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hilllsnholland · 5 years

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Bucket List - (2)

Pairing: College!Tom x Deaf!Reader

W.c: 2.9k

Warnings: swears, alcohol, slurs

Summary: Ice cream really cures the soul

Disclaimer: This is all written from my perspective as a Deaf/HoH person. If you have comments, questions, or concerns then you are welcome to message me :)

The only thing Creekview had to offer was the sun. In London, the sun was a distant cousin that came around only when it benefited themselves. As much as Tom loathed the small college town, he loved the weather. He loved the sun beating down his neck while he sat outside Milky, serving ice cream to the somewhat pleasant residents of Creekview.

Milky was what Creekview was known for. It was a small drive-thru or walk up shop that served ice cream and other snacks. On the side of the building, there’s a beautiful mural of cows eating ice cream, looking out to the observer with blank expressions. Every day Tom patted each painted cow on the head on his way to his shift. A good luck sort of thing. It was needed though as the lines and customers got crazy as the temperature rose.

“Fuck this,” Brant spat as he wiped his forehead again. “They can’t even buy us an outdoor fan? Cheap ass white people.”

Tom tries to ignore him and enjoy the feeling of heat on his skin. The Brit tilts his sunglasses up on his face so that Brant can’t tell he’s in another headspace. The party still absorbed his mind. It had been three days since that night but he hadn’t stopped thinking of Y/N. When he got bored he fingerspelled his name like Y/N did. As soon as he got home that night he went online and practiced basic signs. Things like ‘hello’ ‘how are you’ ‘bathroom’ were now part of his vocabulary. It wasn’t much but it would be a gesture of willingness. All Tom wanted was to see her hands move again.

“I heard you hooked up with that pink haired chick.” Brant smugly says as he leans against the walk-up counter.

“No-”

“I saw her too. Looked like a wild one huh? I bet she’s hella freaky with that pink hair and shit.”

“Nothing happened. We kissed. She left. End of story.”

“Left you blue balling and shit? Sorry man,” Brant slaps Tom on the shoulder and smacks his lips. “I thought your British accent would help you pull but you keep striking out.”

Tom doesn’t respond. He spells his name again and goes through the alphabet to keep his mind at peace. The only good quality thing about Brant was that he was a talker. He could keep a conversation going for hours, but he mostly talked to hear his own voice. Tom could never say a word and Brant wouldn’t even notice.

“Ty got fucked up though. Kevin laid him out flat.” Brant snickers and eyes a few girls walking across the street.

“You told him to say that though, right? You set him up for it.” Tom narrows his eyes on the ground while Brant shifts his weight towards him.

“Hell yeah I did. You got a problem with that?”

Brant adjusts himself to stand straight. He was trying to be an alpha male alright, he was half a foot taller than Tom. Brant puffs out his chest but Tom does not give him the time of day. He knew his dirty work. He knew that Brant was a manipulative asshole, and sadly he was drawn into that culture. Times like this he really misses London. The guys there were assholes too, but this was a new breed of fuckery.

It seems like the div had found something else to be interested in because Brant was now flirting with a girl standing at the counter to order something. Tom went back to his original position of leaning on the wall behind him, his sunglasses tilting off the top of his nose. His mind went back to its usual job of putting Y/N in the center stage of his thoughts. God, if he’s on autopilot then he’s probably thinking about her. It was one meeting and he was hooked on it. He even approached LJ to ask her more that night.

LJ was in the midst of refilling the keg, her eyes locked on Harrison as he talks to a group of girls in his Sociology class. Tom had come up behind her hoping for answers. It was her party after all. She seemed to know everyone in this godforsaken town. LJ jumps when she sees Tom but settles with a laugh, hitting him on the shoulder.

“Scared me lovey.” She sloppily says.

“Do you know a Y/N?” Tom is quick with words while Lauren takes a second to think.

“Maybe?”

“She’s Deaf.”

“Oh, Y/N. Yes, I do.” LJ laughs and turns the nozzle of the keg back on. “I met her a while back at another party. She used to go to that Deaf school a few hours away.”

LJ shrugs and gulps down another solo cup full of beer. Tom wondered if he should ask more about her, but would that come off creepy? They didn’t seem like friends, but LJ is the type to gossip a bit. Lauren turns to Tom and looks as if she had come to an epiphany. Her hand caresses Tom’s cheek softly and she flattens her lips.

“That look on your face,” She purrs and drags her nail across his mouth.

“LJ, you’re drunk.” Tom tries to break the tension but she keeps staring on.

“So are you, but you’re...you got that happy look Tommy,” She’s not very coherent as she sways back and forth. “That same look I get when I see Haz…”

Her face becomes more flushed than usual as she breaks out into a fit of giggles. Her hand leaves his face as she turns back around to refill her cup. LJ wipes her face lazily and clears her throat.

“Tommy, be careful baby,” Her voice is shallow in her throat. “Y/N, she’s a different kind of girl. The kind to break your heart.”

LJ spins the contents of her drink around in the cup as she sways. Tom watches her face drop, the look of knowing more but not saying it. Although he wanted to push, there was something eating at him to not do it. Maybe it was self-destruction, but her warning didn’t persuade him any different. He still wanted to talk to Y/N. Learn her story, more than the gossip LJ would have.

“How would you know?” Tom defensively says and grabs the cup from LJ’s hand. “Did you hear that from your dumb rumormongers?”

She doesn’t react right away. LJ hums as her hand squeezes the air the cup had once occupied. Her eyes are sad as she looks back at Tom, almost pitying him. Was this a sick joke?

“Behind every rumor is a little bit of truth. Even if it’s twisted, Tom,”

There’s a loud ringing and Tom snaps from his thoughts. It was the customer bell from the counter. Brant was nowhere to be seen, possibly in the back trying to get away from the heat. Tom shakes his head and walks up to the counter with his fake smile ready to greet whatever Creekview trash would walk up.

“Welcome to Milky-” Tom stops and gapes at the two girls standing in front of him.

It was Y/N, staring with huge eyes, and her friend from before who was blinking rapidly. The friend laughs awkwardly, elbowing Y/N, and signs something Tom has not yet learned. Y/N scatters to reply but keeps an eye on Tom while she’s responding. Tom raises his hand and tries to sign, ‘nice to meet you’ while mouthing his words. The friend cackles through her accent, signing something back.

“Sorry, I’m trying to learn,” Tom says while trying to sign.

“You’re alright. We’re just...surprised to see you.” Y/N says while simultaneously signing. “Tom right?”

His name on her hands looks just as beautiful as before. Tom nods and fingerspells Y/N’s name slowly. She smiles, nodding her head and motioning the sign, ‘right’. The friend coughs, pointing to the orange ice cream picture on the counter.

“Oh right sorry,” Tom shakes his head and nods. “Can I get you guys anything?”

“My friend here,” Y/N elbows her friend and fingerspells her name. “Tejas, she wants an orange swirl. I’ll take a Coke Diablo.”

Tom’s mouth feels dry and he can’t form a sign that would be correct in the situation. In his awkward mess of nerves, he stumbles away and into Milky to grab their order. He mumbled to himself as he makes their ice cream, his mind and mouth moving in two different speeds. What could he say to her? Maybe he needs to learn more sign before talking to her? It was a mess, all the little Toms in his head were setting things on fire. Next thing he knew he felt the cold, sticky mess of ICEE on his hand. He grabbed a towel and cleaned up the mess, setting himself straight before going back out there.

With an adjustment to his sunglasses and a mental pep talk, Tom walked back out to the girls. He handed them both their treats, earning a ‘thank you’ from Y/N and a condescending smile from Tejas. She was analyzing him, signing about him when he was right there. Although Tom wasn’t fluent, he could tell she was being snarky.

“$8.64,” Tom says and then watches Tejas sign something. “What is she saying?”

Y/N hands him a ten while signing back to her friend, contorting her face into a scrunched up expression.

“She keeps calling you ‘Hearing Boy’,” Y/N explains then fingerspells his name again. “She’s not very open to hearing people,”

“Why not?”

Y/N interprets the conversation which makes Tejas make a noise that was similar to honking. Her head shakes from side to side as her hands move rapidly, the ice cream swaying side to side and dripping down the cone.

“She says all you hearing people do is make fun of her.” Y/N slyly points behind Tom to where Brant has reappeared. “Your friend there has called her retarded since she moved here,”

Yet again Tom’s biggest weakness was who he allowed to be associated with. It wasn’t a surprise, Brant was a lowlife who would stoop to slurs like that. Tom felt a fire bubbling under his skin, god he wanted to knock him out but Brant was double his size and weight. He shakes his head and exhales.

“Brant is an idiot. A fucking div,” Tom hands Y/N back her money. “But we’re not all like that. Some of us want to understand Deaf people,”

Y/N watches his mouth move and smiles. Tejas looks lost and huffs against her ice cream. She could see what was forming and she was not happy about it. Tom met Y/N’s gaze and raised his hand to try to sign to her.

“Your hair...beautiful,” He signs slowly.

Y/N runs a hand through the dyed hair and giggles nervously.

“It’s fake...all for that party.” She responds. “Do you have time to talk right now?”

Tom immediately signs yes, not caring about if Brant would need his help or not with the impending rush. Y/N signs something to Tejas, who rolls her eyes and then watches her friend walk around the corner with car keys in hand. Tom leads Y/N to the other side of the building where the murals were.

“So, how Deaf are you?” Tom says while dragging his hand across one of the painted cows. “You seem to carry a conversation pretty well,”

Y/N feigns a smile, inhaling harshly as she leans against the wall and slides down. Her arms are crossed over her chest as she looks up to Tom.

“I was born hearing. I was in a car accident when I was a kid, lost the majority of my hearing.” She points to her ears and shrugs. “I can follow along because I know what sounds are. I can read lips alright.”

Her body tenses as she looks towards the beating sun. It was high in the sky, perks of the long summer days. She squinted and held a hand up to block the sun. Without a second thought, Tom hands her his sunglasses and steps into the sunlight. She motions a thank you and puts them on. Tom couldn’t help but smile, she looked better in his glasses than he did.

“So, what happened at the party, that kiss?” Her words are shaky which she masks with awkward laughing. “It was great. I just don’t think you know what you’re getting into-”

“Are you talking about the rumors?”

“Which ones?” Y/N pushes back the fading pink strands and sighs. “There’s so many now. I don’t even care anymore,”

“Someone said you’ll break my heart,” Tom watches her face fall slightly. “But I’m looking for someone to ruin my life anyways.”

Y/N laughs, but this time it's a real laugh though. It came from the bottom of her stomach as if this was the first funny thing she heard in years. Maybe not heard, but you know the specifics are hard. Tom laughs, switching her weight so he’s leaning towards her.

“I think you’re cool Tom, especially with that accent I can’t hear.” Y/N tries to wink behind the glasses but it doesn’t really work. “I just don’t want you to expect much because we don’t know each other,”

“Can I get to know you?”

Y/N looks to him in surprise. There’s a long pause though, she doesn’t speak but she reaches inside of her backpack to find something. Tom isn’t sure if she’s handing him her number or a restraining order but she pulls out a piece of torn out paper. It’s folded perfectly, doodles on the corners of little turtles with sunglasses. He opens it and at the top of the page it says in big letters, ‘Summer Bucket List’.

“What’s this?”

“You want to get to know me right?” She stands and pushes the sunglasses down the bridge of her nose so her eyes are seductively pooling into his. “Read this, then next time we meet I’ll tell you the plan.”

Y/N places the sunglasses on Tom’s head, her other hand rests on the middle of his chest. She can feel the rhythm, fast and all for her. There’s a moment where everything is still, their lips so close from touching but uncertainty clouds the moment. It wasn’t right, Tom was sure of that. If he wanted to kiss her it had to be lead by her. Y/N puts her backpack back on and steps away.

“I’ll see you around,” She says then signs something new. “This is your name sign for now okay?”

She shows him, it’s the sign for ‘hearing’ but with a T hand shape. He smiles and repeats it. A name sign, something only given by Deaf people to their friends and family. Tom took this as a way of her promising to see him again. The list felt heavy in his hands as he watched her walk towards a beat up Cadillac on the corner driven by Tejas.

“How will I find you once I’m done reading this?” Tom yells down the street which causes a few Creekview residents to stop and stare.

“You can try to find me on social media or,” Tom can see her smirking playfully. “Or let fate decide. Your choice.”

Y/N enters the car and that’s the end of their meeting. Tejas whips the car from the space and drives away. The whole interaction felt like a dream. It did not feel real in a conceivable way. Tom looked to the list and back to the corner she was standing at before to make sure this was not a figment of his imagination. He unravels the list completely and was surprised to see only five.

Swim in Creek Lake

Easy enough. That was one of the most popular destinations during the summer. Creekview had a lake that was swarmed by people who were either swimming, tanning, or canoeing. Tom had yet to go into the water though, he usually did a hike around the hills behind the lake with Harrison.

2. Watch a Drive-In movie

That was something he did not expect. Do Drive-Ins have captioned movies? Tom didn’t even know where they still had Drive-Ins. It had to be something he’d look up later.

3. Go to DeckFest

Deckfest? The Deckfest? Also known as the Coachella for people who can not afford Coachella. A music festival between California and Nevada, held in a desert, with lesser-known names. It was a mix of Rolling Loud and Warp Tour.

4. Win a fistfight

Y/N obviously had more layers that he was expecting. The fourth one made him laugh, folding the paper while smiling a little too much. Watching her fight? He’d pay money for that. Tom looks to the last one and drops a bit.

5. Find my purpose

Tom’s heart panged as he read it over and over. He related to the last item, something he needed to figure out by August also. In the time where he needs to figure out his major, his future, he was more interested in reading this Bucket List and talking to Y/N. Maybe it was master procrastination, or maybe it would lead him to his final destination. Either way, Tom had his roadmap for the summer, all starting with Creek Lake.

///

Taglist:

@screeching-student-unknown / @nyctophilicstyles / @captainbuckyy / @vintage-moonlight / @breadbudzo / @h-natale / @originalpinkpowerranger/ @happywolves81 / @drunkgreek / @iamnida95 / @sydthekidsloth / @spiderboytotherescue / @laureharrier / @starksparker / @madon566 / @nophunleague / @itsbrittneynicole / @hereiamhereigo

#tom holland imagines #tom holland imagine #Tom Holland fanfic #tom holland fluff #Tom Holland angst #college!tom holland #tom holland blurbs #Tom Holland blurb #Peter Parker imagines #Peter Parker imagine #Tom Holland x reader #tom holland x y/n #bucket list #2

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maximumkillshot · 6 years

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The Situation-Part Three

Warnings: Mentions of Menstrual cycle, Gender bent! Dean Winchester, Some Cursing, I can’t remember anything else at the moment but I hope y’all enjoy!

Pairing: None

Characters: Gender Bent! Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, ofc Stacey, omc Kyle

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy!!

“All I Could Do” Masterlist- CLICK HERE

Overall Masterlist- Click Here

“When You Call” Masterlist- Click Here

Wanna Chat? Click Here

“The Situation” Masterlist- Click Here

Previously:

Soon I felt myself plop down in Baby’s back seat…

As soon as Baby’s engine roared to life I said, “Hey Sammy?”

“Yeah, Dean?”

“I’m glad you came back…”

“What?”

“After Jess… I was afraid you’d pull away… that I’d lose you for good, y’know… but you didn’t… Maybe it’s selfish of me or maybe it’s the booze but I’m happy you came back… I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“You would’ve been fine,” said Sammy.

“No, I wouldn’t have been ‘fine’. I wasn’t fine when you were gone either… I missed you. Had no idiot little brother to nag me about my Nirvana tapes. Would’ve never had fun like I had tonight, wouldn’t have anything without you.”

“Shut up… Missed you too…”

“We’re a team, right Sammy?”

“Yeah… yeah, we are…”

“Mmmm I knew it,” I said as I passed out.

My head, it’s throbbing so much, and my stomach, oh my god my stomach. Why is my back killing me?

“Gahh what happened?” I said absentmindedly as I tried to stretch, then I felt my hand hit something, cold and porcelain. When I opened my eyes I realized, I was in my bathroom on the floor. When I looked down at my body I got scared…. “WHY AM I STILL A CHICK?” I whined to no one. The minute I moved my ass I felt wet…

Almost knowing what was coming I got up and I felt a rush of fluid in my pants, I couldn’t control it… I just looked up to God and said, “C’mon C’mon no whammies, no whammies….” and I pulled down my pants…

“OH MAH GOD,” I said almost horrified... The stench... The feeling, the sheer amount… Blood and goo were everywhere on that pad...okay…

Halfway through the cleanup, I decided to just give up on the whole thing entirely and chuck the panty and the pad away. I jumped into the shower and started to scrub until I felt human again. When I got out of the shower Sam was waiting at the doorway of my room…

“Ah, she lives I see,” said Sam…

“I’m more surprised than you ever could be… Are you sure just the lining is being shed here because I saw enough blood and guts to Frankenstein a whole damn organ.”

“I would say too much information but it’s too late for that.”

“Hey, if I’m being emotionally scarred so are you.” I quipped.

“How are you feeling though…” asked Sam.

“Like I need more clothing and shoes, if Rowena isn’t going to be here for a few more days, I can’t just wear the same thing…” I said begrudgingly.

“You aren’t gonna like half of the things they have at the store, they’re all either pink, purple, or a dress.” I looked with a slight smile. Hmmm, maybe a dress isn’t that bad. “What is that face for?” I asked what face and he replied with, “That’s the ‘i have an idea but I’m not sure you’ll go with it’ face.”

“Don’t say anything until I finish” I said as I played with the hem of my shirt, “Ma-maybe a dress isn’t as bad as it seems,” Sam’s jaw dropped as I continued, “I mean think about it, with these diaper torture chambers on, having some airflow wouldn’t be too bad. I feel like I’m being smothered here, maybe some breeze would be good.” Sam replied with a smart quip about heels and I responded with, “I actually heard that heels work out the calves and help with balance, after all, if a drunk chick can walk in heels, I’m pretty damn sure I can walk in them too.”

As soon as we set foot in the mall I was assaulted with the smell of cologne from the Abercrombie and Fitch store, which always gave me a headache.

Why are all the guys staring at me… No matter how many ‘get away from me or I’ll shoot you’ vibes I send, they still stare. Every once in a while, while Sam strayed away from me, more guys kept on coming up to me, hitting on me… ON ME….. a HUNTER…. Every time I have to remind myself I’m just playing a role, kind of like how I have to act like I care when Sammy talks about lore. Smile… say “thank you”, awkwardly walk away towards Sammy, Sammy scowls, they walk away, repeat. Over and over again….

I mean I don’t blame them, I’m hot… like 12 alarm fire in a 2 alarm apartment hot… I mean I make ghost peppers jealous, but that doesn’t mean that they need to stare at me like that… right? Is this how I always treated women at bars… Gawking, shooting my shot, scoring or walking away…. I never considered how they felt… Like a fucking trophy, an item to be won… It feels miserable. I’m just trying to live yet I can’t walk 5 feet away from Sammy without being approached by a random guy.

“Sammy can we leave pleaseee” I whined as I saw him pick up yet another flannel from the rack in an all men’s clothing store.

“This would go faster if you’d tell me, which one do I pick?” Asked Sam as he picked two flannel’s off the rack, one a seafoam blue, another a chestnut red.

“Seafoam, definitely seafoam, goes better with your eyes and offers a pop of color from that mop on your head that you call a hairdo,” I said as plainly as possible. Sam looked at me weird and I replied with, “What? You think I’m going to let you buy something that doesn’t flatter you? I may be moody but I am not cruel.”

“Awee you two are such a cute couple!” Said a tiny female associate of the store. I scoffed as Sammy pulled me closer and said, “Thanks so much.

“How long have you two been together?” gushed the woman.

“Too damn long” I grumbled.

Sam replied with, “Haha, Deena, you are too funny, we’ve been together since Middle School.” Oh, I bet he’s enjoying this. As soon as I become tall again I’m kicking his ass. If I tried now it’d just make things worse… right now the chant in my head is ‘just give it time, give it time.’

“You are such a lucky woman, someone as tall and handsome as him,” said the woman.

I replied with, “He may look like this now but in middle school. Man he was zit city, had about as much muscle mass as a piece of paper, and the highest pitch voice you’ve ever heard.”

“OH MY GOD, THAT’S ADORABLE!!!!!” She squealed, “It was never about looks huh?”.

I replied, “No, it was about me being fed up with stretching to reach the top shelf… In return, I prevent him from committing fashion crimes.” She started laughing as Sam’s face turned a bright red and I pinched his cheek saying, “Something wrong Baby? You look a little flustered…”

“Mmm fine. I guess we are going with the seafoam?” Said Sam.

“Only if you wanna make your eyes pop Pumpkin!” I said with exaggerated enthusiasm as I snatched the flannel from his hand.

As the sales associate walked away Sam said, “I was trying to sell it, you didn’t need to be such a dick.”

I replied with, “Just wanted to remind you that, normally, I have one.” After we paid we then headed to where Sam found the camisole and the jeans, Rue21.

As as we walked in I immediately said “No… nononononono” It looked like the 60s and today’s pop culture threw up all over the store. Pink and Purples scattered the walls, literally fighting for my attention, almost immediately giving me a headache. The only saving grace being the one Rolling Stones sweatshirt they had, and even then, it was cheap, it was scratchy, it was never going on my body… that I definitely knew.

“Sam we’ve gotta go,” I said near a mental breakdown. “These colors give me a headache and I have no clue but I think that the garbage that they’re playing isn’t helping…” As soon as I heard that I heard a random man yell ’squaaa’ and I jumped. Sam laughed as I replied, “How are you so calm, it looks like John Lennon got high on acid, came to the present day, and tried to make clothing that combined the two eras, man. That’s not to mention the Barbie clothing everywhere so can we please just leave…”

“I’ve never seen you so worked up over music, relax man it’s just Fetty Wap,” chuckled Sam…

I looked confused, “Sam, stop speaking in tongues before I exorcize you. The point is that we need to get the hell outta here before any of the poor sonsabitches that were hired here spot us.”

“Well, then where are we gonna find clothing?”

Then I remembered….. LISA! Lisa told me about how girls like to help each other pick out clothing. “I got it!”, Sam looked intrigued, ”I’m gonna ask a random chick who is dressed like an actual human being where they got their clothing. I remember Lisa telling me that girls would ask for her fashion advice all of the time…. And she actually liked it!”

“Why didn’t I think about that?” asked Sammy.

“I have no idea, you’re usually the smart one…” I said as I lead the way out.

We basically roamed around until I found this hot chick that was walking around with a dude who looked like a jock of some sort. She had a style that I actually liked, she had camo pants on that hugged her ass perfectly, a ripped up AC/DC tee with a nice camo jacket, and a nice pair of heeled combat looking boots to go with it. I immediately smacked Sam on the chest and I said “Her… she can tell me where to go…”

I immediately made a beeline to her smiling, she immediately smiled back and I said, “I’m sorry to bother you guys, but I absolutely adore that outfit, where did you get these clothes?”

She smiled and giggled as she said “Oh these? Thanks so much, I got the camo pieces at Torrid, the shirt at Hot Topic, and the boots were at Payless for $15. Well, it’s easier if I just show you..”

“Ok, where are those places?” I giggled, trying to seem as confident as possible, soon I felt Sam behind me, I introduced him to the couple. I found out her name was Stacey and her boyfriend's name was Kyle.

Stacey looked at me and said, “Y’know what, how about you and me go shopping and the boys can hang out and do their thing.”

I looked at Sam and he said, “Go if you want to, babe. You spotted that outfit from across the mall… Go for it, have fun!”

Kyle looked at Sam and said, “C’mon there’s a Bass Pro Shop… I heard they got new crossbows in… let’s let the girls be girls, call us when you’re done, okay?” he then kissed her on the lips and walked towards Sam, almost expecting him to come up to me.

Sam walked up to me and said “Alright babe, if you need anything let me know okay” then he kissed me on the forehead… I…. I don’t know how to feel right now. I wanna kick him in the balls, so so badly. Yet… I admire the way he navigated the situation. The next thing I knew I was being pulled in the opposite direction by Stacey.

The first place we set foot in was Hot Topic. The minute we walked in I took a giant breath. All of this was my style. Graphic tees were everywhere plus jackets that looked stylish yet functional, ones that actually fit a phone in the pocket instead of those ‘fashion’ jackets that stitched all of theirs shut. Immediately Stacey and I got to work, combing through the racks until we found some pieces that I could try on. After I found what I liked and what looked good, we moved onto Torrid.

In Torrid, there were more graphic tees but they also had some formal wear, like peacoats and formal shirts. But then we went to the back, where there were sexy ass dresses and lingerie.

“So, what’s your size?” she asked as she held up a sexy red lace bra.

“I, uh, I don’t know” I answered. It’s not like the boulders on my chest were the first thing to worry me.

‘OK, let’s get someone to measure you, because I am loving this bra, plus it’ll go perfectly with that mesh Rolling Stones shirt you got from Hot Topic.” She said as she went to find someone. After a few minutes, a girl with a tape measurer came at me.

“Hello my name is Ashlynn and I’m one of the associates here. Your friend said that you wanted to get sized for a bra?” asked the woman. I just nodded. I had no idea how this worked.

She told me to lift my arms and I did, then she got all in my personal space as she wrapped the tape around me then squeezed it tight. Then she told me to put my arms down and slid the tape up and over my nipples, which was… oddly pleasant and she stated, “So you’re a little small for our sizes, you’re a 32 C. Which I’m sure Victoria Secret has in its stock, in the plus size section.”

“What?” I asked shocked, “Hold on, 32 is plus sized?”

“Uhh yeah”

“What the hell’s small like?”

“ A double zero is their smallest”

“How can a human skeleton be that small?” I asked shocked.

“I honestly don’t know. Some people starve themselves, some work out until they have literally no fat on their bones… Some people are just born like that.” Said the woman as she started to look around the store.

“So is anything in here going to fit me because I really like the styles,” I said almost saddened by the news.

“Our 00 size is a size 10-12 so that should fit your frame since your shoulders are a bit wide, but we definitely have pants for you, since your hips are wide, we make jeans and pants specifically made with more room for your curves. Let’s see what we can find.”

As soon as we started looking for jeans, Stacey came back with a dress that had a giant slit at the side and a plunging neckline, “Deena, you have to get this! You HAVE to, I know it’s going to look killer on you. With those hips and that ass! You’re gonna make Sam drool in this.” I tried my best not to puke when she said that, but then it hit me…. This is the best prank opportunity ever…

“Okay let me try it on. Also, they don’t have my bra size here, but they do at Victoria’s Secret, could you go by there and get me a few sexy ones?” I asked shyly, it’s literally the next storefront so it wouldn’t be a giant trip. I gave her $50 and she went off to the lingerie store.

After finding a few pieces I went into the dressing room. I found a great leather jacket that had a bunch of classic rock band emblems on them, which I had to have…. Damn I’m sounding like a chick, anyway; I also found some really good jeans that didn’t squeeze me to all hell like the ones Sammy got me. Finally, after all of the clothing I tried, maybe a half an hour went by and I heard Stacey outside the door just as I slipped on the dress.

“Deena, I am back and girl did I find some sexy ass sets for you!! You are gonna thank me after you see Sam’s face! Hell, I’m straight and I was drooling just thinking of you in these. “

“Thanks, hey I just put on the dress,” I said with slight confidence.

“Then get out here girl!”

As soon as I walked out, her jaw dropped. She dragged me to the mirror and said, “LOOK AT YOU SEXY MAMA!! OWWW”

And to be honest, my draw dropped. The dress hugged my curves perfectly and just flattered me in a way I never knew was possible… Is this what it feels like to be beautiful?

“GIRL YOU ARE HOT!” Stacey screamed.

“I… for once I agree with that statement,” I said as I traced my own curves up and down.

“What do you mean?”

“I…. I never felt like I was good looking… People told me but I didn’t care, didn’t believe em’” I stated.

“Well, now you know… and now we have to get this dress and have a girls night!” She squealed as I chuckled and agreed.

After we bought everything, we went to Payless and got a whole bunch of boots, heels, and sneakers. As we were on our way to meet the guys… She sees a Sephora and said, “We need to get you some makeup and perfume, it’s gonna tie everything together.”

After we got everything and she told me how to use it, I got a text from Sammy that he and Kyle were at the cafeteria.

As soon as we walked in Kyle grabbed Stacey and kissed her saying, “Hey ladies, wow, looks like you guys got some good stuff!”

“Yeah, Deena has an amazing new wardrobe, and we are taking a few pieces out for a test drive, tonight actually.”

“Girls night?” Asked Kyle.

“Yeah” smiled Stacey.

“That’s great because Sam and I were just going to ask you, ladies, if we could have a guys night. Sam hasn’t seen sports on the right TV. he only has a 32 inch. He has to see the game tonight on the 72-inch plasma at out place. Which works out, since you girls are gonna go out.” smiled Kyle.

I just thought to myself… Oh, this is gonna be good.

After we exchanged numbers, Stacey handed off some of the bags and we waved goodbye to each other. On our way to the car….

“Dean, what did you do?” Sammy asked me.

“Nothing... Just got some clothes… some makeup.”

“You…. got makeup?!” snickered Sam…

“You won’t be laughing soon…” I quipped.

“What?” Sam’s face scrunched up.

“Nothing Sammy, listen I’m gonna be a chick for a few more days, I mine as well commit to the new role. You can’t tell me that me not wearing a bra or makeup is making me blend in.”

“Dean, as much as I hate to admit it, you look like a model. You don’t need that.”

“Aweee Sammy, keep on saying things like that and I’ll start to think you like me.”

Sam chuckled as we loaded Baby and headed home for our nights out.

WANT MORE? TELL ME SO!!!

TAG ARMY:

@mamaredd123 , @impala-dreamer , @impalaimagining , @jotink78 , @nichelle-my-belle , , @scorpiongirl1 , @ilostmyshoe-79 , @teamfreewillimagines , @leatherwhiskeycoffeeplaid , @chelsea072498 , @brickwall035 , @maui137 , @mogaruke , @jayankles , @butiaintgonnaloveem , @kawaiilivkitty , @naviwhite , @emoryhemsworth ,

@cole-winchester , @nanie5 , @emoryhemsworth , @carribear31 , @death-unbecomes-you, @clarinette07, @curlyhairedblueeyedangel, @deansbabygirl01, @anathewierdo , @atc74 , @kickasscas67, @mannls, @adoptdontshoppets, @meganywinchester , @xalgaliareptx , @healojane, @wolfiebucky, @rayvenrider, @screechingartisancashbailiff , @goodgodimaweirdperson, @beltzboys2015-blog, @animegirlgeeky, @paintballkid711, @dolphincliffs

The Situation Taglist!:

@mirandaaustin93 , @dolphincliffs

Wanna join the tag army? Shoot me an ask and consider it done!

#SPN #spn fanfic #SPN FANDOM #dean winchester #gender bent #Sam Winchester #this is so much fun #Seriously #they should do this #tell me if it sucks #tell me if you want more #i'm insecure

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bobcutdisorder · 6 years

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PINK

Few weeks ago I responded to one of my friend’s instastory, saying that her pink laptop is ultra cute. And to my response she replied saying she actually likes pink but she doesn’t like it when people know that she likes pink, since people will think she’s a girly person (you know, pink is a girl color). She said that she wanted to be seen as a cool girl rather than a “cuntik-cuntik” (feminine, girly) girl.

Then she asked herself whether it is wrong or not to not like being called girly, following her question I tried to probe her, was the reason to feel so because being girly is not who she is or is it because she feels anything that is associated with being girly is something she looks down upon? And she answered, “THAT’S IT!” Though at first she can’t identify what she was feeling, I gave her my take on her issue; it is true that any feminine associated traits are deem as weak, submissive, oh the misogyny underlying it just suffocates me. I also can relate to her desire to be seen as a strong woman, but must we strip our feminine traits and replace it with masculine traits just so we can get stamp of approval as a strong woman from our society? Sadly, most likely yes, women still have to adopt masculine traits in order to be deemed as someone strong. Still, no matter how many masculine traits women try to replace their feminine traits with, they will never be seen as equally strong as men. Not until we can smash the patriarchy and bury its ruins deep in the earth.

However, I just couldn’t stop thinking why the hell do we even assign colors to certain genders, like, why? How? Why would colors have genders for God’s sake. Since that conversation, I came to wonder since when we assign gender to certain colors; why is pink a girls’ color and blue a boys’ color? Turned out, it has never been like that from the start. Pink even was deemed to be more suitable for boys because it was a strong and distinct color, well that is according to the 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department. To quote them, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.”

To me, it’s funny how it didn’t become the norm to have a consensus that pink is a girls’ or in this starting point; a lady’s color until the inauguration of Dwight Eisenhower as the 34th President of the United States at 1953. At the inauguration, Mamie Eisenhower wore an enormous rhinestone adored pale pink ball gown, that was quite a shake for the people since women in that era wore much simpler style in a more muted colors. And because her position as the First Lady, it was no wonder that the whole nation was influenced, manufacturers and retailers alike started to market products targeted for women in the color pink. After that you know how it went, if a diamond cartel can market a made up the obligation for people to only propose to your loved one with diamond ring because it shows them how much you love them (coughs De Beers coughs), then why can’t decades of a collective of manufacturers and retailers dictating you which color fits your gender, not to mention the pop culture trends following them?

We’ve been associating certain qualities to colors since long time ago, like how we as Indonesian generally acknowledge that the meaning behind our national flag’s colors; red for bravery and white for purity. But seriously, I still don’t reckon there’s a logical reason to assign or align gender to color, moreover assigning gender stereotypes to a particular color. In the end, it’s just a construct by the capitalists to boost their profit margin. In all seriousness, I think we should all really unlearn the social construct that certain color has specific gender or a symbol of any specific gender, because really, it doesn’t have any logical reason supporting it. It may become a barrier for some to be themselves without being looked down upon, like how my friend can’t enjoy her (super) cute pink laptop because of the fear of being judged as a weak woman, or how guys are trapped in a dull closet of for the rest of their life because splashes of colors on their outfits are just not man enough for them. Pfsh, talk about fragile masculinity, but that’s a whole other massive and utterly complex issue we can have a discussion about later.

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ilooklikeididyesterday · 6 years

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Together - Part 1

Summary: Harald doesn’t mind sharing.

Pairing: Harald/OC, Harald/OC/Halfdan, Halfdan/OC

Warnings: Smut, language, NSFW

Note: I feel like I’ve hyped this up wayyyy too much! Let me know if you want to be tagged.

“Did you talk to her yet?” Halfdan asked, shoulder bumping his older brother as their eyes both settled on Yasmin, Harald’s new wife. Hailing from Rus, her hair was a dark brunette, sun kissed in caramel highlights and dark green eyes in the shape of an almond. Her mother was a Princess of Rus, her father a Viking warlord, Olef Olefsson. Olef had turned from battle towards trading and with strong merchant connections up and down the Eastern Europe rivers, he had earnt his riches.

“Not yet,” Harald drank from his cup eyes following her as she did her wifely and Queen duties of pleasantly greeting the townspeople. She would smile warmly at them, lightly touch their arm or shoulder, ask after their health, thanked them for attending and wished them to enjoy the rest of their evening. It was the same speech to everyone she met, but she did mean it. Vestfold was smaller and not as rich in gold or culture that she was used to. The people there were mainly fishermen who lived their lives at sea chasing whales for meat and blubber, or Viking men who dreamt of nothing but raiding, trading and wealth. They were simple but pleasant people and she was glad they had welcomed her so. She was Queen so they had to be nice, but so far she felt everybody was being genuine in their niceties to her.

Yasmin, in a pale blue dress heavily decorated with beads and jewels, glided across the Great Hall floor, seemingly bouncing from person to person like a bee flying from flower to flower.

“What’s she like?” Halfdan turned his head and asked quietly, making it look like he was nonchalantly looking around the Hall.

“She is ... eager.”

“Eager is good.”

Harald made a sound of agreement, eyes fixed on her as he watched over the top of his cup.

She eventually made her way to King Harald who held out his hand to her. She placed her hand in his and he bought it to his lips placing a kiss on her knuckles. His facial hair tickled her slightly and she smiled warmly. Yasmin was relieved to have such a husband - he was good natured to her and always complimented her on her grace and beauty. He was a fair ruler, according to the people of Vestfold, and from what she had seen herself.

“So glad you could join us, Queen Yasmin,” Halfdan over exaggerated his bow and Yasmin looked at him for a few moments.

She was wary at first of her husband’s brother - she’d heard horrible stories of his brutality and quickness to anger. In the week she stayed in Vestfold before her wedding, he never left Harald’s side and at first Yasmin wasn’t sure who was who! Halfdan never left his brother’s side, and was very quiet. But, still waters run deep as was evident in his dark chestnut eyes. When Yasmin spoke she could feel his eyes on her - burning through her. Her second impression was that Halfdan might be born a halfwit. He seemed more interested in food and his axe than politics and culture. She discovered he was quite smart, but hid it well. Well, he mainly hid behind his brother. Yasmin soon discovered that Halfdan wasn’t a complicated man and by default wanted an easy life. He stood by his brother out of love for his kin, but that didn’t mean it was any less inconvenient or annoying that where Harald was, so was Halfdan. He could also be an annoying little shit when he wanted to be. Like now, mocking her for being late.

Harald waved off his brother’s comment. “It would not matter if I had to wait a hundred years to again see this beautiful vision in front of me. By Freya you look exquisite tonight, my Queen.”

Yasmin couldn’t help but let out a small giggle - it wasn’t proper for a Queen to giggle like a love sick young woman, but she couldn’t help it.

----

The young man, having just turned 13 was swearing his oath to King Harald. He didn’t speak very loud but he spoke with good diction. When he finished his oath he let out an audible sigh of relief. Harald smiled, putting his sigil arm band on the boys small arm and spoke his thanks. Harald kept eye contact with the young boy as he spoke, mimicking the boys pace and spoke slowly with good diction, but his voice louder. When Harald had finished the crowd cheered and the boy beamed.

The young boy stepped to his right and appeared in front of Queen Yasmin. She smiled warmly at him and congratulated him on becoming a man and his allegiance to her husband. She affectionately touched his new arm band and called him by his name.

“You know my name?” He asked slightly alarmed and proud.

“I do.” She patted his shoulder lightly signalling him to move on as Harald waved forward the next person to swear their allegiance; a Shieldmaiden. The King glanced to his side at the brief interaction between the boy and his Queen that left a huge smile plastered on the boys face. She was so good with children, adults too, she made each person in their whole kingdom feel special. He couldn’t wait to see her with his children - his heirs, a boy or two sitting with them on the steps to the throne and a girl in her arms. She was so gentle and caring he had no doubt that she would be an excellent mother.

The Shieldmaiden spoke her allegiance and Harald took another arm band and slid it up her smooth arm, reciting his thanks. The crowd cheered and the woman leaned closer, speaking something softly, a mischievous glint in her eyes. Yasmin’s eyes narrowed. She could only imagine what sexual propositions she was promising her husband. Harald nodded his head and cleared his throat, quickly glancing to his left, to Yasmin. He replied something, and the woman gave a curt nod of her head.

“My Queen,” The woman gave a polite nod to Yasmin, who returned with a false smile. As the Shieldmaiden turned to walk away, Yasmin quickly crossed her legs, one leg flicking out and tripping up the woman. She stumbled to her knees. A quiet descended amongst the Great Hall.

Halfdan, who had been standing off to the side, took a small step forward from his position. He protected his brother naturally and by association protected Yasmin. Harald loved her more than anything and if she were to be harmed Harald would be beside himself.

The shieldmaiden whipped her head up in instinct and then stilled herself, remembering where she was and who she was looking up to.

“Watch your step, Luda.” Yasmin spoke evenly and with double meaning.

Halfdan looked to Yasmin. He’d always pegged her for a good Queen, but she seemed to lack any fire. She didn’t know how to fight, but it seemed she didn’t need to wield a sword when she used words like those.

The shieldmaiden stood and nodded, not making eye contact. “Apologies, my Lady.” The correct reply would have been ‘my Queen’ given the formality of the situation.

Yasmin waved her hand, dismissively. Yasmin sat straighter in her throne, uncrossing her legs and Harald waved forward the next person, another young boy who now looked even more nervous than before.

------

After the ceremony, a feast was held outside due to the good weather, an idea of Yasmin’s that Harald congratulated her on. Later that night Queen Yasmin finally took off her crown. She had been wearing it all day and it was heavy. She groaned in appreciation at the weight that had been lifted and rolled her neck and shoulders, jumping slightly when a pair of lips pressed against the exposed flesh of her neck.

Harald had too removed his crown and unbraided his hair. She lifted a hand to his head, fingertips gently massaging his scalp as his lips continued to kiss along her neck as his warm arm snaked around her waist.

“I need you,” he breathed against her ear, rocking his hips forward and she could feel his hardness through his breeches and her dress.

“We need to get ready,” she laughed lightly, reminding him they had another royal engagement.

“I want my seed to fill you, take a hold of you and see you swell with my heir,” he mumbled in her ear, hand splaying across her flat stomach. She turned around in his embrace.

“There will be time for that, my King. Just not right now.”

“They will wait,” he shrugged, pressing his lips to hers and hands splaying on her ass pulling her forward to his groin. His kisses ignited passion within Yasmin and she pulled the laces on her dress, slipping it from her skin. Harald’s mouth went to her breasts, sucking at her soft flesh, tongue swirling around the pink rose bud of her nipple. He kept a strong arm around her, walking her backwards towards their large bed. She sat on the edge, unlacing his breeches as he took off his tunic. She wasted no time in tugging them past his hips and taking the base of his cock in her hand, mouth lightly sucking the head, like he taught her to.

He had taught her everything she knew and she was thankful that sex was pleasurable and not just a way to make children. She wanted children, ever since a young age she had a strong maternal instinct and couldn’t wait to hold a sleeping baby in her arms. She was slightly older than she had hoped when she had been married - previously promised to a Tsar their engagement had been three summers long due to him away on a long raid and battle. He had been killed in battle and the pursuit of another good match had to be made. She had concerns that due to her being slightly older if the Gods would still bless her body with the strength to conceive and bear a child.

The need between her legs grew as she took the King’s cock deeper into her mouth eliciting a groan from the man himself. His hand gently fisted her hair and coaxed her deeper. He looked down at her, blue eyes meeting her dark green ones, his mouth falling agape at the sight of her lips taking him. He pulled her mouth away and coaxed her back on the bed, nose nuzzling her neck as one hand went up her smooth thigh and his finger, laden with gold rings, stroked at her slit. His middle finger delved into her wetness, mouth assaulting her bare breasts as she rocked her hips towards his hand. Another finger was quickly added, angled just so to rub against the special spot inside her that her writhing against him.

He withdrew his hand moving back a little to see her flushed face, hair fanned out behind her. He moved his own hair over one shoulder out the way. He rubbed his erection against her slit gathering her wetness on his silky flesh.

“Do you want your King’s cock inside you, my beautiful Queen?” He questioned huskily, watching her eyes widen at his words and desperation masked her face.

“Yes!” She quickly answered. “Get inside me now!”

He chuckled. She was the perfect embodiment of a Queen normally - poised, and spoke with great diction and purpose but when she was beneath him on their bed she spoke brash and brazen like a man.

He did as she requested, pushing forth into her tight cunt, a loud moan leaving her mouth as her hands ran up and down his back, fingernails scratching him lightly. As he bore his hips down into hers she lifted her up so they met and grinded against each other. He continued to kiss lazily at her neck, a sheen of sweat covered them both their moans getting louder - of which he did not care. She was loud and if he did not covet her respectful appearance so much he would fuck her in the middle of the town so that everyone could see - as well as hear - what he did to her.

Her orgasm sprung forth quickly, her walls pulsating around him, she gave him no warning and he spilled inside her looking down at her face in wonderment at the feel of her coaxing forth his seed to spill into her womb. The feeling was like none he’d experience before, his whole body went numb with pleasure and then suddenly he felt like he could move again as his own pleasure racked through his body. He groaned louder than before, thrusting his hips forward until there was nothing more to give. Yasmin ran her hands over his chest and shoulders, marvelling at the sight of him above her, sweating and red faced. He collapsed on top of her, she wrapped her shaky legs around his waist.

“Stay, so that the seed might hold,” she whispered, lovingly stroking his back as their breathing laboured.

A cough interrupted them, and Harald pulled out quickly with a pop and a soft squelch from her. Yasmin gave a little scream, trying to hide her nakedness beneath her husband.

“Halfdan!” Harald admonished, “By Odin’s balls what are you doing?” He asked angrily.

“You are late.” Halfdan replied casually.

“Get out!” Yasmin screeched, voice cracking. He turned to her like he just realised she was there. His eyes darkened and his eyes took in her nakedness.

“Do you know how to knock?” Harald asked now sitting on the edge of the bed with Yasmin behind him. It didn’t really do much to hide her naked body as Halfdan could still see her breasts.

“I did. Twice. You said ‘come in’,” he smirked.

#Harald Finehair #Harald Vikings #Harald fic #Harald fiction #Halfdan vikings #Harald x Halfdan #Harald x Halfdan x oc #vikings fan fiction

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nowhere-hunch · 4 years

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Social constructs

A few years ago, I started hearing the phrase “X is a social construct” in the context of social justice. First “gender is a social construct”, then “sex”, and lately I’ve been hearing “race” as well. At first, I didn’t understand the concept well, but as time has gone on I think I’ve gotten a better idea. Essentially, I think a good definition for “social construct” could be “a shared framework people use to cooperatively handle infinitely varied natural phenomena.”

I think the best way to explain this would be to work through a common, pretty non-controversial example: color.

Color is a social construct

“Color” is our brains reaction to light waves hitting our eyes – we perceive different wavelengths within a range of “visible light” as different colors. Since there are an infinite number of wavelengths within that range, technically there are an infinite number of colors.

However, when people talk about color, we are never (or very, very rarely) talking about a specific wavelength of light, but a whole bunch of wavelengths that are next to each other on the spectrum. Essentially, we have divided a continuous spectrum (a rainbow) into several bands (ROYGBIV). This allows us to more easily utilize the concept of “color” in our everyday lives. You can say “These berries are ripe when they’re red” while accounting for all the different variations of red that might occur between individual fruits, for example.

For this to work, the person you’re talking to needs to know (at least approximately) where you put the “boundaries” between the different color bands. As long as you two agree, the placement of these boundaries can be completely arbitrary. This is where the “social” in “social construct” comes from – our concepts are validated by social agreement rather than any actual reflection of physical reality.

When you consider this, several observations follow:

These “boundaries” may be agreed on by one group of people, but they change according to time/place/context.

If you speak another language, you may know that the agreements people have for talking about color vary by culture. For example, in Japanese the word for “blue” overlaps considerably with what we in English would call “green” (e.g. the color of green traffic lights). While English traditionally splits the rainbow into 7 bands (ROYGBIV), other languages may use more or fewer.

Although the whole society appears to agree, it’s likely that no two individuals actually completely agree on the precise placement of the boundaries.

If you give a hundred, or a thousand people a picture of the color spectrum and ask them to draw lines where red turns to orange, orange turns to yellow, etc., you’d most likely not find any two who put them in exactly the same places. Yet we are all (for the most part) still able to communicate successfully with each other about color.

Social constructs usually actually describe the intersection of multiple natural phenomena, even if we don’t always realize it.

In most art programs, when you select a “color” to paint with, you are actually working with three different “spectrums”:

“Hue” – the rainbow spectrum we’ve been talking about

“Saturation” – how bright the color is (full saturation = fully colored, no saturation = gray)

“Lightness” (full lightness = white, no lightness = black, mid lightness = “true” color)

Thus, we get words like “maroon”, “periwinkle”, “navy”, “brown”, etc. The usual answer to “what is color?” doesn’t include any of those. Our social construct of color actually includes not only the bands of the rainbow, but also other attributes like saturation and lightness. This is because our human experience of color is greatly affected by these other attributes, and our social constructs describe our *experience* of a phenomenon, not the actual reality of it.

Two people using the same social construct may sort the same object into different categories for a number of reasons.

First, we already noted how most people probably have slightly different boundaries between categories. Physical differences in our eyes or brains might also affect how we actually perceive color (e.g. colorblindness). Think about “the dress” – many people sorted that image into completely different color categories. Remember that social constructs describe our experience of a phenomenon, not the actual reality of it.

In some cases, we use different attributes to sort phenomena depending on context. Sometimes when we say “color” we mean “hue” and sometimes we mean a hue/saturation/lightness combo. When you’re shopping for clothes, you’ll probably say “I’m looking for a maroon shirt” but when you’re describing your purchase to someone you might say “I’ll wear my new red shirt.”

Social constructs are based on constructed stereotypes but impact our reality in measurable ways.

Each wavelength of light is a completely different color. As stated, physically there is no reason why we have sorted them into bands the way we have… or is there? There are generalizations people make about entire bands of colors all the time: “red is energizing”, “blue is calming”, “purple is luxurious”, etc. There’s a kind of chicken and egg problem:

Did we sort colors the way we did because they have these common characteristics? OR

Do these colors have common characteristics because we have sorted them together?

The fact that the “common attributes” colors are thought to have vary by time (e.g. blue used to be associated with girls and pink with boys, the opposite of today), place (e.g. in the west, white is associated with purity and happiness, while it is associated with death in some Asian cultures), and context (e.g. red could be connected to either anger or love) makes me think more the latter than the former, though I’m sure there’s a mixture of both.

However, it doesn’t really matter whether colors actually have those attributes. Just the fact that these attributes are part of our social construct has a measurable effect on our experience of the physical phenomena. There are experiments that show that people are actually energized by red and calmed by blue, even though those concepts are culturally specific.

As stated, it’s often possible to trace these stereotypes back to some actual reality. Purple is considered luxurious because purple dyes used to be very rare and expensive. But note how the stereotype has remained in place and still has an effect on people’s lived experiences even though reality has changed.

Social constructs usually don’t distinguish between assumptions made about an item’s category and assumptions made based on an items’s category.

The human brain likes to take shortcuts, and one way it does this is by being loose with the distinction between “conditions” and “consequences” of a given object being sorted into a given category. I.e. there’s a difference between “these are the attributes I use to decide that this object belongs in this category” and “these are the attributes I can assume this object has by virtue of being sorted into this category,” but this often gets ignored.

A simple example would be to say something like, “Well, purple is a luxurious color, so I will call any color I decide is luxurious purple.” This isn’t especially common with colors, since it’s really easy for most of us to sort colors by sight and so we don’t need a shortcut, but it happens a lot with other social constructs I’ll touch on later.

Social constructs are not inherently “bad”.

Saying that something is a social construct is not saying that it isn’t real or doesn’t exist or doesn’t impact people’s lived experiences – in fact it’s saying the opposite. A social construct must be based on something real and important to our lives, otherwise we wouldn’t bother to create a social construct to allow us to conceptualize and communicate about it.

Social constructs are necessary for us to live in society, it’s just important that we not mistake our social construct for the actual reality they are meant to describe. Social constructs describe our experience of a phenomenon, not the actual reality of it. “A map is not the territory,” as they say.

Anatomy of a social construct

Now, we can list some things we would expect to find with any social construct:

One or more natural phenomena that are a) experienced by people in infinitely (or practically infinitely) varied ways and b) something that we care about enough to want to think and talk about with others.

A set of categories people sort the experiences of these phenomena into.

For each category, a set of attributes associated with items in that category. These may be used to sort items into categories AND/OR to make assumptions about items after they have been sorted.

We would expect the categories and/or attributes associated with them to change depending on time, place, or context.

With this in mind, we can start looking at some more interesting examples.

Gender is a social construct

If gender is a social construct, we would expect it to be built on some actual natural phenomena. The question is, what is that phenomena exactly, especially if it is distinct from physical sex? I don’t think we as a society have a very good idea of this, which is why, to me, this example is more difficult to talk about than color, sex, or race.

My theory is this: the phenomenon behind what we think of as “gender” is individuals’ specialization in social tasks.

I think this is why sex and gender are so closely related for many societies. The earliest social activities humans were doing were primarily related to reproduction: courtship/mating and parenting, so it makes some amount of sense that individuals would specialize in the tasks required for these activities based on their role in the reproductive process. Someone needs to feed the child; it makes sense for someone whose body produces milk to be responsible for that. And if they’re spending their time doing that, then someone else will have to specialize in the other things that need to be done.

These roles and specialties weren’t (and still aren’t) exactly the same in every family, so as families came together and started to talk with each other about their social roles and specialties, the social construct of gender developed. The concepts of “man” and “woman” corresponded pretty closely with a person’s physical sex. But as human society became more complex, additional social tasks needed to be fulfilled related to spirituality/religion, medicine, industry/technology, etc. These were worked into the gender social construct in different ways depending on the society, resulting in the diversity we see today.

My basis for this theory is just considering *why* it matters to people what someone’s gender is. Humans care about color because it helps us determine what food is good to eat (among other reasons), we care about physical sex because it allows us to find a partner we will be able to reproduce with, why do we care about gender if it’s different than sex? I think that people use gender to make “educated” guesses about:

The language forms used when talking to or about them (e.g. pronouns)

Their roles/responsibilities within their social groups

The most effective social strategies to use with them for the given situation

Social experiences you do/don’t share with them

I.e. it’s a shortcut for figuring out social situations.

So, if we consider “gender” as a construct for describing “how people specialize in social tasks”, then there are technically as many genders as there are people alive on earth – it’s extremely unlikely that any two people will have specialized in exactly the same way. For colors, we mainly use 1-3 attributes (hue, saturation, lightness) to categorize items into categories, but for gender, although there are fewer categories, many more attributes are considered:

The roles/responsibilities you take on within your family (e.g. in raising children) or other groups/teams

The way you present yourself physically via clothing, mannerisms, etc.

Your relationship dynamics with individuals (familiar or strangers) of different genders

Hobbies and aesthetics you are drawn to

Etc.

At this point, we are realizing that our society is so complex that trying to sort every person into one of two available categories just isn’t sufficient. There are so many factors that go into “sorting” people that at this point it’s probably easier and more reliable to just have people self-identify. Sex is not a reliable indicator for all these other things, nor is appearance, interests, skills, etc.

So, we have the natural phenomenon: groups of humans divide responsibility for social tasks between individuals. We have categories for sorting that phenomenon: “man” and “woman” traditionally, and other “nonbinary” categories becoming more prominent as time goes on, and we have lots and lots and lots of attributes associated with those categories. Think of all the stereotypes we use to make assumptions both about a person’s gender and based on a person’s gender.

We can also see how both the available categories and the attributes associated with them differ by time and place. There are many cultures all over the world that have included more than two genders for a very long time. One example is “two-spirit” people in Native American societies. Attributes that are considered “feminine” or “masculine” by one culture may elsewhere be acceptable or encouraged in other genders. For example, in western cultures men are discouraged from styling their hair and face with lots of product, but it is encouraged in some Asian cultures.

This is why gender is considered a social construct: we think about it using concepts that are not a one-to-one correspondence with reality, but are instead validated by social agreement – we as a group all agree to talk about it in a common way.

Sex is a social construct

I think most people are more ready to call gender a social construct than sex, even though to me sex has more in common with the color example than gender does.

Our social construct of sex is based on the natural phenomena of human beings possessing an infinite variety of sex organs – no two people have a set that is exactly the same. The fact that a body is considered “male” regardless of the length of the penis or whether or not it is circumcised is evidence of this.

What makes the social construct of sex difficult for people to grasp, I think, is that it appears to be quite close to a direct one-to-one correspondence with reality, particularly if you’re willing to ignore people with intersex conditions as “outliers” (which I think is unwise). However, if you pay close attention you can see some situations where our social construct starts to fail. This is because although people usually assume “sex” is decided using a single attribute, our social construct actually considers several:

The (visual) sex organs you were born with

The sex organs you currently possess (“sex change” operations may be relatively new, but eunuchs are an ancient phenomenon)

The sex of partners you could potentially reproduce with

Presence or absence of a Y chromosome

Hormone levels in your body

And although the categories and attributes appear fairly constant across place and time, they do vary according to context. This is reflected quite obviously in recent controversies about intersex athletes. Medical and social establishments decide sex based on the appearance of sex organs at birth, while athletic organizations often instead base it on current hormone levels. That’s how someone can live their entire life with no doubt they are 100% female, only to be disqualified from sporting events because they meet the criteria for being “male”.

Again, saying that something is a social construct isn’t saying that it’s not real. In human reproduction there are two roles involved – an egg cell needs to meet a sperm cell, and there are two “configurations” of sex organs that correspond to these roles. This is not being disputed. The social construct is how we “sort” people when these configurations are not exactly consistent and not always as obvious or simple as we might assume.

So, in summary:

Natural phenomenon: People are born with unique sex organs

Categories: “Male” and “female” traditionally, “intersex” more prominent recently, “eunuch”/“neuter” historically

Attributes associated with categories: sex organs visible at birth, sex organs currently possessed, presence/absence of Y chromosome, levels of “sex hormones” in the body

Race is a social construct

Race is another social construct that people might have a hard time recognizing because it is apparently rooted in physical reality - the physical differences that manifest in people due to their genetic ancestry are usually highly visible. The social construct of race is how we conceptualize this phenomenon when no two people (who aren’t siblings) share exactly the same genetic ancestry.

One thing that makes it pretty obvious race is a social construct is that the available categories we “sort” people into vary so greatly by time, place, and context that it’s difficult to even come up with an acceptable list. In everyday life, it seems like we in the U.S. tend to categorize race roughly by continent of genetic origin:

White (Europe)

Black (Africa)

Asian (Asia, sometimes including Oceana and the Middle East, sometimes these are their own categories)

Native American (Americas)

“Latino” is an interesting category. Technically the definition refers to national origin (someone of any race from a Latin American country), but people who only have genetic ancestry from those places are (sometimes, depending on context) considered Latino as well as or instead of Native American.

Notice how these don’t necessarily correspond to the options you can pick from on “official” forms, which for example sometimes include “multiple races”/“two or more races” as an option. In many other contexts someone who is multiracial is seen as being sort of half-categorized in each applicable race, regardless of if this accurately reflects their experiences.

Another way you can tell that “race” is a social construct is that it takes into account more than one phenomenon when “sorting” people. For example, religion and shared *cultural* ancestry has a long history of being tied to race. That is why Jewish people are (depending on context) considered a race even without all having a shared genetic ancestry. There are also Muslim minorities throughout the world today that are treated essentially as separate races locally.

Note that the categories used for race change over time. Catholic people were in a somewhat similar position to Jewish people at one time; remember that the U.S. didn’t have a president who was Catholic until JFK. Catholics were actually regularly targeted by the KKK, and anti-Catholic and anti-Irish sentiments were closely intertwined. Another example is Moors, which is a racial category we don’t really hear these days, at least in the U.S. These were *technically* people of mixed Arab and European origins, but the term was also more widely used to refer to Muslims in Europe generally. Shakespeare’s character Othello is a famous character who is a Moor.

Another very heavily used attribute associated with race is a person’s physical appearance. Depending on context (such as before we had a good understanding of DNA), this might even be more important than genetic ancestry. For example, think about the “paper bag test” that was used in apartheid South Africa – if your skin is darker than a paper bag, you’re black, regardless of your parentage. On the other hand, there have been examples in more recent times of people being forced to change their racial identification because it was discovered that they had ancestors from a particular place, even though it was in no way evident in their appearance or recent family history.

So, in summary:

Natural phenomenon: People have unique physical characteristics based on their ancestry

Categories: White, Black, Asian, “PoC”, Jewish, Catholic, Irish, Moor, etc. depending on time, place, and context

Attributes: genetic ancestry, cultural ancestry/religion, physical appearance

Conclusion

So, this is how I have been thinking about the concept of “social constructs” - I make no claim that this is in any way “correct” but I have found it helpful and maybe others will as well. What this all comes down to is essentially a) “beware of stereotypes” and b) “knowledge can be validated either by accurately reflecting reality or by social agreement - don’t confuse the two”.

Or if you need something simpler: “be respectful and believe what people tell you about their identities and experiences.”

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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Anime in America Podcast: Full Episode 2 Transcript

Hello, and welcome to another fine transcript of Crunchyroll's new Anime in America podcast! Those in need of a different way to access and enjoy the podcast, as well as those looking to research further or simply take note of some interesting facts that were mentioned, we've got you covered on an episode by episode basis. Following up on the episode 1 transcript, we've got one for the second, so enjoy it in full below!

The Anime in America podcast, hosted by Yedoye Travis, is available on crunchyroll.com, animeinamerica.com, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Episode 1 Transcript: In the Beginning There Was Fansubs

Disclaimer: The following program contains language not suitable for all ages. Discretion advised.

[Lofi Music]

As I made very clear in the last episode, it was once a massive undertaking just physically getting anime from Japan to the US. Just imagine if I told you in 2019 that you had to go anywhere but your own couch just to watch anime. You would call the police.

Once anime was here physically, it still involved an insane time commitment from fans just to make it intelligible to American viewers. Whether it was painstaking hours encoding text onto video, or being tricked into live translating for your friends; in short, it was impossible, and yet people did it, so we have them to thank, at least partially, for the huge presence of anime in the modern zeitgeist.

But there’s a lot more to localizing than just taking Japanese words and turning them into English words. In practice, localization means making whatever changes are necessary to make a show marketable to the local audience. Using the language of that audience is a good start, but it doesn’t encapsulate the full scope of the practice from a marketing standpoint.

Of course, over the years, people have severely misunderstood the extent to which changes actually need to be made, and so there are good examples of localization and then there are times when the producers decided Americans can’t grasp the concept of a rice ball and Pokemon ends up full of unnecessary jelly donuts.

This is Anime in America, brought to you by Crunchyroll and hosted by me, Yedoye Travis.

[Lofi Music]

If you're still not sure what I'm talking about, there are plenty of things in the American lexicon that you would have never guessed were from Japan. In fact, the 60s gave us a lot of anime that wasn’t recognizably Japanese, and this was because both Japanese creators and American distributors thought that maybe Japanese IP wouldn’t be the easiest sell immediately after World War II. So they just made it not Japanese. Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy began a lasting trend in anime of heavily anglicized characters that minimally reflected the culture they came from, and were therefore believed to be more marketable to western audiences.

[Music from Astro Boy plays]

By the 80s though, as we inched further away from wartime tensions, anime became more acceptable in its unedited state, attracting American distributors who wanted to capitalize on the space opera craze following the release of Star Wars. In fact, by this time, the cultural exchange between Japan and the US was already starting to blossom, with an agreement between Marvel and Toei that brought a successful tokusatsu adaptation of an American series to Japan in 1978. That series was Spiderman.

[Japanese Spider-Man opening plays]

And for reference, tokusatsu is a Japanese word that literally means “special effects,” so tokusatsu in its simplest form is just that--a live action show where some of the stuff is not real. For specific examples, think Ultraman, Kamen Rider, the Super Sentai series, which I’ll get to in a second, or something we’re all familiar with--the classic foam rubber Godzilla that came long before the tiny headed Bryan Cranston version.

[Godzilla roar from GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA]

Marvel and Toei’s deal was made before Dragonball Z became Toei’s crowning achievement, and long before Marvel joined the Disney family and fell into constant conflict with Sony over the very same property. The deal gave each party rights to use the other’s characters in any way they saw fit, and in fact, Toei originally planned to make Spiderman a secondary character to mythological Japanese prince Yamato Takeru. They eventually backtracked and left Spiderman in his primary role, but then they did all this other weird shit with it. They threw out Peter Parker entirely, and so Spiderman’s alter ego became Takuya Yamashiro, a motorcycle racer who gets injected willingly with blood from the spider alien Garia, giving him spider powers and allowing him to carry on Garia’s fight against the evil Professor Monster.

[Japanese Spider-Man opening continues]

I’m sorry, what? They also gave him an arguably unnecessary giant robot named Leopardon, a concept Toei would later incorporate into their Super Sentai series, which you may not know by name, but is actually one of the most popular American series of all time, with literally billions of dollars in toy sales in its first 8 years.

[Opening theme of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers begins to play]

And if you’re thinking “Hey what if I’m too dumb to Google that?” Well that is what podcasts are for. Even though I guess you had to Google… this podcast to find it.

Not knowing Super Sentai doesn’t make you dumb, it just makes you American, and THAT makes you dumb.

[Power Rangers theme continues]

But only for systemic reasons that can be broken down in one of many other podcasts. But In this one, I’ll just accept your manufactured ignorance and move on.

[Power Rangers theme continues to “Go go, Power Rangers!”]

You might know Super Sentai by its American name, Power Rangers, who you might know by the aforementioned giant robots--known as Zords--or by the first iteration’s problematic color coding of its main characters: blue for boy, pink for girl, yellow for Asian girl, black for black boy, and red for lead boy. Later colors would include white for Native American played by white guy, and green for all the money they made in spite of this.

Power Rangers is an American localization of Super Sentai originally adapted by Saban Entertainment in 1993 using entirely new footage and storylines interwoven with battle scenes from the original series, and I don’t know if it’s better or worse that the American cast was decided after the costumes were made, but I do know that it’s not surprising.

The Power Rangers are undoubtedly the most popular Saban property, having sold over $6 billion in toys for Bandai in its first decade on the air, and Saban have continued to adapt Super Sentai series beginning with Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger in 1993, all the way up to Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters in 2019.

The rights have changed hands a couple times, with a brief stint at Disney, before returning to Saban in 2010, and ultimately to Hasbro in 2018, in case you thought the series was created to do anything other than sell toys. Power Rangers has since been distributed internationally and chaotically redistributed in Japan using the original voice cast, and I can’t begin to explain to you how that works legally, but as an actor, all I can say is take the two checks and run before they figure it out.

I bring all this up as an example of what can happen when international properties are used to their full potential. It gets confusing at times, when you get into the weeds regarding licenses and producers or the fact that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was banned in Malaysia for supposedly promoting mighty morphine to kids--real fact, look it up--but ultimately, in the grand scheme of things, all parties involved, at least on the corporate level, made money and built up pretty rock solid brand recognition.

In contrast, let’s talk about Harmony Gold.

[Lofi Music]

Harmony Gold is an American television production company and real estate developer lol whose founder, Frank Agrama, narrowly escaped prison just a few years ago, and whose Wikipedia page contains an alarming number of references to famously corrupt Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. And I don’t mean in passing. I mean in 1976 Frank Agrama sold broadcasting rights from Paramount pictures to Berlusconi’s Mediaset company, which at the time was just starting, but years later was found in a study by the American Economic Association to have made young Italians more vulnerable to populist rhetoric and therefore more likely to vote for Berlusconi who, for reference, would later be convicted of soliciting sex with minors, for which he would later be acquitted because why wouldn’t you be able to do that? And I’m not saying Frank Agrama is responsible for, or in any way directly involved in any of the +20 legal battles Berlusconi has been through, I’m just that he definitely was and in fact his home was raided in 2006 in connection with an Italian investigation claiming that he had inflated prices of the rights he originally sold to Mediaset so that, through means I do not understand, Mediaset could pay huge dividends to its top executives. And Frank only avoided jail time due to a technicality based on his age.

Of course, all this info is better suited for a way more in depth political conspiracy, and maybe famous pedophile podcast? But the fact that Harmony Gold is so deeply rooted in the dealings of a massive propaganda empire run by an egomaniac really sets the stage for why everyone seems to hate them so much.

So what is Harmony Gold as it pertains to this story? Well, as I said, it began in 1983, four years after Frank took a trip to France, where he met and agreed to partner in distributing international film rights with Paddy Chan Mei-Yiu and Katherine Hsu May-Chun, two businesswomen from Hong Kong, the former of whom is the owner of the Wiltshire Group of Companies. And I’d like to think the two of them held some significance before the events in this episode, but if they did, they’re SEO game is trash, cause all searches yield results after the year 1979 when Chan founded the Hong Kong-based Harmony Gold and Frank founded Agrama Film Enterprises in LA, only establishing Harmony Gold USA a few years later.

Harmony Gold USA’s first project was a miniseries depicting the life of Shaka Zulu--chief of the Zulu people from 1816 to 1828--which a 1986 piece in the LA Times said reduced Shaka and the Zulu people to violent barbarians, noting that the story was mostly told through the perspective of an Irish doctor and not Shaka Zulu himself and basically challenged its audience to ask what would have come of South Africa if it weren’t for the intervention of white settlers.

So if the series can be summed up in a word, I guess that word would be “controversial,” only because Frank himself staunchly denied that the film was racist at the time, despite claims from South African literature professor Mazisi Kunene that it was “like Hitler doing the history of the Jews.”

And long story short, these are the people that made Robotech.

As is the case with Power Rangers and most other series brought to the US, the main hurdle in localizing for an American audience is the content itself, whether that means it violates some perceived standard of acceptability, or more simply that Americans misinterpret the intended audience and end up repackaging a show with very adult themes to be marketed to kids, which may explain why I’ve seen Endless Waltz about a dozen times and couldn’t tell you a single detail of the story.

[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing - Endless Waltz theme plays]

In the case of Robotech, however, the biggest hurdle was American syndication laws. When Carl Macek was hired to adapt anime for Harmony Gold in the mid-80s, he immediately settled on Super Dimension Fortress Macross, as I mentioned in the previous episode--and had they followed their original plan, it would have been the first legal anime home video release in the US. But they abandoned that plan and decided to air it on TV, and American rules required that a syndicated show be able to run at a minimum of five episodes a week for 13 weeks, because as we all know artists are at their most creative when they have strict production minimums, like an 8 episode anime podcast, to give a non-specific example.

So, in similar fashion to Japanese Spiderman and Power Rangers, Carl Macek took the rights he had and did whatever the fuck he wanted. Macross had aired weekly in Japan for only 36 episodes, so Carl took two unrelated giant robot series--Genesis Climber MOSPEADA and Southern Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, the longest title I’ve ever heard--and he just tossed them in with Macross like an undergrad student using 15-point periods in a 12-point essay. And he made a hit. Robotech was hugely popular at the time and plenty of people will tell you it was their first window into the world of anime as a whole. But beyond that, Harmony Gold didn’t really have a lot of success.

There were spinoffs, including the aforementioned Robotech: The Movie, which was shown in 1987 at the Animation Celebration Festival, where Jerry Beck worked with a man named Terry Thoren, who refused Jerry’s requests to pick it up for further distribution, yet another person who viewed it as a “Saturday morning cartoon,” and first of all, I have to stress that you can watch cartoons on any other day. Yu-Gi-Oh! played on Sundays, I don’t know what this Saturday morning shit is. I don’t know where it comes from. But I digress.

In probably one of the most significant events in early anime history, Jerry Beck and Carl Macek met during the screening of Robotech when they both snuck off to watch the crowd’s reaction, and realizing how excited the audience was, they immediately decided to team up and establish Streamline Pictures, where they were committed to producing anime dubs that were true to their source material, preserving all the original music and sound effects, and producing more faithful translations, and I can’t stress enough how insane it is that that was revolutionary, but it was at the time and they, along with contemporaries like RightStuf, set a precedent that anime was most valuable when it got to just be anime. I can’t say with 100% certainty that Jerry’s boss would have been more receptive to anime if he had seen Macross in its original form, but I am also dumb, so take everything I say with a big grain of salt.

Regardless, looking back at Harmony Gold’s reputation in comparison to Carl Macek the man, all signs suggest he left at about the right time. Carl only lasted long enough to produce 85 episodes of the original Robotech, along with the way way way lesser known Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years, also adapted from unrelated series Captain Harlock and Queen Millennia, both by Leiji Matsumoto, both of which were comprised of 42 episodes, which I probably would have confirmed in advance if I had already gone through the trouble of combining three whole series into one, but that’s just me, a person whose experience informs his actions. Of course, given the success of Robotech, I’m sure Carl was very optimistic about his ability to crank out another successful chopped and screwed anime, so I can’t really blame him for overlooking that, but Harlock ultimately didn’t perform nearly as well as its predecessor.

Carl also attempted a Robotech sequel, Robotech II: The Sentinels, of which only three episodes were produced before it was canceled. And that’s kinda where Harmony Gold as a legitimate institution went out the window. Carl left to start Streamline, and you can so clearly picture the alternate timelines branching out from that point in history. Streamline was the antithesis to Harmony Gold in just about every way. Its first projects were theater screenings of Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Twilight of the Cockroaches, and it’s unclear whether they were officially a company at that time, but that’s kinda where Streamline’s illegitimacy ends. They opened the first Streamline Pictures office in 1989 and took off from there, while Harmony Gold was offloading employees to none other than Saban Entertainment, which may explain that company’s almost identical production strategies in Power Rangers.

I think taking a quick look at Harmony Gold’s website can give you a lot of perspective on the direction they’ve gone in since Carl left. And I encourage you to pull it up and follow along as I break this down, cause it’s hilarious. First of all, it looks like it was designed by Frank Agrama himself. From the soft 90s fonts to the basic flash animation, if you asked someone who had never heard of Harmony Gold to describe this website, I’m confident they would peg this as the work of an African immigrant trying to convince his parents he’s doing well in Hollywood. From left to right, the home menu lists “Theater,” a good enough start, considering they do own and operate the Harmony Gold Preview House in Hollywood. It then moves on to “Entertainment,” a category under which the word “theater” might fall under some circumstances, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, considering it is a specific space after all.

Dead center, directly under their logo where you’d never expect it, is “Robotech” which, again falls under “entertainment,” the most entertaining thing about it being that if you click on it, it just redirects you to a better website, Robotech.com, where you can find all the merchandise and modern web design that frankly just wouldn’t make sense on Harmony Gold’s main page. Just to the right of that is, quite ironically, a hard left turn to “Real Estate,” which redirects to HarmonyGoldProperties.com, and I’ll admit perspective is key here because the phrase “Harmony Gold kinda fell off and started doing real estate” sounds way worse than “Yo my landlord produced the Shaka Zulu mini-series, that’s crazy!” But that’s neither here nor there. Finally, one more space to the right, you’ll see “About Us,” and your impulse might be to say “No I think I’ve seen enough,” but there’s so much useful information in there like the fact that Tobey Macguire is attached as a producer on the live action Robotech, which I’m only adding in hopes that you’ll respect the deep commitment required to bookend this long setup with Spiderman-related content.

[Japanese Spider-Man theme returns]

So all that might seem very unfair to Harmony Gold and Robotech, especially considering they served such a key role in introducing so many American fans to anime. Why should you care what their website looks like if they’re responsible for one of the greatest anime adaptations of all time? Well it’s not really about what they did at the time that fans are uptight about. It’s all about how they’ve conducted themselves since. The key difference between Streamline Pictures and Harmony Gold really comes down to their emphasis on money.

[Lofi Music]

Jerry Beck told us repeatedly that he and Carl’s work was something they did because they wanted to see anime in American movie theaters. They did that and they were defunct by 2002 which, if you look at a rough timeline of how anime got to where it is today, is the perfect amount of time to help set the industry in motion and then just let inertia take over. Streamline produced dubs to get them out and then relinquished the rights to those properties, most notably handing the rights to Studio Ghibli distribution over to Disney in 1996.

Harmony Gold on the other hand have notoriously kept a vise grip on the rights to Robotech and its underlying IP and clearly have no plans of letting go any time soon. If you Google “Harmony Gold,” the search results are not kind. A lot of them come from Reddit, which should give you all the information you need, but the SparkNotes version is that Harmony Gold has used their rights to Macross and adjacent titles to box out any lookalikes, copy cats, or most notably, the original Macross itself, from setting up shop comfortably in the US, and knowing their relationship with Berlusconi’s Mediaset in Italy, it’s not really surprising that their actions would mirror those of a European propaganda machine, the only difference being that Robotech was popular, but certainly not the only thing you could watch in the 80s. So they really only managed to corner the market on what they *sort of* owned.

For context: Harmony Gold were given rights to SDF Macross, Southern Dimension Cavalry Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada from Tatsunoko Production in 1984 and, as we now know, Carl Macek was charged with editing and scripting these series into the 85 episode arc of Robotech. Simple enough so far, but of course it gets worse. Robotech was first released in 1985 and it’s since been declared that Harmony Gold maintains the rights to the Robotech brand in perpetuity, to do with whatever they so choose, and yet they’ve also held onto the rights for all its constituent properties for the past 34 years, renewing them once in 1998 and again in 2002, which pushed the expiration date to March 2021, and in all my research, I haven’t seen a single viable reason for why they need to last that long. In short, they ain’t doing shit with them, and yet, at Anime Expo 2019, they announced once again, that their rights would be extended indefinitely.

As I said before, Harmony Gold started production on Robotech II: The Sentinels, which was canceled, ending Carl Macek’s tenure, and they did later produce Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles in 2006, which according to their own website, is incredible. But other than that, what do they really need those rights for? At first glance, it looks like they’re whole MO is just to litigate competitors out of existence, which thankfully they haven’t always had the power to do. But if you take a closer look, that doesn’t have any affect on their approach. It really seems like they’re just holding onto their one successful property for the sake of brand recognition and money. I mean if you Google the words “Harmony Gold lawsuit,” the number of results are very telling.

Really, outside of almost certainly tossing out my rental application when I lived in LA, it seems like Harmony Gold does nothing but litigate. And to be honest, I can’t say that I really understand all the details of their legal troubles, of which there are so so many, but let’s see if I can sum it up without staring at my notes for an hour.

Basically, I want to say around 2003, it was determined by a Japanese court that Tatsunoko Production may have never had the power to hand the rights to Macross over to Harmony Gold in the first place, because they apparently didn’t have the approval of their co-producers Studio Nue and Big West in Japan, and technically the rights to 41 of the original character designs still belong to Big West. But because we are America and our word is law, and because we renew our anger about Pearl Harbor only when it is convenient, a different judge said “fuck everything Japan stands for” and I guess that ruling was ignored in the US and a judge determined that Harmony Gold has the rights to use Macross for some period of time just short of forever. A 2016 case between HG and Tatsunoko, in which the latter claimed Harmony Gold was sublicensing Macross without paying royalties, was ruled in favor of Harmony Gold but also dialed back the whole perpetuity thing and upheld the 2021 expiration date on their Macross license, and that date held until July of this year, when Harmony Gold’s deal with Tatsunoko was extended for another, as of yet undisclosed amount of time, that is presumed to be another 35 fucking years.

To sum up all the implications of this very confusing, three-headed dog of a case, basically Harmony Gold’s rights to Macross have a very shaky foundation, but they objectively own Robotech at least and can do with that whatever they want, as long as any sequels they produce use original designs outside of the original 41 that were dubiously given to them without Big West’s permission. Also Harmony Gold was somehow given all distribution rights for original Macross footage outside of Japan, but they still need permission from Tatsunoko to actually exercise those rights, which Tatsunoko seem unwilling to do for a company that sued them as recently as three years ago. I wonder what that’s all about. Also, because the grounds by which Big West actually owns those characters is so confusing internationally, Tatsunoko will probably just keep renewing Harmony Gold’s license just to say “fuck you” to Big West, while still never letting Macross see the light of day aside from Blu-Rays shipped directly from Japan, which conveniently have English subtitles because they know exactly what they’re doing.

This whole mess, paired with the fact that fighting an American ruling from overseas is prohibitively expensive and not in your favor, means that Studio Nue and Big West are heavily discouraged from pursuing their rights to a show they don’t really believe has an audience in the US anyway, so even if they could win, the likelihood of them trying is very slim. But because Harmony Gold has nothing to coast on aside from their production from 1985, they’ve been reduced to filing suits against anyone who even looks at an original Robotech design, which so far includes Hasbro, who incorporated an also shakily acquired Macross design into their Transformers line because they had no Robotech licenses and Macross didn’t exist here at the time, and also Piranha Games, a Canadian video game designer who believed they had legally acquired the designs from Big West for their Battletech game series. Unfortunately, Harmony Gold disagreed and another confusing lawsuit began.

The weirdest thing about all this is that, as important as Robotech is, a lot has happened in the anime world since then, and Harmony Gold don’t seem interested in branching out into any of those other ventures. They’ve been acquiring IP throughout the years but haven’t produced anything of note since around 2006, although a live action Robotech has been licensed to Warner Brothers, but even that feels weird since Pacific Rim already happened, but I guess another lawsuit can settle that. I don’t know.

Watching the steps Harmony Gold have made since canceling The Sentinels really adds a lot of perspective to just how big a bullet Carl Macek dodged by leaving, and granted he had since gone back and was working with them again when he passed away, but the potential damage to his reputation had come and gone by that time. Of course, he is still a controversial figure considering his creation is still at the root of this whole conflict. But he is also responsible for introducing a whole generation of viewers to anime for the first time, and his work at Streamline Pictures, where he helped bring so much untouched anime into the mainstream, more than makes up for keeping one, albeit very important, series out of the public eye.

The legacy of Akira and its Studio Ghibli dubs, in my opinion, makes Streamline a much stronger contender for valued contributors to anime history, and the fact that they only made money by putting out a quality product makes it that much better, not to mention the fact that they were so content to pass on licenses when their time was up. In fact, according to most fans, knowing when to pack it up is really the one thing Harmony Gold could have done to save their reputation. That said, Streamline has thrown a lot of fuel on one very divisive fire over the years, whether intentionally or not.

That fire, of course, is the sub vs. dub debate, which has driven a wedge in anime fandom for years. There are the people who believe there is never a reason to watch dubbed anime and there are the people who work from home, writing anime podcasts, and don’t have time to learn Japanese just to feel superior to casual fans.

For anyone unfamiliar, there’s been a debate raging for as long as anime fandom has existed over whether real fans should watch anime with subtitles or with English voice actors. I would personally like to plant my flag in the ground and say that if you don’t speak Japanese, it doesn’t matter. The argument I hear most often is that the Japanese voice acting is just better, and to that I say: how the fuck do you know? If you don’t speak the language, there’s no way you can discern good Japanese voice acting from bad English. If you can, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you speak Japanese. So good luck with your new job at the UN, I guess. Congratulations.

Also, just consider a point Roland Kelts made to me: that the Japanese artists themselves, in many cases, prefer fans to watch the show in their own language so they're not focused on reading while the art they worked so hard on is just passing by. Also, consider a point made by me: that subtitling eliminates the need for voice acting and editing jobs and, and as we learned in the previous episode, subtitles can be done with a very quick turnaround and a small team. So what I'm saying, is that dubs create jobs and stimulate the economy in the countries where they're produced, so regardless of how you feel, they are a necessary evil.

Also, back to a legitimate point by Jerry Beck: people who don't already watch anime aren't really interested in reading subtitles. To return to the argument on what goes into localizing anime, the whole point of the process is to sell it to a new audience, and part of that process is presenting it to them in their own language, which is exactly why Streamline Pictures only produced dubbed anime--to attract new fans to something that doesn’t feel threatening or antagonistic, which anime fandom often does. So sure, you can individually decide that you prefer to watch anime with subtitles. Maybe you have a lot of free time, I don’t know. But maybe take into consideration that when you have an elitist attitude about who’s a “real” anime fan, you’re not only being a weirdo edgelord, but you’re also keeping anime away from fans who are just as deserving as you are which, I would argue, makes you the Harmony Gold of people.

Harmony Gold itself has maintained its loose grip on the anime industry by exploiting people’s interest in a single franchise, knowing that a lack of access to the original Macross and related merchandise will inevitably drive people to their Frankenstein version of the original product. Meanwhile, Big West and Studio Nue have effectively given up fighting for it because the legal fees would be prohibitively expensive to reclaim a franchise that has technically never had an audience outside of Japan anyway. And the fact that companies like this survive because of legal confusion, while the Streamlines of the world come and go, is a travesty and ultimately only hurts the anime industry. And my point is that if you force subtitles on new fans, you are as bad as that.

This has been another episode of Anime in America. Come back next week, when we’ll be diving into the first anime conventions to hit the United States.

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Thank you for listening to Anime In America, presented by Crunchyroll. If you enjoyed this, please check out Crunchyroll.com/animeinamerica for free anime, with ads, or get a 14-day free trial of Premium.

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This episode is written and hosted by me, Yedoye Travis, and you can find me on Instagram at ProfessorDoye or Twitter @YedoyeOT. This episode is edited by Chris Lightbody and produced by me, Braith Miller, Peter Fobian, and Jesse Gouldsbury.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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ask-pride-color-schemes · 8 years

Photo

So I guess just to make sure you know, I’m black, I ID as Qirl, and I have friends who identify as Qirl, Boi, or both. We’ve been discussing flags for these orientations for a long while now, and one of us was lucky enough to come across your post about terms that don’t have flags yet. We ended up at your deviantArt gallery and the scraps folder. Scrap 69 and 68 were the closest to what we wanted for the flags, but we modified them a bit to be a little more fitting. Hope you don’t mind!

For Qirl (on the left), the pink in scrap 69 was changed to be more of a pinkish-orange kinda color (I think most people call this type of color salmon? idk). For Boi (on the right), the green in scrap 68 was changed to be a little more blue-teal, though still ambiguous between blue and green.

The reason for this is meant to emphasize that, while qirl and boi are similar to girl and boy (which are associated with pink and blue respectively), they are still their own thing separate from the Western binary, as mentioned in the definition you put for these genders (hence changing the colors to more pink-orange and blue-green).

Also, we would recommend not changing the middle parts of the flag to be the same! With qirl and boi, they’re similar to girl and boy, but they’re not meant to be “opposites” of each other. They’re still their own thing! So we don’t want the three middle bars to be the same in both flags, since we feel it might give people the impression that they’re “opposites”. You’re free to include this in your dA description if you wanna clarify.

One last thing, since this is exclusive to black people, this would go under culture-exclusive genders, right? It would be really appreciated if you could do that. (Lord knows white people have tried to co-op so much of black culture already) Anyways, yeah, that should cover everything. Let us know if there’s anything else you wanna know, and thanks for providing people the opportunity to find themselves through terms and flags!

[Image: Two flags side by side, both with 5 stripes. The first: salmon, gray-green, light gray-green, gray-green, salmon. The second: Bright teal/seafoam green, gray with a hint of green, dark blueish-green, gray with a hint of green, bright teal/seafoam green].

I don’t mind edits at all, the scraps are there for inspiration so they’re all free to change them as you choose to fit what you want perfectly!

I’ve updated them in the gallery and put them in the culture exclusive folder as well and I added your color descriptions too. Check to see if how I edited them is ok though! [Link]

-Hermy

#qirl #boi #culture specific genders #culture exclusive genders #Hermy #submission

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viviana-gdc3-blog · 5 years

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D&AD: analysis of outcome

I didn’t end up submitting my work to the competition, because by the time the deadline was up, I still had a lot of things I needed to fix, and I just didn’t feel ready or that my work was complete enough. I spent some more time working on editing the comic, finishing up the drawings, and making the presentation with mock-ups and explanations.

I would say, I’m proud of the outcome. I don’t know if it’s effective and if it communicates or solves the issue well, but I tried my best to create a comic book that has the right tone for children, and to also include the proper and factual information along with illustrations to help educate them in a way that is interesting, entertaining, and comprehensible. I spent a lot of time planning the contents of the comic, because I wanted to make sure that the information provided is important, relevant, and not skipping over anything valuable that children should know about. I had to make a lot of decisions - selecting information, organizing them in the best order, illustrating all the components, designing the cover and all the layout of the inside pages, choosing the color palette, and much more. I think the final outcome for my comic book has a good balance between being serious enough in that there aren’t any metaphors or jokes or things that cover up the reality of the situation. So much of menstruation is being hidden, so I wanted to ensure that the content isn’t filtered, that the information presented is clear and bold, and a representation of the reality of the situation. I didn’t want to sugar coat anything or make comparisons. In order for people to learn and be educated about a topic, it’s important that the information they read is accurate and true and clear. If we still continue to use metaphors and compare periods to some other thing when we are talking about it, it just defeats the purpose of normalizing the subject, because even though we are still talking about periods, we are still hiding it to some extent.

Periods are completely normal, and half of the population has it, so why over generations and generations, across countries and cultures, have we felt the need to feel embarrassed about it and cover it up and hide because it’s thought of as dirty? That’s why, the style and every detail I included in the comic, from the way it’s drawn and the information provided to the color scheme and palette, it’s all meant to break these stereotypes and false information that have been so strongly ingrained in society for so long.

The style and tone of the comic is colorful with lots of images and supporting text as well. I chose to use a dark red to represent blood, and also used bright colors including blue, yellow, pink, purple, and green. I chose these colors specifically and used them all throughout the comic because I didn’t want to limit myself to using just a few colors or a few tones of pinks or blues or reds. I think for my particular target audience, and the purpose of educating both young boys and girls, I made sure to use different bright colors that aren’t easily associated with any specific gender, since the topic of menstruation is for everyone to learn and understand, not just girls and women or those who menstruate. I tried to keep the style of the illustrations a balance between realistic and exaggerated, leaning more towards realistic because I wanted to make sure I was drawing everything - whether it’s body parts or menstrual products and how to use them - clearly and as accurately representative of the real thing. Although it’s a comic and picture book aimed for children, learning about our bodies and how it works is still important. It is also the right age for pre-teens to begin learning about menstruation and sex education and start to have a better understanding about their own bodies and what to look out for, and what to do when certain situations occur. If adults, who are most knowledgeable and can provide and educate children with the correct information, are not doing the job of educating kids with the right knowledge and providing them a positive and healthy environment to learn about themselves and the people around them, they will grow up feeling like these conversations are not supposed to be had, that these discussions are not for everyone. Therefore, through this comic book, the color palette, the style of illustrations, and how the information is presented and displayed, I wanted it to be a vehicle for children and the younger generation to understand menstruation starting from a younger age, and hopefully be able to normalize the subject through better understanding of it.

#d&ad #practice

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lodelss · 6 years

Link

Soraya Roberts | Longreads | February 2019 | 10 minutes (2,439 words)

“Maroon 5 is just Red Hot Chili Peppers for virgins.” “This is the Fyre Festival of halftime shows.” “Anyone else think Adam Levine looks like an Ed Hardy T-shirt?” The Super Bowl halftime show was worth it for the social media stream it kicked off; otherwise, it was notable only for the fact that Maroon 5 (along with Big Boi and Travis Scott) turned up at all when so many others (Rihanna and Pink and Cardi B) turned the gig down. “I got to sacrifice a lot of money to perform,” Cardi B said. “But there’s a man who sacrificed his job for us, so we got to stand behind him.” Though she ended up appearing in a Pepsi commercial anyway, Cardi’s heart seemed to be in the right place, which is to say the place where protesting injustice is an obligation rather than a choice (of her other appearances around the Super Bowl, she said, “if the NFL could benefit off from us, then I’m going to benefit off y’all”). The man she was referring to was, of course, quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee in 2016 during the national anthem to protest systemic oppression in America and has gone unsigned since opting out of his contract. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” the ex-San Francisco 49er said. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.”

“The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude,” wrote George Orwell in the 1946 essay, Why I Write. By refusing to perform at the Super Bowl, Cardi B and her peers were in fact performing two acts: acknowledging that as artists they have political power, and using that political power to support Kaepernick’s cause. By replacing them, Adam Levine did the opposite (while claiming to do nothing at all): “we are going to keep on doing what we do, hopefully without becoming politicians to make people understand, ‘We got you.'” The mistake Maroon 5’s frontman made was assuming he could isolate art from politics, which is impossible, particularly in this case — the Super Bowl was already infused with political turmoil, and to negate that was to undercut its significance. Kaepernick’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, would have preferred for Levine to be open about his position. “If you’re going to cross this ideological or intellectual picket line, then own it, and Adam Levine certainly isn’t owning it,” he said. “In fact, if anything, it’s a cop out when you start talking about, ‘I’m not a politician, I’m just doing the music.’ Most of the musicians who have any kind of consciousness whatsoever understand what’s going on here.”

By using “picket line” — a term traditionally associated with labor unions — Geragos further established the Super Bowl and its halftime show as a locus of political action. Essentially he was calling Levine a latter-day scab, an opportunist subverting others’ attempts to bring about change. Though the epithet dates back to the 18th century, when “scab” referred to workers who refused to join unions, by the next century it was used to designate workers who crossed a strike’s picket line. “Just as a scab is a physical lesion,” wrote Stephanie Smith in Household Words, “the strikebreaking scab disfigures the social body of labor — both the solidarity of workers and the dignity of work.” The musicians who refused to play the Super Bowl were expressing solidarity with Kaepernick — and the people of color on whose behalf he is protesting — and preserving the dignity of work. By crossing that invisible picket line, Levine not only broke solidarity but, paradoxically, sacrificed the dignity of work in the name of his own career.

* * *

That anyone in entertainment would feign political neutrality in the current climate is jarring enough, but the move further implies a glaring ignorance of the industry’s history. Nowhere was the politics of celebrity more literal than in Hollywood during the 1940s and ’50s. At that time, the infamous Hollywood blacklist meant that any whiff of Communism threatened your job. Self-protection required coming clean and informing on others to the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC), but a group of artists dubbed “The Hollywood Ten” protested by refusing to testify. Director Elia Kazan, however, gave HUAC eight names in 1952, helping to bury the careers of actors Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith and playwright Clifford Odets and securing his own. “I said I’d hated the Communists for many years and didn’t feel right about giving up my career to defend them,” he recalled in his memoir. But Kazan writes in the negative, as though he wasn’t actively promoting his personal cause. What he was really doing was expressing the power of his own politics in order to support his own work. His solidarity was with himself alone.

Nearly 50 years after he named names, in 1999, Kazan was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars. Actors like Nick Nolte and Amy Madigan disagreed with his actions and thus refused to applaud his art, but others, including Warren Beatty and Meryl Streep, seemed able to divorce the two. “I never discussed it with Warren, but I believe we were both standing for the same reason — out of regard for the creativity,” George Stevens, Jr. wrote in Conversations With the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age. But Kazan’s creativity came at the expense of others’ creativity; to celebrate him was to celebrate the truncated careers he cut short to allow his own to thrive. This cognitive dissonance appeared, for some, to be resolved by time. Kazan was 89, how long were we supposed to hold his politics against him?

It’s funny that we never ask how long we should hold up someone’s work; our cultural memory favors the art object over the lives of the artists who make it — and their politics. Hollywood’s reaction to Kazan is reminiscent of its reaction to Roman Polanski, who was accused of drugging and pled guilty to raping a 13 year old girl in 1977 before fleeing the States (and his sentence). In 2009, more than 100 actors and filmmakers signed a petition to release Polanski after he was arrested in Switzerland on a U.S. warrant. At the time, Debra Winger, of all people, said, “We stand by him and await his release and his next masterpiece.” The consensus was that he had served his time. The past had therefore eaten up his offense, leaving behind only his art, as though this alone defined him. And even where it didn’t, it clearly did. “He’s now happily married; he has two children,” is how Sigourney Weaver explained last year why she had worked with him and would continue to. She believed she was listening to his victim by advancing “with understanding and compassion.”

Woody Allen, even more than Polanski, has been eclipsed by his work. Actors who align with him are aligning with the politics of privileging his creative output, as though such a thing existed on its own. “There are directors, producers and men of power who have for decades been awarded and applauded for their highly regarded work by both this industry and moviegoers alike,” Kate Winslet, who appeared in Allen’s Wonder Wheel in 2017, said in apology last year. “The message we received for years was that it was the highest compliment to be offered roles by these men.” The year prior, when asked if the allegations against Allen gave her pause, Winslet had said: “Having thought it all through, you put it to one side and just work with the person.” Kristen Stewart took a similar work-first approach when discussing why she appeared in Allen’s 2016 film, Café Society: “The experience of making the movie was so outside of that, it was fruitful for [me and co-star Jesse Eisenberg] to go on with it.” What this did was to elevate the work above all else, which delivered the message that the voices of regular women were secondary to the voices of creative men.

It’s impossible for one artist to work with another without their collaboration being informed by the politics of both parties. Yet Rami Malek seemed to believe he could circumvent this fact while working with director Bryan Singer — a man accused of assaulting multiple teen boys — on the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. When he was first asked about Singer at the Golden Globes, Malek responded: “There’s only one thing we needed to do, and that was to celebrate Freddie Mercury.” He claimed he didn’t know about the allegations, that he was only in it for the work. Yet implicit in the work was Singer’s labor, Singer himself. Despite his replacement by Dexter Fletcher, his presence continues to define the film. The name on Bohemian continues to be his, the accolades it receives go to him (the Baftas excepted). Every time Malek refuses to address the controversy around Singer, he chooses not to confront the realities of child abuse; and every time he appears on screen under Singer’s name, his work is a reflection of that.

Rami Malek’s stance aligns with another common myth about artists, which is that they can cast aside politics to serve the public. In the early 1980’s, the United Nations called for a boycott of South Africa over apartheid, but more than fifty musicians — including Tina Turner, Curtis Mayfield, and Isaac Hayes — ignored it. “If the people didn’t want us there, they wouldn’t come to see the shows,” said Millie Jackson. What she did not acknowledge was that performing there implied she approved of how the ruling government of South Africa was treating its people — or at least, that she didn’t actively oppose it — and that she was willing to take part in its economy and contribute to the bank balance of a problematic government. Ten years later, blue-collar-adjacent rocker Bruce Springsteen crossed the picket line set up by a number of Tacoma, Washington, city employee unions, explaining, “I know a lot of you folks came a long way to be here tonight, so I got a commitment to be on this stage.” Once again, here was a musician who, rather than refusing to contribute his labor in solidarity with the exploited labor of others, was serving the city that oppressed them. More than the words in his songs, his actions spoke to his real allegiances.

During a writers’ strike in 2007, a string of TV hosts — from Ellen DeGeneres to Jay Leno to Jon Stewart — eventually crossed the picket line, some more sheepishly than others, with variations on the “show must go on” excuse. “It’s really hard to have to deal with where they are and where I am,” DeGeneres said, “because I’m kinda caught in the middle.” This defense could be mistaken for selflessness — she is sacrificing her own petty problems for the greater good — if it weren’t for the fact that the audience also occupies the oppressed space she upheld by performing. At least Stewart, who was one of the least comfortable crossing the picket line, used his platform to further the cause of the writers by addressing their strike on air. Still, it’s hard to sympathize when you realize, around the same time, the much less powerful Steve Carell held up taping of The Office because he refused to be a scab. Each extra moment of discomfort he conveyed to the network, each bit of pay he lost, meant more leverage afforded to the striker.

* * *

Just as the artist is not static, neither are their politics, and just as vital as acknowledging one’s alliances is acknowledging one’s changes. Last year, Natalie Portman became one of the few celebrities to openly regret signing the aforementioned Polanski petition. “We lived in a different world, and that doesn’t excuse anything,” she said. “But you can have your eyes opened and completely change the way you want to live. My eyes were not open.” Polanski was not the topic du jour, but her voice was an important reminder that as a culture we had failed to hold him to account. In a similar vein, though they could not undo working with Woody Allen, Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Hall, and Griffin Newman made amends by donating their paychecks to nonprofits like RAINN. “I learned conclusively that I cannot put my career over my morals again,” Newman said. Other artists, as Portman alluded to, have opened their eyes and are willing to learn and to admit their fallibility. Though Lorde had planned to perform in Israel, she ended up changing her mind — joining fellow boycotters Elvis Costello and Lauryn Hill — after two women wrote to her about the oppression within the country, saying, “we believe that an economic, intellectual and artistic boycott is an effective way of speaking out against these crimes.” So she spoke instead of singing, aware that in this instance her voice was stronger in that act.

Still others have literally rewritten history, proving their beliefs are so fierce that they are willing to erase their own art in the name of their politics. Michelle Williams offered to work for free in 2017 to reshoot a number of scenes for All The Money In The World with Christopher Plummer after sexual assault allegations emerged about her former co-star Kevin Spacey. “A movie is less important than a human life,” she explained at the time. This is the active approach to change, which eclipses more passive sartorial gestures like the blackout at the Golden Globes. “For years, we’ve sold these awards shows as women, with our gowns and colors and our beautiful faces and our glamour,” Time’s Up co-founder Eva Longoria said. “This time the industry can’t expect us to go up and twirl around.” It was a toothless rebellion, an objection in accessory form which fit seamlessly into the system which had been exposed in all its corruption.

More effective is direct action, such as Frances McDormand using her Oscar speech to advocate for “inclusion riders” and musicians spurning the Super Bowl to support people of color or Trump’s inauguration to reject everything he represents. Singer Rebecca Ferguson, runner up on The X Factor UK in 2010, was one of the few musicians who said she would accept an invitation to the latter — if she could perform “Strange Fruit,” the 1939 protest song about racism in America. “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,” she would sing, “Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”

Trump chose the Great Talladega College Tornado Marching Band instead.

* * *

Soraya Roberts is a culture columnist at Longreads.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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mjfrancoposts-blog · 7 years

Text

Linking theories with celebrities

The topics which I touched within my project are: Gender and Feminism. I chose these two topics because they are closely related and I believe there are really present nowadays in our lives and you face lots of times during the day some challenge which it requires to place a tag on your gender or sexuality, it can be whilst you’re shopping clothes and it is still a little bit weird to see boys looking in the woman section or girls in the boys section, or children which have it all separated in pink or blue which associates directly hat pink is not a boys colour or blue is the typical colour for boys. Nonetheless, this new non-binary people are starting to be a great part of our modern culture which is much liberal and understanding than others which are close minded and who thought that gender is only classified by the sex you have been born in. Being Non-binary or gender fluid means that you actually feel you are from both sexes, one day they wake up feeling like a man and another day they wake up feeling as a woman, this people are “a minority within a minority” according to The Independent’s article which was shared in class.

According to Butler gender is a performance (Butler, 1990) you act as a girl because you feel or are a girl, this also applies to boys. I personally thought about placing this gender issue into the fashion field because fashion is also a performance, just as the gender fluid change their sex, fashion trends are very dynamic and now with the cruise collections and the winter and summer collections fashion is more ephemerae than ever. Moreover, fashion being a constant performance is one of the key links of the magazine related to both of the main topics, we dress up in a certain way to transmit to people a certain message, as well as the dress codes to certain events or occasions which you will normally don’t get the chance to dress up in a certain way and you feel like a movie star or a James Bond whilst wearing a tuxedo. Fashion is a performing act which mixes a lot of different topic due to the social connotations you give due to the way you are dressed. I found very fascinating how these two cases really look alike and one is fully accepted by society and the other one is not.

Fashion and gender are very linked together because social standard and the idea of how a man looks like and how a woman looks like are implemented in society. As women should look in a certain way, for example, have long hair, go always immaculate to anyplace, wear high heels, wear dresses or skirts, etc. and for men, for example, be manly, be strong, wear trousers, and can’t experiment with clothing because it is very girly or weird that a man can like fashion, etc. typical stereotypes which are nearly never met. Therefore I decided to make it of people who are expected to look in a certain way but still they break the rules and yet don’t look weird or ridiculous by being gender fluid or transsexuals. Just as in the video of The Independent about the couple of non-binary people, Owl and Fox Fisher, which discuss about how they should look, how they should introduce when meeting new people, etc. just little confrontations to boxing themselves and still they are annoying and tedious to being explaining themselves all the time. I chose this topic to create more awareness in society for this minority. (Fenton, 2016)

The second main topic of the magazine, as already mentioned, is feminism. Each of the celebrities that I chose represent in different ways feminism. Jaden Smith represents how women in society are now stronger than they were and are practically equally qualified for any job as men are and this is why he wears skirts, and is not ashamed of it. He is the face for one of the biggest Haut Couture houses, Louis Vuitton, for women’s wear. Nicolas Ghesquière has turned the point of view of last year’s campaign as well as this year’s. The Creative director for LV has placed a man on women’s clothes to show the world that clothes actually don’t have gender but they can be worn by whoever wants to. The son of the actor, Will smith, stated on June in 2016 to be gender fluid “I’m just expressing how I feel inside, which is really no particular way because every day it changes how I feel about the world and myself” (Woolf, 2015). We can see how Jaden belongs to this fourth feminist wave where equality is present.

Hari Nef has a different story; she was born in a male body which she didn’t felt at ease. She changed whilst she was at university and she presented herself to different agencies until IMG chose her due to her personality and magnificent story creating the first transsexual model to sign a contract with IMG models. She represents the power of women; she is clearly the “trans fashion muse of our generation” according to Dazed magazine (So, 2015). She fights for a cause: transsexual people to be seen normal in society and thus, make their sexuality not matter, but what they have to say does as well as encouraging people to explore their gender. Nef is feminine, pretty and a woman who belongs to the fourth wave of feminism, she talks about her sexuality in an open way as she did to Elle magazine “I prefer men who are queer. Not gay men, but queer men – guys with an open mind. Bisexual men, because they're able to understand the different elements of the body without judging that I don't conform to a certain ideal.” (Casparis, 2016). She is concerned about a global issue which is gender, and talk freely about her changing body. She is willing to have a great impact on society and is totally determined to raise her voice.

I chose Erika Linder because of her androgynous style, though she likes being a woman and is comfortable about it, she is more of a tomboy. Furthermore, I picked her due to her fight against being boxed into one sex as there was a time where she only featured in male adverts or campaigns and it was fine for her but she is a woman. Although, she is the type of girl that doesn’t wears much dresses she is still feminine and proud. Nowadays thanks to Louis Vuitton and its creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, she has re-entered the woman section of fashion although she still wants to catwalk for men, as she believes that her male work will stand out more as she is a woman. She, as a female, already represents femininity her way. For me she represents the breaking of the gender box. “Each box has distinctive characteristics that ONLY women or ONLY men should embody.” (Carolina, 2016) This ‘box’ which represents society and social standards and how she defies it by not wanted to be boxed in any way.

I found Pat Dudek researching through the internet looking for different people who could fit into this androgynous alternative look which I wanted and just when I saw him I thought “I found the person who I was looking for”. This student has a lot of potential and is becoming one rising star in this arty/quirky modern culture which people live gender in many different ways and being androgynous is starting not to be a problem but a way to present yourself to society and a way people should accept you. This gender fluid movement which is uprising nowadays, gives more voice to woman as it gives equal possibilities to them as men have by placing them in the same step as men; just as the article I am neither MR, MRS nor MS but MX (Tobia, 2015) which states this “The addition of Mx also represents a significant step forward for the feminist cause. By decentering gender and providing a gender-neutral option to the terms Mrs and Ms, Mx allows women a third option that is not centered around their marital status or patrilineal nomenclature.” By giving woman the chance to choose which gender status they are willing to be referred to as, society is starting to open more boundaries and empower the female figure. Though he is a polish student and hasn’t got any influence yet, he represents fairly well the new artsy modern culture that is approaching and which is more tolerant than the previous generation.

I wanted to focus on the part of my friend Paco, I wanted to show that to be gender fluid you don’t have to be weird looking, but it is more a way you live your life. I wanted to create this section like a statements that anyone can be gender fluid and that is completely normal. That is why I decided to choose the photo which I made of him taking a coffee and place it as the main photograph of his article, just to make him real human being. A person whom you can see perfectly may walk through the street. I try to break that concept of ‘otherness’ (Jensen, 2011), which this topic usually has, as it is a taboo; the stereotype of you must be weird just because you don’t feel part of any gender, the idea of being ‘other’ people the weird ones. I wanted to break all those prejudices and show that they are persons just as you and I which need the same respect as you want for yourself. Therefore this is why the interview I made to him is very significant. I think is very motivating as it is a cheerful story, but it is true that in general it is a topic which is still taboo in our society and even more in the Spanish society which is still influenced by some social standards based in the Catholic Church or Franco, the dictator Spain had until the mid-70’s. I asked him the basic questions that whomever that doesn’t know about the topic would ask, because the magazine can be purchased by whoever wants to, therefore sometimes you have to explain topic since the start. Additionally, it is a way to as already said break the otherness people may have about the topic as with this interview you understand how he lives and what has made him be how he is and probably you can relate to some of the things he might say.

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lodelss · 6 years

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The New Scabs: Stars Who Cross the Picket Line

Soraya Roberts | Longreads | February 2019 | 10 minutes (2,439 words)

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Trump chose the Great Talladega College Tornado Marching Band instead.

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Soraya Roberts is a culture columnist at Longreads.

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