skills.”

Knocking my arm away, he took another swig of beer and lied back down on the counter. He should have been cut off hours ago, but Frankie was in the odd position of having to poison the man who might save her life, or he might not out of spite. Well, if you were lucky he’d leave it at that. Most of the time, the blood was from boredom more than altruism. If you made the mistake of causing a ruckus in his med bay, well let’s just say that being handed over to Doc to be handled personally usually was a bad sign. He did personally take care of station residents, at least the ones whose death would be inconvenient for him, but, again, that was only a good thing at the right time of day. Stubborn as a mule, if he wanted to be hands on begod no one would stop him. Which is unfortunate for everyone, including Doc. That’s how Frankie got her job, and it took him almost a year to adjust.

Luckily, Doc wouldn’t argue against the saloon closing and would allow himself to be walked home, usually with a takeaway cup in tow. As the clock struck three, I picked him up and half dragged him away from the bar. He woke up enough to start struggling, reaching toward where he had been with both arms extended.

“Drink!”

“Alright, give me a second.”

I sat him back down on his stool and leaned him on his arm so he’d stay upright. Frankie, who always waited and watched to make sure Doc left without a fuss, already had his cup ready and mouthed a thank you. When I handed him the paper cup, he took a few sips from his straw, readied himself and nodded. He could almost stand, so I had to prop him up by the armpit and lead him to the elevator.

“Real sorry situation.”

“Mhm.”

It was hard to make out the words, but regardless of what he was talking about I was not about to treat it as anything but gospel. He was slumped in the corner of the elevator, barely supporting himself on the banister. The one advantage of helping Doc home is that, despite how busy it is at this time of night, we’d get an elevator to ourselves for a quick trip home. It was a quieter trip than most nights, as he was just staring down at his cup. The ones where he was overly rowdy were definitely worse, but I enjoyed hearing him drunkenly ramble about some random topic. I don’t know if him being a doctor made it more or less weird, but he was well read on the most obscure topics. He once described, in detail, the history of the human homeworld, but with a topic like that it was equally plausible he was making up most of it. Either way was entertaining. But this, this was just sad. The elevator dinged, the doors opened, and I helped him out into the hallway.

“Right, so how far do you need?”

“Bed.”

His flat was fairly close to the elevator, either by planning on his part or coincidence, so it wasn’t too much trouble. I tried to prop him up against the wall to search him for his keys, but he just slid down it. He slapped my hand away when I tried to get to his pockets anyway.

“Leave here.”

“You know you’ll be furious tomorrow if I do.”

“Fair.”

Pawing at his pants, he managed to drop the keys onto the floor. I unlocked the door, then got him up and into the apartment. Ratty is the best way to describe it. I am fully aware we are off-planet, but you could easily convince me there’s any number of vermin among the wreckage. Due to his importance to the maintenance of the place, I’m pretty sure he’s paid more than anyone here, especially since most people don’t get paid at all, but you couldn’t tell from the state of his flat. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the brokest of all of us, but I don’t think that even matters to him. This wasn’t the first time I had to take him inside, but I always had to adjust to the absolute squalor. It never fully sunk in, the way he lived, if you want to call it that.

There was a relatively clean recliner in the telly area, so I left him there while I got his bed ready. I set up a glass of water and some paracetamol for him in the morning, then brought him over to tuck him in. He kicked off his shoes and curled up in the middle of the mattress, so I put the duvet over him. We were close, but it was well established that he’d rather sleep fully clothed than go through the further indignity of being stripped. The one time I tried, he fought back with tears in his eyes. I didn’t see much, but I remember a large scar across his middle. I’m happy not knowing.

After I got upstairs and cleaned myself up, I sat down on my couch. Any other day, a rejected case would be the last thing on my mind, but I couldn’t help thinking about the one I found in my office. If she wants to waste her money having someone turn up a lost appliance, I have no issue with it, but the gall of seeking me out and expecting me to waste my time with that nonsense was infuriating. But it was none of my business, I made that quite clear. I lied down on the couch and flipped on the telly, not ready to power down for the night. Nothing good was on, so I shuffled through the channels and watched the shadows dance on the wall. It would be a safety nightmare, but times like these I desperately wished we could have windows. There were a couple planets close enough to watch, sitting in a ship outside, and plenty of stars of course. I always loved the look of it, the majesty of the universe, but there was hardly an opportunity to enjoy it anymore. Well, if I wanted it I could have it, but there didn’t seem to be a point to it. I find work by being in the station, and that pays the bills. Plus, the stars just looked duller nowadays. Better off to stay at home and watch whatever brain drain they’re pumping out to the screens of the galaxy.

[banterandwit]

Gothic Literature- Drawing on feminist readings of Gothic Literature analyse the way in which Gothic Literature has responded to the changing roles of women in society.

The Gothic genre has always been viewed through the lenses of psychological thriller or horror. The strange and uncanny of it all causes the unease that we as readers have come to love. But what is it that causes such unease and why do the writers of such a genre become so entranced by it? The stories of The Castle of Otranto, Carmilla, Rebecca and Twilight are excellent in their own right. Yet the path of most fruition in understanding these stories is through the lens of feminism. Through it one can begin to unravel the role of women throughout history and it’s ever changing presence. As such this essay will establish what each of the stories define as the roles of women beginning with The Castle of Otranto and how Hippolatia is depicted as Walpole’s ideal women as opposed to Isabella or Matilda who are naïve and do not understand their role in society. Next, the essay will look at Carmilla and how Le Fanu’s vampire is the embodiment of the threat of feminism in the era and the freedom to womanhood that Carmilla represents by removing the male from sexual relations. The story of Rebecca will look at the twentieth century woman and the breakdown of norms and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight will look at how this breakdown has shaped the modern role of women.

 The Castle of Otranto (Walpole, 2001) written in 1764, follows the story of Manfred, the lord of the Castle and his family. Walpole’s novel indicates the dominant, infallibility of men as opposed to their “damsel in distress” (Siddiqui, 2016) counterparts. In the nineteenth century, women had no rights and were considered second class citizens, and received “unworthy inheritance, such as bible, books and household goods” (Gilbert and Gubar, 2006). Hippolita, Manfred’s wife, is a prime example of this since she is so willing to accept divorce from her spouse simply because he said so. Walpole (2001) explains in the novel that “a bad husband is better than no husband” and without pleading or begging, Hippolita accepted the fate her husband wrote for her. In fact, she has no place to argue- she has submitted herself to her husband “physically, economically, psychologically and mentally” (Siddiqui, 2016). Due to this, Hippolita is the exemplary form of womanhood in The Castle of Otranto. She accepts her divorce and, in the novel, explains that she will “withdraw into the neighbouring monastery and the remainder of life in prayers and tears for my child and –the Prince’’ (p.90-91). She does not fight for her rights and gives herself to God because that is what is expected of her, something she tries to pass on to Matilda and Isabella when she explains, ‘’It is not ours to make election for ourselves; heaven, our father and husband must decide for us’’ (Walpole, 2001). This further highlights Hippolita’s ideology that the men of the family and in the lives of the women have priority in life, being dependent and subservient on these men is what is expected of women and hence the role of women should be of servitude to their husbands and fathers.

 Matilda and Isabella are younger than Hippolita and have less of an understanding of how they should be dependent. Although Hippolita tries to explain to them, Matilda only understands through her own experiences. As a female child of Manfred, she is introduced as “a most beautiful virgin, aged eighteen” (Walpole, 2001) as if to say those are her only qualities- she is good looking and at the age to marry. However, she is still a woman and therefore “equally dismissed since under the prevailing system of primogeniture only males could be heirs” (Ellis, 2010). She is neglected by her father and even when she tries to comfort him after Conrad’s death she is met with “cruel emotional attitude” (Putri, 2012). Walpole (2001, p.21) writes:

“She was however just going to beg admittance when Manfred suddenly opened his door; and it was now twilight, concurring with the disorder of his mind, he did not distinguish the person, but asked angrily, who it was? Matilda replied trembling, “my dearest father, it is I, your daughter”. Manfred stepping back hastily, cried “Begone, I do not want a daughter”, and flinging back abrupty, clapped the door against the terrified Matilda”

 Due to this, Matilda must accept that due to her gender she is expected to be treated in such a manner and her father will not give her any affection. Putri (2012) writes that for Manfred- “it would be better that Matilda be neither seen nor heard.” (p.7). Isabella who is Conrad’s fiancée is forced by her father to marry Manfred after Conrad’s death. She too is a victim of the patriarchal society in which she lives. She must marry Manfred even if there is no love there and only after Matilda’s death does Theodore accept her, and she becomes Lady of the castle. Even after this, the assumption would be that she becomes subservient to Theodore as opposed to her father. Therefore, the role of women in The Castle of Otranto is subservience to the men in their lives and this is their calling.

In contrast, Le Fanu’s Carmilla (2005) originally written in 1897 is the story of Laura and Carmilla, two young women who do not obey such a patriarchy and are in a lesbian relationship. Before Carmilla, vampires were predominantly male such as Lord Ruthven from John William Polidori's The Vampyre (2017). Signorotti (1996) argues that Le Fanu’s choice of creating a powerful female vampire was because it “marks the growing concern about the power of female relationships in the nineteenth century” since this was the time “feminists began to petition for additional rights for women. Concerned with women's power and influence, writers . . . often responded by creating powerful women characters, the vampire being one of the most powerful negative images” (Senf, 1988). It is for this reason that Carmilla is depicted in such a frightening and sensual way by Laura. She represents the allure of women as sexual beings with fangs dangerous enough to topple the patriarchy that the women in Walpole’s novel held to such esteem. Laura recounts one night that:

“I saw a solemn, but very pretty face looking at me from the side of the bed. It was that of a young lady who was kneeling, with her hands under the coverlet. I looked at her with a kind of pleased wonder and ceased whimpering. She caressed me with her hands, and lay down beside me on the bed, and drew me towards her, smiling; I felt immediately delightfully soothed, and fell asleep again. I was wakened by a sensation as if two needles ran into my breast very deep at the same moment, and I cried loudly. The lady started back, with her eyes fixed on me, and then slipped down upon the floor, and, as I thought, hid herself.” (Le Fanu, 2005)

Carmilla is liberating her fellow woman from the grip of a male dominated life and the needles of freedom cause her pain from the familiarity she initially grew up with into an unknown but free world where their union without a male partner gives them liberation from male authority.

 The exclusion of the man is further shown by General Spielsdorf’s recount of when he tried to catch the vampire that was causing his niece, Bertha, to become ill. He watches from the door as he saw “a large black object, very ill-defined, crawl, as it seemed to me, over the foot of the bed, and swiftly spread itself up to the poor girl's throat.” (Le Fanu, 2005). Carmilla takes away the male inclusion and leaves him a voyeur to a union that is beyond the heterosexual norm. This is a freedom from the patriarchal society that has ruled over women for centuries into a freedom over their own lives both physically and psychologically. Signorotti (1996) explains that “Le Fanu allows Laura and Carmilla to usurp male authority and to be stow themselves on whom they please, completely excluding male participation in the exchange of women.” (p.607). This exchange symbolises the change in normality. Not only are women becoming independent from males for their living needs, they are also becoming free in their sexual needs. Where The Castle of Otranto focused on the ideal women being subservient and dependent on the male in one’s life, Carmilla focuses on the threat of women to oppose Walpole’s standard of servitude to the patriarch that controlled their lives and of their bodies as factories for new male heirs. Carmilla is the free women that Walpole’s characters never dreamed of.

 Rebecca (Du Maurier, 2007) was written in in the twentieth century (1938) and is the story of the narrator’s marriage to Maxim de Winter and the subsequent flashbacks to her time in Manderley where she learnt about her husband’s first wife Rebecca and her lingering presence even after her death. Nigro (2000) argues that although the common assumption about Rebecca is that she is manipulative and convinced everyone she is flawless, she was justifiably murdered according to the second Mrs. de Winter. “What if, however, Maxim is the one who is lying, and Rebecca was as good as reputation held her, if his jealousy was the true motive for her murder?” (p. 144). Furthermore, Wisker (1999) points out that Du Maurier is known to have unreliable narrators. Therefore, finding the truth behind Rebecca’s character, flawed or perfect, becomes difficult. This difficulty blurs the lines between gender roles and conformity. The superiority of men is shown by Mrs. Danvers’ comparison of Rebecca as a man, “"She had all the courage and spirit of a boy, had my Mrs. de Winter. She ought to have been a boy, I often told her that. I had the care of her as a child. You knew that, did you?" (Du Maurier, 2007) showing the importance of being a “man” at the time and how they were seen to be superior. When the audience finds out about Rebecca’s imperfect character, one of her detrimental features is that she is promiscuous and why Maxim killed her. Maxim’s murder could therefore be because he was constrained by what people would think if his wife was expose to be a “harlot” and murdered her to uphold the principles that Walpole emphasised- something he cannot go against in his social circle, whilst Rebecca herself was trying to be as free as Carmilla and trying her best to live a happy life unconstrained by social norms and patriarchal glances. The role of gender and women becomes blurred in Rebecca as these roles begin to breakdown and become synonymous to both genders.

 Maxim’s attitude towards his new wife is almost paternalistic, treating her like an immature girl referring to her as “my child” and “my poor lamb” (Du Maurier, 2007). Where Mrs de Winter wants to become more mature, Maxim tries to keep her away calling it "not the right sort of knowledge" (p. 223) and telling her “it’s a pity you have to grow up” to block her from gaining the maturity that she craves. As a result, Mrs de Winter becomes trapped in a purgatory between maturity and upper-class standards and immaturity and the life she has come from. This entrapment is what the patriarchal norms establish, the damsel that must be guided by a firm male hand because of her ignorance as opposed to the woman being on equal footing to the man and someone who can take care of themselves. It is this standard that the narrator is held to and is also the standard Maxim held Rebecca to and subsequently murdered her because of. The shame from having a free woman as a wife is what led him to his crime. It is for this reason that the ultimate villain of Rebecca is in fact the patriarchal system in which the characters are confined. Wisker (2003) argues that the aristocratic setting of Rebecca “was to represent an unease at the configurations of power and gendered relations of the time.” Pons (2013) furthers this argument and explains that “the ultimate gothic villain is the haunting presence of an old-fashioned, strict patriarchal system, represented by Maxims mansion, Manderley, and understood as a hierarchical system.” This configuration of patriarchy established in the eighteenth century by Walpole is that of servitude for women and dominance for men. However, in an era where women have more power and have freedom as expressed in Carmilla suggests that these roles are becoming unfulfillable and it is because of this system that the characters are led to “hypocrisy, hysteria and crime.” (Pons, 2013). Thus, the role of women as a strict social etiquette breaks down and although they are treated still as subjects, the shift in power to give women their freedom is evident.

 Twilight (Meyer, 2012) written in 2005, follows the story of Bella Swan who falls in love with a vampire and the subsequent life they have together. However, it is subject to great controversy especially because of Bella herself. She seems to conform to female roles that are more akin to Hippolita than Carmilla. Rocha (2011) argues that “Bella illustrates female submission in a male dominated world; disempowering herself and symbolically disempowering women.” She sees herself in a negative light that is incapable of doing anything herself and is totally submissive in nature becoming a pawn in the life of the men of her life. Mann (2009) argues “When Bella falls in love, then, a girl in love is all she is. By page 139 she has concluded that her mundane life is a small price to pay for the gift of being with Edward, and by the second book she’s willing to trade her soul for that privilege” (p.133) and hence has a Hippolitaian quality of sacrifice for the pleasure of men and hence develops nothing about herself. Mann (2009) continues to say that “Other than her penchant for self-sacrifice and the capacity to attract the attention of boys, Bella isn’t really anyone special. She has no identifiable interests or talents; she is incompetent in the face of almost every challenge...When she needs something done, especially mechanical, she finds a boy to do it and watches him. (p.133) This leaves Bella as a “damsel-in-distress” (Rocha, 2011) where Edward becomes her saviour. Thus, the role of women in Twilight seems to be that of a possession to enhance the male being.

 It could however be argued that Twilight contains a relationship that female readers can relate to in its ability to show the “women’s powerlessness and their desire for revenge and appropriation.” (Jarvis, 2014) and how the heroine proves to the hero ‘‘their infinite preciousness’’ (Modleski, 1982) bringing the hero to contemplate, worry and obsess over the heroine in a way that the female reader can share “the heroines’ powerlessness and accompanying frustration.” (Jarvis, 2013). This leads to what Nicol (2011) explains is the ‘‘complexities of female sexuality for women in the twenty-first century’’ in so far as it provides a ‘‘socially sanctioned space in which to explore their sexual desires.” These desires are evident in Bella and Edward’s first kiss, that Bella describes:

 “His cold, marble lips pressed very softly against mine. Blood boiled under my skin, burned in my lips. My breath came in a wild gasp. My fingers knotted in his hair, clutching him to me. My lips parted as I breathed in his heady scent.” (Meyer, 2005, p. 282)

 This sexual tension is introduced earlier in the book where Bella is told that ‘‘Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him’’ (Meyer, 2005 p. 19). Jarvis (2014) explains that because of this any “female who secures the inaccessible Edward will rise in the esteem of her community” and since she is claiming him, someone who thinks of herself as “ordinary” (p. 210) the excitement for both Bella and the reader who is caught in this sexual act- almost participating in it- is why the sexual nature of the book is so enticing. Therefore, although Bella can be seen as holding the values of Hippolita, the Twilight saga speaks volumes in its showing of the complexities of the social code that twenty-first century women must abide by. They are expected to be as obedient as Hippolita whilst being as sexual desirable as Carmilla or Rebecca. Bella’s metamorphosis from the ordinary human to the alluring vampire symbolises this. Women’s roles therefore have changed to give them more freedom, but they are still expected to behave like Hippolita when the “freedom” they have been given.  

In conclusion, the role of women and their identities have changed over the centuries. Walpole’s eighteenth-century idealism was that of the subservient woman that belonged to the patriarchal figure in their life in order to produce a good heir. The nineteenth century however became the start of the empowerment of women and much of the anxiety in Carmilla is her powerful nature as a woman to do as she pleases, removing the man and the patriarchy from Le Fanu’s world. She is thus depicted as a vampire- alluring and deadly- much like giving freedom to women who cannot control nor be trusted with the power they could be given. Rebecca leads to the twentieth century where the woman has been given some freedom to do as she pleases so long as it is under the watch of a man. Maxim’s murder and subsequent second marriage where because he could not control his first wife. The twenty-first century culmination of these roles comes in the form of Twilight where the heroin seems bland on the surface but actually shows the metamorphosis of womanhood through the centuries from that of a second-class servant to the ultimate freedom away from the patriarchy that Le Fanu’s Carmilla started centuries ago. As a result, the role of women has been fluid through the years. The ultimate goal of feminism is to have equality and the books that have been mentioned show that equality can only be achieved if any form of patriarchal culture is removed- a feat that has yet to be conquered.

[bondsmagii]

ashintheairlikesnow replied to your post “other opinions I am going to put here: I agree with you that Lila was...”

1. You know how I feel about Lila I have CAPITAL F FEELINGS about how she literally is the least developed character and deliberately stays flat and stale and I really, really dislike Schwab's handling of female characters in the books and how few of them survive, and how our main female survivor has the character depth of a scone.  but like an American scone, not a British one 2. Kell’s chemistry sparks most with Holland - who understands him but still challenges him to be a better person primarily by putting him in a position of having to acknowledge his own helplessness/choice to sit around ignoring Holland’s suffering because Holland once chose to be a shit to him. You can say “oh, how could Kell help?” but… you know what, Kell never tries to find out if he could at all 3. Kell is deeply complacent from pre-canon to the start of the first book. He struggles with identity and feeling sort of unwanted as a person and only wanted as a magician, but most of what he does to try and find himself is smuggling and petty rebellions. it’s 100% realistic. His interactions with Holland directly call out how stagnant Kell is, when faced with someone who is literally being FORCED to be stagnant against his will 4. He and Holland spark, with every interaction, where he and Lila just struck me as two people who really shouldn’t be left alone because they’ll just be snits to each other and I don’t give a fuck. They had no chemistry whatsoever. 5. Lila drives me fucking crazy. The end.

you’re right and you should say it. literally the only person Kell had any chemistry with (not to mention the only relationship that would have been in any way interesting) was Holland. there was so much there that could have been further explored, and absolutely all of it was just. pushed to the side so Kell could run after this character who was literally the worst embodiment of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. Lila represented freedom to him -- something that Kell has been said to want badly -- but like. my god. it would have been so much more interesting to pair that want for freedom alongside the person who is literally enslaved. like. oh you live in London and you’re poor and you wish you had the means to go on an adventure? how tragic for you but like Holland is out there being literally enslaved so maybe just keep things in perspective? Lila’s life wasn’t easy, but it sure as fuck wasn’t even in the realm of what Holland went through. the fact that Holland died without ever really getting to experience freedom breaks my heart. he went from being in the Danes’ servitude to playing host for Osaron, and not once did he have a moment where he could enjoy living freely. and then Lila insulted him for that after he saved her life? holy fucking shit. my hatred for her knows no bounds and I cannot believe she ended up with Kell. she is going to treat him like shit and he does not deserve that!

with regards to Kell’s reactions and lack of response to Holland’s suffering, I was always under the impression that Maxim probably had something to do with that. Kell is a fairly empathetic person and he clearly cares about Holland (both in terms of “nobody should go through what you’re going through” and also “you’re like me”), but he deeply misunderstands the magic involved (see that scene where he tries to tell Holland to use the stone to destroy the symbol Holland wears on his uniform, and Holland shows him the actual binding mark and has to explain to Kell what it is -- Kell only found out then how deep the curse went). I think he might have had ideas about how to help based on his understanding of the magic involved (which would not have been enough), but Maxim probably didn’t want Kell interfering with the Danes at all. Maxim is very much by the book about appearances, and I’m sure one world’s Antari interfering with another world’s in such a way would be seen as a slight and would cause problems. the fact that the Danes wouldn’t really be able to do shit nor fuck to Arnes over it would likely not be of importance to Maxim, because he just wants his Antari to behave and be done with it. so I don’t think it was a case of Kell choosing to sit around, but more a case of him not understanding what’s going on (something that Holland calls him out for repeatedly -- there’s a lot that Kell doesn’t know about magic that Holland does) but also probably being explicitly forbidden from trying, and if he steps out of line he’s worried Maxim will stop him from going anywhere, which is something he fears.

but anyway the conclusion of all of this is that Lila sucks and should not have ended up with Kell, and Kell and Holland going grocery shopping would have more intrigue and chemistry than literally anything Kell and Lila did in any of the three books.

[financialconsciousness]

Quantum Leap To Financial Consciousness: A Spiritual Call to Bitcoin for a Metaphysical Mass Awakening to Alchemically Shapeshift Humanity out of the Collective Unconscious Poverty Framework and into Cosmic Awareness

“The greatest form of control is when you think you are free when you are being fundamentally manipulated and dictated to. One form of dictatorship is being in a prison cell and you can see the bars and touch them, the other one is sitting in a prison cell and you can’t see the bars so you think you are free. What the human race is suffering from is mass hypnosis.” – David Icke

The Duality of Wholeness and Fragmentation – Coherence in a Clashing Universe

As conscious beings that contain the oneness of the cosmic universe inside every single one of us, we must oppose the illusion of separation and work together collectively to find resolve. E pluribus unum, the concept that out of many comes one, is no different than out of the billions of individuals on mother earth forms a single human race. It is through duality that we gain a better understanding of the physical and metaphysical, seen and unseen, known and unknown, light and dark, fragmentation and wholeness, and can begin to fill in the gaps that are often hidden by the void of nothingness and on the other side of fear. The dollar says “In God We Trust” and only in trusting the dollar do we know what poverty is, and only in knowing god do we know what gratitude is.

We must merge mass critical thinking and collective consciousness amongst the cryptospace to find borderless coherence and resolution on how systematic monetary order can be found amongst a state of intentional disorder and entropy caused by powerful institutions that have applied insufferable soul loss on millions of lives for centuries. This is a challenge to humanity to collectively find a resolution to cure poverty, create unity, end institutionalized oppression, increase freedom, and to give humanity an altruistic and utilitarian sense of cohesive purpose through the creativity and production of a consistently reliable store of value. We must purge away the old that no longer serves us, and shift into a new paradigm that will increasingly benefit each and every user equally in a decentralized protocol that is free from nepotism, crony economics, corrupt law enforcement, and any form of discrimination based on gender identification, ethnic background, sexual preference, familial status, disability, and socioeconomic status.

The universe is expanding faster every day since the inception of the big bang. I often wonder how does such an organized implicit order emerge from the chaos of a massive explosion, the big bang. How can the planets go around the sun so perfectly? How can the water cycle be so intelligently designed? How is mother earth so organically conscious in the creation of the billions of lifeforms on earth? Why do plants breathe in what we breathe out in reciprocity? When the universe was created, the explosion of matter and consciousness formed the cosmic organization of billions of stars, suns, planets, galaxies, lifeforms, and conscious beings that are all connected through the oneness and wholeness of the universe. We were given the two precious gifts of matter and consciousness. The divine evolutionary impulse of consciousness gives us the ability to create sustainable life through procreation and the ability to use our creativeness to maximize productivity as knowledge workers and content creators. Creative consciousness is a divine gift that the universe and god used to create us through it. We continue to let the universe and god create through us because we are in god and the universe, as the universe and god are in us. It is only in deep meditation and in the flow state can we find enlightenment. The goal of many institutions is to keep you from focusing and prevent the self-discovery of your sense of Self. This constant state of unconsciousness and mass hypnosis is largely responsible for overflowing prisons, homelessness, and poverty.  

Wake Up! You Are Unconsciously Operating Old Patterns

Most people are unconscious in their daily patterns and routines. We are creatures of our environment, conditioning, and circumstance. These three items largely dictate what will emerge and unfold in our lives from both the explicate and implicate order. When your environment, conditions, and circumstances are institutionally controlled by a higher power of systematic mechanisms that are designed to break you down methodically and have you succumb to the Collective Unconscious Poverty Framework that has already been planned for you to follow, then you have no other choice than to succumb unconsciously, and unwillingly conform to institutionalized oppression. Prediction is a powerful management tool, and when the centralized institutions control the circumstances, they can also predict how you will behave. Institutions create the culture, culture determines behavior, and behavior drives performance. How will you perform? You will perform how they want you to through the intelligent design of conformity.

In addition to this invisible control that is being exerted, you are stuck constantly working and laboring endlessly while in a frame of mind that intentionally focuses on the primordial illusion of a brighter future and keeping you stagnantly in a constant state of distraction chasing a dream that only fades away the more you pursue it. This elusiveness is not only mystical and metaphysical, but it gives you a sense of higher purpose and meaning as you unconsciously operate on this pattern that was imprinted on you early in life through institutionalization and socialization. As you exercise the avoidance of consciousness, experience soul loss, and continue to chase this dream in a state of entropy, more and more time is stolen from you as you remain unaware of the trade-off between your most valuable asset, the irreplaceable asset of time, and the value of money in which you are compensated today for your hard labor that will be worth less in value tomorrow. As time is stolen from you because you have to labor more to offset the devaluation of your money, you get closer and closer to death and further from the retirement dream since you have no store of value to place your money free from depreciation or risk. Thus, making it that much tougher to pass on any generational wealth to your children and solidifying your lineage in a state of generational poverty.

Shine the Giant Spotlight on the Darkness of the Collective Unconscious

The dysfunctionality of unconsciousness and the manifestations that emerge through our unconscious operate like the law of attraction and magnetism due to the constant conditioning and repetition of living a circumstantial life of lack, thirst, and want. The quantum entanglement and synchronicity of generational trauma being passed down over and over again from one generation of humanity to another is one that must be moved from the shadows of the collective unconscious and into the awareness of the collective conscious. Only through a mass awakening and increased awareness of this dark void could we then shed light on the shadows of the collective unconsciousness and end the generations of trauma that have emerged and unfolded throughout humanity.

Human nature tends to gravitate towards and attract what is familiar to us. Unfortunately for our ancestry, that translates to constantly attracting poverty and trauma for centuries. It is imperative that in the search for Self we do the inner work to move the unconscious patterns hidden in our shadow into the conscious light and increase our awareness. Removing these chains and breaking free will create wholeness for humanity, mass self-actualization, mass kundalini alignment, mass equanimity, and purge any hindrance in the way of humanities growth that will not allow us to move swiftly through spacetime and timespace unopposed.

As we seek a joyous life of abundance, it is only through being present, increasing awareness, and ultimately reaching the enlightenment of consciousness that we will then have the ability to exercise discernment in our decision making through the setting of firm intentions. By setting firm intentions, reaffirming those intentions, and making the best decisions in our own way, we will open ourselves up to be empowered and to receive all the goodness that wants to unfold and emerge in our journey through life. We often forget the universe is working for us and not against us. We must be open to the gifts of the universe and exercise gratitude and servitude as a form of receivership. How can we expect to receive thanks and services if we are not willing to provide the reciprocal of giving thanks and service? When we are closed off and unopen, the universe cannot give us what it cannot do thru us. When mentally complex people are in their own head, opportunities will walk into their lives and they do not recognize them because they weren’t open to receivership during their mental state of unconsciousness.

“Whoever has gratitude will be given more, and he or she will have an abundance. Whoever does not have gratitude, even what he or she has will be taken from him or her. If you are grateful, I will give you more; but if you are ungrateful verily my punishment is indeed severe.”

Do not disempower yourself with the disease of living in the illusion of the future or the illusion of the past. Looking into the future causes anxiety as you wait an extended amount of time to get there. Waiting for the future also signals to your mind body connection that you are dissatisfied with the current moment in your life and unhappy until you reach your destination. Looking into the past causes depression and also signals to your mind body connection that you are unhappy with the present moment. We must be fully present and know that there is only one place in time we can be, and it is here and now in this present moment. The sequencing of each moment creates the sense of time, but only in the present moment is where we can discern the best decision making for ourselves and for humanity.

The Grand Illusion – Financial Rabbit Holes, The Giant Pyramid, & Erosion of Money

This Grand Illusion is largely driven by crony capitalism and an immoral financial system that mechanistically keeps people indebted for all of perpetuity by forcing the use of a currency that is a poor store of value, the constant coerced spending to maintain the velocity of money, the intelligent design of the college-debt paradox (pay for college to get a job, get a job to pay for college), property taxes that will penalize you for perpetuity if you are a homeowner, and the continuous increase of rents for renters. The constant inflation and devaluation on currency reduces your purchasing power and reduces your payment power on long term loans while simultaneously increasing the cost of living.

The constant income tax, sales tax, gas tax, personal property tax, and real property tax continues to dwindle and erode your hard-earned money as well. Not only are you pressured to make quick unconscious decisions on massive purchases before the cost is driven up by inflation, but you also have to make a quick decision before the interest rates go up. This forced personal spending serves two purposes.  First, it maintains the economies velocity of money to prevent a recession and facilitate continuous spending. Secondly, it ignites the personal fear of future price increase on the purchase price, fear of the rise of interest rates, and subsequently is combined with a relentlessly devalued currency that increases the cost of goods. I must say this is the most intelligent pyramid scheme ever designed because it keeps the masses busy laboring away at work and fully under control of the institutional policies and procedures that determine how people will culturally behave while stealing their time and dwindling their money thru taxes, interest, debt, inflation on the cost of goods, and the constant devaluation of their money.  

When interests on large debts and endless taxation are combined with the increase in the cost of living that continues to rise as the value of the dollar decreases, you will find yourself stuck in a vicious cycle of mechanisms meant to defeat you until you succumb to poverty and the unconscious pattern of long hours of labor. These are the mechanisms that keep the wealthy bourgeoisie rich and the proletariat’s poor slaves forever. These perennial patterns that are taught to us at a very young age through the mass farming of schools are leaving a lasting imprint on our personalities and they subconsciously dictate our future. This is the root of generational poverty and generational trauma. Institutional oppression is a powerful omniscient mechanistic form of bureaucratical organization that is shielded by favorable laws on money, banking, and politics. These institutions have exercised the concept of the collective unconscious to create an everlasting pipeline of poverty, pain, and suffering for the masses from one generation to another.

The Collective Unconscious Poverty Framework is designed to have the masses conform. The implementation plan is readily prepared before people are even born and keeps a steady pipeline of constant unconscious drifters entering the system as each new person is given the gift of life. This antiquated form of control operates from dogma and archaic processes that have worked well in the past in redlining blacks, discriminating against women’s careers, and ensuring Hispanics are not equal. This generational consciousness has been optimized to keep institutional oppression, racism, poverty, inequality, and injustice alive for centuries and perhaps millennium if we continue on this path. This imprint hypnotizes the masses and is a cumbersome determinant in how our life will unfold before we are even born. It steals a piece of our soul, spirit, freedom, time, and hard-earned money. With no place holder for the store of value, there is zero incentive to save your money. You are then coerced into a dichotomy of decision making to either increase the velocity of money by spending on a cash producing asset to hold your value in hopes of appreciation that will allow your money to break-even as the price of the asset goes up against the devaluation of the currency over time, thus resulting in a break-even exchange after taxes, interest, and liquidation fees, or you can allow the dwindling of your purchasing power in your savings account by saving money knowing it will be worth less in the future than it is in the present moment. Investing your money into a cash producing asset that could incur risk in the market seems like a great idea to make some gains against a currency that is intentionally being devalued, until the market has a dramatic correction like in 2008 or 2020 and the rug is pulled out from under you and you take a massive loss. Saving your money seems like a good option as well, until your purchasing power is dwindled over time and saving money actually translates into losing money as the value of the dollar is decreased. This pattern will continue on for perpetuity unless the masses are awakened from this 1984 dystopian dream and find an altruistic ethos for an investment vehicle that considers utilitarianism, freedom, and the opportunity to store value for labor worked. It is important that humanity exercises the oneness and wholeness of the collective consciousness to protect the individuality, individuation, freedom of choice, and freedom of consent of each individual person.

Human nature is a metaphysical phenomenon that can be reduced to theories on the causation of our behaviors, but some mysteries of the universe are not meant to be fully understood, like matter, consciousness, and creation. The unconscious people have many names such as drifters and sheep to name a couple. They do not even know it, but they have become a slave to their unconsciousness and have been taken possession by a foreign spirit. The problem is, as we look inward through introspective reflection and meditation, that possession ends up being ourselves. Our shadow and our dark side thrive in the void of darkness and are less visible when compared to our identities and personas. Regardless of the archetypes and patterns we are running on, we must be awakened from the socialization process that has been imprinted on us and break free of all the metaphysical chains that have coerced us to into conformity and taken away the most basic liberties and freedoms that are inalienable like our personality and right to individuality.

Can Bitcoin Ignite a Mass Awakening from a Mass Hypnosis?

Many of us would do anything to support our families, even if that means we spend a large portion of our life unconsciously operating the hamster wheel through spacetime going back and forth to an unpleasant career. The constant state of survival mode is bad for your physical and mental health, and deviates many from the individuation process, causing them to live with a cognitive dissonance between their sense of Self, their identities, and their personas that developed in response to their need to adapt and conform to societal pressures for fear of being outcasted financially from the workforce and banking systems that lend money for homeownership. Many will inevitably endure an adolescent crisis, midlife crisis, and a late crisis because the freedom of their personality has been suppressed into conformity. Suicide, violence, and trauma are often associated with poverty and the inability to cope with conformity from the lack of freedom and autonomy in their way of life, state of being, and state of becoming. From conformity and poverty often comes pain and suffering. The human experience is one of many emotions and there is not a single person that is exception to the challenges the human experience brings us in this unpredictable life.

Though the human experience brings pain and suffering, we have the conscious intelligence and cosmic awareness to look inward into self-discovery and find our inner-peace through our sense of Self. Matter and consciousness are two cosmic mysteries that are at the center of the physical and metaphysical dimensions as we know it. We can each find our way just as Siddhartha, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and Miyamoto Musashi have done before through introspection. Whether it is alchemy, spirituality, mysticism, psychology, religion, oneness, wholeness, holiness, enlightenment, transcendence, redemption, salvation, occultism, heresy, self-actualization, kundalini alignment, equanimity, shamanism, quantum consciousness, or cosmic awareness that keeps us centered we must be open to new concepts on the forefront of consciousness. Could the freedom of Bitcoin ignite the latent inhibitions, the dormant space in the mind, the collective unconscious, the primitive instincts of survival mode, and inspire a mass awakening of all the conscious beings that are oppressed through fragmentation and unite them into a oneness so powerful it will purge away the old paradigms and ignite a paradigm shift into a modern state of becoming for the masses of humanity.

A Call to Servant Transformational Leadership and Decentralized Quality Management

The golden rule “he who has the gold, makes the rules” is very much applied in society today. Money and power are synonymous palindromes that are universally understood in every culture around the world. A common misnomer is belief that increasing control moves the status quo. The problem with this philosophy is that as the driving forces for control are increased, the resisting forces increase their resistance. This creates a lot of wasted energy and still ends up keeping the status quo the same. How do you rid of resistance? You take back control and optimize a decentralized protocol that serves a freer purpose for humanity. Those who make the rules of the game decide how the game is played. Bitcoin maximalists and cryptospace enthusiasts have a chance to rewrite the rules to the game and solidify a coined phrase (no pun intended).

“In Blockchain We Trust”

Systems thinking argues that the problem lies in the system and not in the people operating the system. By taking blame away from the politicians and institutions that have stolen the wealth of millions of people for centuries, and applying focus on the pragmatic view of optimizing practicality and what actually works. We are able to collectively and consciously discern the creation of a blockchain system that leverages freedom, reduces oppression, and is amoral when it comes to politics, institutionalization, and the human factor influence on property ownership, sociology, and both the physical and cognitive elements of crony capitalism. As conditions change and new challenges emerge it is adamant that we call on our servant leaders, transformational leaders, quality managers, system managers, empaths, indigos, crystals, rainbows, starseeds, lightworkers, and knowledge workers to anchor these systemic changes into the new paradigm and status quo. Epistemology and knowledge management is not only important for the information age, but it is vital to the mass transfer of individuals from collective unconsciousness into collective consciousness. The meeting of human intelligence and the utility of blockchain is where the rubber meets the road.

Freedom and Store of Value

The word freedom is an ontological sociological phenomenon that is often talked about, yet is hard to find. Maximalists are beginning to have a strong argument that they discovered freedom and the true meaning of value. How is it that Bitcoin is the only store of value that is exception to the rule that “things of high value have little to no use?”

“Blockchain Is Freedom and Freedom Is Blockchain”

“Things of high value have little to no use and things of high use have little to no value”

The intelligent design of Bitcoin and blockchain optimizes the many uses of the cryptocurrency to be an asset, currency, technology, information, store of value, investment vehicle, method of transfer, bank, decentralized finance, and much more than an antiquated currency that was developed before the industrial, technological, and information ages. With the need to dissolve the old paradigms and shift into a new paradigm we must consciously discern how the world has evolved and how the concepts of productivity and utility have changed. We need a currency that is high in utility and can keep up with the velocity of the interconnectedness of computers and the internet. This will lead us to a new level of consciousness and new state of being.

A New Level of Consciousness

The law of impermanence argues that nothing is permanent and the attachment to these desires will cause suffering. As a human race we must ask ourselves if we are so codependent on the old paradigms that we would induce suffering on the masses to ensure a life of mediocrity or are we willing to step into the unknown towards a life of abundance? As we let go of the old, create space for the new, and make our transition into the future, we must consider the new concepts that will unfold and emerge like the lotus that radiates out of the mud.

To put it simply, the way of being as we know it will evolve tremendously. The cryptospace will create a climate of shared power and the philosophy of dealing with groups that are trustworthy and competent at problem solving. This new approach is unheard of in our schools, governments, and organizations. Most organizations suffer great discomfort in giving up any power to the individual and groups within. It is typically the philosophy to exert power over others to control them. In religion we are not trusted because of sin, in government we are not trusted due to laws, and in psychology people are considered unconscious. The human experience has gotten us this far and it is something amazing to see. The invention of cell phones, computers, spaceships, airplanes, and so much more that has evolved from working together in wholeness. We must unleash the untapped human potential that mankind has to offer. We are the answer and we are enough. We must transcend each other to a higher level of consciousness and shine the light on our unconscious missteps to create awareness as we move into the future. There is a new level of human awareness that is emerging. The development of the metaphysical, mystical, and supernatural powers of the evolutionary impulse and consciousness that are in each and every one of us is a driving force for creative change. Harmonic rhythm and oneness are the answer to the fragmented world we are living in.

I walk down the street, there is a deep hole

I fall in, I am lost, I am hopeless

It isn’t my fault, it takes forever to get out

 I walk down the same street, there is a deep hole

I pretend not to see it, I fall in again

I can’t believe I am in the same place

It isn’t my fault, and takes a long time to get out again

 I walk down the same street, there is a deep hole in the sidewalk

I see it this time, I still fall in, It’s a habit, but I am aware

It is my fault, I get out quicker

 I walk down the same street, there is a deep hole in the side walk

I walk around it this time

 I walk down another street this time

[craftcrit]

Gothic Literature- Drawing on feminist readings of Gothic Literature analyse the way in which Gothic Literature has responded to the changing roles of women in society.

The Gothic genre has always been viewed through the lenses of psychological thriller or horror. The strange and uncanny of it all causes the unease that we as readers have come to love. But what is it that causes such unease and why do the writers of such a genre become so entranced by it? The stories of The Castle of Otranto, Carmilla, Rebecca and Twilight are excellent in their own right. Yet the path of most fruition in understanding these stories is through the lens of feminism. Through it one can begin to unravel the role of women throughout history and it’s ever changing presence. As such this essay will establish what each of the stories define as the roles of women beginning with The Castle of Otranto and how Hippolatia is depicted as Walpole’s ideal women as opposed to Isabella or Matilda who are naïve and do not understand their role in society. Next, the essay will look at Carmilla and how Le Fanu’s vampire is the embodiment of the threat of feminism in the era and the freedom to womanhood that Carmilla represents by removing the male from sexual relations. The story of Rebecca will look at the twentieth century woman and the breakdown of norms and Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight will look at how this breakdown has shaped the modern role of women.

 The Castle of Otranto (Walpole, 2001) written in 1764, follows the story of Manfred, the lord of the Castle and his family. Walpole’s novel indicates the dominant, infallibility of men as opposed to their “damsel in distress” (Siddiqui, 2016) counterparts. In the nineteenth century, women had no rights and were considered second class citizens, and received “unworthy inheritance, such as bible, books and household goods” (Gilbert and Gubar, 2006). Hippolita, Manfred’s wife, is a prime example of this since she is so willing to accept divorce from her spouse simply because he said so. Walpole (2001) explains in the novel that “a bad husband is better than no husband” and without pleading or begging, Hippolita accepted the fate her husband wrote for her. In fact, she has no place to argue- she has submitted herself to her husband “physically, economically, psychologically and mentally” (Siddiqui, 2016). Due to this, Hippolita is the exemplary form of womanhood in The Castle of Otranto. She accepts her divorce and, in the novel, explains that she will “withdraw into the neighbouring monastery and the remainder of life in prayers and tears for my child and –the Prince’’ (p.90-91). She does not fight for her rights and gives herself to God because that is what is expected of her, something she tries to pass on to Matilda and Isabella when she explains, ‘’It is not ours to make election for ourselves; heaven, our father and husband must decide for us’’ (Walpole, 2001). This further highlights Hippolita’s ideology that the men of the family and in the lives of the women have priority in life, being dependent and subservient on these men is what is expected of women and hence the role of women should be of servitude to their husbands and fathers.

 Matilda and Isabella are younger than Hippolita and have less of an understanding of how they should be dependent. Although Hippolita tries to explain to them, Matilda only understands through her own experiences. As a female child of Manfred, she is introduced as “a most beautiful virgin, aged eighteen” (Walpole, 2001) as if to say those are her only qualities- she is good looking and at the age to marry. However, she is still a woman and therefore “equally dismissed since under the prevailing system of primogeniture only males could be heirs” (Ellis, 2010). She is neglected by her father and even when she tries to comfort him after Conrad’s death she is met with “cruel emotional attitude” (Putri, 2012). Walpole (2001, p.21) writes:

“She was however just going to beg admittance when Manfred suddenly opened his door; and it was now twilight, concurring with the disorder of his mind, he did not distinguish the person, but asked angrily, who it was? Matilda replied trembling, “my dearest father, it is I, your daughter”. Manfred stepping back hastily, cried “Begone, I do not want a daughter”, and flinging back abrupty, clapped the door against the terrified Matilda”

 Due to this, Matilda must accept that due to her gender she is expected to be treated in such a manner and her father will not give her any affection. Putri (2012) writes that for Manfred- “it would be better that Matilda be neither seen nor heard.” (p.7). Isabella who is Conrad’s fiancée is forced by her father to marry Manfred after Conrad’s death. She too is a victim of the patriarchal society in which she lives. She must marry Manfred even if there is no love there and only after Matilda’s death does Theodore accept her, and she becomes Lady of the castle. Even after this, the assumption would be that she becomes subservient to Theodore as opposed to her father. Therefore, the role of women in The Castle of Otranto is subservience to the men in their lives and this is their calling.

In contrast, Le Fanu’s Carmilla (2005) originally written in 1897 is the story of Laura and Carmilla, two young women who do not obey such a patriarchy and are in a lesbian relationship. Before Carmilla, vampires were predominantly male such as Lord Ruthven from John William Polidori's The Vampyre (2017). Signorotti (1996) argues that Le Fanu’s choice of creating a powerful female vampire was because it “marks the growing concern about the power of female relationships in the nineteenth century” since this was the time “feminists began to petition for additional rights for women. Concerned with women's power and influence, writers . . . often responded by creating powerful women characters, the vampire being one of the most powerful negative images” (Senf, 1988). It is for this reason that Carmilla is depicted in such a frightening and sensual way by Laura. She represents the allure of women as sexual beings with fangs dangerous enough to topple the patriarchy that the women in Walpole’s novel held to such esteem. Laura recounts one night that:

“I saw a solemn, but very pretty face looking at me from the side of the bed. It was that of a young lady who was kneeling, with her hands under the coverlet. I looked at her with a kind of pleased wonder and ceased whimpering. She caressed me with her hands, and lay down beside me on the bed, and drew me towards her, smiling; I felt immediately delightfully soothed, and fell asleep again. I was wakened by a sensation as if two needles ran into my breast very deep at the same moment, and I cried loudly. The lady started back, with her eyes fixed on me, and then slipped down upon the floor, and, as I thought, hid herself.” (Le Fanu, 2005)

Carmilla is liberating her fellow woman from the grip of a male dominated life and the needles of freedom cause her pain from the familiarity she initially grew up with into an unknown but free world where their union without a male partner gives them liberation from male authority.

 The exclusion of the man is further shown by General Spielsdorf’s recount of when he tried to catch the vampire that was causing his niece, Bertha, to become ill. He watches from the door as he saw “a large black object, very ill-defined, crawl, as it seemed to me, over the foot of the bed, and swiftly spread itself up to the poor girl's throat.” (Le Fanu, 2005). Carmilla takes away the male inclusion and leaves him a voyeur to a union that is beyond the heterosexual norm. This is a freedom from the patriarchal society that has ruled over women for centuries into a freedom over their own lives both physically and psychologically. Signorotti (1996) explains that “Le Fanu allows Laura and Carmilla to usurp male authority and to be stow themselves on whom they please, completely excluding male participation in the exchange of women.” (p.607). This exchange symbolises the change in normality. Not only are women becoming independent from males for their living needs, they are also becoming free in their sexual needs. Where The Castle of Otranto focused on the ideal women being subservient and dependent on the male in one’s life, Carmilla focuses on the threat of women to oppose Walpole’s standard of servitude to the patriarch that controlled their lives and of their bodies as factories for new male heirs. Carmilla is the free women that Walpole’s characters never dreamed of.

 Rebecca (Du Maurier, 2007) was written in in the twentieth century (1938) and is the story of the narrator’s marriage to Maxim de Winter and the subsequent flashbacks to her time in Manderley where she learnt about her husband’s first wife Rebecca and her lingering presence even after her death. Nigro (2000) argues that although the common assumption about Rebecca is that she is manipulative and convinced everyone she is flawless, she was justifiably murdered according to the second Mrs. de Winter. “What if, however, Maxim is the one who is lying, and Rebecca was as good as reputation held her, if his jealousy was the true motive for her murder?” (p. 144). Furthermore, Wisker (1999) points out that Du Maurier is known to have unreliable narrators. Therefore, finding the truth behind Rebecca’s character, flawed or perfect, becomes difficult. This difficulty blurs the lines between gender roles and conformity. The superiority of men is shown by Mrs. Danvers’ comparison of Rebecca as a man, “"She had all the courage and spirit of a boy, had my Mrs. de Winter. She ought to have been a boy, I often told her that. I had the care of her as a child. You knew that, did you?" (Du Maurier, 2007) showing the importance of being a “man” at the time and how they were seen to be superior. When the audience finds out about Rebecca’s imperfect character, one of her detrimental features is that she is promiscuous and why Maxim killed her. Maxim’s murder could therefore be because he was constrained by what people would think if his wife was expose to be a “harlot” and murdered her to uphold the principles that Walpole emphasised- something he cannot go against in his social circle, whilst Rebecca herself was trying to be as free as Carmilla and trying her best to live a happy life unconstrained by social norms and patriarchal glances. The role of gender and women becomes blurred in Rebecca as these roles begin to breakdown and become synonymous to both genders.

 Maxim’s attitude towards his new wife is almost paternalistic, treating her like an immature girl referring to her as “my child” and “my poor lamb” (Du Maurier, 2007). Where Mrs de Winter wants to become more mature, Maxim tries to keep her away calling it "not the right sort of knowledge" (p. 223) and telling her “it’s a pity you have to grow up” to block her from gaining the maturity that she craves. As a result, Mrs de Winter becomes trapped in a purgatory between maturity and upper-class standards and immaturity and the life she has come from. This entrapment is what the patriarchal norms establish, the damsel that must be guided by a firm male hand because of her ignorance as opposed to the woman being on equal footing to the man and someone who can take care of themselves. It is this standard that the narrator is held to and is also the standard Maxim held Rebecca to and subsequently murdered her because of. The shame from having a free woman as a wife is what led him to his crime. It is for this reason that the ultimate villain of Rebecca is in fact the patriarchal system in which the characters are confined. Wisker (2003) argues that the aristocratic setting of Rebecca “was to represent an unease at the configurations of power and gendered relations of the time.” Pons (2013) furthers this argument and explains that “the ultimate gothic villain is the haunting presence of an old-fashioned, strict patriarchal system, represented by Maxims mansion, Manderley, and understood as a hierarchical system.” This configuration of patriarchy established in the eighteenth century by Walpole is that of servitude for women and dominance for men. However, in an era where women have more power and have freedom as expressed in Carmilla suggests that these roles are becoming unfulfillable and it is because of this system that the characters are led to “hypocrisy, hysteria and crime.” (Pons, 2013). Thus, the role of women as a strict social etiquette breaks down and although they are treated still as subjects, the shift in power to give women their freedom is evident.

 Twilight (Meyer, 2012) written in 2005, follows the story of Bella Swan who falls in love with a vampire and the subsequent life they have together. However, it is subject to great controversy especially because of Bella herself. She seems to conform to female roles that are more akin to Hippolita than Carmilla. Rocha (2011) argues that “Bella illustrates female submission in a male dominated world; disempowering herself and symbolically disempowering women.” She sees herself in a negative light that is incapable of doing anything herself and is totally submissive in nature becoming a pawn in the life of the men of her life. Mann (2009) argues “When Bella falls in love, then, a girl in love is all she is. By page 139 she has concluded that her mundane life is a small price to pay for the gift of being with Edward, and by the second book she’s willing to trade her soul for that privilege” (p.133) and hence has a Hippolitaian quality of sacrifice for the pleasure of men and hence develops nothing about herself. Mann (2009) continues to say that “Other than her penchant for self-sacrifice and the capacity to attract the attention of boys, Bella isn’t really anyone special. She has no identifiable interests or talents; she is incompetent in the face of almost every challenge...When she needs something done, especially mechanical, she finds a boy to do it and watches him. (p.133) This leaves Bella as a “damsel-in-distress” (Rocha, 2011) where Edward becomes her saviour. Thus, the role of women in Twilight seems to be that of a possession to enhance the male being.

 It could however be argued that Twilight contains a relationship that female readers can relate to in its ability to show the “women’s powerlessness and their desire for revenge and appropriation.” (Jarvis, 2014) and how the heroine proves to the hero ‘‘their infinite preciousness’’ (Modleski, 1982) bringing the hero to contemplate, worry and obsess over the heroine in a way that the female reader can share “the heroines’ powerlessness and accompanying frustration.” (Jarvis, 2013). This leads to what Nicol (2011) explains is the ‘‘complexities of female sexuality for women in the twenty-first century’’ in so far as it provides a ‘‘socially sanctioned space in which to explore their sexual desires.” These desires are evident in Bella and Edward’s first kiss, that Bella describes:

 “His cold, marble lips pressed very softly against mine. Blood boiled under my skin, burned in my lips. My breath came in a wild gasp. My fingers knotted in his hair, clutching him to me. My lips parted as I breathed in his heady scent.” (Meyer, 2005, p. 282)

 This sexual tension is introduced earlier in the book where Bella is told that ‘‘Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him’’ (Meyer, 2005 p. 19). Jarvis (2014) explains that because of this any “female who secures the inaccessible Edward will rise in the esteem of her community” and since she is claiming him, someone who thinks of herself as “ordinary” (p. 210) the excitement for both Bella and the reader who is caught in this sexual act- almost participating in it- is why the sexual nature of the book is so enticing. Therefore, although Bella can be seen as holding the values of Hippolita, the Twilight saga speaks volumes in its showing of the complexities of the social code that twenty-first century women must abide by. They are expected to be as obedient as Hippolita whilst being as sexual desirable as Carmilla or Rebecca. Bella’s metamorphosis from the ordinary human to the alluring vampire symbolises this. Women’s roles therefore have changed to give them more freedom, but they are still expected to behave like Hippolita when the “freedom” they have been given.  

 In conclusion, the role of women and their identities have changed over the centuries. Walpole’s eighteenth-century idealism was that of the subservient woman that belonged to the patriarchal figure in their life in order to produce a good heir. The nineteenth century however became the start of the empowerment of women and much of the anxiety in Carmilla is her powerful nature as a woman to do as she pleases, removing the man and the patriarchy from Le Fanu’s world. She is thus depicted as a vampire- alluring and deadly- much like giving freedom to women who cannot control nor be trusted with the power they could be given. Rebecca leads to the twentieth century where the woman has been given some freedom to do as she pleases so long as it is under the watch of a man. Maxim’s murder and subsequent second marriage where because he could not control his first wife. The twenty-first century culmination of these roles comes in the form of Twilight where the heroin seems bland on the surface but actually shows the metamorphosis of womanhood through the centuries from that of a second-class servant to the ultimate freedom away from the patriarchy that Le Fanu’s Carmilla started centuries ago. As a result, the role of women has been fluid through the years. The ultimate goal of feminism is to have equality and the books that have been mentioned show that equality can only be achieved if any form of patriarchal culture is removed- a feat that has yet to be conquered.

[subihasan-blog]

Wifehood and Motherhood are Not the Only Ways to Paradise

“Why are you majoring in that field?” I asked a sister in college. She sighed, “To be honest, I just want to get married. I don’t really care about what I’m studying right now. I’m just waiting to get hitched so I can be a wife and a mother.” “It’s awesome that she wants to be a wife and a mother, but why would she put her life on hold?” I wondered. Why would a skilled, passionate young woman create barriers to striving for self-improvement and her ability to be socially transformative when she doesn’t yet have the responsibilities of wifehood or motherhood? Being a wife and a mom are great blessings, but before it actually happens, why exchange tangible opportunities, just waiting for marriage to simply come along—if it came along? I didn’t have to look far to find out. “I’m already twenty-six,” another sister lamented. “I’m expired. My parents are going crazy. They think I’m never going to get married and they pressure me about it daily. My mom’s friends keep calling her and telling her I’m not getting any younger. She keeps crying over it and says she’ll never be a grandma. It’s not like I don’t want to get married; I’ve been ready since college! I just can’t find the right guy,” she cried. Why, as a general community, are we not putting the same pressure on women to encourage them to continue to seek Islamic knowledge? Higher education? To make objectives in their lives which will carry over and aid them in their future familial lives, if such is what is meant for them? Perhaps it’s because we’re obsessed with the idea that women need to get married and become mothers and that if they don’t, they have not reached true success. We all know the honorable and weighty status of wifehood and motherhood in Islam. We all know that marriage completes half your deen1 and that the Prophet (peace be upon him) has told us about the mother, “[…] Paradise is at her feet.”2 But getting married and becoming a mother is not the only way to get into Paradise. And not every grown woman is a wife and/or mother, nor will ever be. Some women will eventually become wives and/or mothers, if Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (exalted is He) blesses them with such, but for others, Allah (swt) has blessed them with other opportunities. Allah (swt) did not create women for the sake of wifehood or motherhood. This is not our first goal, nor our end goal. Our creation was to fulfill our first and most important role—to be His SLAVE. As He tells us in Surah Dhaariyat (Chapter of the Winnowing Winds), “And I did not create the jinn and humankind except to worship Me.”3 Worship comes in such a variety of forms. Being a housewife (a.k.a. domestic engineer!) can be a form of worship. Being a stay-at-home-mom can be a form of worship. Being a working wife and mother can be a form of worship. Being an unmarried female student can be a form of worship. Being a divorced female doctor, a female journalist, Islamic scholar, film director, pastry chef, teacher, veterinarian, engineer, personal trainer, lawyer, artist, nurse, Qur’an teacher, psychologist, pharmacist or salon artist can each be a form of worship. Just being an awesome daughter or house-fixer upper can be forms of worship. We can worship Allah (swt) in a variety of ways, as long as we have a sincere intention, and what we do is done within the guidelines He has set for us. Unfortunately, however, that is not the message our community is sending to single sisters – both those who have never been married, and those who are now divorced. When I speak to many women and ask them about the ways they want to contribute to society and the ways they want to use their time and abilities, a number of them will tell me that they have no idea and that they’re only going through the motions of school or work while they’re waiting for Prince Muslim to come along and with whom they can establish parenthood. However, Prince Muslim is not coming along quickly or easily for many awesome, eligible Muslim women. And for some, he has come along, and he or the institution of their relationship turned out to be more villainous than harmonious. Single and never married or divorced — very capable and intelligent Muslim women constantly have to deal with the pressure of being asked, “So…when are you getting married? You aren’t getting any younger. It’s harder to have kids when you’re older.” The amount of tears, pain, stress, anger and frustration which these awesome women are constantly dealing with because of a social pressure to get married (especially when many already want to, but are just not finding the right person!) and have children is not from our religion. Islam gave women scholarship. Our history is filled with women who have dedicated their lives to teaching Islamic sciences. Have you ever heard of Fatimah Sa`d al Khayr? She was a scholar who was born around the year 522. Her father, Sa`d al Khayr, was also a scholar. He held several classes and was “most particular about [his daughters] attending hadith classes, traveling with them extensively and repeatedly to different teachers. He also taught them himself.”4 Fatimah studied the works of the great al-Tabarani with the lead narrator of his works in her time. You know who that lead narrator was? The lead narrator of Fatimah’s time was not named Abu someone (the father of someone, indicating that he was a male). The leading scholar of her time was a woman. Her name was Fatimah al-Juzadniyyah and she is the scholar who men and women alike would study under because in that era, she was the greatest and most knowledgeable in some of the classical texts.5 Fatimah Sa`d al Khayr eventually married and moved to Damascus and eventually to Cairo and she continued to teach. Many scholars travelled specifically to her city so they could study under her.6 Fatimah was brought up in a family that valued the education and knowledge of a woman to the point that her father was the one who would ensure she studied with scholars from a young age. Before marriage, she was not told to sit around and be inactive in the community out of fear that some men would find an educated woman unattractive or intimidating and would not want to marry her. She was not going through the motions of studying random things in college because she was stalling until she got married. She sought scholarship and Allah (swt) blessed her with a husband who was of her ranking, who understood her qualifications and drive, and who supported her efforts to continue teaching this religion even after marriage. She left a legacy we unfortunately have most likely never heard about because we rarely hear about the over eight thousand female scholars of hadith who are part of our history.7 Why do we never hear about Fatimah Sa`d al Khayr and the thousands of female scholars who were like her? I think that one of the reasons—and it’s just a personal theory—that as a community, we are so focused on grooming our women to be wives and mothers that we lose sight of the fact that this is not even our number one role. Servitude to Allah (swt) is our number one role. We need to use what He has given us, the means that we have at the moment we have, to worship Him in the best of ways. Islamic history is filled with examples of women who were wives and mothers, who focused completely on their tasks of being wives and/or mothers, and produced the likes of Imam Ahmed rahimahu allah (may God have mercy on him).8We take those examples as a community and we reiterate the noble status of such incredible women. But we also have examples of people who were not only wives and not only mothers, but those who were both of those, one of those, or none of those, and still were able to use the passions, talents and skills Allah (swt) blessed them with to worship Him through serving His creation, through calling His creation back to His Deen and leaving legacies for the generations to come. Some of these women were wives and mothers and dedicated their lives to focusing on their families completely and some of them continued to serve the greater society at large. Shaykh Mohammad Akram Nadwi mentions in his introduction to his Dictionary of women hadith scholars, Al Muhadithaat, “Not one [of the 8000 female hadith scholars he researched] is reported to have considered the domain of family life inferior, or neglected duties therein, or considered being a woman undesirable or inferior to being a man, or considered that, given aptitude and opportunity, she had no duties to the wider society, outside of the domain of family life.”9 Female scholars in our history were focused on being family women when they had families to whom they held responsibilities, and when able, they also had goals and objectives in life which extended beyond the roles of wifehood and motherhood. So what about someone who is not yet married? Many single women are using their time to the utmost, focusing on improving their skills and abilities to contribute back to the ummah (community) and society at large. They are loving worshipping Allah (swt) through investing in their abilities and using those for the greater good. Perhaps we can all take from their example. God, in His Wisdom, has created each one of us differently and in different circumstances. Some recognize this, love any stage they are in, and develop their abilities to the fullest. Let us, too, use the time and abilities God has given us to maximize our worship to Him and work for the betterment of society and humanity as a whole. If wifehood or motherhood comes in the process, then at least we were using all of our ability to worship Him before it came and can continue to use the training and stamina we gained before marriage to worship Him with excellence once it comes along. If there are parents, families and communities that are pressuring women to get married and have kids: Be grateful Allah (swt) has blessed you with daughters, married or unmarried, mothers or not, as the Prophet SAW has said, “Do not be averse to daughters, for they are precious treasures that comfort your heart.”10 We are putting more pressure on our sisters than they can emotionally and psychologically handle. Let us give them space, let them find themselves and establish their relationships with Allah (swt). Allah (swt) created us to worship Him. That is our number one role. Now, let us do our part and figure out how best we can fulfill the purpose for which we’ve been created.

[yourgodmoments]

Standing Upon Godly Shoulders - part 5

Last time, we saw, according to her prayer, how Hannah, the mother of Samuel, (the would-be prophet and final earthly ‘judge’), championed the ongoing promises of God and His salvation. She was granted citizenship in the city of God.

She had weaned Samuel, and then dedicated him to temple service under the tutelage of the priest Eli.

Jehovah God called to Samuel when he was still a boy, and he stepped into his servitude. He told Samuel that He was taking the mantle of priesthood from Eli because of evil-doings of his sons, which Samuel related directly to the priest. God would come many times to Samuel and that relationship would grow and become renown:

Now Samuel grew; and the LORD was with him and He let none of his words fail [to be fulfilled]. And all Israel…knew that Samuel was appointed as prophet of the LORD. 1 Sam. 3:19 - 20. AMP

When Samuel grew older, the people of Israel began to worry that he would die and leave them ruleless; so they petitioned him to appoint an earthly king, (as opposed to the heavenly king Jehovah), so that they could emulate the pagan countries around them.

Samuel was sick over the people’s rejection of God as their king, and he was reluctant to do their bidding. Yet, God instructed the prophet to do so, telling him to let the people know just how badly that was going to go for them. Yet Samuel’s warning fell upon deaf ears, and he did as according to how God instructed him. Thus, Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel. At that time, Samuel spoke for God, re-affirming His covenant with Israel by reminding them that His same rules apply, earthly king or not:

“…here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the LORD has set a king over you. If you fear the LORD and serve Him and obey HIs voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the LORD your God…For the LORD will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you His people…But if you do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both and your king.” 1 Sam. 12:13, 14, 22 & 25. NKJV

And isn’t this the time immemorial request from God? Every champion of God, every citizen of the city of God, perpetuates this message, i.e. to obey God’s word, because the only way to live the best life is to live one that includes Him.

King Saul had reigned only two years when he had disobeyed God due to a lack of faith in God’s faithfulness. God, always being true to His word, sent Samuel to rebuke Saul and pronounce the consequences afforded to the king’s actions:

“You have been foolish. You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you. It was at this time that the LORD would have permanently established your reign over Israel, but now your reign will not endure. The LORD has found a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over his people, because you have not done what the LORD commanded.” 1 Sam. 13:13, 14. CSB

“…for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 1 Sam. 15:26 NKJV

Sin always has repercussions…

That man of God’s own heart would be anointed king by Samuel as well; and his name was King David. Yet David would not actually rule until after the death of Samuel, (another addition to the city of God), as well as King Saul - who would remain in the city of the earth.  

King David would be a mighty, mighty man of God. He unified all of Israel, and then God spoke to hi through the prophet Nathan:

“I took you from the pasture, from following sheep, to be ruler over My people Israel…When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” 2 Sam. 7:8, 12 & 13. NKJV

This was a double-promise: both that God would set up David’s son, Solomon, as the next king, who would build the temple, and that his lineage would be ultimately manifested as the Son of God, who sits on the eternal throne.

David was a man who was totally dedicated to God; and through the power of the Holy Spirit, he pinned a plethora of psalms, most of which concentrate on how to maximize our spirit / worship relationship with our Maker. Others reveal the eternal kingdom of God to us all; following are some of those cited by St. Augustine in his book City of God.

King David did not write all of the psalms in the book of Psalms. Similar to the immediate scripture above, Ps. 89, written my a ‘wise man’ [Ethan the Ezrahite, thought also to be a temple musician from King Solomon’s time, (see 1 Kin. 4:31 & 1 Chr. 15:19), verifies the coming of Christ - again in a dual prophecy about King David, but ultimately fulfilled in Jesus:

The LORD said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn an oath to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.” Ps. 89:3 - 4. CSB

“…I have found David My servant David; with My holy oil I have anointed him, with whom My hand shall be established; and also My arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him…My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him, and in My name his horn shall be exalted. Also, I will set his hand over the sea, and his right hand over the rivers.

He shall cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” Ps. 89:20-22 & 24 - 27. NKJV

Returning to King David, St. Augustine writes this:

In the progress of the city of God through the ages, therefore, David first reigned in the earthly Jerusalem as a shadow of that which was to come; and …almost all of his prophecy was in psalms.

King David also had leaders in the orchestral and singing divisions in his worship assembly. One group was the sons of Korah, who also contributed to the psalms. Here we find another messianic prophesy:

You are fairer than the sons of men; graciousness is poured upon your lips; Therefore God has blessed you forever. Strap Your sword on Your thigh, O mighty One, in Your Splendor and Your Majesty. And in Your majesty ride on triumphantly for the cause of truth and humility and righteousness; let Your righthand guide you to awesome things…

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness (virtue, morality, justice) and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of jubilation. Ps. 45:2 - 4 & 6, 7. AMP

Finally, we get to a psalm written by David himself, where we are privy to a conversation between God and His Son:

The LORD (Father) says to my Lord (the Messiah, His Son), “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet [subjugating them into complete submission].” The LORD will send the scepter of Your strength from Zion, saying “Rule in the midst of your enemies.”

Your people will offer themselves willingly [to participate in Your battle] in the day of Your power…The LORD has sworn [an oath\ and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”  Ps. 110:1 - 4. AMP

Jesus, this King and High Priest, Is definitely on the side we want to be on - Jehovah’s!

Another psalm of David is an eerily accurate prophecy of Christ’s future time on the cross - from His perspective:

For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet - I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Ps. 22:16 - 18. ESV

In yet another, David writes of both his faith in God’s salvation, and renders a prophecy about Jesus being resurrected without physical corruption:

For You will not abandon me to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead), nor will you allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. Ps. 16:10 AMP

King David was a great man of God; yet, even the great can fall. His adultery with Bathsheba and his hand in the murder of her husband was the beginning of his downfall. God forgave him because of his sincere repentance, yet, God must mete out the consequences of sin. David was troubled within his family life almost until his death.

Yet we can be ever thankful that God empowered David to show us how to both get closer to God, and to begin to be aware of our blessed Son of God as well.

David therefore reigned in the earthly Jerusalem, much praised by the divine testimony; for even his faults are overcome by great piety, through the most salutary humility of his repentance…  St. Augustine

Praise Jehovah for His citizens of the city of God and their steadfast perseverance in bringing us the guaranteed hope of our Father, in His Son…

Goodnight and God bless.

[edc-creations-blog]

Josephine Baker’s Last Dance by Sherry Jones

From the author of The Jewel of Medina, a moving and insightful novel based on the life of legendary performer and activist Josephine Baker, perfect for fans of The Paris Wife and Hidden Figures.

Discover the fascinating and singular life story of Josephine Baker—actress, singer, dancer, Civil Rights activist, member of the French Resistance during WWII, and a woman dedicated to erasing prejudice and creating a more equitable world—in Josephine Baker’s Last Dance.

In this illuminating biographical novel, Sherry Jones brings to life Josephine’s early years in servitude and poverty in America, her rise to fame as a showgirl in her famous banana skirt, her activism against discrimination, and her many loves and losses. From 1920s Paris to 1960s Washington, to her final, triumphant performance, one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century comes to stunning life on the page.

With intimate prose and comprehensive research, Sherry Jones brings this remarkable and compelling public figure into focus for the first time in a joyous celebration of a life lived in technicolor, a powerful woman who continues to inspire today.

    Praise for Josephine Baker’s Last Dance

  “Sherry Jones takes us on a remarkable journey of heartbreak and empowerment. Josephine Baker’s Last Dance is a bold and beautiful book about a bold and beautiful life. This book left its mark on me.” – Susan Crandall, author of The Myth of Perpetual Summer

  “The mesmerizing chanteuse who shattered race barriers and hearts across the world is brought to vivid, unstoppable life in Josephine Baker’s Last Dance. The champagne swirl of the Jazz Age fuels this amazing, untold story of a defiant woman who fought her way from poverty to become the toast of Europe, infamous for her bawdy act and banana-peel-barely-there skirt. Jones’s Josephine is complicated and human: a courageous artist on a quest for freedom under the haunting legacy of race inequality; she emerges as not only a fantastic icon from the past in her own right, but also as a mirror and example for today. “ – C.W. Gortner, author of Mademoiselle Chanel

  “[An] entertaining portrait of a groundbreaking woman. Hand this to fans of Paula McLain’s The Paris Wife (2011), Liza Klaussman’s Villa America (2015), and other tales of Jazz Age artists.” – Booklist

  “The extraordinary story of a unique and unrivaled icon…Jones delivers a satisfying life of one endlessly fascinating person.” – Kirkus Reviews

  “If you loved The Paris Wife, you’re going to love this… Sherry Jones’s new Fall release is an inspiring novel that women everywhere will find to be an important piece of literature in helping to bring about total equality in our current world.” – PopSugar

      EXCERPT: Josephine Baker’s Last Dance

Just before she entered the stage door, a drop of rain hit her on the head. No, that was not a bad omen, only a reminder to do her best, to shine like the star she was, or would be. Wilsie came running up—Mr. Sissle was there, but Mr. Blake had yet to arrive. “You’ll knock ’em dead, Tumpy. Just do your dancing and forget the rest.” Josephine didn’t need to be told that. She was ready.

She flexed and stretched her arms as she walked with Wilsie across the stage, past the musicians gathering, trumpets and saxophones and drums and a clarinet, down into the auditorium, where a slender man spoke to a white-haired man at his side. He turned his head very slightly and looked her up and down from the corners of his shrewd, hard eyes. His mouth pursed.

“How old are you?” he’d said before Wilsie had even introduced them. The stage door opened, and a very dark-skinned man with a bald head hurried in, talking about “the damned rain,” scampering down the steps, striding up the aisle, shaking water from his clothes.

“Eubie Blake,” he said, smiling, holding out his hand to her.

“This is Tumpy, Mr. Blake, the one I told you about,” Wilsie said. “She’s here to audition for Clara’s spot in the chorus.”

The man with Mr. Sissle—the stage manager—motioned to her and she followed him up the stage steps. Did she know the songs? Could she dance to “I’m Just Wild about Harry”? Josephine wanted to jump for joy. She pretended to watch as Wilsie showed her the steps, which she already knew as if she’d made them up herself. Josephine stripped down to her dingy leotard, tossed her clothes on a chair, then ran and leaped to the center of the stage. This was it. She bent over to grasp her ankles, stretching her legs, then stood and pulled her arms over her head.

“Ready?” Mr. Sissle barked. The music started, and she began the dance, so simple she could have done it in her sleep. Practicing in the Standard, she’d gotten bored with it and had made up her own steps, throwing in a little Black Bottom, wiggling her ass and kicking her legs twice as high as they wanted to go, taken by the music, played by it, the instruments’ instrument, flapping her hands, step and kick and spin and spin and squat and jump and down in a split, up and jump and kick and spin—oops, the steps, she didn’t need no damn steps, she had better ones—and kick and jump and wiggle and spin. She looked out into the auditorium—a big mistake: Mr. Blake’s mouth was open and Mr. Sissle’s eyes had narrowed to slits. Don’t be nervous, just dance. Only the music remained now, her feet and the stage.

When she’d finished, panting, and pulled on her dress and shoes, Wilsie came running over, her eyes shining. “You made their heads spin, you better believe it,” she whispered, but when they went down into the aisle Josephine heard Mr. Sissle muttering.

“Too young, too dark, too ugly,” he said. The world stopped turning, then, the sun frozen in its arc, every clock still, every breath caught in every throat. Mr. Blake turned to her, smiling as if everything were normal, and congratulated her on “a remarkable dance.”

“I can see that you are well qualified for our chorus, Tumpy,” he said, and on his lips, the name sounded like a little child’s.

“You have real talent, and spark, besides. How did you learn to do that at such a young age? You are—how old?”

“Fifteen,” she said.

Mr. Sissle snorted, and cut Wilsie a look. “Wasting my time,” he said. Mr. Blake looked at her as if she’d just wandered in from the orphanage.

“I’m very sorry, there’s been a mix-up,” he said. “You must be sixteen to dance professionally in New York State.”

“I’ll be sixteen in June,” Josephine said. Her voice sounded plaintive and faraway.

“We need someone now.” Mr. Sissle folded his arms as if she were underage on purpose. Mr. Blake led her toward the stage door, an apologetic Wilsie saying she hadn’t known. Mr. Sissle followed, talking to Mr. Blake about adding some steps to “I’m Just Wild about Harry,” saying they should put in some kicks, that he’d been thinking about it for a while. Uh-huh.

“Come and see us in New York after your birthday, doll,” Mr. Blake said. “You never know when we might have an opening.” He opened the door and let the rain pour in before shutting it again. He looked at Josephine’s thin, optimistic dress. Where was her umbrella? She hung her head. He stepped over to retrieve a black umbrella propped against the wall and handed it to her. She took it without even knowing, her thoughts colliding like too many birds in a cage. She would have to stay in Philadelphia, she had failed—too young, too dark, too ugly—she should have lied about her age, what had gotten into her? Showing off, that was what.

And now Mr. Sissle disliked her, and she would never get into their show; it didn’t matter how many times she went back. As she stepped out into the rain with that big umbrella in her hands unopened and felt the rain pour down her face; she was glad, for now they would think it was water instead of tears, but when she looked back, Wilsie was crying, too, in the open doorway.

Seeing the men watching from a window, she stopped. They wouldn’t forget her; she’d make them remember. She walked slowly, her silk dress dripping, while Mr. Sissle gesticulated with excitement as he stole her ideas—authentic Negro dancing were the last words she’d heard—and Mr. Blake looking as if he wanted to run out there, scoop her up, and carry her back inside.

  ( Continued… )

© 2018 All rights reserved. Book excerpt reprinted by permission of the author, Sherry Jones. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author’s written permission. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only.

Purchase Josephine Baker’s Last Dance in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats on Simon and Schuster’s website (available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Indiebound, Kobo, and other sites). Learn more about Sherry’s books at www.authorsherryjones.com

  About Sherry Jones Author and journalist Sherry Jones is best known for her international bestseller The Jewel of Medina. She is also the author of The Sword of Medina, Four Sisters, All Queens, The Sharp Hook of Love, and the novella White Heart.

Sherry lives in Spokane, WA, where, like Josephine Baker, she enjoys dancing, singing, eating, advocating for equality, and drinking champagne. Visit her online at AuthorSherryJones.com.

Website: http://authorsherryjones.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/sherryjones Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sherryjones Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sherry-jones Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sherryjonesfanpage Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephinebakerslastdance LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cybersecuritytechnologywriter Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1219600.Sherry_Jones

        AUTHOR REVEALED

  Q. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR LIFE IN ONLY 8 WORDS?

A. So many books to write, so little time!

Q. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO OR MAXIM?

A. “Love is a verb.” Also, “You don’t get what you don’t ask for.”

Q. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE PERFECT HAPPINESS?

A. Waking up every morning excited about the day. Going to sleep at night excited about the next day. In between: dancing.

Q. WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST FEAR?

A. Homelessness.

Q. IF YOU COULD BE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW, WHERE WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO BE?

A. In the presence of those I love.

Q. WITH WHOM IN HISTORY DO YOU MOST IDENTIFY?

A. With every woman who has recognized that true power comes from within.

Q. WHICH LIVING PERSON DO YOU MOST ADMIRE?

A. Oprah Winfrey, for her magnanimous support of women and authors. The Dalai Lama, for inspiring us all to lead compassionate lives.

Q. WHAT ARE YOUR MOST OVERUSED WORDS OR PHRASES?

A. They differ from book to book! In “Four Sisters, All Queens,” it was “clamor.”

Q. WHAT DO YOU REGRET MOST?

A. I regret the “down” time that I seem to need between books. I am so aware of the limited time that I have to write in this life, and have so many novels I want to write.

Q. IF YOU COULD ACQUIRE ANY TALENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

A. I would be a much better pianist. I play classical piano but it’s such a struggle. I love it, and would so love to feel at ease while making beautiful music.

Q. WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT?

A. Raising my 17-year-old daughter to be the amazing, powerful, kind-hearted young woman that she is. I did this while finishing my college degree, working part-time, and researching and writing my first novel.

Q. WHAT’S YOUR GREATEST FLAW?

A. Impulsivity.

Q. WHAT’S YOUR BEST QUALITY?

A. Empathy.

Q. IF YOU COULD BE ANY PERSON OR THING, WHO OR WHAT WOULD IT BE?

A. I would be myself, warts and all. 🙂

Q.  WHAT TRAIT IS MOST NOTICEABLE ABOUT YOU?

A. My laughter. It’s loud and audacious!

Q. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FICTIONAL HERO?

A. Capitola in Eden Southworth’s classic novel, “The Hidden Hand.” Lily Barth in “House of Mirth.” Morgaine in “The Mists of Avalon.” Anna Karenina. A’isha in my first two books, “The Jewel of Medina” and “The Sword of Medina.” And I have a special place in my heart for each of my four sister-queens!

Q. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FICTIONAL VILLAIN?

A. Blanche, the “White Queen,” in “Four Sisters, All Queens.” The Red Queen in “Alice in Wonderland,” especially as rendered by Helena Bonham Carter. Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice.”

Q. IF YOU COULD MEET ANY HISTORICAL CHARACTER, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO HIM OR HER?

A. I would love to meet Jesus and ask him what he thinks of universal health care.

Q. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE?

A. Selfishness, and a lack of compassion for others. But I have grammatical pet peeves, too, lots of them! “Comprised of.” Using adverbs improperly. “Like” when “such as” or “as if” is correct. Failing to use the subjunctive tense when it is appropriate — as in, “Dance like no one is watching.” Yikes!

Q. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE OCCUPATION, WHEN YOU’RE NOT WRITING?

A. Journalism. I love to challenge authority. Me and my big mouth!!!!

Q. WHAT’S YOUR FANTASY PROFESSION?

A. I’m doing it, right now, writing novels and selling them all over the world.

Q. WHAT 3 PERSONAL QUALITIES ARE MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU?

A. Compassion. Integrity. Humor.

  Josephine Baker’s Last Dance by Sherry Jones Josephine Baker's Last Dance by Sherry Jones From the author of The Jewel of Medina, a moving and insightful novel based on the life of legendary performer and activist Josephine Baker, perfect for fans of The Paris Wife and Hidden Figures.

[alfiehsmith]

On Harvey Weinstein, the Sexual Harassment Uprising, and Social Mutation

According to the comic series, “X-Men”, mutants aren’t freaks of nature or random malfunctions in genetic replication; rather, they are an evolutionary leap forward. The process of evolution normally takes millions and millions of generations, but mutants are humans whose genetic structure has already reached that point. The underlying implication here is that humans will eventually evolve into creatures possessing those abilities.

Throughout human history, social evolution has witnessed ‘mutations’, where social evolution is not gradual, but sudden and radical. The Bible hints at one such episode with Moses and the Pharaoh. Human history has recorded such incidents as well. These usually occur during the rise of an empire (such as the Mongols in the mid-Middle Ages, who curtailed Russian development for 200 years) or at the collapse of an empire (such as the fall of Rome in the 6th century CE, when Western Europe fell to the Barbarians). In cases like these, social evolution has ‘mutated’, becoming something so radically different from what it was that the new model is hardly recognised, and even feared and hated, by the old.

In the last 200 or so years, we’ve seen several instances of social mutation (as opposed to social evolution): the criminalisation of slavery, where it was decided that humans who weren’t white are still human and are therefore entitled to certain inalienable human rights; the abolishment of slavery in the US, where a country so polarised on the notion of human servitude went to war with itself, the result being the decision that blacks in America were people, not property; the women’s suffrage movement, where it was decided that women are just as intellectually and socially capable as men, and therefore should be allowed to vote; and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, when the world realised that people who weren’t white, heterosexual, and/or male were just as important and just as valued as everyone else, and were therefore entitled to all the rights and privileges afforded all human beings. These are all cases of social and societal ‘mutation’, where society has made a tremendous - and usually, very violent - leap forward.

And now we come to the latest point to witness a social mutation. Over the last 24 months, dozens of high-profile men have been accused of sexual inappropriateness, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and even rape. Many of them have been proven true, if not through mounting evidence than through their own admission of guilt. This has thrown the celebrity world into a tailspin. As the drumhead rolls on, more and more men who thought themselves untouchable are learning exactly what ‘touchable’ means. Heads are rolling - a good thing, too - but there is a problem.

This social mutation will be, in my opinion, the most challenging one ever faced by the human race. It will be far more challenging than the civil rights movement, the emancipation of women, or even the American Civil War.

The problem is that there are several obstacles standing in the way. The first one is the same one for any attempt at social change: the people who currently enjoy power and are vehemently opposed to change because it means the end of their reign. Since before Christ, white males have enjoyed the luxury of having a monopoly on power, and over the last 2 000+ years, and vindictively and bitterly watched the erosion of that power. That doesn’t mean they didn’t try every trick in the book to keep that from happening. Today, the power the white, wealthy male has is a rancid skeleton of the mighty beast it once was, but they’re damned well going to defend that skeleton with gnashed teeth til the day they die. These days, they have to go about it in sneakier ways: tax havens, lobbying politicians, and even gerrymandering (which is illegal, but they do it anyway).

This obstacle, as I said, is common to any social change. What is not common is the resistance to change not just by the oppressors, but by the oppressed. Despite this aggressive - and righteous, I might add - attack on the objectification of women, it would be naïve to think there aren’t women out there who use sex to get what they want. They aren’t the majority; wouldn’t even say they compose half the female population. But there are enough to make a case for themselves. Those women use it to get deals and breaks on things, for career advancement, and so on. There are, undoubtedly, even women who use the concept of female objectification as their sole means of self-sustenance. For them, the abolition of the objectification of women would be disastrous; the one Trump card they have in life (see what I did there?) can no longer be played. There are also women who engage in re-victimising other women. They argue that a woman who was raped played a contributing part to the act because she wore clothes which were too revealing, flirted or even “led him on”, or (as people like the current Vice-President would have you believe) was just out hanging out with guys. So the victims are shut down not from misogynistic men, but misogynistic women (which, apparently, is a thing). I’ll never forget one woman going on record as saying she’d “rather be grabbed by the pussy than governed by one.”

This is different from other moments of social mutation. Black men and women didn’t come forward and say they’d love to remain as slaves. Fairly certain the LGBT+ community didn’t fight against the idea of tolerance and acceptance.

Sadly, these two obstacles are only part of the problem, although they are front-and-center on the stage. The third - and most potent - obstacle comes from behind the curtain. It comes from the underlying paradigm behind these two other obstacles: sexual harassment isn’t all that bad.

This notion, ingrained into the minds of men and women for countless generations, across countless cultures and religions, and manifested in countless actions and inactions, is by far the most daunting opponent to this social mutation. So entrenched into our society and our psyche is this attitude that it may very well derail the movement currently underway. When the debate about the slave trade was hot, no one used, as a defense of the practice, the argument that buying and selling blacks so that they could spend their entire lives performing low-skill, repetitive, back-breaking labour for no compensation at all wasn’t all that bad. They argued it would be bad for trade, for the economy, for the society as a whole, but never for the blacks. The same goes for the LGBT+ community, for women, for Natives, and so on. Members of society - women as well as men - are finding it difficult to change their mindset because the actual impact sexual harassment has, has not fully taken form in their minds.

So why is it not supposedly all that bad? There are so many arguments - far too many - to dismiss it. The first one is taught to us before we can walk. For generations, women and men have been raised with the notion of men being providers and hunters. Man strong. Man fight. Man make money for family. Man take care of woman. Concurrently, women are taught to look for a man who can do these things, and to allow him to do them. (As a small example, ask as many of your female friends if they have ever asked a man out on a date. The responses might surprise you.) And this is okay, we’re taught. A man should protect his woman. (Notice the possessive tone of that last sentence?) Fight to obtain her, and jealously guard her against other men who would want her for their own. A man who is either unable or unwilling to pursue the object of his affection is labeled by any number of names, none of which are compliments. “So what if I was a little too aggressive? That’s how I flirt!” “Women like men who come on strong.” So on, and so on. (And, as stated earlier, there are lots of women who do.)

The second argument stems from the first: it’s just flirting. Where’s the line between flirting and sexual inappropriateness? Is there such a line, meaning can it be universally agreed that everything up to point ‘x’ is flirting, and everything beyond is harassment? We may not agree on the answer to that, but we can agree that there are too many conflicting responses to establish a cut-off point. This grey area is where most of the men accused of sexual harassment get into trouble. Some, like Weinstein, went well beyond any reasonable measure of appropriate contact, but most of the cases I’ve heard so far have been rationalised by the idea the assailant didn’t honestly think what he was doing was wrong. (Remember Trump‘s “locker room talk” ‘apology’?)

The third is the look-but-don’t-touch attitude, the idea that, as long as a man doesn’t actually touch a woman, he’s safe. Catcalling, leering, etc. is fine because there’s no physical harm to the woman. It’s especially alright if she doesn’t even know it’s happening. American society is wrestling with its conscience over the premise that words are just words. As long as we maintain that maxim, that what we say or how we act is fine as long as the recipient of those words or actions is unaware, then the socio-sexual revolution we’re looking for won’t ever get off the ground.

These arguments, plus many more, all lead to the conclusion that we don’t need to stop objectifying and sexualising women because objectifying and sexualising women isn’t that big a deal. The apathy against this mutation, this revolution, is far more entrenched, far more widespread, and - worst of all - far more easily justifiable in the minds of the perpetrators or would-be perpetrators because they don’t see it as a big enough problem to warrant fundamental change. “It’s not like we’re chaining women nude and forcing them to have sex.”

If any progress is to be made, this paradigm needs to be ripped up by the root.

[scnapersonal-blog]

I’ve been in a private-messaging circle-jerk with the Kiwis for the last several days which has grown to about 25 pages

In that time, I learn the most shocking thing: somebody had acquired SRS who should frankly be intellectually incapable of receiving it by differentially diagnostic exclusive criteria.

Cuntster was the one who had made the announcement with his usual gaslighting shtick.

His inability to convince me of the absence of these emotional needs aside, I’ve written a parting exposition to that group today regarding how they even conspoired to sabotage my college entrance, but ultimately, with a context critical not of psychiatry, but psychiatry’s politically contextual use (NobleGreyHorse then ignorantly rambled on about Scientology as if they’re going to save any Aspergians in the upcoming Transsexual Imperium):

: All I really care about is that he chose someone of blood which will spare me of the worst-case scenario fate for when I really need to leave Scotland in the upcoming transsexual imperialist-induced Asperger genocide in the future. Low-mid caste status under leadership of my brother down the line is a fine staying scenario for me. It's the best choice I could've made whilst I discuss with Lennihan this Friday rehab. No, I'm serious; I want to go to rehab (so basically the anti-Winehouse; well, she was a real Jew, lol) and I want it to work, I want my reliance on opiates to stop and I want to be able to stay off them long-term either with the assistance of opiate-substitutes with a view to coming off them all altogether in a tapered fashion as should've been the case all along. I need to contact my SW to see if he has obtained the original copy of my SQA certificate yet from the college which I left having forgotten to pick it up after they'd photocopied it (they didn't make their cues clear in the interview process; that, as far as I'm concerned, was purposeful until recovery of this materialises). If he has, I can look to January options after having recovered in rehab, or, if that takes longer, next year options; same course, same level. I want, as an ideal, a hum-drum, office-going life, uncaring of how that pays -- if it's barely the living wage, well, emphasis on living. A single person regardless of sex can live comfortably off about £14,000 a year. Whatever you have to say about work-shops to be condescending or whatever, surely you should be able to foresee that in my abilities post-recovery. We'll never meet eye-to-eye on this gender stuff. Let's make that clear. I'm presenting as female as we speak, however "poorly". This isn't about sexual gratification or blahblahblah with this recent spurning by someone I misinterpreted had romantic interest for me, I've kind of meekly rescinded into quasi-asexualism-by-choice/celibacy, not because I don't have romantic desires, but in acknowledgement of my compete relationship exceptionalism. I'm self-aware of that much. I wasn't out to get cock. Being female was an emotional need, regardless if you believe it or not. Being remotely close to where my sister already was in her early-20s; moderately well-paying admin work subsidiary to a human resource's department but still in supervisorial role of call-centre staff -- I can communicate quickly, bark commands, co-ordinate myself under-pressure, and think fast on my feet when stabilized but nevertheless pressured, if that makes sense, having managed cults on Skype being my closest informal experience but nevertheless imparting very useful skills in that area, would be nice. The tertiary talisman I seek in particular is a 2-year Business degree. Maybe that'll become a 4-year far down the line, part-time. It's not my intellectual incapaciousness that ever let me down contrary to Cuntster's ramblings. He was on the money with the emotional instability things and why that could be a red flag with respect to admissions. The main problem was that autism-centric support was condescending and frankly disrespective of my new identitarian needs. Autism being a poison to my identity is most certainly a viable maxim; it's an excuse bordering on ludicrous not only for my mother to keep pressuring me to stay on benefits for her own sake, but for Cuntster to patronize me with this garbage about 'tard-wrangling work-shops? I don't even think Mel's IQ estimate would have me performing that work, to be honest. That is the stuff of Down syndromic people and severe schizophrenics who, content with their executively dysfunctional state, understandably want to occupy their time, but completely inappropriate in my functional predicament, which is objectively a bit higher; mid-road between that and a neurotypical on a social level given the right conditions and accomodations. I just need to stop making stupid, random relationships, like with prison gangsters, or with random junkies at bus-stops, and exercise better judgement. How I move on from there is indeterminate and difficult, but I know I won't be applying to the same college twice; Cuntster has made it implicitly clear they're ex-NHS and are employed there now, and explicitly so with the conversations I overheard. Besides, with Beth Brownlee's condescending attitude towards neurological hypermales, a discrimination case should be launched against them regardless of my attendance or not, and will be pursued courtesy of my legal contact. That truly is toxic to your college's environment. Your Business department would benefit from an increased number of autists in attendance for a number of reasons I could cite but deep down, you know them all; you know the studies of female inefficiencies and failures in their integration into the work place; you know how the neurological female at its near-extremes is toxic enough, let alone to when it gets so close to mental illness that you're the inevitable result, @Cuntster. Indeed, since gender dysphoria is one anyway, perhaps an employment tribunal should be launched against you, for, if I remember correctly, you had tried, in your pursuit of a PhD., to get medically licensed, but were too unstable and so pre-emptively disbarred. Wise move on the end of the General Medical Council. Your abuse of sodium valproate has done nothing to change that, as demonstrated in your sadistic trolling callousness here, and your bribing of medical professionals in Britain to support the transsexualism diagnosis and SRS of a testable mental exceptional individual overseas for recommendation purposes (Dr. Haselgrove was one of the psychiatrists involved in Robert Wayne Stiles' SRS recommendations, apparently motivated entirely by spite). The internationalism of psychiatry, a Trotskyist influenced strand of thought owing to the work of the Frankfurt school leftists in the first instance, where catecholamine alchemy is used to lineraize and psychopathize the thought processess of otherwise creatively independent beings (see: North Korea in its natural state, where the only antidepressant is codeine and the only cure for schizophrenia is methamphetamine), shows itself in the permission of a verifiable exceptional individual to become transsexual entirely out of spite, whilst denying their intellectual superior of the same conditional predicament (and that's not a claim of graniodisty: verifiably, where Natalie is on the IQ bell curve, nearly everybody around her is smarter than her and as such he should've never been allowed to make the decision, let alone undertake it; I'm pretty mediocre, and that's probably the best thing going for me in support of proving my stability for transsexualism-ascension reasons) for similarly emotionally fickle reasons unbefitting of the supposedly objective spirit of a "science" psychiatry feigns to be, but fails to embody. Being nice, being superficially appeasing to the sensitivities of psychiatrists, being of a personality type that's likeable, are not objective criterion of psychiatric disorders, but human vulnerabilities in the stupidity of its nature Haselgrove, despite his/her (I'm still unsure tbh; I'm stuck between "masculine cisgender female" and "cryptic-intersex MAAB for a long time", but either is condescending enough) supposed superior intelligence, fell folly to in the final analysis of its endorsement of Natalie Sharp's transition to spite the Cde. and General Sopiya Jangeun, showing psychiatry not to be science so much as pseudoscience in its politically charged nature of use. Indeed, when we see Lennihan verifiably speak of his confidence in persuading either the college in question, or, as he put it, "a college", to grant me entrance to a course, either now or down the line, we see psychiatry's use in a more political than objectively academic, analytical, or scientific purpose; all the more so for the impetuous actions of Haselgrove, who had sought to use its agent Cuntster, whether that is himself, or an intermediary, to try and deconstruct my ego to nothing in what is nothing short of psychopathically backwards sadism which makes the North Korean 49s look enlightened by comparison. Conclusively, this has been a certain adventure in the exploration of the psychiatric lobby's use of individuals to wield political influence in the destruction of "undesirables" in very specifically targeted ways that could be evidenced by strong circumstantial evidence in all cases; the sudden "disappearance" of my record being one of them when my SW either fails to recover it, or MySQA comes back online to show, incorrectly, that I left school with nothing. That will have been a mixture of Fareal and Cuntster's work; it would reveal that their purpose was not to stabilize, help, reason, or whatever with myself, but purely in a long-haul sabotage to destroy, life-ruin, and everything suspected of every self-serving hypocrisy I could accuse psychiatry of engaging in, and evidentiary of psychiatry as a tool of hypocritical self-servitude, for that matter. That's whether Cuntster has tried to appeal to Haselgrove intermediarily, or, has acted in split-differentiated/disassociative fashion, or, used other means in the chain of command to otherwise sabotage my life. "Chukjibop" may well be a metaphor, but it encapsulates perfectly the stupendous efforts of the NHS to destroy the offspring of a paedophile simply because of the primary school logic of "ah dinnae like him that much naww"; a primitive, Scotland-bastardized version of Songbun. I was made to be representative of my father's misdemeanours on numerous occasions and denied attribution of my remorse in an emulation of the emotional torture sustained by the National Socialist Prisoner of War Hoess during his incarceration in the British political prison system. However, "chukjibop" may also literally encapsulate the spirit of the speed and the ardour with which an Aspergian must do things in the future in order to prevent all and any forms of neurotypical sabotage and be weary of their trust of them, using the destruction of my person at every level of my existence, even staging a junkie to meet at a bus stop to appeal to my addictions on an emotional level (I wouldn't be surprised if that was Cuntster's staging), as an example of why neurotypicals must be regarded untrustworthy by Aspergians and approached on wearily, diplomatically precautious and "ten-foot-pole" terms; they are not friendlies, but are inimical to you when their psychopathic masks slip from not appeasing their emotionally faux-sensitive pseudo-vulnerabilities of untempered rage, vengeance, aggression, negroidality, and other primitive emotions only attributable to neurotypical psychopaths, for which it is all they are capable. It is only Monday, and I ultimately have until Friday to go; I'll be semi-active in this PM, but would prefer if KiwiFarms contact went strictly off limits, as articles, particularly in admonishment of how Natalie has unethically been given surgical procedures beyond his intellectual ability to comprehend, and how the diplomatic discussions between myself, LagoonaBlue, and ash_and_stone were misrepresented by Cuntster, need to be composed, edited, and accordingly published by ASMG members of staff; the active ones are 1 editor, as the rest cannot presently be reached by myself due to managerial duress and overload. Even autistic self-run concerns need their own accomodations, y'know. I'm not that delusional of my "powers" or abilities. Consider my analysis of the way Cuntster has manipulatively tried to throw the burdensome onus on me for sabotages he himself had planned and expected me ton combat in chasing for random, at-best-insinuated happenstances like a headless chicken, whether that be the implicit threats on the Farms in collusion with others, or the explicit boasts between himself, Atesh and Brownlee, whether that was in misrepresentation of my politics to portray me incorrectly as too "extreme" for the college environment, or colluding with Brownless to retroactively manipulate past records to include more extreme incidents in-class than had ever occurred in previous iterations of the course. Brady is innocent, of course, far too overworked to have a clue of the conspiracy going on. This shall be copied directly to her, solely for her contemplative benefit, and also to see if she can figure out who Cuntster is and fire him (c'mon, a 6'7'', moderately tanned, post-operative transsexual with idiosyncratic racial features can't be that hard to spot), accordingly.

-- myself, PM sent yesterday, some time late last night

In closing, too, because they had, as we say in the transsexual community, “ascended” somebody with diagnosed mental insufficiency/intellectual disability:

Robert Wayne Stiles is an ethics case. Failing to score above the intellectual disability threshold on an IQ test at any stage in life -- something I can proudly say I've never done even on my worst mark-downs -- is exclusion criteria for surgery, where-ever you are and whatever money you bribe. It demands investigation.

To which end I pledged writing to various editorial councils about it. SRS is irreversible, but the minimal punishment for him should be group home incarceration, and the minimal punishment for those who had written his recommendations with his worst interests at heart should be disbarring from respective medical councils.