VeganWoman

A young black woman environmentalist activist gets experimented on and turns into a powerful element to the animal rights saving the planet from the hands of destructive corporations.

    Vera Walker, the VeganWoman is a 23-year-old New Yorker that devoted her entire life on environmental and animal rights. Vera Walker was born in Upstate New York, where her appreciation for the animals and nature began. Raised most of her life by her single mother Ebony Walker, Vera was never told the story behind her parents’ traumatic divorce. Ebony Walker moved to New York City after her divorce as a strategy to stay away from Vera’s father. Ebony left their home with her two children when Vera was 9 years old. Her mother hid a big secret her entire life. Her father, Prof. Walker, had a laboratory in the basement of their house where he tested for decades new vegetable products to replace animal consumption. He was known for creating one of the first vegan chicken stripes in the market in the early 80’s. The relationship of Vera’s parents began to fall down the drain when Prof. Walker started to test some of the products on people, including their children. Ebony was suspicious that he was creating more than just vegan chicken products. She was never sure of what was his intentions but noticed some minor changes on Vera’s skin and hair. The color of her hair slightly changed to green after a few bites. Bu it would go back to her normal dark color a few minutes late. Her skin would be for a few minutes with a barked texture. Her connection with animals and nature also became stronger. Afraid of Prof.Walker’s intentions, Vera moved with her children to Brooklyn – New York. For 13 years Vera never heard a word about her father’s absence in her life and had a lot of remorse when speaking about him. Her mother was a big reference of empowerment for her. She was taught to be strong, independent and to fight for rights. But her father was the biggest influence in her early childhood when it comes to the love of animals and nature.

Since a very young age, Vera Walker demonstrated an aversion to the animal foods. In her family, only her father was adept to vegan food and its philosophy. Once Ebony moved to New York City, she assumed she could raise her the way she wanted but Vera was very strong on her opinions and wants. She spent her late childhood being taunted by her brother Leroy. He would try to make her eat meat, but nothing would shake her commitment with the animal cause. It was in her adolescence when Vera became more present in protests for the cause. She joined environmental groups and engaged in tree sittings to protect the forest from being transformed in pipelines and other actions against nature. Her life was always in between a normal young life living with her family in a small apartment in Brooklyn and participating in serious encounters with animal abusers, protests, and actions hand by hand with ecological resistance groups. Although her mother was always in fear and did not like the idea of watching her daughter putting herself in the front line of these causes, Vera had the care of her mother and was always there to perform first aid on her if necessary. Always with a cup of tea and making time to listen to her stories and passion for nature.

One day, Vera was doing her regular weekly grocery shopping and saw a vendor giving samples of this new brand of vegan chicken. She decided to try. She went on with her life, went back home, put her groceries away and went to bed. On the next day she woke up, went to brush her teeth when she looked at the mirror and noticed her hair color changing to green. She touched her skin, and it was hard with a very tick barked texture. She looked back in the mirror and fainted. Minutes later she woke up with her mother throwing water on her face and questioning her of what happened to her. Vera Walker was confused. Her mother kept asking what she did. After long questioning she said the night begore she went to the market and tried a new brand of vegan chicken. Her mother could not believe in what she heard. Her physical appearance was almost completely back to normal currently. But it was when Vera began to feel nervous and apprehensive, her skin completely turned into a barked texture of a tree log, her hair was bright green and her fingers had roots coming out of it. Her mother knew what was happening and began to explain it was her father. Her father was back. And he poisoned her with one of his experiments. He finally had his final product and target her to be the one acquiring these powers and traits. It took a while for Vera Walker to understand her powers and how to control them. With time she realized she also had psychic powers, regeneration and could stop people from continue with their actions by immobilizing them throwing roots from her hands on them.

Didn’t take long for her to realize the preciousness of her new superpowers. Vera Walker became VeganWoman. With her psychic powers she could know in advance when people were planning harm to animals and be ready for action. VeganWoman was able to put a lot of animal abusers in jail. Her powers helped the environment activist to know in advance and plan on how to prevent new deforestation.

VeganWoman became New York City kids most loved superhero!

VeganWoman had a big ally. Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Deadpool’s mate, was a big help with her precognition and telepathy superpowers. Together they were more powerful against big corporations, freeing abused animals and spreading the word of a more ecological and sustainable world.

The biggest villain in VeganWoman’s path was big oil corporations, abuser cattle breeders, the meat industry and deforestation.

Oh but hold on… we can’t forget about another big rock in VeganWoman’s shoes...

Todd the Vegan. Oh boy… what a poser! Todd was also one of Professor Walker’s experiment and had some of the same power as VeganWoman. He also had psychic powers. He could be a great ally if wasn’t for his controversial knowledge and habits, supposedly as a vegan. Todd only liked the status and to look like a good guy for being vegan. But behind the scenes, he did not even know what was to be vegan. He loses his powers every time he eats animal food. Todd is always on VeganWoman’s way on doing the right things. Instead of helping, he was a threat to the cause. Many times, Todd the Vegan opened his big mouth and told the wrong people about their plans on refraining people from their horrendous actions towards the animals and environment.

VeganWoman is immortal. The forest plays the role of healing her wounds from encounters with the police, politicians, big corporations, violent animal abusers and everyone who wasn’t happy with her actions in favor of environment. VeganWoman would get severely hurt but never dead. She had the power of regeneration and when touching her own roots with the roots of trees in the forest, her powers can be recharged and her scars, wounds, or any type of injury rapidly healed.

VeganWoman biggest and most importantly confront was RedWood Summer. VeganWoman had an alliance with the environmental activist group “Earth First!” and during the course of three months they were in action at the site preventing and protecting an old growth redwood (sequoia sempervirens) trees from logging by northern California timber companies. By then, VeganWoman became national and was all over the country helping environmental causes. On that day, VeganWoman wasn’t in site but her psychic superpowers anticipated in her mind that a tragedy was about to happen. VeganWoman saw the campaign leaders getting trapped by the FBI. She saw the FBI planting a pipe bomb and exploding on them. The leaders would be critically injured and accused of manufacturing and transporting bombs. It would also burn the name of the movement and having terrible consequences to the cause. But VeganWoman rapidly joined them to prevent this tragedy. VeganWoman went ahead, found it and disarmed the bomb in time. No one was injured, the movement was able to continue their action to protect the tree and forest from the hands of these sanguinary minds.

Later in her journey, Professor Walker, feels confident about getting closer to her daughter. Their first interaction was marked by confrontation but even though Vera Walker had her insecurities and huffs about her father, they were able to be in alliance to protect the planet together. Prof. Walker had all plan out her entire life on applying his scientific expertise and love for nature for a good cause and creating a super-heroic human that could change the course of its planet.

  With the population getting to know more about VeganWoman, environmental causes were more debatable and was brought to the children’s attention. The future of the nation was learning the consequences of polluting the planet, deforestation, animal abuse, sustainability and how bad the meat industry is not just for the animals but for the environment. The children became more aware of their actions and began to follow VeganWoman’s ideals. The world had a new hero to look up and count on. The planet is in good hands and appreciate VeganWoman’s passion for its nature.

Forgotten and Overlooked Cartoon Movies

On this week’s discussion we will explore two cartoon movies that you either may have watched when you were a child and got you disturbed giving you nightmares or you watched as an adult but probably had the same reaction as if you were a little kid. Or maybe it was just me who felt very confused watching it. This brings to my mind a thought. Are cartoons/ animation movies strictly designed for a young audience? Can a cartoon that is designed for children bring themes that may bring valuable discussions at home and teach good lessons to a little mind in development? Finding Nemo suggests to kids that step out of your comfort zone is important and to never give up even having so many obstacles on your life journey. Mulan is a great representation and inspiration for little girls to know that they can and should fight for their rights with confidence and independence. The list of animation movies that can be very inspiring for children is extensive. Although not all the cartoons/ animations movies have a young audience target. Titles such as “Fritz the Cat” (1972), “South Park” (1999) and the outstanding autobiographical “Persepolis” (2007) are definitely movies that probably wouldn’t be a good idea to have your child sitting next to you in the living room while you watch it.

   Some movies sometimes either get forgotten or overlooked in the history of cartoon movies. Today we will give the attention necessary and deserved to two adult cartoon masterpieces; “Fantastic Planet” (1973) directed by Rene Laloux and “Watership Down” (1978) directed by Martin Rosen. Both movies are incredible on bringing to the table topics such as violence and power, authoritarian leaderships, division of social classes, democracy, the seek of home and belonging. We will cover that in a moment but excuse me on giving you some spoilers first. Both movies are modeled and gives to the audience historical lessons about specific times, events, and political aspects in society.

“Fantastic Planet” (1973) was a landmark in the history of European animation directed by Rene Laloux. The movie is a completely though-through science fiction vision which may be for many breathtaking or an unnecessarily experimental miserable detour. The movie resonates with historical allegories and radical politics based on European aesthetic principles. I personally find the aesthetic of this movie very surrealistic and resembles Salvador Dali’s artworks. The film takes place on the planet Ygam and shows two tribles of organisms that live against each other. The gigantic, intellectual, and blue Draags and the small and pinkish Oms that were removed by their masters Draags from their planet. The Oms are domesticated and enslaved by the Draags. The story unfolds and is narrated by Terr, one of the members of the Oms who grows and matures being domesticated next to the Draags. Terr learns about the culture of the Draags and their strange rituals of learning, meditation, wisdom, and development. Through mental inducement devices to transmit knowledge to future generations the Draags open the collective wisdom of their race. Terr escapes his captors and joins a renegade group of Oms. As the Draags try to control the radical Oms the film concludes in the final confrontation between the two groups and a satellite known as the Fantastic Planet.

In 1968 the film faced obstacles in the middle of its production. Soviet tanks invaded Prague, where the film was being produced, and occupied the city. After the invasion, the production of the film was extended for four years and was only released in 1973. In many ways the film represents these events. The communist occupation not only in Czechoslovakia but also in other Eastern European countries, is directly reminiscent of the convenient enslavement of the Oms by the Draags. In addition, the analogy of the relationship between owner and animal is effective between representing the relationship between the Soviet Union and its satellite states. While animals and Oms experienced modest degrees of autonomy, this was always monitored and limited by their masters. In both cases these masters maintained the fate of their servants. During that time, the illusion of this need was fabricated and often promoted to praise the positive attributes in the master. Besides that, the illusion of freedom has always been available at a distance, but it was collected in small doses. The masters reinforced and affirmed the hierarchical relationship that subordinates had with their servants. Two other elements are also symbolic of social and historical phenomena. Firstly,the tactics and techniques used by the Draags to destabilize the Oms and the camps where they lived that resemble the Nazi concentration camps and gas cameras. The film does an excellent job portraying the terror that the Draags cause in the Oms. The threat is greater than the attacks themselves. Didactically shows how to psychologically demoralize a society. Fear and oppression can have much greater causes and penetrate the coincidence of their victims. The film is then a provocative incursion into the state-sponsored psychological terror and its behaviors.

The second movie in discussion is “Watership Down” (1978) by Martin Rosen. The movie is a British animation based on the novel “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. The film was successful in the UK but not so much in the US. The controversy around it is what brings more attention. At first the audience may think it is a movie about cute bunnies living on a field. Well, its not extremely wrong but it goes far beyond it and its sensitive and explicit content is what labels the movie as an adult animation. The plot focuses on a group of rabbit living in the countryside. The group learns that their land is being invaded and poisoned by a construction company. They try to persuade the chief to evacuate. The chief refuses and they make a breakthrough with other members of their community. Many altercations happen between the group and makes the plot more excited and intriguing. The violence and the rage of the rabbits are shocking for many viewers. This film was U rated, which means it is suitable for all ages. And that’s what makes it more controversy. It creeps adults out and I can only imagine all the nightmares kids would have after watching it. The story is simply enough to follow with some tips of comedy in between the dramatic violent and swearing scenes.

 What most of the viewers may not know is that “Watership Down” was inspired by its novel author Richard Adams real life personal experiences. He revealed that many of the animals in the movie were designed and based on officers that he, as a lieutenant, commanded in the World War 2.  Not just the characters but many of the stories lived by the bunnies were also based on his real-life experiences and specifically the Battle of Arnhem, which he fought for over nine days in September 1944.  Many soldiers were killed, and it answers why we see so many deaths and violent scenes in the movie. The character Hazel was inspired in his commanding officer Gifford. Gifford survived the war, and so did Hazel. According to the author, Bigwig was based on Captain Desmond “Paddy” Kavanagh. Adams describes him as “afraid of nothing and sensationalist”. “Good stories ought to be exciting and if they are exciting, they are inevitably scary in parts”- Richard Adams.

Learning more about the two films and its context, I believe it is easier now to understand and visualize the shared topics prior mentioned. Both movies are a tremendous critic to abuse of power and the use of mental and physical violence by the leaders in both fictional and real society. Our contemporary society lived and still experiences all these aspects. The movies simple used real-life events to base their narrative on. The division between social classes is clearly visible specially on “Fantastic Planet”. In todays age we still see and fight against this variance. Socio-economics class division happens in every and each country around the globe and it can be even more endured when we add race and sexual orientation for example. The seek of home and belonging are also very well covered in both movies. All the groups in both films wanted a place to be free from oppression and without fearing for their lives. I believe that everyone around this planet first goal in life is to feel secure, free and have a place that they can finally have this feeling of belonging inside their hearts.

Movements such as the Black Lives Matter are a great example of an oppressed community who is (and has always been) standing up for themselves, making them and their stories heard and fighting against an oppressive system in order to gain equality, safety and freedom.

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

In reference to the movie “Watership Down” I would like to also use the MST (Landless Workers Movement) as an example of fighting for the right of obtaining living and a sense of belonging. The Brazilian social movement defines it’s as goals access to land for the poor workers through land reforms.

To learn more about the movement please visit their page.

https://mst.org.br/english/

We already know that in “Fantastic Planet” the system the Draags kept the Oms in is oppressive and limit their capability of learning. They were labeled as savage and domesticated Oms. This system pretty much reflects the society we live in. The system intentionally takes out the chances of the less fortunate on learning and growing as people. It creates a division either in the movie and in our society between the “intellectuals” and the “anti-intellectuals”. What happens is that most oppressed group does not even have the eager of gaining more knowledge and that is all a consequence of the system they live in. It is all meticulously orchestrated by the system and it only makes the so called “intellectual” group of society more powerful over the other groups.

  To be able to overcome their reality, the Oms had to finally come together and unite against the Draags. They had to listen to the domesticated and now more educated Oms who had more information and knowledge at the time. Without uniting, the Oms would not be able to defend themselves and attack the Draags.

Back to “Watership Down” we also see how internal conflicts inside a group or community may ruin or delay a common goal. In the movie we have characters that could fall into the label of intellectual and anti-intellectual. The protagonist of the movie, Hazel, may fall into the label of “intellectual”.  He is the lead of the group and his actions were always to benefit all the band of rabbits and specially protect the small ones. Blackcherry is Hazel’s main source of knowledge and guidance. For this reason, he can also be called an “intellectual” in the group. In other hand we have Strawberry, a large rabbit but with no knowledge of how to live in the wild. He wanted to learn, although his lack of understanding of the wilderness could always affect their group.

   To make a quick correlation to our society, we could divide the rabbits into a younger and older group. For example, in the younger group we have Hazel, Fiver, Strawberry and Dandelion. A group of young but very loyal and fierce rabbits. All of them with their specific positive characteristics that could be substantially important to a success of a group. In the older group we have General Woundwort, Captain Campion, and Captain Holly. Although they may be strong and experienced some of their actions may be destructive to the well being of the group. The older group often questions if the younger really knows what they are doing by their lack of experience. It is often seeing in our society too. An example is how our society keep only trusting in old candidates for important positions in our government. Why not to trust in new faces and new ideas for our society? The chances to keep repeating the problems are high. Maybe new minds and new ideas can make a lot of positive changes.

A Clockwork Orange

      A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 Stanley Kubrick ultraviolent masterpiece that tells the story of the criminal young man Alex DeLarge (Malcom McDowell). Alex is the leader of a gang of delinquents who kill, rob and rape in London –UK. Alex falls into the hands of the police and in jail gets an opportunity to reduce his time in prison. He began to be studied and participating in experiments focused on curbing destructive impulses of the human being. Alex developed a reaction to the stimulus he was subjected to but also became powerless to deal with the violence that surrounded him. The film is an adaptation of Anthony’s Burgess’s 1962 novel of the same name. The film has a different ending than the original book.

When talking “A Clockwork Orange” it is a must to talk about its director Stanley Kubrick, his aesthetic, photography and music in film. Kubrick is considered by many one of the biggest genius in the history of film. He dominated all the possible genres in film creating real masterpieces. Stanley was very interested in the human being and theirs falls, desires and secrets. One of his biggest desires with his films was to be provoking and controversy but in high quality. His films are easy identified. His film’s aesthetic were always built after an extensive research based on books, documentaries, and thesis. Kubrick wanted to make sure he was the biggest authority in its themes once he stepped in the film set. The director was also known by never having the scrips ready and sometimes making alterations right before filming it. He was constantly writing and changing lines. Prior to beginning his path as a director, Kubrick was a photographer, it helped him to have all the knowledge to know how to get to the results that he intended. He had a very technical knowledge and worked with his own camera and lenses. But his equipment was minor compared to his eye. The vanish point is one of his most important characteristics in film. All was seeing in image, the architecture, the position of the actors, colors and all the details were well thought by the director. He liked to give the audience all the information possible in the scene but without telling where the information is. All the camera movements and actions had a reason to happen working in a subjective way giving the audience a chance to interpret by themselves without having an explanation connected in the film. His films works like a puzzle to the audience.

Another piece of Kubrick’s puzzle movies is the music. Stanley knew the power of music and how it could be used to build the films premise. He liked to use classic and often create it. In “Eyes Wide Shut” for example, the music is one of the main elements to create the tone of the film. Kubrick’s have done allegory about our society in his films, in the desire, in the violence, in war, in secrets and insanity. When “A Clockwork Orange” film was released a wave of violence and crimes began to surge in England with young people saying they got influenced by the movie. Kubrick not just took the film off the cinemas but also prohibited it in England for 25 years. “The Shinning”, “2001: A Space in Odissey” and “Dr.Strangelove” are great examples of Stanley Kubrick’s works.

       The aesthetic of “A Clockwork Orange” is full of neobaroque references. Baroque is a lot more than just a period in history of culture. Baroque it is also an aesthetic term and stylistic concept. The blaring, shining and plastic colors. Everything is colorfully aggressive and exuberant. The furniture and decorations are grotesque and often sexual with naked white woman elements on it. The characters clothing also follow this premise. Alex’s mother (Sheila Raynor) is a strange motherly figure who wears nylon and fluorescent wigs. Her clothing contrasts the father (Phillip Stone) which clothing tries to bring a more conservative idea to the audience. His attitude and attire contradicts with the exaggeration of the elements in his house.

     The camera movement, editing, slow motion or fast forward effects also adds to create this cinematography experience to the audience. A good scene to amplify this matter is the scene when Alex have sex with two women in his room. As mentioned before, music plays an important role in Kubrick’s films. In “A Clockwork Orange” the audience listen to a mix of electronic synthetic and classic music with Beethoven 9th Symphony and the well-known Gene Kelly’s song “Singing in the rain”. The soundtrack of film was done by Wendy Carlos. One of the most known scenes in the movie is the one that Alex and his gang invades a house and in a performance way while singing “Singing in the rain” begins to assault, terrorizes and sexually abuse Mr. and Mrs. Alexander (Patrick Magee and Adrienne Corri)  . His movements are slow and sudden to the point that each time that he suddenly hurts them, the audience can feel how much more painful it is not just because of the actual physical assault but the psychological terror created by him.

         One of the screenplay’s scene that brings more discomfort to the audience is when Alex begins his treatment and experiments with the doctors in the prison. Alex was subjected to a series of treatments focused on the Ludovico radical behaviorist method. A fictional aversion therapy. With this technique, Alex had to be strapped into a chair with his eyes wide forcedly open, drugged and to watch ultra-violent videos that could trigger his violent self. This way each time the videos trigger his emotions, he develops a stomach and mental discomfort causing him nausea and vomit. The doctors also played a video with his favorite song, the 9th Symphony. Every time Alex listen to this song he would have the exact same reaction as if he was experiencing a violent act. Alex treatment is successful in the eyes of the doctors and society. Although it transformed him in an individual incapable to defend himself when the violence was being directed to him.

     The author of the original book once said “If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange—meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with color and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil.” �� Anthony Burgess.

    The tittle of the film explains a lot about the screenplay. The organic and natural of the orange and the engineering and mechanic of the inside of the clock. Alex experiences this transformation from an organic human being with the good and very bad in him and shifts to this programed mind person. His mind begins to work conditionally and mechanically.

      “A Clockwork Orange” does not deserve less than 5 stars. It is a true masterpiece, full of controversy, hard to watch elements and a lot of culture behind it. My personal and only negative opinion is on the age of the main character. Alex is living a high school delinquent student on his 17 years old. The actor was 27 years old at the time and it shows. His gang friends also did not look like a 15-17 years olds young boys. It bothers me a little and does not give me an idea of a high school student. Overall this film is very important in the history of film, such as most of Kubrick’s works.

Hollywood has a gender problem

     To begin this discussion lets do a quick game here. Mentalize your answers, ok? Beautiful! Think of the last three movies you watched. Got it? Who is the director? What about the screenwriter? Producers? What gender do they identify themselves with? You do not know? Not a problem! Take your time and google it. Get back here when you finish your research. I am waiting… You are back, great! Did you find out how many of them identify with the female gender? It is most likely a minority. Did I get it right? I think I am. One more thing. Can you note how many of the main characters are women? Too much to ask, right? It is ok I got you! About 95% of all of the American films you have ever seen were directed by men. Somewhere in between 80-90% of the leading characters you have ever watched were men. And 55% of the times you have seen women in a movie they were naked or scantily clad. Are you shocked? I am not! This affect us and is just another trait of a patriarchal society. Do you know how many of the films Paramount and Fox released between 2016 and 2020? 47 films. And none of them directed by a woman. How does it affect you? Films are a representation of the way we understand the world and our place in it. How can we have a different and more equal world if we only watch it by the perspective of one side of this story? In the last post we talked a bit about representation. Here we are again talking about how important representation is. If we (I am talking to you, female media student) do not see ourselves up there, we do not expect us to be there. This culture is slowly inserted in our minds from a very young age. We exist! Your story deserves to be heard/watched. Do not wait for Hollywood to make this change. Be this change. Create your content, write your scripts, produce, and direct your ideas. Are we less capable than men? What if I tell you that films about and by women makes more money? Yeah girl! The Washington Post released a study that movies featured by women makes 23 cents more in every dollar than movies that don’t feature women. Also, comparing each role in a film crew, the return investment is higher if it is a woman. This states that a film about and made by a woman makes more money.  

                 To enrich this conversation, we will talk about two movies that represents woman and their world but with different aspects.    

Frida, a 2002 film directed by Julie Taymor. In the film crew, 5 out 7 of the producers are woman and 2 out of 5 of the screenwriters. It tells it all! The film tells the real and controversial life story of Frida Kahlo, a remarkable Mexican female painter in the early 1900s. The movie explores all aspects of her forward thinking, sexual, artistic, pollical and passionate world. Frida Kahlo was an extremely strong woman and her art works were inspired by her own life experiences. The film presents to us her struggles with her health, troubled relationship with the famous painter Diego Riviera, her affairs and drinking issues. She once said “There were two accidents in my life. One was the trolley and the second was Diego.” Diego was twice her age when they got married and not the most handsome man but charming. Riviera was already a legend artist when they met and became her mentor. He was not a good husband and was known for having affairs. Even being aware of it she didn’t confront him and they began to have an open relationship since Frida herself had relations with men and women. Frida expresses her emotions into her canvases, including her miscarriages and all the pain she dealt with. Her legacy still lives on today by inspiring so many woman all over the world. Taymor’s movie begin with a scene of Frida being advised to do not attend to her own art show due to her health issues. It did not prevent her to be there. She managed to be at the gallery in her bed, as the doctors told her to. This opening scene reveals the strong minded woman Frida was and sets the mood for the whole film.

   The second movie in discussion is “Black Swan”.

              Before we discuss the topics in the film, it is important to note that none of the technical roles in the crew were filled by women. Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological horror film directed by Darren Aronofsky. However, it is starred by Natalie Portman as Nina, a ballerina in a New York City Ballet company. She has a life moved by control, either from her mother or from her work. Nina began to get closer to her dark side once she must deal with a competitive and perfectionist environment to succeed in her career and owe the tittle of the Black Swan for the dance play. She experiences an entire transformation, such as the swan does. Nina suffers from a mental condition called Schizophrenia. It explains her hallucinations and delusions rising throughout the film. Her condition gets worsen by the physical and mental stress put on her by her instructor, mother, peers, and herself. The idea of perfection brought to her by her instructor and dance colleagues consumes her and are detrimental. Perfection becomes obsession. Nina was a fragile, childish, innocent such as the role of the white swan but to master the role of the black swan she had to painfully grow as a woman dealing with oppression, rivalry and her dark side.

           These two films break in different levels the stereotypes of a well-together, family oriented and sex normative women. Frida and Nina had their lives upside down multiple times. Nina thinks that she has her good mother on her side but it all changes once we learn how oppressive and controlling, she is. Frida comes from a fine and supportive family up to when she begins her journey with Riviera and later is “back-stabbed” by her own sister. Both characters deal with sexuality on their own way. Frida is openly sexual, although Nina didn’t experience it until she clashes into it to become the black swan.   A patriarchal culture is often shaken by women who are challenging, competitive, professionally successful, and strong minded. These personality traits are found or developed in the segments of these two characters.

A woman who never had the unfortunate and uncomfortable experience of dealing with a man exercising their worse hierarchy traits in a work environment is quite unreal. In the movie Black Swan, the dance instructor, Cassel masters it by being oppressive and sexualizing his dancer putting sexual expectations on them and taking advantage of it. Frida also experiences sexism and oppression expressing it in her art works.     They are not the only women dealing with this matter. For this reason, campaigns such as #metoo are more seeing nowadays. These, often online, campaigns reflect dissatisfaction from all women. They are a way to give them voices and make other people know what they had to experience growing up into a woman. From the little girl who listen to disgusting comments from older family members to well grown woman who are interrupted at work from her male coworkers. The #metoo movement is also a great support system to survivors of assault, rape, mental and physical abuse.

        To conclude this discussion I would like to suggest you to visit the website www.moviesbyher.com and discover the vast list of films made by outstanding women. There you will note that movies such as “Boys Don’t Cry”, “Queen and Slim”, “Frozen 2”, “Birds of Prey” and much more all had women taking important roles in the film industry.

Examining Youth Culture

     Hello Media & Society class! On this post we are going to be examining youth culture in in film. Over the past month we watched great film references on this topic such as “The Breakfast Club” by John Hughes, “KIDS” by Larry Clark and “Mid90’s” by Jonah Hill. Another masterpiece in reference to youth culture is the 2019 HBO original series “Euphoria”. Starring Zendaya as “Rue”, the teen series amazes the audience from beginning to end with crucial topics of the generation Z. The show dives deep into discussions that mostly all teenagers can relate with on their high school and young adult years. One of the topics of the show is incredibly exposed by the strong character Kat Hernandez.

   Kat is the character that I could relate a lot due to her struggles with body image and fat shaming. Such as her I was, and still am, a fat young person. Through out the episodes we learn more about her history dealing with her body and how it influenced on her self-image. From a very young age Kat learns how society sees and expects different from her because of her weigh. At first, we see Kat as a self-conscious, shy and modest looking girl. But on the following episodes Kat begin to change her personality due to understanding the power that she has in her hand (online) and body. On episode 5 she stated, “There is nothing more powerful than a fat girl who does not give a fuck”. Kat began to show off a stronger, empowered, confident girl changing the stigma of a quiet and modest fat girl in high school. Her outfit changed along with her attitude. She created a careless attitude for herself.       However, the truth is that she cares. Deep inside and under all that make up and strong image that she created just like in her novels, Kat begins to realize that she does not need to be mean to her friends to be more confident and well-resolved with her sexuality, image and reputation. Excluding Kat’s choice of being an online sex worker, I can relate to her issues on building her own personality and acceptance. As a fat woman I struggled with the same problems and took me years to find the beauty and confidence in myself. Many people felt disappointed with the character once she began to have a mean attitude and how she mistreated her friends. But I can see how this is relatable to her own journey on finding herself as a plus size woman and taking up the space that society sometimes rather either mute or shame it.     The character is brought to life by the awesome female actor and plus size model Barbie Ferreira. When talking about body positivism and all issues on accepting yourself, it is all about representation. Barbie Ferreira in this show and in her model, career helps individuals who are often unseen by society to have a voice and work in their own journey of acceptance. Personally, this character really touched me, but on more extensive researches about the female actor I also found out she is half Brazilian! It was a big “A HA!”. It made sense why I was relating so much to her, even on the looks. The thick eyebrows tell it all!

    In addition, according to PubMed “any type of fat shaming causes overweight people to become stressed, eat more calories, and gain more weight.”. To learn more about the “harmful effects of fat shaming” click on the link below to read the article.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fat-shaming-makes-things-worse

    To conclude this matter, I will share with you a great 2016 interview of Barbie Ferreira for “Glamour” about body shaming and her path as a plus size model.

      Adding up with the tittles mentioned before, we have “Mean Girls” and “Saved by the Bell” to enrich our references on youth culture. These films bring an important discussion on the issues and life of a teenage in their high school years. Drug abuse, sexuality and “bro culture” along with a seek of belonging to a social group are common topics presented in these stories. As any other adolescent we all need to fit in a social group. Either the popular in school, the nerds or the skateboarders of the neighborhood. The movies are spot on in representing the initiation in these groups and the aspirations of an adolescent to become someone like them. Sex will always be the crucial part of its times. Either the initiation, the doubts, speculations, fantasies and finally the experience. From the first kiss to sex. Also extending to gender identification. The films show the adolescents sharing their experiences and curiosity with their friends on this topic. Does not matter what generation it is, drugs will appear in front of them at some point. As shown in the films and I believe everyone have experienced or seeing their friends trying a cigarette, weed, beer or whatever for the first time and how you are almost obligated to try to otherwise you will be picked on.

   The times may have changed, but all kids will encounter these topics in their path. Most of these movies are portrayed in a time before internet and all the information about these topics would come from their friends, from the streets and their social interactions. What your friend did and said how it happens would be your guide when your time comes.

    The films/series selected open this discussion about youth culture and all portrays the youth of its time. All of them, even being filmed in different generation, shows young adults dealing with issues such as sexuality, acceptance, drugs and personal relations. The young men in these films mostly have masculinity issues, struggle with anger management and social interactions in society. “Bro culture” is a topic in all the movies and is very well dramatized on the character Nate Jacobs from “Euphoria”. Nate is a popular student, a football player, with good looks and status. Nate deals with anger and a fragile masculinity which results in toxic interactions within his relations. These traits are used to cover up his emotions as a result to his confusing upbringing and sexual insecurities. Jacobs discovers in a very young age videos of this father having sex or interest in young men and transwomen. For this reason, he becomes someone aggressive and has a bent perception of sex. He ends up having a controversial attitude towards the female figure. Bender from “The Breakfast Club” has a lot of similarities with Nate. Also, in result of a dysfunctional family upbringing. Such as Nate, Bender has anger management issues, a controversial personality and the need of constantly reaffirm himself in front of the others. All the main male characters in these films are a result of how society build them. How we raise our boys to be this alpha type of men. The one who will solve their problems by fighting, being aggressive and being toxic in his personal relations. The dramatization of these men can be stereotyped but reflects our society. And shows the even with the change of generations certain aspects and traits never goes away. Masculinity will always be negatively dramatized if society keeps allowing this type of conduct. The “Bro Culture” can be summarized as guys in groups interacting with each other suppressing their fragile masculinity by being tough, insensible and degrading women to better their self-image. It is the fraternity culture in and out of college. These young age men have their “frat” attitude extended to their workspace. An example of bro culture in a workspace was revealed by the author of the book “Brotopia” Emily Chang.

Here you can read and find reviews about the book.  https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36288143-brotopia

The author uncovers the reality inside big tech companies in Silicon Valley and how unfair and sexist is its environment. After over 300 interviews of employees in those companies, the author breaks the boys club and tells us about how women are asked to be in a bikini in a jacuzzi for a meeting. Or how a Trans woman who for years worked as an engineer for Uber, once she started to present herself as a woman people started to interrupt her in meetings. This exemplifies what most woman goes through in a workspace and in society. Bro culture is simply a sexism social norm. I do not even believe that there is a need to create another expression as “bro culture”. The word is sexism.If you are a “bro” and is wondering if you are part of this “culture”; or if you just want to check if you are in a “bro culture free workspace” I suggest you to read this:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300514

 The soundtrack of these films could not be put on a side for this discussion. Have you ever watched a film in mute sound? Well, if you did you noticed that the narrative fully depends on the sound to keep their meaning. What would be a horror movie without a spooky soundtrack? The soundtrack of a movie creates the mood, gives emotion, emphasizes a crucial moment and acts as a big factor on continuity.    If you ever watched “Euphoria” I am pretty sure you noticed its amazing soundtrack. Their music choices are already impeccable, but I took the challenge and recreated their soundtrack. I choose to add representativity and a bit of my culture to it. By representativity I mean giving voices to transgender, women, fat and black artists. However, the soundtrack is diverse. For the character Kat I used music’s such as “Boys” and “scuse me” by Lizzo, “Tombei” by Karol Comka, “Sugar Daddy” by Qveen Herby, “Bola Rebola” by Anitta and “Bury a friend” by Billie Eilish. These songs would match her scenes and add to the narrative. Rue has moments that goes from emotional dramatic scenes to hyped times in parties over substances. For her I would like to use songs such as “Put a spell on you” by Iza, “Howling for you” by The Black Keys, “The dope show” and “I don’t like the drugs” by Marilyn Mason. Jules can be very well represented by songs such as “The ocean” by the transwoman lead singer from Against Me and “That’s not my name” from The Ting Tings. For continuity and momentum frames I would use “Crybaby” by Lizzo, “You will never find me” by Korn, “Parasite Eve” by Bring me the horizon and “The art of losing” by American Hi-Fi. The beginning of “Baba O’Riley”- The Who, could be a good alternative intro for the show.     My new soundtrack for this show became extensive and you are welcome to check it out on my Spotify playlist named “Euphoria Soundtrack”. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ztvGt1Geg1p2zvrXycroH?si=0m7z8pnyTWWKugwoFBPL4Q

   I doubt you don’t know about these series/film, but to continue this youth culture discussion I suggest you watch the UK version of “Skins, “13 reasons why” and “Elephant”. I found “13 reasons why” very similar to “Euphoria” from the topics debated and even the way the directors chose to portray the characters. Both series also have an explanation of the characters and topics followed by the episodes. I would recommend caution on watching this series if you suffer from depression and anxiety.  

This way I close this chapter of “Youth Culture” and I can’t wait for our next topic.

Oh... hi Mark!  And Media & Society class!  Nothing like starting off a film blog by quoting one of the worst movies ever made. Right? Also because every time i hear about our professor this line screams in my mind.  Off to a good start! Hoping that you are still here and did not give up on me after this, let me introduce myself.  My name is Raquel Henning. I am finally returning to my New Media major program after a 3 years break. Years ago, when i first started this program i was an international student. I am original from Brazil and moved here 7 years ago for an exchange program to improve my English. Life was nice to me and i got an opportunity to be sponsored and an student at SUNY Orange. 

 Yes i am from Rio. No i do not have a pet monkey or can play soccer like Neymar. 

Meanwhile my college time i met my husband and my 2 years program in the US became 7 years now living here and building our family. Which right now only constitute in the two of us a little kitten and two guinea pigs. 

I went to high school in Sao Paulo, Brazil. At a school called Unisa. You can have fun on google maps and find my school there. This information is even more irrelevant then knowing how many guinea pigs i have. But i got to follow the criteria here in order to get my credits. Right? 

Currently i work with community rehabilitation with individuals with special needs but i am also a photographer. I will leave my website and Instagram here if you want to check it out.  I am very interested in anything related to arts. I love to do crafts, painting, creating new art activities for my clients and just being creative. I also love the outdoors and being close to nature. 

The last movie i watched was Joker two nights ago. I watched in the movies when it first came out but i will re watch anytime i see on TV. In my opinion it was the best movie of 2019. Although it was triggers my anxiety, it is such a remarkable and important movie. I will not extend myself talking about this movie now since we will cover it in a few weeks. Unfortunately i am not a book lover. I have a real hard time concentrating. The last and current book i am reading is Screenplay by Syd Field for my screenwriting class. 

This past Friday i created a cool birthday surprise for my client to do for his grandfather. Seeing him putting a lot of effort and working hard on it makes my day. We drew and photographed it to send to him. 

It is dinner time and while i am writing this i can smell vegan pizza. My husband entered here saying it is the best pizza he ever made. I could say that pizza is my last meal on earth right now but my all time craving will always be sushi. I could eat it everyday. I had a sushi coma yesterday night.  I won’t prolong myself anymore and run for this so called best pizza made by my husband! See you on my next post! IG @raquelhenningphoto & @kelzsantaanna raquelhenning.com