#and how media affects our perspectives on sex and understanding of the true realities of it
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what is a sex class like what does it entail
so I'm taking a psychology class rn called "Human Sexuality" and, like, the premise is to understand how a person's sexual identity is shaped by the world (conditioning) around them and how our sexual identity then influences our decision making / place in that world. the class focuses a lot on the different aspects of human sexuality including anatomy, sexual orientation, sexual behaviors, and contemporary issues within that scope (e.g., sex trafficking, sex work, and pornography) and perspectives / attitudes surrounding sex in general. so yeah :)
#pigeon#anon#just some cool stuff to learn abt#i do love learning abt attitudes regarding sex#and how media affects our perspectives on sex and understanding of the true realities of it#so for the next 5 weeks i'll be learning all kinds of fun sex facts#as for entailing uh. well im gonna be taking a lot of quizzes and writing discussion posts lol#i hope she lets us write an essay sigh. i wanna write an essay so bad
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This isn't my first post on this, and it probably won't be my last. But whatever. I have things I want to say.
Before we start, I want to be clear that this isn't meant to make anyone feel bad for shipping aspec characters. It's to provide another perspective for people (especially non-aspec people) to consider when engaging with aspec characters. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with shipping any characters, but I also think there's sometimes more to it than "it's fiction and I want to."
It's Just Fiction
And actually, that's the first thing I want to address. The idea that because it's just fiction, it is harmless. That simply isn't true. We know that implicit biases can be formed and supported by fiction. We also know that fiction can reveal a writer's implicit and explicit biases. Fanfiction isn't any exception.
If an allo person writes an aspec character in a romantic relationship, without properly understanding and/or conveying that character's identity, that inaccurate portrayal of our real-life experiences is what many readers will come away believing to some extent. If the writer shows any disdain towards aspec people, even entirely unintentionally, there will be readers who walk away with bias towards aspec people. That's simply the reality of the situation.
If you don't understand aspec experiences, you bear responsibility for people who read your work coming away with the wrong idea.
Mainstream writers are rightfully criticized for bias. You may only write fanfiction, but you are not free from criticism when that fanfiction has the potential to build up harmful mindsets.
"Aro people can still date" and "ace people can still have sex" are both true. So is "aromanticism/asexuality is a spectrum." But do you understand how being aromantic and/or asexual affects how we do those things? Do you understand the identity on the ace/aro spectrum that you claim to be writing the character as? Or are you just saying those things, then portraying the aspec experience inaccurately?
I guarantee there are plenty of aspec people who would be so happy if you asked them for their insight about their experiences. Who would be delighted to double-check your fan art or beta read your fanfic. Ask us. Please. (And if you are aspec, and trying to portray an aspec character with an experience/identity you don't have, also ask!)
Of course, that only goes for fanworks that, even poorly, incorporate an aspec character's identity. What about fanworks that completely, and deliberately erase it?
To that, I ask the most obvious question: "How would you feel if someone wrote this about a gay character or a lesbian character?" Because some people's answer is "that's fine," but many people's answer is "that's homophobia." It's a double standard. It's homophobia when it's gay and lesbian identities. But it's not aphobia when it's aspec identities.
Now, I don't fully agree with either of those. I don't think that the people doing that are certainly homophobes or aphobes. But I do think that it can be an indicator of homophobia or aphobia. Obviously, not everyone who ignores the identity of a fictional character is a bigot. But it's inaccurate to claim none of them are.
Representation
Running along those same lines, let's get into representation. Here's the wikipedia list of canon aromantic characters. There are 18 characters on it. That's right, in all media mainstream enough to have a wikipedia page (which is quite a lot of media), there are an entire 18 canon aromantic characters. The list of asexual characters is a bit longer, with 72 characters. But again, there is a crap ton of media big enough to be on wikipedia. 72 characters is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction.
What I'm getting at is that there is next to no aspec representation. And yet the first reaction to the confirmation of a character being aspec is one of hostility. It's justifications for shipping. It's saying that word-of-god isn't enough, or isn't clear enough, or is a lie. It's saying that only explicit confirmations count (even if it makes no sense within the setting).
Instead of what every other queer confirmation gets. Near-universal celebration of representation.
That aspec people aren't even afforded an minute to celebrate representation is awful. That the rest of the queer community would rather discourse than celebrate with us is awful.
And it begs the question: why do you find your ship more important than representation? And why is that only the case with aspec representation?
Aspec Experiences
Part of growing up aspec for many people is not even knowing that our experience is real. It's believing that there is something wrong with us and if we just do the right things then we can be normal.
The message that everyone wants to have sex and fall in love is pushed by everyone in our lives, and is supported by almost every piece of media we see.
Outside of the aspec community, our experiences are depicted as wrong.
In media, our experiences don't get shown. Or if they are shown, they are something that gets fixed by the end.
That is why we cling so hard to the slivers of representation we get. It shows our experiences as normal, as valid, as okay.
So when we see ships of those few characters, we see the invalidation of and derision towards our experiences. So yeah, a lot of us get uncomfortable.
And we shouldn't have to push that down or not talk about it simply because it might ruin some people's fun.
Aphobia in Fandom
It's not just discourse. It's dogpiling aspec people who talk about our representation. It's harassing and sending death threats to aspec people who share their opinions on shipping aspec characters. It's all of that, and more, without anyone else from the queer community stepping in and defending us.
The same happens when we rightfully point out and criticize amatonormativity and aphobia in media and fandom spaces.
The same happens when we just post a headcanon.
Aspec people can only participate in fandom on the terms of alloromantic and allosexual people. The moment we start bringing our experiences into how we interact with media is the moment we get pushed out.
Beyond the more overt stuff, there's also a ton of subtle stuff. Ranging from "friends don't do stuff like that" all the way to insisting that a character is evil because they don't feel love (whether or not that's canon).
And if a character is confirmed to be aspec? Everything gets turned onto the max setting. Ironically, canon representation has the effect of making us less safe in fandom spaces.
Conclusion
I will not ask you to put down the ship. If you want to ship aspec characters, so be it. But do so with awareness of it's actual impact.
Understand that the fanart/fanfic you make for a character can have a real impact on aspec people. Understand that you may be counteracting the positive effects that representation has on aspec people. Understand that you are making fandom spaces more uncomfortable, and even hostile for aspec people.
Final note: I will not engage with anyone who acts like a jerk. I will just block, and if necessary, report them. I will also assume that anyone posting vitriolic responses didn't read the whole post, or they would have seen this part.
#asexual#aromantic#lgbtq+#aspec#hazbin hotel#i may regret that tag. we'll see#it's not the ONLY fandom I had in mind while writing but it is the one currently discussing this#aphobia#neon's void
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I've really enjoyed your recent meta takes and was wondering if you could elaborate on your thoughts on Mandy + Ian and her going for Lip as a result (from your Ian Relationships meta)? I love reading about M+I and their connection is just so dear to me 😭
(P.S Thank you for being such a beacon of positivity in the Shameless fandom! I only got into the show during lockdown last year but it's become such a comfort so it makes me so happy to see positivity right now. ❤ )
Oh my gosh, thank you so much! You’re seriously too kind! I totally sympathize with you: Shameless has shot straight to the top of my list of comfort media since watching it right around the same time, so I’m really passionate about sharing the love around. 😃🧡
To me, one of the most important things to look at in this analysis is motives—who each of these characters are, what they desire for themselves, and how those factors fit together like a puzzle.
Mandy is in such a difficult position. It’s not as easy as saying that she’s a victim of abuse and wants nothing more than to get as far from her family as possible, because that’s simply not true. In s1, we see that she’s very comfortable in her house. She and Mickey exhibit your standard sibling animosity (and competition for Ian’s attention, unbeknownst to her), she makes breakfast for Terry even though she’s obviously not super respectful to him as a parent, and she clearly has a solid understanding of where her family stands in the neighborhood. In a way, she thrives on that in the beginning. At but a word, she can do serious damage to somebody without raising a finger herself. Viewing Ian’s lack of response to her advances as an insult, she takes full advantage of that. In s2, we know that she is being abused in such a heinous way. She takes charge of the situation, although not in a manner that would save her from it. She leaves the house for a while to avoid Terry; she holds him at gunpoint and forces him to accept what he already knows so that he won’t hurt Ian. When they talk afterward, she even recounts what happened in a way that makes it sound like no big deal—he was drunk, and he didn’t know who she was, so it’s whatever. (It isn’t. We know it isn’t. If this is going to be her reality, however, then she’s going to own it. No one will look down on her, especially not a Gallagher who’s barely ahead of her in social standing.)
We’ll pause there because so much of how Mandy changed afterward is tied to Lip, but we can already see that Mandy isn’t like Mickey. Mickey stuck it out with his family and very clearly fell into the same trap we’ve heard verbalized by other male characters, namely the notion that men can’t be abused. It doesn’t matter that that is entirely inaccurate—that’s what they’ve been taught in their environment. That’s what’s normal to them. (That’s part of the dramatic irony in this scenario: we can see how damaging and traumatic these events are, but the characters don’t have our perspective. I don’t think Mickey sees what happened to him as rape, just like Ian doesn’t see what happened to him as grooming or assault. That’s for the audience to comprehend in terms of gravity and should add to our sympathy for them.)
Mandy is different. Women are abused all the time in their neighborhood. It’s visible, and it’s pervasive. In s3, Mandy immediately teaches Debbie how to defend herself against it. She didn’t have to learn. Like not seeing themselves as victims is part of the boys’ culture, fighting not to be one is part of the girls’. But there’s a contradiction in her life: the Milkoviches are the neighborhood badasses, and while she shares in that, it’s limited by her sex. There is something she will never be able to overcome in order to see the same return on her reputation that Mickey and Terry do, not unless she gets out, which will be extremely difficult on her own merits. She’s living in poverty and not doing well in school. Her prospects are limited—she told the counselor so. Based on that conversation and her history with boys even before meeting Ian, she clearly sees one surefire avenue to get out of this hole she’s stuck in: a man with the resources to get out and take her with him. If she’s lucky, it’ll even be a good man with a good heart who wants to do good in the world.
Now, let’s talk about Ian. (See what I did there?) This doesn’t need to be long because I’ve already talked so much about Ian already lately, but let’s wax poetic just a bit. Ian wants to be a good person. He wants to be able to get by, even be successful, without having to do it through scamming and stealing. He has goals and ambitions, and whatever anybody thinks of those ambitions, he did it with the mindset that he would be a hero—a protector. Along with that, he never gives up. When Mandy sets her brothers on him, he doesn’t hide forever—he seeks her out multiple times to fix the situation. When he can’t get into West Point, he doesn’t quit ROTC and ignore his dreams. He keeps going.
Not only is he someone who wants to be good for himself, but he wants to be good for others too. He shows Mandy kindness that she arguably hasn’t seen from anyone else before. He takes care of his family when hers tends to focus on themselves and their own individual survival more of the time. Ian has what she would have seen as the potential to get out, and at the time, that is what he wants. It isn’t as an escape for him, but as a way to facilitate his own dreams.
The problem? Ian is gay. We can see that that bothers her sometimes because she forgets. She goes in for a kiss in s2 and has to reel back, settling for a hug instead. She gets tired of hearing him talk about Kash in s1 and kisses him to shut him up, saying she just wanted to kiss her fake boyfriend. Ian isn’t attainable. If Ian leaves, he won’t take her with him as a partner, and she can’t ask as a friend. How desperate would that seem to someone who refuses to be put in a position where she even slightly perceives him to be pitying her? She can’t ask. Not Ian. She needs someone else, someone who is also good and capable of getting out of here—who can be convinced to even if they don’t want to. Someone she can also trust and has some sort of connection with. Someone who is a fixer, and someone she can draw in with the only thing she thinks she has of any value: her body.
That would be Lip. Not only does he meet all of those criteria at the time, but she knows she can trust him. She trusts Ian, and Ian is closer to Lip than he is to anyone else—even her. No, Lip doesn’t have any convictions or real desire to leave, but he has potential. She can work with that. She’s also there for the entire Karen saga, so she knows that Lip is someone who takes his responsibilities to the people he’s with very seriously and tries so hard to cultivate that connection. (For example, feeding him, making herself sexually available as often as possible, letting him stay with her when he can’t go anywhere else without any conditions, etc. We even begin to see her distancing herself from Ian a little bit by s3, putting all of her energy into what she has with Lip when, a year ago, they were sneaking around because she said she didn’t want Ian to know about them. That isn’t to say that Ian was seeking her out either, being quite distracted with Mickey, but it’s noticeable for me.)
Like Mickey, Mandy also has a very deep capacity for emotion and affection that seems incongruous with her personality a lot of the time. Also like Mickey, nobody brought that out in her—it was always there. As much as she seemed to hope that Lip would take care of her, the process of growing closer to him led to a level of affection. I don’t particularly read their relationship as being a deep one. Both of them were using the other, to an extent, to deal with their trauma in other areas of their lives. But that sort of thing can foster a kinship, a mutual understanding that transcends time and place and even the terrible stuff that people do to one another.
So, it doesn’t work out. Mandy is hurt and does something unforgivable. She then runs from Lip, straight into what she feels is her only alternative now: an abuser. What else is there for a girl in her position? Ian was unattainable because of his sexuality, but to someone beaten down again and again, perhaps she believed he was also unattainable because he was too good a person. Lip was unattainable despite her best efforts to bridge that gap because of what he had with Karen, but to someone beaten down again and again, perhaps she believed he was also unattainable because her position in his life was to give but never to take. With Kenyatta, all she does is give. She’s embraced being beaten down because what else is there? She leaves with him, believing there’s nothing for her there.
When she finally finds her strength, far from home but hopefully under better circumstances than when she lived in Chicago, she still follows the formula that has ruled her decision-making for some time: finding a place where she can have the control over her life that was never there before, but still with the belief that what she has to offer isn’t academic or able to be built or improved upon. Ian has worked past his perception that his body was what he had to offer, that it was what would provide him with the love he was looking for. But of course, he has. He’s had Mickey to love him when he’s healthy and love him when he’s lost a bunch of weight from a depressive episode spent in bed. He’s had his family to mess up here and there but ultimately love him so much.
Mandy doesn’t have that. She didn’t then either. She got what she wanted—she got out. She even implied that that was the most important thing by telling Ian that being born on the South Side doesn’t mean that’s where they have to stay. But Ian “got out” of the spiral of abuse he unknowingly suffered and the mindset that it fostered while Mandy didn’t. This isn’t to say anything negative about sex work, of course, only the mindset that led Mandy to this point in her life. And when she leaves the house for the last time, she looks at Lip after having asked about him, and they acknowledge each other the way that people who once knew each other do.
I’ve made the joke before that to Milkoviches, Gallaghers are like catnip. It’s flippant and funny enough when we consider how many of them have dated at one point or other. I’ve also said the Milkoviches are designed as a foil to the Gallaghers, a juxtaposed image of what they could have been had their situation been altered slightly. In s10, Mickey mentions how the Gallaghers are messed up and he’s never been happier to be a Milkovich, so there’s some awareness there that these are the two notorious families of the neighborhood, albeit for different reasons. For Mandy to see that not one, but two Gallaghers are out of reach? To perhaps feel as though she’s less than even them, or made to feel that way in her interactions with Lip? It’s the ultimate slap in the face.
She trusts Ian more than anyone else in her life, to the point where she will still call him to help her hide a body long after she’s left him and their home behind. But trusting Ian led her to loving Ian, and she couldn’t have him. Trusting Ian led her to meeting Lip, and if Ian was so good and loved Lip so much, he had to be worth it too. And to her, he was. The problem was that she felt that she wasn’t.
Self-fulfilling prophecies suck: when you’re treated like garbage by a neighborhood that sees your family as garbage and repeatedly experience things that will make you feel like garbage around people with the best intentions, you’ll start believing that you are, in fact, garbage. I think what we’ve watched with Mandy is a steady decline from a place of strength in herself and weakness in her environment to an overall place of weakness that she couldn’t escape. Not with Ian and, when she realized that wouldn’t happen, not with the only real alternative she thought she could trust since she trusted Ian so deeply.
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a third stance on the moral dichotomy of fandom
i have one more thing to say, or i guess reiterate, on the topic of moral purity policing in fanfiction as perpetuated by minors, in a more rebloggable format than my previous asks. what i have to say is an incredibly unpopular opinion because it takes neither side of this dichotomized issue, and addresses, not the minors perpetuating the purity rhetoric, but the adults fighting against it.
first i’ll offer a run-down of the overall issue at hand:
side 1, or what i call “think of the CHILDREN”: there is a large sect of people in fandom right now, mostly teens and young adults as far as i can tell, who believe that taboo works (noncon and underage) should not be allowed to exist. if they are written, they should be flagged and subsequently taken down. these people seem to hold these beliefs for several reasons, the prevailing ones being “fiction affects reality” and “children might read it!!” this stance is the active one, the (literal) minority, the side trying to enact change upon an established and (legally) supported status quo. these people do not separate the art from the artist.
in practice, these beliefs are aggressive and toxic. we see them in rude or cruel anonymous asks urging writers to kill themselves. we see them in “only follow if” and “do not interact if” pages with lengthy bullet point lists of traits and behaviors that are Not Okay. we see them in yfip. we see them in anti tags. we see them in long, poorly researched and contextualized responses to well-meaning pro-”ship and let ship” posts. we see them in accusations of pedophilia for fics and ships that are not in fact pedophilic. we see them in phrases like “abuse apologists” and “problematic” and “romanticize” and “fetishize.”
despite the seeming growth of what i’ve been calling the Gen Z Puritanical Movement, what we see on tumblr is only a narrow view of a much wider issue spanning outside fandom and into the world of art itself. it stems from problems of decades past, McCarthyism, the Hays Code, the nuclear family, for example, and the subsequent counterculture movements against them. right now Gen X has all the power and prestige in the enormous world art, and being the children of Baby Boomers, they simultaneously believe you must always separate the art from the artist, while also widely disbelieving (or having had to learn) that inequality and disenfranchisement have any bearing in the success of art.
“the discourse” as we call it has its roots in every creative field and we are in midst of a revolution in the way we understand and interact with art. i believe, with any revolution, the answer is not in stalling it but negotiating with it, learning from it, interrogating it, and adapting.
side 2, which i’ll unpack below, is comprised mostly of what i would venture are Millennials, and fall somewhere between Gen Z purity and Gen X freedom. and as much as i want to discuss this gaping chasm of beliefs further, i’m specifically talking about the way transformative art is presently policed by side 1.
which brings us to the other side.
side 2, or what i call “i do what i WANT”: these people believe that a fan writer/artist should be able to write, post, and share with the public any creative work the mind can devise as long as it is warned/tagged properly, and all people who do not want to view their art should walk away and not interact. key phrases include “ship and let ship” and “don’t like, don’t read.” the prevailing root of this belief is that all art is valid and important, all art belongs, even when that art is devised entirely by the id. additionally, they believe they do not have to justify, defend, or explain their art in order for it to exist, and most importantly, it is every reader/viewer’s responsibility to understand the difference between fiction and reality. these people separate art from the artist.
in practice, these beliefs are poised to defend of the attacks from side 1. this is a reaction to a movement, an assertion of maintaining the status quo. we see posts speaking to an audience of side 1, pleading or at times demanding for them to learn not only the fraught history of fanworks but also the greater context of art and censorship. these posts are then reblogged by people with similar beliefs, attacked by side 1, and no one seems to really learn anything at all. the dichotomy is maintained. battles end as posts fall into obscurity, but the war rages on.
side 2 holds the status quo, the most common sense. it is the most educated perspective, upheld by the wiser and older parties of fandom, the transformative artists who have lived through strikethrough and boldthrough and have experienced the damaging consequences of the censorship and ideology of side 1. moreover, it is upheld by the actual people who built and run the archive on which our art rests. in this dichotomy, side 2 has all the power. side 2 is the majority.
here’s where i get to my incredibly unpopular opinion:
people in positions of power have no reason to meet aggression with more aggression except to re-establish and assert that power over the minority opinion. aggression does not sway the minority opinion; it only fuels it.
in other, more practical words, we are ADULTS sharing a public community space with CHILDREN, and some of those children have made it clear that they are angry.
why do we meet that anger with anger when we are older and wiser and have all the authority? if a child is having a violent tantrum, do you punch them in the face? no, you hold their wrists. you calm them down. you ask them what’s wrong. you try to parse out what happened and work together to make sure it doesn’t happen again. you can’t expect them to articulate that anger; you have to ask questions. you have to listen to them.
side 1 says that taboo works are wrong and bad and shameful. i personally disagree with that belief, but my curiosity lies in the extreme emotional reaction and value judgments behind it. and when enough people are angry about something, if a movement becomes wide enough, it means there is something else going on, some seed of truth happening somewhere -- a needle in a haystack, an invisible shard of glass on the kitchen floor -- that needs to be found. i’m not saying side 1 is right, but i am saying that there is something in that anger which might ring true, even if the toxic rhetoric they are spouting is not. i don’t know what that truth is, and the point of this post is not to find it, but to encourage us to seek bigger answers about this very big problem.
side 2, you might be saying, they’re not children, they’re teenagers and young adults. you might be saying, when i was their age, i knew to obey the etiquette of fandom. you might be saying, we are not equals, they should be learning from us. you might be saying, it’s their responsibility to know fiction from reality. you might be saying, none of this is my responsibility. you might be saying, this movement is getting bigger and scarier and it may become an actual threat to our art.
and you might be feeling: i have no interest in logically or morally defending the taboo nature my aesthetic interests. i know that they appeal to me, and i know i should not be tasked with or required to publicly explain myself. i should not have to assert that art is separate from the artist. i should not have to endure aggressive mobs of anons in my inbox. i should not be chased away by pitchforks held by my own community. i should not be accused of being a predator, rapist, abuse apologist, or pedophile.
and maybe you know that you are not any of those things, and to be accused of them is ridiculous and appalling, but maybe it still hurts to be called all of that which makes life so dangerous and cruel. maybe it always hurts to have your art misunderstood.
this brings me back to anger. all anger is devised of pain and fear. we get angry when we’re hurt and scared. when i see two angry sides of a wide divide, all i see is that fear and pain, and all i want is to lessen it.
on side 1, we have a group of young people whose only context is the present and whose only fear is the future. i put myself in the shoes of what it must be like to be a teenager in america in 2018, how different it is from when i was a teenager. teen stars on red carpet events in 2005 dressed in ugly cargo pants and sweatshirts. millie bobby brown at 13 was dressed like a supermodel at last year’s emmy’s. young people today have more and easier access to information pertaining to violence and sex, consume media steeped in those things, than they ever have. and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for parents to keep them from that interaction. side 2′s rhetoric around this is to wipe their hands free of it -- “your parents should monitor what you’re doing on the internet.” and they should, they absolutely should, but while technology has changed, teenage curiosity hasn’t. i clicked past every 18+ warning i’ve ever seen in my life, and that was my choice, and i handled the consequences.
but just for a second imagine being 14 again, and curiosity getting the best of you, and clicking on something in which your physical equivalent is being hurt and abused and eroticized. can you imagine not having any understanding of the greater context of what you’ve just read, in art or in life? wouldn’t you be scared too, to know those things exist? wouldn’t you be reluctant to listen to the explanation of them when you are young and afraid and suddenly aware that you can be hurt?
i am not encouraging writers to stop creating taboo fanworks. i think they have an important artistic purpose and function and place, and i value any mind that can conceive and face such darkness. but as someone who aims to understand as much as i possibly can about what it is to be human, to be alive today, i am inclined to consider the various interpretations of taboo art and its potential repercussions.
teenagers today are more aware and attuned to -- and have constant access to -- current events than any other generation before, but that does not mean they have learned or educated themselves on the historical context of these events in order to understand them fully. they don’t have a wide perspective, but they do have their moral compasses guided by the abhorrence of the constant human rights violations that occur on macro and micro scales every single day, and it’s those compasses that place value judgments on the content they consume in fandom, the place where they feel, i speculate, the most valued. the place they have the most power and sway. the only place, maybe, that their voice and fear and anger is ever heard, witnessed, responded to, taken seriously.
being a teenager today is a completely new and terrifying machine made of old parts. we, the adults in fandom, understand the parts but not the machine. how can all the same parts make something so different from us? who built this monster, and how to we destroy it? why is it attacking us when there are bigger and more important battles to fight? why doesn’t it go read a fucking book for once?
that brings us to side 2. if side 1 has the future, side 2 has the past. we see the toxic rhetoric of side 1 and we know what consequences can come of it because we’ve lived the worst of it. we have both the pain of the past and the fear of the future to handle, and neither are easy to cope with.
so what do we do? we either get angry and fight back, or disengage. sometimes i think the latter is the most toxic of all, because i believe it’s every artist’s responsibility to understand the work they’re doing and the greater context of that work, how it fits in their given lexicon of art. they should not be required to defend it or speak for it, but they should know it. inside and out, they should know their art and why they make it.
i also believe, if you know your art and why you make it, if you can separate yourself the artist from the art, why disengage from those who are repulsed but reaching out? it’s definitely my gut instinct to meet cruelty with anger and upsetness, but cruelty also piques my curiosity -- i want to know where the repulsion comes from. i want to ask questions. why are you offended by this art? how have you interpreted it? why are you afraid of it? how has its existence hurt you? if nothing else, it always gives me a broader understanding of my work and how it can be seen, which is invaluable feedback for any artist.
if there is any bridge at all to be built between this divide, i think it is in our ability to ask questions, listen to the answers, and use those answers, not to argue with or defend ourselves or to become upset by, but to ask more questions.
here are two ways this mentality has helped me --
in my old job (commercial finance real estate), i worked with upperclass middle-aged white men who got paid six figures a year to golf and cheat on their wives while i did all their paperwork. eventually i made a hobby of sitting in their offices and asking them questions, knowing they had authority over me, knowing our opinions differed. knowing i had no place to argue with them or leverage in telling them all the ways i felt they were wrong about politics and society at large. i pretended they were teaching me things, showing me the way of the world. i let them believe that, and i continued asking questions, forcing them to articulate aloud why they believed what they believed, hours and hours, slowly boxing them into corners from which they would eventually change their own minds.
in my current job (i’m a college instructor) i do something similar. i sit down with every single student one on one and i ask them questions about their political and social beliefs. often my students are 19, white, straight, affluent, conservative young adults who hold many of the same puritanical ideas as that of side 1 with less of the toxic rhetoric. at first, i was terrified to do this. it was different than my old job because suddenly i was the one with authority. i thought, what if i encounter racism? prejudice? sexism? what if they are fundamentally wrong on every level, and won’t listen to me, someone who knows the greater context of their opinions? what if i end up arguing with them? what if they don’t respect me? what if i can’t change their minds? and most importantly -- is it my responsibility to change their minds at all?
after the first semester, i realized how young they were, how much they still had left to grow, and learn, and live, and that my class would not be able to teach them everything they needed to know in order to strip away the prejudices and narrow-mindedness of their upbringings. i learned that all i could do was be a person in a position of authority listening to their beliefs and asking them tough questions no one has ever asked them. forcing them on the spot to articulate the beliefs they have not before had the opportunity to interrogate. i find i rarely agree with what they say, but i validate their right and ability to say it. to have a voice and space and responsibility in and to society. to think, itself. and most importantly to think through their ideals, which they cannot do if they are never given a chance to be heard, if they are never asked the questions whose answers will lead them to deeper and more meaningful insights.
i have never changed the mind of a single person by arguing, but i have changed several minds by asking.
we have an entire generation of terrified young people who are lashing out, and i do not want to hate them. i do not want to meet their rage and toxicity with fear, defensiveness, and dismissal. i want to sympathize and listen. i want to know more about why they feel how they feel, what the real root of it is, the seeds of truth behind the rhetoric. i want to understand. and mostly, i want to help fix all the broken and awful things in the greater sociopolitical sphere that have built this terrifying machine and dug our moral divide.
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Authenicity
Jadyn Thornock
Perspective is key when it comes to a real life story. Everything happens for a cause, good and bad; “I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they are right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes fall apart so better things can fall together,” says so Marilyn Monroe herself.
Something is always more focused than something else around it, there is always going to be something or someone better, more different, more “perfect”, and so on, and something will always have more attention and stand out more. Looking at the photographs; you see things that are commonly put into our heads where they don’t belong. Makeup and a starfish don’t belong in a pile of snow. Then again, it makes a great photo, doesn’t it? I say this for a reason, we can relate topics like that to people, maybe people in stereotypes, maybe people in your community, or maybe people in general in the society.
To give an example; let’s talk about the society of teenagers. Okay, well they all are just stuck up, selfish, have terrible hormonal attitudes, annoying, dumb, disappointing, lazy, addicted to social media, picky, and whatever. They’re dangerous, yet they need more protection, they are immature, but they also are on their own. It’s tough standing out nowadays for teenagers and adolescents. We don’t know what to do or what to think, we don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong because people are always telling us different, and we could only stop to assume that nobody gives a damn either.
It may sound selfish, I’m only saying “we” as it may be seeming as the perspective and standpoint of me, but it’s teenagers in the generation. We were born into a world of hell. Pollution, sickness, judgment, bullying, war, disagreement, etc. We all point out the negativity; Donald Trump is building a wall, “don’t go outside you could get kidnapped,” “Haven’t you heard of the sex trafficking,” “it’s just a phase you aren’t gay, you aren’t emo, you aren’t this, you aren’t that,” every action, every movement, every thought, every decision, everything is wrong in our parents eyes, our teachers eyes, our elders eyes, everyone’s eyes. So how would we know what’s right for us, because now all we could think on ourselves is wrong. We can’t know what's right and wrong if everyone is speaking their own opinions on us.
We’re unique, and confused. Everything tends to seem like it’s as simple as black and white, but behind the two basic tints is imagery of different stories and reasons behind every little thing we do, say, think, and decide. You wonder why these stupid teenagers are hating everyone and starting rumors, doing drugs and breaking the law, when simultaneously some are looking beautiful and getting straight A’s and getting scholarships. Comparison is all it’s about when it comes to humanity.
We leave people behind, bring new people in, later on we leave them too. That’s what happened when a little thing called “change” decided to show up. It’s something that’s hard to describe and explain, something hard to put into a sentence maybe even a book. It’s all up to your own individuality. What do you think change is? Is it something you choose, something you want, something you're scared of?
But, you know what we hate. We really hate when you call us dramatic, selfish, maybe immature because we don’t want to talk. We really hate when you say we’re overreacting, or we’re crazy because we are following these stupid dance trends or prank trends. We also hate when you say we’re just making stupid excuses to make bad decisions whenever we're in pain, or whenever we yell, or whenever we cry. But then again you don’t even notice that’s the reason we don’t cry, all you’ll ever do is assume is we are just another hormonal teenager. See, it’s not as easy as black and white is it.
It’s not as easy when high school is terrifying. Thinking we will never find someone true, no true friends, no true relationships, no true career. It’s all just, fake. Fights are broke out, rumors are spread, drugs are dealt, and grades are failing. It’s like you're in a complicated maze but there wasn’t even a start so you can’t believe it’ll even end. We have to follow our limitations and rules and expectations. Stay relevant, don’t miss out on anything. Be smart, listen to everything. If you don’t understand it, and if you don’t show your work. You’re stupid, you’re gonna fail.
We’re afraid of everything around us. Simple things like going outside, like talking to our parents about school, or like asking a teacher for help. It’s so popular for a girl to have a rape story, we go into Walmart, and we walk into a wall of young children’s pictured being hung up as missing. Years later half of them are dead or still gone. Yearly we hear about these school shootings with a number of casualties, and every September we think about 9/11, we can’t even go a day without thinking or even joking about crimes, drugs, suicides, self harm, anything that’s an actual issue in the real life world, and small things like conspiracies of Bush setting up the 9/11 has the entire nation wondering if we can even trust our own government.
Maybe I’m just being stupid with wasting my time on writing this paper. I mean, what’s the point of it. How will it affect anything, or anyone. I mean, I’ve already put so much time into it, but who’s going to look at it. Every word and every letter doesn’t mean anything, it’ll all be forgotten by the time Summer rolls around. I’m not even going to think about it. I’ll just be running around with my friends making memories at the park and not listening to anything my parents say.
It’s just so stressful, all this seems so small, but we can’t find a way to resolve it. We can’t take out our feelings of sadness or stress or anger without being called crazy or being threatened.
“Nobody wants death cause nobody wants life to end, am I the only stressed and the only of tired of having fake friends.” -Xxxtentacion
We all have addictions, something that helps us keep our mind off of reality and harsh humanity. We’re addicted to the idea of feeling okay, and addicted to ignorance, and we’re obsessed with our imagination. We stick with ones who hurt us because we are gripped onto the idea that when they lie, or manipulate us that they mean what they say. They do care, and they do love you, because they said they do. They treat you badly sometimes, just because they “love” you. They know for the fact that once they earn your trust you’re weak. Making you feel like you're doing something wrong constantly. And if you don’t believe them, they play pity so you feel pressured you just need to trust them. Then realizing, you're dumb for falling for their white lies and hidden truths. .
What are you afraid of anyways? Love? Thinking you're wasting your time? Trust? Commitment? Don’t be so paranoid. Unless; you're afraid you're not being conscious enough.
I don’t have much to say about it. Nothing to say that would help, but I want everyone to focus more on themselves. Making sure that they’re happiness can change everyone around them positively, but not letting others change your smile, although they make it easy. Stay strong. Be confident. It’s okay to be selfish sometimes, think about yourself other than what others think about you.
So with the photography at the top again. They don’t fit with the snow, but it makes art, and something beautiful. Something that people love and want. And with people; some of us really don’t seem like we fit in, we just stand out and feel awkward. But, we’re all human, and we are all beautiful. People want us, people love us, people care, and people are always going to be here for us. Friends, classmates, school, and most importantly, our family.
Extras- : )
“When it comes to drugs, pill-pushers and takers, we are a country virtually out of control. If you're feeling depressed, to get relief, take a pill. Most of us are addicts.”
“Some girls get all done up, lose their face to repair. They attend every party but it takes them nowhere.”
“Real World” Topics/Problems-
Loss and Grief- It’s hard hearing when someone has passed. Even if they aren’t as close as family or friends. Hearing about someone's young or old, someone you’ve met before, someone who’s a family friend. Knowing the fact that you’ll never speak to them ever again, or get to know them anymore than you do personally, sticks with you. And when they are close, it’s hard knowing that they are gone forever. Never holding their hand, hugging them, talking to them, etc. Knowing the fact that you had never thought you would have a final speaking goodbye. And knowing that you’re really scared you’ll never get over their loss, but also afraid you think you’ll never let them go.
Trust (Issues)- From young ages and growing on. We all have a wall of trust. Losing and gaining it day by day, and it’s something we do unintentionally. And our trust and feelings could be easily triggered, especially when you have one person whom you look up to towards and for every situation. You feel they are there for you, and you’re here for them. Telling all your secrets and feelings and thoughts and jokes, and they do the same for you, but when days comes. They go to seeing and talking to you every day, to every other day, to every week, to just drifting. So you wonder who else is going to just walk away that easily without a care? All to say is for all days in your life you're going to have someone, and that someone is you. You can trust you, and you can be here for you.
Conclusion :: I understand. You take in every negative, it’s easier than taking in positive things. You feel like nobody cares, you feel no hope, no use, you want to give up. You feel like you're just on autopilot. Like you're here but you're not. You see yourself, you hear yourself, but you don’t feel in control. And you feel like nobody is going to reach out unless they feel like they have to. Like nobody cares unless they think it’s a life or death situation. You want to reach out to someone or anybody, but you're scared of judgment and the misassumings that you just need to be put into therapy or put on pills. Which makes you feel special but not in a good way, and if someone does reach out. You don’t know if you can believe you can trust them with your personal issues and problems, because you don’t want to put weight on their shoulders, and you know for a fact even if you tell them one situation that bothers you; it’s not like they can fix it. They’ll say something and give you pity and empathy. But it won’t resolve the issue. Which is why you got to be who you need to have, you look for people to help you but maybe you just need to help yourself. You’re looking far out for someone when you’re standing right there and you always have.
You don’t need drugs, you don’t need a boyfriend or girlfriend, you don’t need money, or food. You just need to relax and think. Be there for yourself. Take a day off and sit on the couch and watch Netflix all day. Get everything off your chest. Call someone, write, do your makeup, go out, do your hair, go on a walk, learn something interesting, dance, sing, cook, play video games, whatever helps you. But don’t hurt yourself cause that won’t help anything.
Teenagers are insecure, hating their appearance and looks but how would it make you look better when you’re cutting up your skin. Especially when you were already born so beautiful. You will just be making scars to actually be insecure about. And there isn’t anything you can do to just make yourself what you want to be. Desperate for beauty, and for small things like freckles, and dimples, and straight teeth, and a big butt, and to look “thick” like the Instagram models and the famous Kardashians. All you need is to know the fact that you’re worth something to someone. Even if it’s just one person, and you are 100% worth something to yourself. All your life you’re going to have yourself from birth to death. And you may not want that, so before loving people you have to tend to love for who you are. We all have our flaws, and we all have something that stands out, but self-love and esteem is what I would say is something majorly important. Taking care of yourself is something that should come before anything ahead of you. It may seem selfish at some points, but it’s something that needs to be taken into hand for everyone in this world.
Everything happens for a reason, we all do stuff for a reason. That doesn’t make it an excuse to make bad choices, I’m mainly saying that this entire nation needs to get everything together. We need people to talk to, and we need to start thinking about others and ourselves. We’re raising children on social media, and teenagers are living on four different lives; social/online, home, school, and personal. Maybe even two different homes or maybe just none at all, at young ages we get overwhelmed of having to have so many personalities in public and at home in order just to satisfy the people around us and it mixes up who we are and what are “true colors” are. Showing off our trendy clothes and devices, being funny by making stupid jokes that could either amuse people or upset them. We don’t know what to do, when we make people angry we try to make jokes or laugh it off hoping they don’t stay mad at you forever, because when one person gets mad all our attention focuses on them. We either ignore them, or we threaten them, or we just look down at our own selves and think about how “bad” of a person we are because we may have just ruined their mood and day. We either watch the fire burn until it eventually simmers down, add more gasoline to it, or we just keep adding matches and do nothing while it stays lit for an infinite amount of time. By the way, that’s a metaphor, just think about it. Some people get “triggered” over small things, getting disgusted that there’s a hair on our food, so we won’t eat it. Our shirt is wrinkled, so we have to rewash it. McDonalds took forever to get my food, so I refuse to pay for it and so on. Alternatively, there’s quiet people we don’t even notice. They don’t care about food or clothes or how nicely their handwriting is on their homework. They don’t say anything, they don’t bring up their opinion on everything.
That’s what makes people unique, we all have our own background past, we have our own goals and future, our own family, our own friends, our own looks, our own style, and passions, our own thoughts and opinions, our own story and our own views and perspectives. That what makes humanity amazing.
We’ve grown to accept things our nation wouldn’t even accept one hundred years ago. From laws and clothing, to sexuality and race. That’s how drastically our generations have grown and changed. And like people, our generations have personalities too. We have to grow more of self-expression. Time isn’t a pattern, there’s something new every day, like intelligence, jobs, people, friends. Traditions go on from group to group, but we always tend to mix things up sometimes. Acceptance is not a requirement, it’s something that’s encouraged for a better future and a better you. Along with confidence and self-control, and personal management. You are amazing, along with everyone else around you. Everyone has their own religion and opinions. Let them, don’t make them feel bad for disagreeing with something that you might like. Even if it’s just a sport, or even as major as gay marriage. You aren’t worthless, and you aren’t dumb. Just focus on yourself. Be selfish sometimes, live a little, and try to love a little; including yourself.
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Best of 2018: other stuff
I’ve posted lists of my most popular posts and my favorite pieces of my own writing, but I want to take a second to plug some my favorite other stuff. I’m a pretty big media consumer, despite being a little out of touch with what’s popular and newsworthy. But since I tend to hyperfocus and perseverate, you can rest assured that everything on this list has been tested to the limits and truly loved.
Podcasts
The Adventure Zone
Yes, I’m extremely late to the game. If you’re not familiar, this is a live-play fantasy gaming podcast (it started out as D&D, but they’ve expanded) where 3 brothers and their father create amazing adventures with hilarious and relatable characters, perfectly balancing drama with humor and action. It may sound boring, but they’ve created DragonQuest (Balance arc) and Scooby-Doo (Amnesty arc) esque worlds that are easy to get lost in. There’s approximately 100 hours of content so far, so it’s a commitment to catch up, but entirely worth the time.
Books
Sharp Objects and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
I read Gone Girl years ago, but I was unaware that the author had more books to her name. These are as good as Gone Girl, and arguably creepier. Sharp Objects is beautifully written, with the power of angry words as a central plot point. Dark Places is more suspenseful, and it has more characters, tackling the way in which small actions create ripples in our own lives and those of others. HUGE trigger warnings for both of these. The TWs are spoilers, though, so think of them this way: If you’re a fan of Criminal Minds, you’ll love these books. If you’re not, you probably won’t. Both have emeto in them (and so does Gone Girl). I have a feeling that the author might be a fan of whump. :)
The Adventure Zone graphic novel
See above. They made the podcast into a comic book. It’s genius.
TV
American Vandal
This is a Netflix show that I feel like is simultaneously very popular and something nobody knows exists. It’s been a long time since I lost sleep over a TV show, but I couldn’t rest until I finished the first season. It’s a reality series/documentary following a 15-year-old boy’s quest to investigate a tagging incident for which his classmate has been (wrongfully?) accused. It sounds low-stakes, and it is, compared to something like Serial that investigated a murder, but it rides the line of seriousness and humor that perfectly captures the gravity of teenage life. It’s crass, it’s disgusting, it takes an inordinate amount of time to lay out the details of summer camp hookups and phone pranks, and yet it also shows a boy’s deep-seeded worries about how his actions will affect his college and career choices. The series is amazingly well produced, considering that it’s the product of high school sophomores working out of their school’s media center. It’s the kind of show you’ll watch on the edge of your seat the first time, then continue to giggle at it for weeks afterward.
The Vietnam War
Yes, one of those PBS Ken Burns documentaries. If it’s not your cup of tea, I understand. It didn’t used to be mine. But this isn’t the kind of film you fell asleep to in history class. The narration balances geography, history, and government lessons with real-life anecdotes, all presented with original footage of the most-photographed war. I’m a nut for the era, but it’s an incredibly poignant viewing experience that brings a lot to the table. Segments on music, pop culture, protesting, and the perspectives of various cohorts (African Americans, Viet Cong, those who fled to Canada, nurses, children of refugees, etc.) combine into a patchwork story that’s well worth the viewing time.
Sharp Objects
As discussed above, this is a thriller/mystery adapted from the page to a miniseries for HBO (but google it and you can stream for free). Amy Adams portrays the main character, and it’s about 75% true to the book. It’s not as good as the book, as most of these things turn out to be, but it is good. Lots of angst, illness/injury, emeto, etc. But, as I said, it’s like Criminal Minds in terms of content. TWs abound.
Films
First Man
This is a perfect film. It’s a biopic, and there’s not a lot of action, but it’s thought provoking. It’s exceptionally well-written, the acting is spot-on, and the music and visuals are beautiful. It makes a man’s extraordinary experiences into something intimate and relatable by de-mystifying it. Fight with the wife, swim with the kids, go to the moon, ho hum. Tis the rhythm of life. It’s all presented at the same pace, with much gravity (pun intended) given to body language and well-placed symbolism. It’s definitely a shoe-in for awards, and it’s my pic for Best Picture.
Isle of Dogs
This is a bizarre piece, but it’s genius. A bit like American Vandal in its way of being simultaneously sincere and off the wall, this animated film occupies an awkward collegiate space--it’s not for kids, yet not really geared for adults. It’s funny, cynical, and very sad, though it’s not that kind of sad dog movie (again, spoilers, but I’ll say that it’s ok to get attached to your favorite characters). This film is art, for sure, and it’s also extremely enjoyable.
Boy Erased
This is a tough watch, because the TWs are the plot: A boy struggles to come to terms with his sexuality and recover from the trauma of sexual assault while participating in an abusive conversion therapy course. There are no plot twists. It’s exactly what it sounds like. But the acting is gorgeous, especially Lucas Heges as the main character and Nicole Kidman as his mother. It’s a beautifully angsty movie. It has a largely hopeful ending, but there are almost no lighthearted moments. All the same, it has a satisfying feel, and didn’t make me feel down when I left the theater.
Colette
This is the ceiling-shatterer of this awards cycle. As promised in glimpses of the trailer, it’s ground breaking in its portrayal of female agency and LGBT characters in a historical context. The beginning is a bit slow and Jane Austen-ish, but from the midpoint to the end, there are multiple mind-blowing revelations and shocking lines that take the story from a little known page of history to a spectacle representative of the Parisian salon culture from whence it came.
Cam
I know this is a strange choice. It’s a second-rate, made-for-Netflix pseudo-thriller about camgirls and the horrors of modern technology. The reason it’s on my list, though, is because it’s very obviously meant to compete with Assassination Nation (even using some of the same actors), and, unlike its big-budget counterpart, it actually hits its mark. It forces the viewer to think about the lines between respect and abuse, exploitation and sex work, and the meaning of privacy in an increasingly digitized world,
Art
Artsnacks
Subscription boxes are nothing new, but I’m especially pleased with this one. Instead of just sending stuff, it cultivates a community. You receive a box of 4 to 6 art products (typically a pencil, a couple pens and markers, and a paint and/or brush--things that are expendable, so you don’t accumulate junk even as a long-time subscriber) and a piece of candy. The game is to use all the products in the box to create a piece and post it on social media, then connect with other artists. Artsnacks also releases collections and pushes additional challenges (such as Inktober) that encourage skill development and interaction among participants.
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Bc I’m bored, I’m tackling things messed up in society.
Now remember. This is an OPINIONATED THING. DON’T READ UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE HIT IN THE FACE WITH MY OPINIONS!
The Dress Code: The discussion of dress code and it’s discriminatory nature against girls and their self-image has been a prevalent subject amongst many middle and high school students. This topic has continued to stay relevant, and I’m sure we’ve all either heard about, or even experienced ourselves, the unjust punishments hundreds of students receive daily because of ridiculous dress code rules. When discussing this topic, it would be ignorant to ignore the sexualization of female bodies in our society. This is arguably the root of all problems relating to dress codes, and likewise, the main reason that a restrictive dress code would ever exist in the first place. As has been proved time and time again in nearly every aspect of our daily lives, the female body is commonly associated as being synonymous with sex.The objectification of women in the media is something that only further bolsters this idea; which has encouraged the conception that the female body is nothing more than a selling point or form of entertainment. Something only to be viewed in a sexual light or as something “appealing” for those who see it. The societal fault that has built this negative connotation surrounding female bodies is the exact source of what has led schools to create a dress code.I mean of course, if schools were to allow bra straps to be shown or shorts to be worn, female students would be far too distracting to their fellow classmates and student body, right?As I’m sure anyone who has been dress coded themselves has experienced being punished because of something that you wear is not only incredibly inconvenient (no, I did not bring complete a change of clothes with me to school), but especially embarrassing and guilt-inducing.Every time I’ve been dress-coded, or told to “cover up,” my skin would begin to crawl, my face heat up, and my chest begin to feel heavy, as if a rock-form of guilt was thrown right on top of it. Throughout all of these situations I couldn’t help but think that I’d done something inexplicably and horribly wrong. (hint, I didn’t.) You see, telling a girl to go and put on a jacket, change her outfit, or whatever punishment is decided upon, does more than just force her to go change. It sends her a message that will continue to be recited and repeated every day for the rest of her life. A message that says: your body is a sexual thing, and the exposition of your skin will only ever be seen in an inappropriate light. A message that is only confirmed by our media and passed down by parents who want to protect their little girl. A message that will travel far past the boundaries that any school will ever reach.Dress codes also give the person doing the dress coding the power to deem someone’s body as a sexual thing.
While some teachers or staff may simply be following a certain rule set by their school, I myself have been dress coded, on more than one occasion, for reasons that were in no way an actual violation of the dress code. Even though I was following the rules that are considered to be so necessary in creating a “safe learning environment” for students, somehow, I was still too inappropriate to be sitting in class. (In this specific example, I was in third grade, wearing jean shorts and a tank top. Boobs didn’t exist in my world yet.) This only further proves the point that, no matter what “rules” or ridiculous outfit guidelines you impose on students, it is solely up to the people around them to decide whether they are going to view that individual in an appropriate light or not.It is not a girls fault for wearing something that may “distract” someone, but rather the fault of whoever may view a girl’s body as being “distracting” in the first place. My body is not a distraction. My existence is not a hindrance to those who surround me. The only real issue I can name in this situation is the fact that anyone would have the mentality that these claims are true.The fact that so many girls have to miss class time, or even be sent home because of something that they’re wearing sends out another societal message. The message that their male counterparts education is more valuable than her own, and that their bodies themselves are something punishable.In the United States, it’s been a few decades since women weren’t allowed to receive the same education as men; and since then, we have prided ourselves in providing equal opportunity for any gender to succeed in life. As has been shown on multiple occasions however, gender inequality is still a huge problem today. But why do we continue to insist on making these problems worse? Things like dress codes pretty much ingrain gender roles and unfair treatment of the sexes into the minds of children as being normal.
Yes, we may have accomplished allowing females to actually receive an education, yes we may have accomplished allowing females to be seen as actual members of society (wow!!), but that doesn’t get rid of the fact that we are fueling ideas gender inequality everyday, and doing so by cementing them within our school systems and students minds. How can we claim to be anywhere near having gender-equality in schools while these unjust dress codes continue to exist?To emphasize the true hypocrisy of dress codes, let’s look at this situation in perspective. It is incredibly common for schools to have girls leave class, or even school in general (I’ve even had friends of mine be suspended), due to a violation of the dress code.The dress coding process normally goes a little something like this: You go to class and have a teacher deem your outfit as inappropriate; from there you need to go and change; and while there are multiple different ways that you can be sent off to change, all of which involve finding some sort of jacket, sweatpants, or even completely new outfit to change into.
A reminder that this whole process is happening during class time.After finding whatever it is you need, you have to put away (or in some schools, turn in) your “inappropriate” clothes before heading back to class. For some teachers, finding a new article of clothing is enough; for others, there’s more to the story. Girls may find themselves doing work in a side room for the rest of the period, having to serve detention or maybe even be sent to an administrator’s office for an even harsher punishment. Regardless of the details of any punishment however, we shouldn’t have such protocol being implemented in school in the first place. The process itself is tedious, time consuming and guarantees that a student will be missing out on class time in order to find new clothes. Many dress codes detail their intent as creating a “safe” or “productive” learning environment for students. Which means, the main reason schools don’t want male students to be “distracted” in class is because they recognize this class time as being important and necessary in the first place! In an attempt to condense everything into very brief and blunt terms: the solution to ensuring that one student does not miss class time is to force a different student to miss that class time instead.Is there not the slightest trace of irony in this situation?
Which leads me to my next point: how dress codes are also harmful to boys. Dress codes succeed in further adding onto and broadcasting the largely false and negative aspects of the male stereotype. While girls are far more likely to be actively discriminated against, boys are consistently being portrayed in a negative light.Men are stereotypically seen as power-hungry, emotionless, sex-driven beings. And through dress codes we have only added onto this imagery to create a narrative that says: boys aren’t capable of not being distracted by girls. That boys are already far too sex-driven to be trusted to focus in a room that contains exposed shoulders, thighs or midriffs. Yet surprisingly, never in my whole existence has a boy ever been outwardly affected by what I was wearing.
In fact, I can name countless situations where boys didn’t blink an eye at an outfit that I had previously been dress coded for. The very foundation that dress codes are built upon instills boys with the mindset that they constantly have to be yearning for sex in order to be considered “normal” teens. When in reality, boys are not only able to control their hormones around their classmates (regardless of what they’re wearing), but most likely weren’t even affected or “distracted” to by them to begin with.
Although dress codes may be viewed as “necessary” in order to maintain a “proper learning environment” in schools, they are in no way needed to actually be doing so. Instead of creating guidelines that require girls to hide their bra straps, create an environment where these straps can be seen for what they are: a piece of elastic.Instead of taking girls out of class for being “distractions” to other students, teach kids that they shouldn’t be “distracted” by anyone’s physical appearance in the first place. Instead of trying to “protect” boys from the exposition of too much skin, understand that they genuinely won’t be affected by a girl’s appearance until we make it a point to constantly draw attention and shame girls for it.
If we truly value the progression of gender equality in our society, and if we truly want to protect our youth from potential danger in the future, we need to ensure that they are not being taught the opposite of these morals in their schools.
Thank you all for coming to my Ted Talk. And reading my thoroughly peeved rant. And I should’ve written this for an essay I had to do recently. I liked my other one; LGBTQ+ rights, but sill
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REFLECTION COMPILATION
CHAPTER 1: THE CONCEPT OF “SELF” FROM VARIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
This chapter thought us a variety of things from the class as well as it refreshes my memory on things that I already knew or just needed a reminder about.
In this lesson, I have learned about the various philosophical perspectives from several philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, St Augustine, Rene Descartes, John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Sigmund Freud, Gilbert Ryle, Paul Churchland, and Maurice Merleu. Among these philosophers the one that describes and relates me the most is Socrates.
Socrates made me realized a lot of things in life like it is better for us to know who really we are, who we should be, and who we will become. As an individual it will, it enable us to understand our true nature when we examine and reflect on the life we are living. I have realized that as a human being we need to exercise our introspection and to attempt to learn more about their fundamental nature and essence.
In conclusion, self-reflection is the key to achieve self-awareness: it allows us to look neutrally at our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions. Through this practice, we are able to look at ourselves with interest and curiosity, and just like what Socrates suggests to achieve a meaningful and happy life only through knowing our purpose and value and knowing the knowledge of ourselves that can be achieved thru incessant soul-searching.
CHAPTER 2 : SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF SOCIETY
As student, this chapter helps me in various ways which will result in mastering the self since it will provide knowledge which will help me make wiser decisions in life. Among the several philosophers that this lesson thought us the philosopher that I can coincide myself is Charles Horton Cooley.
Charles Horton Cooley is the philosopher that coincides with my personality because of his work on “looking glass self-theory”. He states “People shape themselves based on what other people perceive and confirm other people's opinion on themselves”, which is completely accurate. This has become new normal to society, individuals base their sense of self by the perception of others, some people base their whole persona on others’ perception about them, I chose this philosopher because that’s how we feel sometimes, we tend to imagine others’ judgment about our appearance, we tend to live by their perception and not our own. Moreover, we chose Charles because of his astounding and relatable work. His work is more relatable since we’re in the 21st century where social media has taken the world by storm, and each year we tend to be more addicted.
Our teacher Sir Raul Dadis, Jr. stated “we tend to imagine the outcome of something before we do it”. For example, before we post something on social media, we think what the outcome will be, “how many likes would it get?” “would like it or would they not?”. I think of that because we use those very judgments, that I receive from others to measure our self-worth, confidence, values and etc. In conclusion I chose Charles Horton Cooley because of his work on “Looking Glass Self” which is extremely accurate, relatable and if we fully understand his work, we can improve and “understand the self” better.
CHAPTER 3: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONCEPTUALIZATION OF SELF THE SELF AS EMBEDDED IN CULTURE
In this chapter, I have learned about the concept of the self. I have also discovered that self concept can be viewed in two ways which are the egocentric and sociocentric.
In the egocentric view, the self is seen as an autonomous and distinct individuals while in the sociocentric on the other hand, the self is considered as contigent on a situation or social setting. I have also discovered that self identification may be attained by overcomming traditional practices or through internalizing divergent cultural models and suppressing any conflict on self representatio. Sometimes we individual also encountered identity struggle between assume identity and the identity that the society has set for us, that sometimes it make us confused.
In conclusion, with this different views both are applicable and helpful for us to identify our self concept and also as an individual we tend to experience identity struggles when there is a discrepency between a person's assumed identity and the identity imposed by other and the society, we should not be over affected by it as long as we knew ourselves there's nothing to worry about and prove them who really we are.
CHAPTER 4: PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF
This chapter helps me define and describe the different psychological concepts of the self. I have also distinguished the various concepts of the self and identify their relationships.
I have learned and realized in Carl Roger’s Self Theory that self concept is one of the important aspects of the self understanding which refers to the image of our self. We all know as a human being we are always striving for self fulfillment or self actualization and sometimes when the need of self are denied we often experienced severe anxiety. I have also observed this days that most of the teenagers are experiencing depression and stress because of lack of moral support or self affirmation, it is very important that us adolescents are supported in our effort for us to create a consistent, coherence or unified understanding of our psychological self. Creating vision for our self is also good for us to know where we are now and how far we need to go.
In conclusion, as an adolescent I should also take good care of my psychological heath. I should learn to cope up anxiety attacks and convert it into positive mindset. I have also realized that it is good for us to create a vision for ourselves on where we are now and how far we still need to go for us to become more motivated to pursue our life and our dreams.
CHAPTER 5: WESTERN AND EASTERN CONCEPT OF THE SELF
In this chapter, I have learned about the differences of the western concept and eastern concept of the self
I have realized that as an individual it is good for us to deeply aware of our self, our sense of direction, our purpose and volition. I have also discovered the different concept of the self in the Western and Eastern. For the western, people tend to think like Norah, people are separate and unique from each other. However, in eastern philosophy the self is often treated as an illusion. That is the idea that people are separate entities from each other and the world is not considered a reality in eastern thought. In simple terms from western people they tend to think of the self as an entity separate from other while in eastern the self is often treated as a illusion.
In conclusion, even there are a lot of concept about the self it is best for us to be still aware of our self and what concept and direction that we follow as long as it would help us grow and what’s best for us either we think ourselves separate of illusion.
CHAPTER 6: THE PHYSICAL SELF
In this chapter, I have learned the process of physical growth and development. It deepens more my understanding of the physical self.
This chapter helps me discover more about the physical self, the stages of life span, the two factors that affect physical growth and development, it's theories, the body image, and the importance of beauty. I have realized that as human beings e should know how to acknowledge ourselves, our beauty, and the whole aspects that we have. Although it is also good when we try to improve yourself to boast out self-esteem but most importantly we should always know how to be contented and accept who we are.
In conclusion, our body has shaped by the inheritance that we possess from our parents, everything we have now is the product of where we came from. We should know how to be contented of our beauty. Some of us tend to judge others based on physical appearance. However, physical appearance alone is not enough to know a person's true character. It is important to see a person's inner thoughts and feelings. Above all things physical it is more important to be beautiful on the inside.
CHAPTER 7: THE SEXUAL SELF
In this chapter, I have able to learn about the development of sex characteristics and the human reproductive system. I have distinguished attraction, love, and attachment, and I have also identified the cause and consequences of sexually transmitted infection, early pregnancy, and the importance of contraception and reproductive health law.
Throughout this chapter, it helps me to know and discover more about the human reproductive system and its functions that before I have never known about. I have also learned the differences between primary sex and secondary sex. As an adolescent, I have learned and realized within this topic that all of us undergo a process wherein attraction, love and attachment have been present. When we talk about attraction it is the process to evoke interest, pleasure, or liking for someone or something. Love is complex it composes of mixed emotions, behavior, beliefs associated with a strong feeling of affection and respect for one another. Attachment on the other hand is being emotionally close to someone. This chapter also discusses the different sexual orientation and it also helps us distinguish the sexually transmitted infection (STID), early pregnancy, and the ways to avoid these diseases.
In conclusion, we are the one who is liable for our own self we should try to know and discover ourselves like knowing the orientation that we belong to, we should know how to become a responsible individual towards sex activities for us to avoid this deadly diseases because at the end of the day we will be the one who will suffer if we underestimated this thing.
CHAPTER 8: THE MATERIAL SELF
In this chapter, I have developed my understanding of the material self, it also helps me describe the basic components of the material self and I have also developed the qualities of a wise buyer.
Throughout this chapter have learned that for some material possessions are usually a reflection of a person's success or failure. We all know that self is composed of material self which is the manifestation of one's identity through material possessions. We have also tackled the basic components of the material self which are the body, clothes, one's car, pet, and other things that consider as his or her possessions. As an individual, this chapter helps me awaken and become more responsible for buying my possessions, we all know that possession made us feel satisfied and it describes the wholeness of us but sometimes it can only lead us to become an irresponsible individual because of its bad effect which could lead in compulsive buying disorder that we might possess.
In conclusion as adolescents, we need to accept and appreciate the physical characteristics of our own body, we need to become more contented on the possession that we have today, and also we need to become a responsible consumer individual towards our possessions in order to achieve a balanced, happy and well-being life.
CHAPTER 9: SPIRITUAL SELF
This chapter enables me to experience a feeling of oneness with a higher being and the universe. It also gives a deeper purpose or meaning of one's life and helps me developed the interaction, observation, and imitation in my family, school, and the church which also plays a very important role in developing my spiritual development.
Spirituality is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to the material or physical self. This lesson enables me to realize the recognition of a feeling or sense of belief that there is something greater than myself, something more to being human than sensory experience, and that the greater whole of which we are part is cosmic or divine in nature. I have also learned and realized that no matter what the religion we have as long as it helps us to connect our connection to the divine almighty it is definitely alright.
In conclusion, spirituality enables us to search for the meaning of our life as a whole really means, the more we search for the meaning of our life the more motivated we are to explore and discover the meaning, significance, and purpose of our life. Any spiritual beliefs are well accepted, should be recognized and accepted as long as it helps us develop more our spiritual connection to our divine almighty.
CHAPTER 10: THE POLITICAL SELF
This chapter begins with defining politics it includes concepts on political community socialization, social interaction, and citizenship. It also helps me to defines the influence of family, school, church peers, and media on the development of the political self.
In this lesson, I have distinguished the function of the government, the system that our country belongs and also I have discovered and distinguished the rights, freedom, and obligation of an individual ad a citizen of his or her own country. I have realized that through socialization there is a political self every group that I belong, whatever my beliefs are it is also connected to the identity that I have possesses. My peers also play an important role in influencing our political self, the interaction that we have in our peers emphasizes the equal distribution of power, rights, and privileges among the member of the group that I belong to.
In conclusion, as an individual, we should know or learn to discover who we are, our rights, and our obligation as a citizen of our country. I have realized that as a citizen I am obliged to follow the laws, rules, and regulations that our government has implemented, pay taxes honestly and on time, and to defend the nation if the need will arise. We should learn how to follow and do this for us to become a good influence individual for the betterment of our own self and for the country.
CHAPTER 11: DIGITAL SELF
This chapter enables me to know the roles of mobile phones, the internet, and social networking in developing the digital self. It also explains the role of the government, school, and church in the prevention of identity theft, false information, and fake news. It also identifies the Filipino values of social networking.
In my own understanding of the lesson, the digital self refers to ourselves that engage in the modern changes specifically the rapidly increasing development of technology advancement. As we have observed in our generation this day most of the youth are very exposed to the modern world and technology and we can really say that these changes brought both advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages are easy access information, entertainment, communication, etc and we can't deny that these things make our life easier. However, technology has a negative impact such as addiction or obsession that would lead us to trouble like the risk of our health and lacking time for family bonding.
In conclusion, as a youth of this modern generation, we should always be aware of the priorities that we should settle first and we should know how to control ourselves towards overusing technology. It is alright to use these things because we all know that these things are also important, useful, and helpful but we should learn to use it moderately to avoid negative consequences that would only put us in a problem or danger.
REFLECTION FOR UNDERSTANDING THE SELF SUBJECT
Completing the term in Understanding the self class, I was able to benefit from a variety of new ghings from the class, as well as refreshes my memory on things that I already knew or just needed a reminder about.
This subject helps me expands my understanding about who I am, what my values are and why I think and act the way I do. It was like a form of personal analysis that allows me to being my life into alignment of who I wish to become. I have also learned a lot of things physically, sexually, mentally and psychologically that really boast my self even more. I have realized that I should appreciate the beauty that I possesses inside and out and avoid unnecessary things that would just put me in danger. The various assignments and activities in this class really helped me understand and realuzed where I stand, what I need to excel, and what I need to work on. The biggest hurdle in the class for me was time management and slow internet connection. I am a procrastinator and always has been, so completing assignments on time was still a challenge for me the same with the internet connection as well.
This subject thought me how to self-reflect, through self reflection it allows me to build emotional self awareness, like what we have discussed and learned that we should gain self affirmation and appreciate everything about us. We should allow ourselves to reflect and ask our self about some important question to gain a better understanding of our emotion, strength, weaknesses, and other factors. I have also discovered potentials about myself, I've never thought of myself as a leader but because of the class and group discussion I found that I am a good leader. I communicate my idea to ghe group while trying to balance the ideas of others so the group can come agreed upon decision.
To sum it up, Understanding The Self really helps us students to deepen more about our understanding in our self, it also gives us a sense of awakening about the things that we should posses and avoid. I also like to thank Sir Raul Dadis Jr, for his excellence teaching performance to us, we know that it was also very hard for you teaching online but you also did a very great job. It was indeed a wonderful term full of learning, realization and joy.
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#TGTfeature 008: Lea Luna
[Magik Muzik; Dim Mak; Raid Recordings: Denver, Colorado, USA]
Fresh off my interview with world champion turntablist DJ Shiftee, #TGTfeature 008 is with the skilled Lea Luna, who kills it on the decks whether bass, house, or beyond! She took the time out for a chat just before headlining a hometown show at The Black Box. This and forthcoming #TGTfeature articles will highlight dedicated musical talents by featuring their recent work as well as an in-depth interview.
Known for her passion and dedication to dance music as well as the art of DJing, Lea Luna is also a chart-topping singer and a respected music journalist. She kindly shared her thoughts on bass music, repping Denver, dealing with online trolls, and more.
A bit about Lea Luna:
- With nearly 20 years behind the decks, she’s played numerous noteworthy clubs: NYC's Limelight, LA's Avalon, and Denver's own Beta
- Frequently called on for vocal collaborations, she’s recently worked with the likes of Sydney Blu, Manufactured Superstars, and Quivver
- Also known for her production work, she regularly releases her own music, including “Rock Show” out via RAID Recordings
TGT: You’re leading an excellent lineup of bass talent at The Black Box, all representing Denver. What styles will you be bringing for this set, and how do you determine ‘tough bass’ in 2018?
LL: I’m definitely planning on keeping it bass-driven, much like my last Black Box set was. Bass house, maybe a few breaks, maybe a few trap drops to break it up. I’ve always said this as my overarching quote: “Genres don’t define artists, artists define genres.” I pretty much live by that ideology. I’ve been DJing for nearly two decades now and have seen many music fads come and go (fidget, for instance, was one such fad genre in the bass category I used to like that died). Everything all stems from two main influence points- the first influence is the roots of the underground— the old history behind the emergence of the new sound. People like classic vocal hooks in newer remixes if they were a part of the scene back in the day, and bass house wouldn’t be where it is now without the original house music and garage innovators. The second influence is technology. Bass music sounded way different before the VST (virtual instrument) plugin Serum was invented because producers had different tools. I remember when the VST called Massive first came out and dubstep as a genre resulted. Electronic music is largely affected by these nerds who make virtual instruments and how artists interpret that technology as tools for creative flow. While everyone as listeners are pulling apart which bass music artists are making new genres, most real artists are at home dorking around with compression ratios and wave tables trying to invent an actual noise. So it’s hard for me as an artist to talk about bass music as an evolving fad because I sit here with the tools all day looking at the other perspective of what’s really evolving.
TGT: Denver is certainly a unique place! How would you describe the realities and complexities of the scene here as a local artist with a global following? Any advice for up-and-coming DJs/producers on navigating our “island?”
LL: I could not be more proud of Denver, and even electronic music as a scene in general. This city used to only offer these (beloved) secret warehouse-type hideout parties with a bunch of obscure DJs, vinyl collectors, and underground ravers interested in coming, and now every large venue in the city is wall-to-wall packed with dance music fans on any given night. There’s a lot to be accredited to the increase in our culture, but also a lot that has been bastardized. What I will say to the new kids is if you’re out here letting a controller do all the work for you onstage, playing the top 40 dance chart releases in order so you can be popular, you are sh*tting all over my craft and culture. It’s not a popularity contest and the DJ booth is not a bottle service area. The best way to become a DJ is to care about actually DJing. Be authentic, know your roots, respect your predecessors, respect women, respect other subgenres, and don’t spend your life savings on social media likes. Inspire people, ask for help, collaborate, offer something OF yourself before asking about something FOR yourself. Create. Learn. Be humble (but please stop humble-bragging). Start a crew. Give a damn, you know? We’ve all had our bouts with fame and drama as artists, but if you’re not creative at all and you’re not keeping it real, you shouldn’t be doing this.
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TGT: There’s a lot of debate about whether certain strains of electronic music have reached full saturation, or have become so derived they’ve practically lost relevance. What are your thoughts on the current electronic dance scene, particularly within house music, and what’s your approach to keep your own productions sounding fresh?
LL: People of the underground like to worry I’m too commercial, people of the commercial world like to worry I’m too underground. Some people want to hear music everyone understands, some people act rude when something becomes popular because they want to be viewed as purists. Like I said before, know your roots, know the trends, give a damn, create something original, and keep it moving. That’s the motto. If I claimed to be a purist 10 years ago and stuck to it, I’d be in hot water right now trying to play washed up music that pales in comparison to new mastering and technology on those fresh new funktion-ones (the incredible speakers they have at Black Box). If you stay current in your arena and true to your roots, genre and saturation thereof can be left to the listeners to decide. Ain’t nobody got time for that in my world. Artists. Define. Genres. I play what I think is ahead of the curve, and what I think is classic, all in one set. There’s no genre about it, but I will say that my tempo lately in clubs is 122-128, with an occasional drop to 100 just to grab people’s attention. All things house, garage, and breaks fall into that first category, and trap/twerk drops (second category) make life fun.
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TGT: You’ve recently posted about receiving online threats from a random stranger. This is, sadly, nothing new for female public figures. How can readers (particularly men) succeed in eradicating this all-too-common misogyny within our music community? And offline, what should promoters and venues be doing to keep their dance-floors safe?
LL: As for keeping clubs safe - I truly believe in strength in numbers. I have a strong, supportive, loving crew of friends and fans, as well as professionals and security guards. I take threats very seriously and file reports and blacklists when they happen to protect myself and other women. I have very strong security measures held at all of my shows, including this one. But in the big picture, the biggest thing that is going to make any club a safe environment is a positive example of the members of any audience at any show ACTING RIGHT TOWARDS WOMEN. If you see someone put something in someone's drink, report them. If you see someone abusing a woman either verbally or physically any way whatsoever, DO SOMETHING. Inaction is still an action. I come with a large group of friends that I deeply trust to every event and there is no way in hell someone is going to act in public like they do on the internet towards me or any woman in my presence and get away with it. One time someone lifted my skirt up and hit me on the ass at a show and although they were "only joking," they were being held by the neck of their shirt over the patio rail and reprimanded by my friends a split second later until security came and got them. These types of people will always be outnumbered and will never get away with what they think they can. They try it on the internet because they can troll and hide.
[As for online threats:] Here’s the deal. People are jealous. It happens to both sexes, but primarily females because sexual iconography or lack thereof triggers people who writhe in unnecessary hatred from the comfort of their hate-hobbit computer den. Being attractive does not make me stupid or talentless. There is no such thing as “using” your looks. I look this way. That’s a fact, maybe a hobby, not a tactic. I also write music consistently and contribute a lot to this scene. Do all girl DJs do that? Likely not, but many do. The problem lies in the prejudice, pegging all women as having a backhanded agenda or a lack of intelligence or avoiding authenticity. This claim emerges from the hearts of people whose mothers didn’t hug them, whose girlfriends cheated on them, whatever. Hurt people hurt people. Do I care what these specific people think? No. I care if I screw up publicly and true fans lose interest in me. I care about staying true to myself and my brand, and I care about doing what I say I’m going to do for my shows, my opening DJs, the promoters who believe in me, my agent and manager, my crew, my friends, and my fans. Anyone who is so clearly coming from a place of jealous bigotry who tries to threaten me, embarrass me, or thwart my success always fails. Because they aren’t battling me, they’re battling something very dark and unhappy inside themselves.
TGT: And, to end on a lighter topic – what’s your favorite spot in town for a post-gig meal?
LL: Post gig? I’m always exhausted around then, but definitely just as junk food hungry as anyone at 2am leaving a bar. I rarely go out after bar hours to eat though. I’m more likely to hit a grocery store for a pizza to pop in the oven at home or if I’m feeling extra self-loathing I’ll get cheesy popcorn and pop tarts from a gas station [laughs].
#Lea Luna#Lea#Luna#DJ Lea Luna#DJ#TGTfeature#Interview#The Black Box#Denver#Colorado#Bass#House#EDM#Electronic#Dance#Music#TGTstylee
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Unit 3
Psychology of Sex, Reproductive Anatomy, Fertility and Contraception, Pregnancy and Childbirth, Sexual Disease and Prevention
Browse the Overview and Lecture pages. How much/what do you already know about this topic? What are you interested in learning about/initial questions.
I am familiar with what has been taught in anatomy classes and other sex-health related subjects in school. I am interested in learning more about the anatomical features of the reproductive system and sexually transmitted diseases and it’s commonality.
Go through the lecture. For each item, take general notes. What facts seem important to know?
Review the female and male reproductive anatomy so that you can label the parts
Sex: our biological/genetic assignment at birth (generally man or woman, with XY or XX chromosomes, although some people have biologic anomalies)
Sexual orientation: our psychological orientation/attraction towards potential sexual partners.
Gender identity: our psychological orientation to who we are and how we see ourselves (a sense of maleness, femaleness or other).
Bacterial STD/STIs: Can usually be cured with antibiotics. May still cause long-term damage if not caught/treated early. Examples: Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis. Another condition, Trichomoniasis is actually caused by a parasite, but is treated with antibiotics like bacterial conditions.
Viral STD/STIs: Can be managed/treated with medication, but are NOT curable. May have periods of active disease or periods when they're dormant. Examples: HPV, Herpes, Hepatitis, HIV, Genital warts.
Fertility/ Ovulation
Women's monthly cycles vary from 18-35 days, naturally. The 28-day cycle myth was normalized as a standard when the birth control pill became widely available.
Women usually ovulate 14 days (+/- 2 days) before the first day of their period. This is not necessarily on day 14 of their cycle unless they have a true 28-day cycle. There are many ovulation trackers online and apps that can help women track, but they will only be accurate if a woman's cycle is consistent. If a woman has a 14-21 day cycle, she can potentially get pregnant while she's having her period.
A woman's egg is only "good" to be fertilized for 12-24 hours after ovulation. But, sperm can live 5-7 days after ejaculation in a woman's body.
The same body signs to help a woman recognize ovulation (and prevent pregnancy) can also be used to HELP a woman get pregnant. Infertility is unfortunately more common than people realize. After 6 months of trying with no success, you are encouraged to seek out an OB/GYN doctor.
Contraception
Contraception is our active plans to prevent pregnancy. While there are hundreds of prescription drugs, devices, and approaches, contraception basically falls into three categories:
Hormone methods. A woman is given a certain dosage of hormones (estrogen and progesterone derivatives) to regulate her monthly cycle and in some cases, prevent ovulation. The hormones can be delivered to her body through pills, injections, or implantable devices. Examples include: the birth control pill, Depo-Provera shots, Implanon, and some IUDs that release hormones.
Barrier methods. These are physical barriers that prevent sperm and egg from getting together, and fertilization from occurring. Examples include, condoms, Today Sponge, Vaginal Contraceptive films, contraceptive foams/gels, and some IUDs that do not have added hormones.
Fertility Awareness. This is a system of behavioral approaches which include tracking a woman's cycle and signs of ovulation, and avoiding sex during those weeks she is most fertile. This can be effective if used perfectly, and a woman's cycle is predictable. In reality, there's a substantial failure rate. Some people also call this "Natural Family Planning" or the "Calendar Method".
What was the point of the videos? What are a few things I learned on the websites, and might the site be useful in the future? What questions do these resources bring up? If you were telling someone else about this class, what would you share from this unit.
The supplemental videos and websites were excellent visual aids to use during the research portion of the unit. I would share the information regarding fertility and ovulation to my fellow female peers If I had to choose something from this unit to present.
I would present the following information about ovulation. These were great facts from a supplemental website included in the unit’s lecture.
Key Facts:
An egg lives 12-24 hours after leaving the ovary
Normally only one egg is released each time of ovulation
Ovulation can be affected by stress, illness or disruption of normal
Some women may experience some light blood or spotting during ovulation
Implantation of a fertilized egg normally takes place 6-12 days after ovulation
Each woman is born with millions of immature eggs that are awaiting ovulation to begin
A menstrual period can occur even if ovulation has not occurred
Ovulation can occur even if a menstrual period has not occurred
Some women experience pain/aching near ovaries during ovulation called ‘middle pain’
If an egg is not fertilized, it disintegrates and is absorbed into the uterine lining
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As/after you engage in the Discussion: Can you summarize the question and the conclusions you and your classmates found? How do you feel about the issue now?
Discussion Question:
“Who should teach sex education to our youth? What do you think would be best practices for sex education? How do you balance a parent's choice with a social obligation for an informed public? A lot of current sex ed curriculum (even what's used in public schools) is developed by organizations with religious affiliations. Should that be a factor in choosing curriculum? During President George W. Bush's term, many states adopted an "abstinence-only" approach (as opposed to "abstinence-preferred) meaning public organizations could not teach about contraceptives. How do you think that affected the teen pregnancy rates during that time?”
My discussion response:
I believe education professionals that specialize in the study and sex psychologists are individuals that meet the needs and requirements to teach sex education to the youth. By combining professional experiences and a formal education, I believe the trustworthiness within student instruction strengthens. It also helps place the students in a safe-social environment. The youth are very impressionable, so it’s good to provide models, appropriate media, and the opportunity to explore and learn about the subtopics that fall under sex education. It’s important that students are understanding a complete spectrum of knowledge regarding their bodies and sexuality, both ethical and medical. According to the article, What Are the Goals of Sex Education For Youth? from Planned Parenthood, the following are an extraordinary combination of teaching objectives to keep in mind when fulfilling a sex education curriculum: “[It should focus] on clear health goals -- the prevention of STDs, HIV and/or pregnancy, [focus] narrowly on specific behaviors leading to these health goals (e,g, abstaining from sex or using condoms or other contraceptives), [gives] clear messages about these behaviors, and addressed situations that might lead to them and how to avoid them, [and addresses] multiple sexual psychosocial risk and protective factors affecting sexual risk behaviors (e.g. knowledge, perceived risks, values, attitudes, perceived norms and self-efficacy).” (Goals of Sex Education for Teenagers: Youth Health Services). I think these objectives make for a great start to the beginning of the framework for an effective curriculum. It’s definitely going to be up to the educator to how they decide to teach and what methodologies they choose to practice. I personally have never had sex education growing up and was unfortunately left to fend for myself learning about the topic outside of the formal classroom. I would love to know what activities and lessons stood out to those of my peers that have had the course.
Citation:
Goals of Sex Education for Teenagers: Youth Health Services. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2020, from https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/for-educators/what-are-goals-sex-education-youth
Regarding how I feel about the issue now, my stance has not changed. I still believe it’s important that students are understanding a complete spectrum of knowledge regarding their bodies and sexuality, both ethical and medical. Other students within the discussion thread had a similar perspective. There were few that had beliefs that did go against certain aspects of my perspective.
After you complete the Homework: What did you learn? What do you want to know more about?
Assignment requires:
Think of three (3) questions you have about the topics covered this unit. Maybe you have a question about a woman's fertility cycle. Maybe a friend is pregnant and there's something you want to know. Maybe it's a related topic we didn't really cover (erectile disfunction, etc.) Here you really get to personalize your learning.
Find websites or resources to answer your questions. For each of your 3 questions:
Imagine a friend asked you to find a website/video to teach them about proper condom use (male, female or dental dam). Find one resource, and provide the URL to the website or video (YouTube is fine).
Write your initial question.
Write a few sentences about how you found the answer (I searched for...; I thought this was a reputable source because...; if someone else were researching this, they might want to...), include anything relevant.
What is the answer to your question? Please cite your sources.
I learned “Hormones do influence a woman’s sexual behavior, particularly desire, to a certain extent, but these effects are complex and can vary from woman to woman… women’s hormones also change at certain life stages [which will in turn affect libido]…Medical conditions, such as diabetes and coronary artery disease, along with certain medications, can also affect a woman’s sexual desire” (Do hormones influence women's sexual behavior?).
I also found reputable sources about condom placement and the following important information regarding problems in pregnancy,
Three other conditions may cause more problematic periods after pregnancy:
• Structural defects. Your doctor likely will treat defects such as polyps and submucosal fibroids with minimally invasive surgery.
• Adenomyosis. Your doctor can manage this thickening of the uterus with minimally invasive surgery or hormone therapy.
• Overactive or underactive thyroid disorder. Your doctor may use a range of treatments for these conditions.
After you complete the Project: How was the experience? Any take-aways?
Project requires:
1. Choose a program to track your eating. We recommend MyFitnessPal (Links to an external site.), though you may use any program that can track your foods, nutrition, and can print out/copy a log to turn in here. You may need to create an account on these sites, but you do not need to PAY, the free tools on these sites are fine.
2. Record four (4) days of healthy eating and generate detailed reports, broken down by day. Try your best to eat the healthiest possible on these 4 days, using the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as your standard. The following reports are REQUIRED for each day:
Daily foods list and servings
Nutrient Intakes
Ideally, you'll find your Recommended Daily Allowances(RDA), too, but this is not required.
3. Directions for submitting assignment: When you are finished printing, you need to write a paragraph about your experience with "eating healthy". Was it easier or harder than you expected? Points you should address include calories, carbohydrates, proteins and fat intake, RDA values (optional). Would this be sustainable for you to eat this way all the time?
I thought this tracker was a great tool in helping visualize my eating habits into a concise collection of charts. The specific tracker I used incorporated really nice colorful pie charts that showed how much carbs, protein, sugars, fats, etc. consumed in my tracked days.
General reflection on the unit--is there anything that feels important that you didn't mention above? If you had free time, what topics might you want to look into further?
If given more time, I would look into more ways to incorporate healthy foods into my diet. Sometimes I would catch myself eating bad, but then try to balance out the action with something good. I realize this isn’t truly effective. Especially since I am not consistent with my fitness routine.
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My Top 25 Movies of 2019.
It is indeed time… or at least, as is tradition, it is indeed now overdue for me to dust off the cobwebs from my Tumblr account and post my Top 25 movies of the year.
This time for 2019.
Years 2008 through to present are available in the archive. Frequent visitors know that I’ll throw out a few special mentions to all the films that I wish I could’ve included but couldn’t make them fit yet believe they deserve a shout out regardless and then I get stuck in to what I think are the 25 best films of the year.
As always, films listed are based on their UK release date whether that’s in the cinema or on DVD, VOD etc.
And no, despite several attempts, repeated proclamations on social media AND owning the bloody thing outright for the last 6 months, I still never got round to seeing Ash is The Purest White in time for my self-imposed deadline for this so if you’re here to see that lauded, I will dash your expectations now.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s the ‘also-rans’ and ‘near-misses’ separated per genre that very nearly made the final list:
In terms of comedies, I very much enjoyed The Breaker Upperers, The Favourite, Always Be My Maybe, Mega Time Squad, Good Boys, Brittany Runs a Marathon and – as ultimately disappointing as it turned out to be in comparison to the original – yes, Zombieland: Double Tap.
Dramas I really liked this year were The 12th Man, The Old Man And The Gun, The Man Who Killed Hitler and then Bigfoot, White Boy Rick, Stan & Ollie, Deadwood: The Movie, The Sister Brothers, the first two thirds of Feedback, Hotel Mumbai, The Mule, Shadow, Thunder Road, The Clovehitch Killer, The Nightingale, Destroyer, Vice and, as uncomfortable as it made me, Ray and Liz.
Documentaries I rated highly in 2019 included Leaving Neverland, Free Solo, The Inventor: Out For Blood In Silicon Valley, Divide & Conquer: Roger Ailes and The Amazing Jonathan Documentary.
In terms of horror movies, rather controversially I seem to stand alone in saying I rather liked both Velvet Buzzsaw and The Dead Don’t Die. I also thoroughly enjoyed One Cut of the Dead, Happy Death Day 2 U and In Fabric, the last of which VERY nearly made the final Top 25 cut.
Action movies I was a fan of this year were both Triple Frontier and Triple Threat, The Quake (or The Wave 2: The Quake as it is inexplicably retitled in some countries), We Die Young which features a wordless and stellar Van Damme performance, Furie and Stuber.
On the blockbuster ‘stage’, I fully embraced the absolute utter insanity (or stupidity?) of The Wandering Earth, really liked Shazam! As well as Spiderman: Far From Home and Terminator: Dark Fate. Somewhat controversially, I also had a lot of fun with Jumanji: The Next Level, 6 Underground and Joker (a straight-up masterpiece that last movie most certainly is not!).
Finally, in terms of animation that I liked in 2019 I’d pay mention to How To Train Your Dragon 3, The Lego Movie 2 and Toy Story 4 – the last two being very likeable but totally unnecessary. And of course, Klaus which was a lovely, moving, visual joy that me and my family will return to a lot over the years.
Now… onto that Top 25:
25. BOOKSMART
I really loved this first time I saw it earlier this year. I found it very funny and thought the performances were delightful by the two main leads. I had issues with the clusterfuck that is the film's third act but not enough that I didn't hold a place for it in my Top 10 of the year for pretty much the last four months or so. Then I revisited it again recently and I’ve still got a huge amount of affection for it and there is still a large amount of it that makes me laugh out loud - but that third act REALLY rubs me the wrong way.
Asides from the clunky plot developments that exist purely to give the film conflict and some sort of narrative 'propulsion' it doesn't necessarily need AND on top of the fact that Billie Lourd's entire thing is embarrassing and awful (are we allowed to kind of lean in together and whisper yet that she can't act very well?), what really smarts is for a film that is meant to be this 'progressive' and female-centred, it leans in on the laziest and most horrible of high school comedy tropes - the horny teacher who beds the student! And like cliche dictates it is always a female teacher and male student because even a film as allegedly "progressive" as this is self-aware enough to know that if the sexes were reversed they couldn't / wouldn't get away with it.
In an age of #MeToo and #TimesUp the idea that a female filmmaker would go with this iffy fuckin cliche in her debut movie and have no problem at all leaves a horrible taste over the back end of an otherwise pretty great little film... But yeah, definitely still check out BOOKSMART. Its progressive, millennial bullshit stance is complete piffle. But its comedic set-pieces are a lot of fun.
24. IT: CHAPTER TWO
I don’t understand anyone who's coming away from IT CHAPTER 2 complaining there's a lack of scares. There's not a lack of scares at all. The problem is there scattered across a running time that is not structured well enough to accentuate them. There were some moments where I very nearly jumped out of my seat and left because of their effectiveness - the pay-off to Bev returning home as teased in the trailer? Fuuuuuuck THAT!
I think it is fair to criticise its flabbiness though… How the hell its director can talk about his intentions for a four hour cut of this pushed up alongside a three hour cut of the first chapter as some sort of hope for the future feels insane - FOUR hours? This thing is ten minutes shy of three and it feels excessive!
The lack of discipline in the editing bay is quite possibly the reward that comes from delivering a $700.4 million return on a $35 million budget the first time round. That lack of discipline doesn't make for a film as focused as it needs to be... Once you realise an hour in that the story structure is one in which each character is split off to revisit their past and then each character is then going to be given a 'teachable moment', you realise that you've essentially got to watch the same plot point be repeated SIX times round each time. And from a narrative perspective that's both annoying and exhausting, frankly.
Hand on heart though, it's a minor quibble overall because what is there is effective as hell and very entertaining. Think of it cinematically as too big a portion of a great frickin meal... It's a hypocritical complaint also because ultimately there is so much joy in watching these actors go at playing these characters (Bill Hader is an absolute marvel in this and Jessica Chastain lives up to the 'dream casting' suggestion the minute Sophia Ellis turned up in the first one!)
It may well be overlong by a good thirty minutes but it is still an incredibly scary, funny ride... just with a denouement that, once again, shows how hard it is to deliver the climactic goods when Stephen King has given you such utter excrement to work with.
23. THE GANGSTER, THE COP, THE DEVIL
I watched this and flat-out loved it - yet another reminder that you can spin the dial and pick a genre, any genre, and the reality is that South Korea are delivering the best efforts in it nowadays. This is a big, broad, bombastic slice of action pulp that has its cake as a thriller/procedural and eats it as a blockbustery burst of car chases and violent dust-ups.
The remake rights for this are with Stallone and that's a scary prospect really coz if there's one thing problematic about that guy is that he's not ~great~ with playing "evenly" (the stories that came off the CREED II production are terrifying!).
22. AT THE HEART OF GOLD
I watched this with my wife and the both of us just kept shooting aghast and pained looks at one another the longer it went on.
Forensic documentary studies like this are a big interest to me but this was a gruelling yet kind of inspiring watch because it did the right thing in putting the victims front and centre from the get go and throughout.
Child abuse is an abhorrent thing. Doubly so on a scale like this. BUT when you're watching the revelations that it was so commonly known to be going on and covered up to the extent and at the level it was? That is just... there's just no words!
Fantastic little documentary though. If you think you know the full facts on this, you don't! And if the last 4 years are any indication, our generation have found our own Errol Morris coz Erin Lee Carr is responsible for 4 of the best documentaries in that time with this, I LOVE YOU NOW DIE, THOUGHT CRIMES and MOMMY DEAD & DEAREST.
21. ABDUCTED IN PLAIN SIGHT
I find that once in a while there's a true crime documentary so flat-out, jaw-droppingly fuckin... out there, that most of its enjoyment isn't in how utterly astounding it is but mostly the fun you have in telling people the details of it and watching them incredulously go "Fuck the fuck off! This didn't happen? Surely not!"
I saw this in early January when no one was talking a single word about it here in the UK and I spent roughly three months banging on and on about it to anyone and everyone and, sure enough, everyone looked at me like I was mad and kept saying "Fuck the fuck off! This isn’t a real thing, surely??” Then it landed on Netflix and… everyone went bonkers!
It is a tight 90 minute uncomfortable, grim, totally incredulous jaw-dropper detailing what are two of the STUPIDEST parents and the most horribly manipulative paedophile you could imagine. You've GOT to check this out because without this documentary no one would EVER believe the story of… ** SPOILERS here on out ** ... the most horribly manipulative paedophile you could imagine, who moves his family into the house next to a husband and wife with three daughters, befriends them, tricks the dad into giving him handjobs, seduces the mum into heavy-petting sessions - all with the intent of lowering their defences so he can get access to their youngest 11 year old daughter... who he abducts, manipulates by pretending to be an alien into believing there's an alien invasion that can only be prevented by her having his baby and sneaks across to Mexico once she's 12 so he can marry her. Then he gets arrested by the FBI, brought back to America, uses his previous intimate dalliances with BOTH parents to blackmail them into dropping the charges, re-seduces the mother into a long-term sexual relationship, reabducts the young daughter, hides her in a boarding school, poses as a CIA agent and...
... and... and... not one single element of this is UNTRUE! What the FUCK, right?!?
20. MIDSOMMAR
There's issues to be had with this in the sense that at two and a half hours it is needlessly self-indulgent and from a storytelling point of view it suffers like many from that flaw of walking in the wake of THE WICKER MAN's story beats without finding much in the way of variation.
However, it is exceptionally well directed and the building of tension and concern (despite knowing exactly where it will inevitably go) is impressive. It basks in its weirdness and then seemingly delights in getting weirder... You can say you've heard this story before but you won't have SEEN it told with imagery quite like this. The whole shebang wouldn't work half as effectively if not for the performances and they really are great here. Florence Pugh is quite exceptional. She joins Toni Collette in what will clearly be Ari Aster's roster of "Tremendous Performances That Deserve Awards But Won't Get Them".
By the film's end you come to realise the film is leaning into THE WICKER MEN comparisons purposefully - to show us what that movie would look like today, in Trump's America: Obnoxious Americans pissing up against and fucking around with longstanding tradition and history.
19. Us
Ignore all of the bullshit 33,000+ deep dive 'think pieces' spewed out across the internet about this and just judge it for what it is: a great horror thrill-ride with some terrific jump scares etc. but it's not without its flaws. For one, it's too strong a film to get landed with that big and lazy an info-dump conclusion... especially one that kind of clunks against what's gone before - but then, as much as we're clearly not meant to call Jordan Peele out on anything it seems, he IS a vastly superior director then he is a writer if this effort is anything to go by.
Was it really, really requiring of those penetrative essays though on what it "really" means or what Peele's hidden intent was? Could it not just be that the guy made a great horror film with all the very clear subtext of a Romero or Carpenter classic, and there's just nothing more to it than that? Because that's how I’m taking it. Because if I don't and I do actually have to wade through all this internet word clunge about how US is "really" about "the effects of classism and marginalisation" or how the antagonists are "effigies of situational classism", I'd write the film off as a failure of achieving its intent.
To dress it up as more than a relentless, scary cat-and-mouse shocker is like trying to put a monocle on a pig and call it a professor.
18. WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOUR
I went into this as a British person completely unfamiliar with Fred Rogers or any of his past work / impact on America and came away completely reverential to the man and what he stood for and achieved across generations. So much so that this documentary completely changed my outlook on a lot of things. It certainly changed the approach I take in how I communicate with my own children now.
It’s a heartwarming, inspirational ode to a clearly great man and I urge everyone to watch it and allow Mr Rogers to give your jaded perspective on life a reinvigorating kick in the butt.
17. APOLLO 11
This really is magnificent. The 70mm archival footage makes the whole thing make it look like you're watching a big studio blockbuster... and not actual real never-before-seen footage from decades ago.
There's moments within this that are just astounding and intoxicating, making you become completely engulfed in something even though you are well versed in what the outcomes are.
16. LONG SHOT
This was the surprise delight of the year. It was very lovely, fun and funny with a great cast being just thoroughly delightful. Charlize Theron is very rarely utilised in comedy (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Season 3 was so long ago) which is a shame coz she's really gifted, as is proven here - the scene where she does hostage negotiation on molly is one of the funniest scenes of the year!
Seth Rogen makes the sort of stuff that is just game-set-match for my particular sensibilities (40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN to SUPERBAD to KNOCKED UP to PINEAPPLE EXPRESS to OBSERVE & REPORT is in itself an all-timer run that puts him up there with Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy and Albert Brooks) and this is a further reflection of that.
They should never have changed the title to something this generic. And it could comfortably lose 15 minutes here or there. But they're minor niggles for a romcom that we'll still be holding in high regard for years to come. And June Diane Raphael SHOULD get awards for the graft she puts in here. She won’t because films like this never get respect like that, but she totally should.
15. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM
I flat out loved this (though I still maintain that I don’t even think the star and the director themselves have referred to the film by its 'full name') and I would be more than happy to see an entry to this franchise every two years if they're of this calibre.
CHAPTER 2 had me worried because it looked like there was a limit to just how much 'throwing people down to the ground and shooting them in the head with CGI gunfire and blood added in on top' you could push into a film before it felt tiresome but this completely circumnavigates all worry around that by dialling up the 'quirk' factor which has always been this franchise's most bizarro and interesting element.
And the introduction of Halle Berry to 'the floor' led to a stand-out set-piece that was nothing short of astounding!
I WOULD however have preferred it if this film had adopted a bit of the ol' VH1 Pop-Up Video Show (remember THAT??) approach and just stuck a bubble up during the motorbike sequence that said "We stole this wholesale from THE VILLAINESS because we know it’s unlikely you saw that movie!")
14. READY OR NOT
I offer up the heartiest of recommendations for this - an absolutely first class horror comedy that finds a delightfully irreverent spin on the cat-and-mouse / slasher movie. It really is the ‘little movie that could’ of 2019 that offers up way, way, way more than its marketing and log-line suggest. It’s very funny and has some truly effective jump-scares and, best of all, it has a great ensemble cast doing great work. Double-bill it with KNIVES OUT and thank me later!
13. ARCTIC
This really worked as an effective, throw-you-into-the-mix survival thriller. Mads Mikkelsen is terrific and he really sells the hell out of it.
You don't know just how successfully it has burrowed under your skin and pulled you along on the ride until the final five minutes when you're screaming "NO!" at the screen.
12. AD ASTRA
I still can’t believe this flopped. I genuinely can’t. It's fair to say it doesn't quite stick its landing in making the end of the journey as narratively thrilling as what it took to get there but it doesn't matter - the journey itself is a sumptuous, thrilling and truly exquisite ride taking an easy "APOCALYPSE NOW in space" label and delivering something so, so much more.
For anyone who grew up with any "sins of the father" issues this will act as a ten ton weight dropped onto their chest.
... It also has space pirates and space monkeys!
11. MARRIAGE STORY
The plaudits are all well-earned and I’m saying this as someone who's connected with very little of Baumbach's work other than THE SQUID & THE WHALE.
It's a genuinely enthralling watch due to a fantastic group of actors being set loose to do tremendous work; Adam Driver is superb and Scarlett Johansson raises her game considerably to go toe-to-toe with him but Laura Dern, Ray Liotta and Alan Alda deliver a trio of masterclasses under one roof.
(If there's ANY justice whatsoever in awards season Alda will split everything Best Supporting Actor related with Joe Pesci… He won’t, because there is no justice when it comes to the vast majority of awards season but that is not to say he doesn’t deserve it!)
This is a delicately crafted piece - where your favoured side in a fight you feel you really shouldn't be privy to, is expertly switched around - that comes from a very obvious place of truth.
10. STAND-OFF AT SPARROW CREEK
I really, really liked this. I can see it's a film I'll go back to quite a few times over the years and see if I can spot the 'turn' because, first time round if I’m honest, I very much did not see the reveal coming.
It's a great little film. The performances are terrific (James Badge Dale is the best actor of our generation, frankly) and Henry Dunham has delivered a hell of an interesting film - all long shots into dark corners of a big dank space, scenes shot with natural torchlight and headlight beams. It's never not interesting to look at.
It's essentially RESERVOIR DOGS re-spun so the diamonds are replaced with missing fire arms and the back alley warehouse in LA is replaced with a militia compound in backwoods America.
9. KNIVES OUT
I found this to be a tremendous amount of fun; the somewhat obvious result that is birthed from a great writer/director putting a terrific script in front of an exceptional cast, designing a fabulous set for them to let loose inside of and then stepping out of their way for quality to reign.
There's a barely tolerable Edgar Wright version of this where the filmmaking is of course "the star", the editing is distracting and the music is purposefully kitschy.
This very much isn't that.
It's decidedly UNshowy and by being so comfortable in its own skin, emulating a classic style of storytelling not so much told anymore, it really stands out as an excellent piece of original cinema.
8. DOLEMITE IS MY NAME
I urge you all to completely buy the hype: DOLEMITE IS MY NAME is every bit as fantastic as everyone is saying and Eddie Murphy is like awards-worthy great in it.
You don't have to have seen DOLEMITE to have fun with this but having done so certainly accentuates it.
It's very funny, surprisingly moving and is a genuinely great ode to the importance of following your passions and not letting anyone stifle your creative aspirations... Hell, if this thing existed 25 years ago I myself would be as prolific as Lee fuckin Childs by now.
Da'Vine Joy Randolph gives THE best supporting actress performance of the year. From straight-up out of nowhere.
Genuinely can't wait to watch this a few more times down the road.
7. AVENGERS: ENDGAME
I think there's two ways of looking at AVENGERS: ENDGAME - as a film in its own right with an atypical start, middle, end, etc. AND as a piece of cinematic event-level entertainment.
In the case of the former, it is pretty damn great though not entirely without its flaws:
Give the narrative set up and logical lay out a single seconds thought and this entire thing crumbles to the ground. On top of that, it takes a while to bed down and get going and its tonal scattershot approach across the first forty-odd minutes is a little jarring. Quite literally you're coming out of that first hour with your head-spinning from laughing and then getting whipped into sombre, dour moments... slapped with narrative leaps and 'we're putting the team back together' beats.
Then the 'points of purpose' settle in and quite frankly we're off to the fucking races, man. Captain Marvel is a repeated, annoying goddamn useless 'deus ex machina' and the entire use of Paltrow/'Rescue' is just irritating. BUT everything 45+ minutes is so, so, so, so flipping ACE that shit like that can't even destabilise it.
There's critics out there deriding this as 'Fan Service: The Movie' and, you know what, damn fucking straight it is and there's nothing wrong with that.
(Although it could be argued that a clunky 'let's put all the women together in one shot' moment that lands with a thud is 'fan service' taken too far and not pitched within proceedings well enough for it to be anything other than cloying.)
The entire middle hour of these three hours is a play within a play; only the play its playing in just happens to be TWENTY-TWO OTHER MOVIES!
They could have phoned this in haaaaaard by this point and it is so, so, so commendable that they didn't. Hell, a lot of the films problems lie in the fact that they tried as hard as they did to really do doing something you wouldn't be expecting with this!
As an 'event', there will never be anything like this again in my lifetime, I don’t think. I knew this walking out of it. There'll be more JUSTICE LEAGUE type failed rip-offs. Marvel themselves will try and replicate it with the law of diminishing returns playing into effect. But there will NEVER be something so accomplished from something so long-form on such a grand stage as this again as far as I’m concerned.
6. CRAWL
I’ve went back for multiple viewings of this and absolutely LOVED it even more each time.
It's a lean, bullet-fast, brutal B-movie creature feature that does not fuck around: There is a complete lack of JAWS like foreboding, skulking around... This is straight-up, in your face, nasty, fast carnage. Anyone going in expecting a knowing, winking PIRANHA 3D / SNAKES ON A PLANE type deal is in for a hard slap.
It's pitch perfect entertainment in the sense that it grabs you and then just keeps turning the screws ("Oh, she's battling an alligator in a flooded crawlspace!" "Aww, man! It's a full on storm and there's TWO alligators now!" "Holy Fuckballs - There's MANY alligators and a hurricane now??").
The last 25 minutes alone are an all-out, relentless assault upon your ability to breathe steadily.
This is the best B-movie of 2019!
5. DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE
My wife and I are big fans of S. Craig Zahler's BONE TOMAHAWK and BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 (two of the best films of the last decade) even though it's becoming more and more apparent he's quite far from our own political stance.
This, Zahler's latest effort, drops the latent suggestion and presents its right-wing, racist immoral world view with no restraint or apology. And regardless of your political stance, if you're there for the story and the filmmaking craftsmanship you'll find this to be tremendous stuff.
It's like a cut-price, gutter level version of Michael Mann's HEAT; a tale of cop and criminal convergence, told at a thoroughly unhurried and unconcerned pace... Only Zahler would think to interrupt his narrative to propose a short story within the story (about a mother returning from maternity leave) that's only there so that he can hurt you with it.
Mel Gibson's presence here laid up against the subject matter is the very definition of provocative and contentious but there's no getting around the fact that he is as tremendous an actor as he is an awful, awful human being. And by all counts he's REALLY very awful.
Gibson is every shade of ace in this and he's ably supported by Vaughn, who's rightly leaning away from the comedic persona he's broken too badly.
This is a languid, unapologetically nasty film but it's also an excellent one. It's so not for everyone but if you've liked BONE TOMAHAWK and BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 then this is a must. In fact, it's both easily Zahler's best film and one of the best films of the year.
4. MISSING LINK
I think this really is an absolute jewel and I can't understand why more folk aren't screaming about it. It's very funny and visually wondrousness (that boat-in-the-storm INCEPTION homage action sequence is fabulous). The magnitude of talent that would have gone into making this via stop motion... knowing that it takes one week to complete one to two minutes of useable footage!
The creases in the texture of each characters clothing as they move too? WOW! I’ve always adored Laika's output but this was the first for me where the sheer care and attention to detail really shone!
For one, it's easily one of the funniest movies of the year. For another, it looks totally gorgeous. And best of all, it gives kids their very own GUNGA DIN / RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK cinematic adventure type experience.
3. FORD VS. FERRARI (aka LE MANS ’66)
I’m so glad in the same very year where ‘Film Twitter’ nearly blew itself up over the ‘Marvel / Tentpole Cinema / Scorsese / No original studio films anymore’ debate, I got to experience something as majestic and very nearly perfect as FORD VS FERRARI (aka LE MANS '66).
It's got such a tremendous old fashioned style to it that I hope they do what they did with LOGAN and give us a black and white edition and we have 60s era style movie credits to open and close it. It's that kind of movie.
Yet at the same time it manages to display all the high end technical filmmaking majesty backed up by wall-to-wall terrific performances (only Josh Lucas lets the side down with his inability to deliver anything above unsubtle, cartoonish panto villainy).
It's a gorgeous, kinetic, enthralling and by the end a surprisingly tender and moving piece of cinema. I completely adored it.
2. ONCE UPON A TIME IN… HOLLYWOOD
I fell in love hard with Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD straight-out-the-gate and fell harder with repeated viewings. It's a beautifully shambolic, meandering 'day in the life' sort of deal that plays out as a dry, knowing comedy with a sideline in impending, escalating dread... before becoming, well, something else entirely that's so shocking and out of left field that it feels so courageous because of how swiftly it will divide a viewer.
What's so monumentally lush about it is that it is made by a cinematic craftsman who is essentially writing a love letter to everything he adores/adored about a very specific time in a very specific place within the industry that made him. It is framed, lit and shot with aplomb but on top of that every single thing inside of the frame is chockfull of things that are background noise to somebody and yet incredibly meaningful, funny and knowing to true TV and cinema fans.
If there's any complaint to be made about this movie it's that Tarantino's continued insistence on shoe-horning Zoe Bell into his films is absolutely hurting his product: The woman can't act, can't judge the tone of a scene, is flat-out incapable of putting in a performance consistent with what is going on around with other actors and she is routinely a very hard, very annoying distraction that draws you straight out of the film.
You could argue that it is a listless movie because, in the conventional sense people expect of a narrative, does anything truly happen in the atypical Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3 type of way. But I'd counter-argue that all the enjoyment is in just spending time watching these characters move around and interact with one another.
Knowing the history of Sharon Tate and what happened to her at the hands of The Manson Family fills the entire proceedings with a sense of nausea-inducing nervousness about what we're going to see and to what degree. It's like a pressure valve sat in the background, slowly filling and expanding and just waiting to explode. That it eventually does but in the manner it does, is... well it's audacious... and yet questionable... and still entertaining as hell.
1. THE IRISHMAN
Without a hint of exaggeration, at least once a day every day since I first saw this film I’ve found myself thinking back to both DeNiro's "phone call" scene of which no words would convey its brilliance and Pacino's final scene and the sound he makes in it. The former is genuinely just one of the most haunting, astoundingly natural pieces of acting you'll see from a truly great actor you'd kind of forgot was capable of going to places like this.
This really is a straight-out-the-gate, instant, flawless, completely majestic work of art. It is a master craftsman signing off on a genre he revolutionised in much the same way Clint Eastwood closed down his connection to the western with UNFORGIVEN.
It is three and a half hours long and it doesn't feel remotely close to that... and that's saying something considering most of the film's real awesomeness lies in scenes that are allowed to breathe and just sit or in points being driven home through the repetition in the mundanity of these characters' lives. Because that's the other thing that's really terrific about it - it's not a re-tread of GOODFELLAS or CASINO; there's nothing remotely glamorous about this 'life' - Scorsese presents it as this 'working class stiff' gig where being the right-hand man to some of the most powerful crime figures and industry heads of the 50s, 60s, 70s, etc is really not all that higher up past being a truck driver in the same era.
The much-talked about de-ageing stuff on the actors is a little jarring at first (the first scene of DeNiro in his late 20s or something makes you squelch in your seat a little and think "Fuck, this is going to be bad isn't it?") but it settles in and gets much better as the timelines between character and actor shorten - the work on Pacino in particular is first rate.
The performances are across the board superb - DeNiro and Pacino in particular are so bloody brilliant here that it wakes you up to how fallow and shit they've been for so long. But really, this is Pesci's movie. He gives what is the performance of the year by turning in a really human, considered turn... and in the process circumnavigating the expectations that comes from having this particular actor in this particular genre with this particular director.
Not enough reviews talk about how extremely fuckin funny the movie is - and it is very laugh out loud funny with some of the lines and interactions (Pacino and Stephen Graham together are hilarious!) - and no words accurately describe how truly sad and surprisingly moving it is in the final stretch.
... I don't believe a single word of the source material it’s based on but it's resolutely not important to have to buy into the ('fake'?) memoir in order to appreciate the film adaptation as this massive, majestic piece of cinematic myth making - one that I genuinely can't wait to see again many times over the years!
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『*. Semiotic Analysis *.』
In today’s blog post we are going to be entering the world of semiotics and all that it entails. Before proceeding, with any piece of art there is meaning that can be recognized, depicted and interpreted in unique ways. These indicators of meaning can be expressed through “signs” and more likely than not, all images possess some sort of sign - no matter how obvious or obscure it may be. These “signs” enrich & deepen our understanding of the images being presented and unlock the theme/ meaning of them, to do so, the concept of semiotics is used.
Moving forward, regarding the picture that I chose, I feel that it reads more analogical. My reasoning for stating this is because I feel that the image holds a much deeper meaning than what meets the eye. With a closer observation of the image, our eyes are instantly drawn to the emotionless, uninspired woman whose face is fabricated of newspaper articles. Once reading the text displayed on the newspapers, I feel that this image is trying to convey a visual representation of how we can fall into the trap of unconsciously masking ourselves with the things that we read, in this case, the perceptions/ truths in newspapers, hence why this digital art collage is titled, ‘The Woman with The Newspaper’. Adding on to this statement, I also feel that this image is depicting a societal ideal, of obtaining/ creating the “perfect household” which doesn’t showcase the reality of an actual family but merely paints a façade of how a unit should be.
There are two primary “signs” that I hone into when viewing this image; the first being the larger, bolded text situated on the upper left-hand portion of the woman’s face and the actual face of the lady, more specifically, her eyes and the exhaustion and dullness that translate from it. Further elaborating on the first key sign of the text which reads, “Not so Swinging Sixties: proof that sex and money doesn’t make us happy”, pieced together the meaning slightly more. Upon reading that statement, I instantly associated the image to the time frame of the 60s and the way of living during that era. The ‘Swinging Sixties’, was a period where majority of families would dedicate much time to watching television and reading newspapers. There was quite a bit of external influence subconsciously and even, consciously shaping these families and reinforcing certain “norms” or “ideals” in their society/ homely environment. With regards to the meanings that I drew, families of that time absorbed these articles with a strong sense of agreement. Being that it was a vital part of where they received their information, I would expect it to, in a way, form their viewpoints on certain issues or outlooks. It’s as if their ideologies and opinions are created by what is being said in newspapers, subsiding their ability to form their own authentic perspective without the tampering of outside chit-chatter.
The secondary sign that I find significant in this image is the woman’s eyes. It’s as if her eyes are being weighed down by something, perhaps by a realized truth of reality. Nevertheless, when viewing them, you can sense the presence of fatigue and dullness. In correlation with the alternative meaning that’s grasped from this image which is of a pre-defined expectation/ illustration that’s casted of how a family unit should be, with respect to the time period, I felt that during the Sixties many families had idolized the concept of having that “quintessential” family and strived in creating that. Regardless of obtaining financial success/ stability and acquiring a love-filled partnership, there’s still a sadness... an emptiness. This may be an unfortunate awakening of how things aren’t always how the media describes/ portrays them to be or on the contrary, how by possessing all these qualities to this ideal life, that there’s still this unhappiness/ void within. Further looking into this, this can be linked with our previous meaning and that a conditioned/ pre-determined mindset of what should derive joy, ultimately limits the individual to feeling that there are only certain things created from life that can fulfill this sensation.
Utilizing Saussure’s method and returning to the first “sign” that we mentioned, the “signifier” is the bold newspaper text and its “signified” is how these articles can massively influence the family members who are reading it and are relying on external, informative outlets to define/ built their reality. The overall message is that people can fabricate their identity and have their perspectives primarily constructed based from different media sources, in this case, newspaper articles.
The objective significance that’s being represented is a statement regarding that era and how “sex” and “money” aren’t always factors in bringing joy into peoples’ lives. Another note to make of this is the large font size and boldness of the text, we can connect this to the harsh, abrupt awareness of pre-constructed expectations of life being opposed to what they originally were associated with; a fulfilling relationship + an abundance of funds = a positive life.
When viewing this image with a more subjective perspective, we can say that there’s a sadness, “let down” of this pre-conceived notion of what goes into making a happy household. When viewing the woman, like I had said earlier, it’s almost as if she’s created by newspapers, making it seem that her guiding system or source for validation comes from what she’s reading. Essentially, perceiving life with the ideals and standards of others who dictate what is massively consumed by the public - theirs’ a reliance on other people’s words rather than her own.
Delving into the secondary “sign”, which is that of the madame’s eyes, the “signifier” is her tiresome eyes and its “signified” is this mundaneness, almost spiritless approach to life where we let external media sources control our outlooks more than we realize. Adding to this, by investing time in reading these articles without questioning the validity/ accuracy of it makes us become a victim to this tailored reality/ truth.
The objective is this “unknown”, mysterious, unclear recipe of what truly is the foundation to a satisfying, fulfilling, joyful life. We can support this thought with the immense darkness that’s casted across the crease of her eyes. Objectively looking at this, we can clearly depict a more lethargic, defeated expression linked to something... an absence of some kind.
In relation to its subjective context, we can extract from this “sign”, how her eyelids are halfway shut, demonstrating that’s she’s been in this “dormant” stage where she has placed her happiness in what she has been reading and seeing with regards to exterior outlets and is now awakening to an unmatched, dishonest reality. With more of a subjective perspective, we can add, as well, that despite the droopiness/ deadness of her eyes, there is a sense of beauty found within her eyelashes. It’s as if they’re distracting this raw, authentic, and at times unattractive reality/ view of the world (her eyes) with a slightly more appealing, pleasant one (her eyelashes) which can create a false perception of reality.
To conclude, I feel that this digital art collage conveys a very powerful, important message that needs to be digested and made aware to as many as possible. Although, this image ties itself to the world of the Sixties, this still is a relevant message for our present world where we need to be mindful of the content that we’re processing and absorbing daily. We live in a society where they’re tons of truths and a plethora of information and it should be essential to be selective with what we put our time and minds into. Gratefully, we live in a world where knowledge is in the power of our fingertips and we have the capability of truly discovering what is legitimate and what ultimately, feeds our lives with authentic, true happiness. Referring to the era of the image, although the Sixties was a time where the television was making great strides in expanding and becoming an item found in many households alongside the importance of newspapers, these were two main sources to inquiring knowledge - there was a limitation with information and more of an unquestioned uniformity with how individuals/ families were supposed to live their lives. This collage can intertwine itself with the 1975 video titled, ‘The Semiotics of the Kitchen’ where Martha Rosler is making a powerful statement of how woman is confined to this pre-expected standard and role in their household and society altogether. This brilliant, simplistic video brought to light the association of the woman being linked to “a system of food production”② and that of “a system of harnessed subjectivity”②, conforming her to a limited reality and to an undeniable exposure of a definite role of her reality. It subsides the woman’s personal ambitions, dreams and goals as society is forming their reality/ expectations of them for them, they place an imaginary constraint on the woman herself as she is guided through life believing that there are only certain places where she truly belongs. Overall, I believe this image is a reminder – a reminder at how far we have come as a civilization, as a society, as humans. Although, there is still the need for improvement on aspects of our world, it does not deny the fact that there is progress that is being made and how we are living in a reality where indeed, we do consume massive amounts of information on the daily. We have awakened to the understanding of letting that knowledge affect our reality, I feel that we aren’t bound by what the world wants us to be but more so, letting our authentic selves continue to fill this world with more unapologetic, beautiful ways of life.
Works Cited
1. Hampe, Gabi. “Faces and Mixed Media.” digital art by Gabi Hampe, international copyright https://www.gabihampe.de/english-2/faces-and-mixed-media/ . (Location where image was found)
2. Iabel, Gallery. “Martha Rosler Semiotics of the Kitchen 1975.” MoMA, Gallery Iabel, 2019 The Museum of Modern Art, 15 September 2010-14 March 2011, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/88937
• Date Submitted: Sunday, October 13th, 2019 @ 12:55 AM
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Audience Studies (3P18) Blog Post #1 - Ethan Limsana
During the introduction of our text, we learn many different ways to describe the concept of an audience and how a particular audience has and can function over time. A critical piece in learning about where we are now, is to examine how they began and evolved overtime based on popularity of politics and social needs. In order to relate to these teachings, I will apply them to my modern life with a form of entertainment that I access daily in many different ways and social settings depending on context: music. Whether it be walking through the supermarket with a pair of headphones on, or at a live concert surrounded by crowds of rowdy young adults, music demonstrates a multitude of ways an audience can be affected.
I listen to music daily on my phone with the goal of finding melodies that are addicting, and artists that write lyrics that heighten my emotions either by making me feel excited when I’m energized, or depressed when I’m sad. Once I’ve found the right song, I can listen to it many times before I get bored, and look at other works the author has to offer through streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube to choose what else I do and don’t like. This work that I’m doing to curate my music tastes are demonstrating an information based audience by simply listening to the artist and what they have to say about a given topic. It also demonstrates a meaning based view because by choosing I like and don’t like, the artist will see those tracks and adapt future works based on the reviews. Although, these messages would be much different face-to-face by exact knowledge given to one another, I am a part of the mass audience and communicate through my views, likes, and shares. This is my role in obtaining music for low cost, often free, for the large profit organizations that provide me music. Like any other job, I perform these roles when I am the audience member, and when I stop listening, I am no longer an audience member.
Although I enjoy listening to 1980s music, my music taste has changed due to shifts in society and me as a demographic. As streaming services kept offering me to listen to rap music for being a young adult male, I eventually tried it, giving into Drake, Young Thug, Tupac, and more. Here, my shift in music taste was a result of the audience-as-outcome model because the media altered my taste. As mentioned before, I filter into the grand scheme of advertising and ratings as an individual on my phone, without a public space to listen or review the music, where most others are listening too. Since this experience is primarily alone, and I have no connection with other listeners, I am part of the audience-as-mass model. Not to say I have no power in this situation, I demonstrate audience-as-agent too by telling social media, and the entertainment providers what I think and ultimately making the final decisions of my interests on my own; in this case I happened to not enjoy older rap music, but enjoy modern rap music because it heightened my excitement. I chose to keep what I enjoyed because it fits me and my lifestyle, as an act of my free will.
A small percentage of the time I spend with music is live because it costs more money, often requires travel, and isn’t nice for time management, but it's the most engaging and memorable musical experiences I’ve ever had because of the nature of crowds. As a practice dating back to ancient Greek and Roman audiences, concerts are the same in essence; hundreds or thousands of people leave their homes to gather in one specific location to listen to a select few. Here, it is entirely dependent on the people on stage to determine the energy of the crowd. At rap concerts, loud music is played, and messages of substance abuse, and violence are in the lyrics. The crowd responds to this content by showing up to the concert dressed in fashionable clothes, drinking, getting high, and most of all, being rowdy by pushing, shoving, crying, and sometimes even fighting. As feared by the end of the 19th century, live concerts often display the potentially destructive qualities of crowds. As an individual listening to music alone, the reality is relatively unchanged from regular society, but when a crowd gets together, it is a temporary change in that particular society as a collective because individual actions have less consequences associated with them and immediate emotions can freely be demonstrated by all. The positives of the crowd are also unchanged; they create a physical setting for me to go, and create a memorable experience for me to worship someone who was already in power, to reinstate my value in enjoying their music, and keep them in power.
This power opens up new opportunities for record labels and artists to scheme new ways to alter our decision making process to make choices that continue their revenue flow and keep them in power for as long as possible. For example, Drake and his label OVO, use advertising and multimedia to keep us thinking about his music and persona even when we’re not listening. The money made from live events and music sales, goes into buying and selling merchandise, buying restaurants, maintaining an entertaining Instagram page, and utilizing television and film for documentary and selling the idea of his rich lifestyle. Although it is our own agency and free will to choose what we enjoy, these power moves are made to trigger appeal and to trick us into a cycle of worship.
It is the complete truth that modern rap music is a gold mine for those in power: it is repetitive, subject matter is relatively the same throughout different artists, and it is insanely popular among young viewers who make up most of the internet’s usage in North America. It can be tough for myself to take a moment to realize all that I see online is not real, but I’m one of millions, with many that don’t have the education to consider that. The effects perspective is a lens I can use to think about how I am affected by these powers in media that influence me now, and over time. In order to be informed, and understand why I’ll be advertised certain types of content in the future, is to study why my demographic reacts so positively to rap music.
As part of mass society, I and others are listening to this music alone, with little to no exposure of the themes suggested aside from movies and tv shows. Mixed with being a young adult, male and naive, this ignorance to the rapper lifestyle is exactly what advertisers capitalize on to gain and keep my attention. We live in a progressive time where racial equality, specifically black, is at the forefront of all media concerns and therefore, our concerns. The issue is that I have no first hand idea what is different in their culture as opposed to mine. There are few popular media that demonstrates African American’s as regular people who do regular daily things; instead the popular discourse uses selective exposure to say they grew up on the street and have become rich and surpassed whites. When music videos and lyrics suggest their lifestyles include endless amounts of money, having sex with multiple women, and killing people they don’t like, there’s actually very little I can actually do to disprove that even though its highly unlikely. Early concerns with mass persuasion worry that even though I have the critical ability to deem what is true and what isn’t, my brain wants to imagine something before it experiences it. I’m only shown stereotypes, so that's all I have the capacity to imagine for the time being. The artists acts as a barrier between me and their affairs; they only let me imagine how rich their lifestyle is for their specific interest of me believing that listening to what they have to say will elevate my life in some way, or keep me racially diverse.
I keep listening to these fake notions of black culture because, well, it's addicting for me. The Payne studies showed some important facts: intense violence and action scenes were more memorable for boys, the more exposure of similar themes created pronounced beliefs within children, and the interest in sexual themes became more engaging in children as they grew older. The themes I’m exposed to represent delinquencies that parents and teachers have taught me to stay away from, so they are exciting for me to see and fantasize about. It is an over-saturated market also, so I have more pronounced internal feelings about the content. Also, it is at a point in my life that I am more gullible to what is shown to me online. If these reasons weren’t enough to argue why I don’t stop listening, the presence of opinion leaders and emotional contagion make it increasingly difficult to leave the genre. Opinion leaders rise within my friend group, and reviewers I find online. Being so close to Toronto, most of my friends fall into the same demographic trap and see Toronto rappers as something to take pride in and constantly keep up with celebrities’ internal drama. Online reviewers, although they have more credibility, often promote the popular opinion in order to keep fans happy, sharing, and make their program more popular, and they might even be incentivised by outside sources to create and artificial opinion. Seemingly everywhere wants me to keep listening to this music, and when it consistently keeps my friends and I in an energized mood through emotional contagion, it at least feels like it's doing more good than bad in the moment.
As an audience member, mass media has treated me like an object whose attention can be persuaded, changed, and sold, but it's too early for me to see long term detrimental effects. I spend about 6-8 hours looking at screens everyday with heights of around 12-14 hours. Some of this is because of work, but more than half is for consuming entertainment and social media. It often gives me a fictionalized perspective of different topics which is why I’ve worked hard in the last two years to improve my lifestyle and create more unique experiences. Most of this leisure time is worse spent than when the media originally pulled me into addiction at the beginning of high-school. I was recommended to watch things I’ve already seen, or are so similar, it offers no unique ideas, so constantly being offered what I already like has put me in a rut. Also, I am weary of gaining emotions because of my viewing habits. Since most of my interests in entertainment are associated with delinquent themes, I recognize that when I’m out, I am not outgoing with strangers because I don’t trust them. Commonly in mob related movies, they give the feeling that you can’t trust anyone, and those feelings lie somewhere within me.
Public opinion is the most powerful information a company use to always have the upper-hand over the consumer when it comes to buying and selling. The information can be private or public depending on if it is beneficial to the company. It can be used to gain honest opinions about what the population thinks about a product, or a survey can be made specifically to trick the public into conforming to a certain ideal by use of question-wording-effects. The information can be used to alienate consumers into bandwagoning onto a perceived public opinion. The potential to mix and match these uses seems like a modern day superpower to me. To examine the ways public opinion is measured and used by large corporations for profit, I’ll relate to myself working in sales at Best Buy and Virgin Mobile to compare and contrast by looking at what I do to earn an individuals’ opinion on a much smaller scale.
When working with a customer, I want to ensure my commission is made whether or not it is in the buyers’ best interests when they walk in. First, I want to find out why they’re in the store. I ask about what issues they have with a current device, and move further to find out important things about their lifestyle: if they have kids, are they in school, where they live, and what hobbies they have. At this stage, I am giving my customer a person-to-person interview where I establish rapport, and my most advantageous position as a salesperson to both learn about the client, and earn a degree of trust so I can be given true answers to my questions. Here, I avoid leading questions because the answers wouldn’t accurately depict the information I want to offer a product that is relevant. The tactics of my survey change depending on what part of the sale we’re at for my benefit. Once we find the right phone for the user, we talk about the price which is where response effects are wildly useful. If the first thing I say is the actual price per month, the customer would be unsatisfied with the number and feel entitled to bargain, or wait for another sale, or go to a different company entirely. Instead, I show the original price for the phone, and their mobile plan separately which is always high, then show them what I can save them by signing up with a new contract; the response is almost always positive. This is because the original price has nothing to contrast except for some kind of number they’ve had before, or seen in a flyer which isn’t obtainable for me. In the second example, I’ve given a realistic, yet unfavourable example for them to contrast instead to get rid of any pre-existing notions of price. Once the customer has decided to buy the service or product, they will be less likely to buy anything else because they either don’t have enough money, or are weary of me taking advantage of them. When defenses are high, question-wording-effects can be used to make the customer think they want more. The last thing I have to sell is extra insurance for your phone, which everyone is accustomed to say no to because of negative connotations of other insurances like car, or life. Once they tell me they don’t want insurance, I proceed with the process and move on to the next topic, but realistically, I’m using this time to include specific words and body language to make them feel unsafe about their new product. I will begin using words in our conversation that have to do with the length of their contract, the price of the phone, specific words like fragile, stuck, lost, regret. My body language also changes to be more loose and clumsy, and often I place my drink uncomfortably close to the new device. When I ask again later in the process, the customer feels they have made the decision for themselves, drop their defense and buy.
Sometimes, other means of gathering opinion are beneficial as well. Although a personal interview offers me the most advantages, a telephone interview is a cheaper and time efficient way of gathering information. There is a possibility I could employ the same tactics into this interview, but that poses a couple problems. I cannot establish rapport as well, so if I ask too many personal questions, the customer will feel uncomfortable and hang up. I generally need to avoid leading questions, and keep the call strictly about the sale. This is a good way to earn information to use in the future, not the present. I can filter their answers to find out what may be a successful offer for the future. For use of large companies, this type of information could be used to find out where and when to sell things, but not as precise to find out what type of product to make.
The final type of survey I look for is an email survey. These help me to gain a higher personal rating to gain recognition within my company, but as the text suggests, these are borderline useless way of gathering and asking for information. Just about all ways of surveying have some kind of flaw which skews the data gathered with varied impact, but email has to be the most negative impact. It requires the customer to actively do it during their leisure time, and it holds no benefit to themselves. Out of every ten customers I offer the online survey to, one may actually do it. This means they would have an outstanding reason to do it; either they really liked, or really hated the service. The numbers of completions are low, and the sources are not credible.
After information is acquired, the Government and large corporations use qualitative and quantitative data to use audiences in ways that far exceed the possibilities of an individual. They use this information to operationalize their audience; keep their viewing habits the same, and constantly sell their time to advertisers without suspicion. In order to find examples of political economy today, I will examine myself as an audience member of advertisements specifically through my phone on social media platforms and entertainment streaming services. Now that I can identify how advertisers obtain my personal habits and information, I can assume who is buying it based on what advertisements, or entertainment I’m offered.
As a consumer, I actually pay for many of the streaming services I use which I know isn’t the norm for post-millenials. I pay monthly to access Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube, which means I don’t receive advertisements through these entertainment services, which is great for some of my leisure time, but I do not escape advertisements altogether. In fact, each of these streaming services, including the phone I bought, have a mandatory a lengthy multi-page terms of service agreement which states that they are services which I use while I pay for them, and during this time, they can gather as much information about my viewing habits as they want to improve their services. In exchange for signing this contract, I am given thousands of choices of the most popular movies, TV shows, and music of today with a service that knows what I want to watch even before I know what its about. In the meantime, however, all information of my demographic including how much I am paying for streaming is being sold to google, to then sell to advertisers in similar markets. I’m still not rid of the blindspot that advertisers use to steal my leisure time. Often while watching a show, I browse on my phone, and during that time I get ads for tv shows and movies on subscription services I have yet to pay for. The luxury of using Netflix services is paid for by me enduring ads for other similar subscription-based websites, which I am then working for free to review by looking at them and seeing whether or not they are worthwhile, just for it to be advertised again when there's a new incentive for me to consider again. This same operation happens to everyone who uses streaming services, as the audience is a commodity to be bought and sold by advertisers.
I’m treated very well as a subscriber of these services; the servers send the program are reliable with few buffers, the websites don’t have malware or bugs that slow down the speed of my computer, and I even get special features such as the option for subtitles on any show, and even an automatic option to skip opening credits. The same can’t be said for those who can’t afford to pay monthly, or who are using ad blockers. For example, my girlfriend is the daughter of Asain immigrants and she watches Korean TV, but she doesn’t pay for streaming services, and there are no channels for her to watch them for free. She streams these shows from free servers she finds online. These are often filled with malware, regular ads, and pop-up ads that ruin the viewing experience as well as poor servers from outside of the country which buffer and crash often. I am labelled as a priority customer because my viewing consists of popular American TV and I pay for the service, meaning I will most likely respond well to the advertisements that are sent to me and have a higher chance of purchasing, so my leisure time is improved to keep me as a customer. My girlfriend is exactly what advertisers will ignore, she enjoys foreign shows and doesn’t pay for her streaming service, so her leisure time is not cared for or valued, so is less important. This is a slightly different take on what the text has to explains, but it is a similar issue. Racial formation is causing someone close to me to not enjoy their leisure time as much as me because of their background and taste.
Adding market value to certain demographics does show signs of massive potential in new technologies though. Our viewership is measured on any platform we visit through server logs, and cookies. Even now with Google assistant and Google Home and smart home devices and surveillance systems, our voices are being monitored too. I had a conversation with my mother about what Halloween costume I am going to wear this year, and Google offered me advertisements for Halloween costumes the next day. This is the evolution of peoplemeters that tracked TV viewing habits, but on a much smarter and efficient scale that people meters couldn't achieve. Because of psychographics, we are not purely treated as a mass audience in this situation. I am not being offered to listen to Drake because Drake is popular with men my age, I am being offered curated advertisements that are relevant to me based on my demographics, psychology, and my actual web searches and needs described through conversation. This conclusion is very controversial because devices that listen to your voice at all times is creepy, but it is the peak of what target marketing strives to be in its most efficient form. When this form of information gathering and target marketing is perfected, it is hard to say whether our thoughts are truly our own because of the power of suggestion.
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Modern day relationships (and music)
A broad topic – friendships, romantic relationships, work relationships, cue music and we have a movie that is somewhat predictable but offers great entertainment at those you’re watching’s expense.
A few years ago, my mum went through a very short phase of blaming herself for my brother and my singleness; thinking we lacked the social skills to meet a significant other. As funny as that sounds, she wanted grandbabies and neither of us were ready to give them to her, let alone be in meaningful or promising relationship. Soon after, my brother sorted that out and I was off the hook!
Like many fathers, my dad forbid me from dating until I finished school. Knowing this was the rule and being the obedient child that I was, I never entertained it. Sure I fancied the jock, the nerd, the new boy in school and went to all the school dances and socials, but I can honestly say, not once did I feel like I was missing out. My friends were all having meltdowns and fighting with each other on who fancied who first. Having that mind-set, entering university and focussing on going abroad and travelling, boys remained at the bottom of my priorities. Every father’s dream, right?
Watching programmes like Friends painted the picture of what adult friendships should be like, in my late teens and early adulthood it felt like that my adult life was heading that way. I was part of a tight knit group who had different interests, jobs, backgrounds, aspirations but enough similarities for it to just work.
I’ve always been interested in people, especially if they were different. Different in culture, upbringing, ethnicity. When I finished university and went abroad to America, again my exposure and experience of different people shaped my tolerance and perspective. I met people in different settings, socialised with a lot more older and younger people. I mention these instances, because like most of my opinions or thoughts, I believe I have them because of my exposure and experience.
I read something years ago, or perhaps it was someone’s words of wisdom to me, that I needed to view friendships/relationships like an investment. If I am constantly putting in to it and there is no return, it’s a poor investment. Sometimes it requires more of me and sometimes there is more in it for me. About three years ago, I made a commitment to only arrange and agree to meeting up with people I really wanted to spend time with. This freed up a lot more of my time and budget; not having superficial chit chat and mindless conversations for the sake of it; and as a result I have a handful (which these days is a lot) of rock solid, dependable and loyal friends.
I still love meeting new people, and London is a great place to meet people of diversity, and yes, there is always room for more friends, but I choose carefully who to let into my ‘inner circle’ of trust!
When it comes to working relationships, I see these as needing to be professional and respectable – working together doesn’t always mean playing together. I think the playing together sometimes puts strain on working relationships and can affect the way we work together (yes, it also could be a benefit). Sure the odd occasion celebrating a colleague’s birthday, going for drinks and the annual Christmas party is a good way to get to know each other and relax, especially since we spend most of our time together, but I find the one thing in common (work) tends to dominate most conversations…booooring!
My mum is an ironer, she irons everything from bedsheets, pyjamas and underwear. Growing up, even going to the grocery store, we’d have combed our hair and our clothes were ironed and presentable. For my mum, the way we are seen and behave is a reflection of her parenting, perhaps a personal issue for her, but I always think about this and think, would my parents be proud? So I approach my behaviour towards others, respecting my elders, engaging with younger people and work ethic on that.
When it comes to relationships with the opposite sex, I think I am the only unmarried adult in the world that hasn’t tried online dating and thinks it is a weird way to meet someone. Perhaps my ‘perfect’ childhood, watching princess movies and reading fairy tales has tainted my view of reality. I’m somewhat of a traditionalist, call me old fashioned, my knight in shining armour shall find me and it will require as little effort on my part as possible. Feel free to wish me luck with this!
In this modern day, I think things are too accessible and easy to escape. Divorces are easier to get, online dating offers a catalogue of options that you can pick and discard and no one needs to know about it. Who needs human contact when the internet allows you to engage with others and the world without ever combing your hair and ironing your clothes?
I read a book called #Struggles, living in a selfie centred world by Craig Groeschel. And there were a few stand outs for me. He writes about a study where a group of people’s moods are assessed before and then 20 minutes after being on social media and majority of them felt ‘more depressed’ and lonely afterwards. Another study of young people evidenced how they prepared a script when calling and ordering pizza because they were so anxious about not being in control of their conversation – these days with texting and caller and ID, you are always in control. He mentions the days when caller ID did not exist and the phone would ring, you would answer not knowing who was on the other end and you were actually able to hold an impromptu conversation.
I realise I have now gone over my paper limit and have mentioned the word “music”, all but once (and now twice excluding the title).
One often hears of people saying ‘this is our song’, I understand that songs can remind one of people and events in their life. I recently watched a Grey’s Anatomy episode where a man started singing a song to a lady who was suffering with Alzheimer’s and as a result she remembered her wedding day and that the man was her husband. I remember the first time a seventeen year old boy asked my thirteen year old self to slow dance at my brother’s sixteenth birthday party, the song was Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship.
Whenever the song, Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol comes on, I immediately think of my Canadian friend – why, I don’t know. I don’t know the lyrics or what they mean, but they remind me of my friend.
The Barry Manilow song, “Oh Mandy” is really annoying. I have had this song sung to me in so many ways, I don’t know all the lyrics, but why do people think they are charming when they sing it to me? Don’t they realise someone else thought of that idea before.
The very first album my mum bought me was, True Blue by Madonna. I remember the cover, I remember the excitement, and I remember learning the lyrics to every song. Thinking about it, did I understand them? I would say no. I mean, the lyrics of ‘Like a Virgin’, I had no idea what she or I was singing about, but it was MADONNA!
My very first concert, Indecent Obsession, I mean with a name like that and with their first song release titled ‘Kiss Me’, what was my mum thinking allowing me to go! Did I realise the meaning of their name and what the song was about, I don’t think so! But I remember the tune/melody and it was my first concert with friends.
According to researchers at mind.org, they found that music releases dopamine, the feel-good chemical in your brain. It also found that dopamine was up to 9% higher when volunteers listened to music that they enjoyed. So having fond memories associated to music can only be a win-win!
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Charlotte Cardin Will Take Over the Music Industry in 2019–Even Though You Don’t Know Her Name Yet
In our Winter issue, FASHION editors rounded up the 100 people, products and experiences we predict will blow up in 2019. It’s our inaugural Hot 100 Fuse List. From the workouts you’ll be doing, to the new designers and destinations you’ll see on your feed, this is your guide to being in the know next year. With two headlining tours under her belt, two successful EPs and an album on the way, naturally Charlotte Cardin was the first to come to mind.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
1: Charlotte Cardin
Charlotte Cardin isn’t lying when she talks about her love of Radiohead. When you’re a fan, you don’t necessarily mean to talk about your idols all the time, but opportunities just seem to arise. It so happens that, as a musician, Cardin gets asked about music a lot. Consequently, there’s a good chance you’ll hear her gush about Radiohead.
Over the phone from Paris, where she is overlooking the artistic mecca of Montmartre (tough work, right?), she’s talking about one of their songs in particular. “I always give the example of ‘No Surprises’ by Radiohead,” she says. “It’s probably my favourite song in the world. It’s so simple, and the melody is so beautiful. I like hearing something that’s so good that it doesn’t need much—maybe they even underdid it, just because your mind can complete the song a bit. I like hearing space in music.”
Take note: Cardin is big on space.
Imagine if she were a character in a novel about a beautiful singer-songwriter from Montreal who first earned acclaim as a competitor on the Québécois version of The Voice (La Voix) but is now writing music in Paris, for instance. It shouldn’t be much of a stretch. To continue this precarious metaphor, let’s say this novel was assigned in an English 101 class. You could write an essay in said class about how Cardin represents the concept of liminality, of occupying a space in between. You would probably get a pretty good grade. (I hope so, anyway, because that’s essentially my angle for this piece.)
Right now, she exists in a moment just before. Before adulthood, before fame and celebrity, she sings her entrancing smoke-and-nostalgia-scented pop somewhere in between real life and stories.
Part of this ambiguity is intentional. The songs she writes are confessional, sometimes raw or sad or brimming with lust and longing. But that doesn’t mean they are true or even about her exactly. “I don’t only write about personal heartbreaks,” she says. “I will write from my perspective, but a lot of my songs are fictional: things that a friend told me, something I noticed or something I experienced myself.”
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
“I love playing with the line between fiction and reality,” she continues. “If you start from a story that sort of affected you but isn’t currently destroying your life, there’s just more space to create around that event.”
Speaking of fiction and singers: Cast your mind back to 2002. That year, when she was 20, poet, performance artist and icon Britney Spears sang her powerful tribute to liminality. You’ll recall that at the time, as she insisted in the song, she was not a girl anymore but neither was she a woman. What she needed, she proclaimed, was time—a moment for herself—while she was in between.
In terms of genre and branding, Cardin doesn’t share many similarities with Spears. (Stylistically, and with good reason, she’s more often compared to Amy Winehouse, although she doesn’t share her demons, thankfully.) But that song could have been written by Cardin. Or, I suppose, by any woman in her early 20s. Liminality is a universal experience: when you are old enough to hang a degree on your wall but not old enough to rent a car. Cardin doesn’t sing about it in so many words, but she embodies it. For her, it has less to do with post-adolescence and more to do with experience and self-discovery.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
She is at the age when your identity starts to coalesce and you start examining your life with a more critical, informed eye. At 24, with two headlining tours under her belt, two successful EPs and an album on the way, Cardin is learning more about herself. And what she has discovered is that, like Spears, she needs some time.
“I didn’t think I was a loner, but I realized I am a little bit,” she says. “I really need some space, some personal time just to do my shit without having people around. I tour with extraordinary musicians, awesome human beings, and they’re really good friends of mine, but I realized I do need some personal space to be happy.”
But, Cardin says, this revelation doesn’t extend to her romantic life. “In a relationship, I don’t feel the same way,” she explains. “I think the best relationships are those where you can spend so much time with the other person but you never feel like you need to act a certain way or do specific things.”
“I really need some space, some personal time just to do my shit without having people around.”
Which, actually, sounds a lot like how she feels about her family. If we judge fandom by how readily, and how often, a person mentions his or her favourite band (or whatever), then Radiohead has nothing on Cardin’s family. That’s probably how it should be.
After all, Thom Yorke didn’t put her in singing lessons when she was eight, and he doesn’t travel to as many of her shows as he possibly can. Her parents do, always full of pride for their daughter, even when she sings about adult situations. “It’s awkward sometimes if they ask exactly what I meant by something that I know is not something I want to share with them,” she says. “But they’re open-minded. I’m glad I don’t have to feel ashamed, because I know they understand. They were young once, too. They’re like, ‘We know that sex exists.’”
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
She’s safe is the point. But her family isn’t the only reason she can enjoy where she is now. There’s excitement and freedom when you’re in between because the world hasn’t assigned you a dominant narrative quite yet. Sure, there are comparisons to Winehouse—but that is as complimentary as it is accurate. She also tends to get asked about La Voix and about the time she spent modelling when she was 15. (She left the biz when she was 19 to focus on her music.)
If “It girl” were still a title women wanted and the media bestowed, Cardin would be an ideal candidate. And the fact that she was a model is an essential ingredient in her It-ness. She’s so cool; she gave up what is a quintessentially cool career in favour of an even cooler one.
“I’m glad I don’t have to feel ashamed, because I know they understand.”
The other thing that makes her cool is the confident way in which she trusts her instincts. “I’ve realized that when you believe in something, even if you have a certain doubt, or a certain fear, it’s nice to go with it because you can never be mad at yourself for something you believed in,” explains Cardin. “It’s when someone imposes something on you—that’s when you’ll regret a song or doing something. You might mess up a few times, but at least it’s your own fault.”
I can see her hanging out in that Paris apartment, writing songs, on the edge of whatever comes next, trusting herself to figure out what that is. In his novel Everything Matters!, Ron Currie writes something about moments—moments like the one Cardin has made for herself: “…even in this last moment there is still Everything, whole galaxies and eons, the sum total of every experience across time, shrunk to the head of a pin, theirs for the asking, right here, right now. And so anything, anything, anything is possible.”
If only that were in a Radiohead song, then it might be Cardin’s favourite line because it already describes her perfectly
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
Photography by Brent Goldsmith. Styling by Juliana Schiavinatto. Creative direction by Brittany Eccles. Hair, Peter Gray for Home Agency/Shu Uemura. Makeup, Julie Cusson for Chanel. Fashion assistants, Cherry Wang and Gabriela Lima. Photography assistant, Florian Debray.
1/12
Charlotte Cardin
Jacket, price upon request, skirt, $3,875, and shoes, $1,025, Chanel. Top, Charlotte’s own.
2/12
Charlotte Cardin
Top, price upon request, Chanel.
3/12
Charlotte Cardin
Pants, $9,795, Chanel. Top, shoes and rings (worn throughout), Charlotte’s own.
4/12
Charlotte Cardin
Dress, $8,975, Chanel. Shoes, Charlotte’s own.
5/12
Charlotte Cardin
Jacket, $6,025, and pants, $5,075, Chanel.
6/12
Charlotte Cardin
Top, price upon request, and skirt, $7,100, Chanel. Necklace, Charlotte’s own.
7/12
Charlotte Cardin
Jacket, price upon request, skirt, $3,875, and shoes, $1,025, Chanel. Top, Charlotte’s own.
8/12
Charlotte Cardin
Jacket, price upon request, skirt, $3,875, and shoes, $1,025, Chanel. Top, Charlotte’s own.
9/12
Charlotte Cardin
Top and skirt, prices upon request, Chanel.
10/12
Charlotte Cardin
Top, $4,175, pants, $2,825, and shoes, $1,025, Chanel.
11/12
Charlotte Cardin
Top, $2,975, pants, $1,405, and bracelet, $1,675, Chanel.
12/12
Charlotte Cardin
Jacket, price upon request, skirt, $3,875, and shoes, $1,025, Chanel. Top, Charlotte’s own.
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