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royal-they · 1 year

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when discussing gwens transcoding i feel like people dont talk about how her being spider women is literally viewed as politics from the start.

people talk about her and the validity of her actions and choices in front of her even before peters death. her dad specifically questions how she dresses. why she need to hide behind a mask. the spider suit was made to hide the identity of the wearer yes but for gwen stacys spider woman thats always been different, even in the comics.

presenting the way she does keeps her safe when she’s gwen stacy but it also represents the choices she makes. her work as spider woman. its her badge. this line is something that always stuck with me in the comics and i love that they didn’t change it in the movie. her suit and mask are not hiding who she is, theyre an extension of it.

being trans makes how you present yourself very complicated at least in my experience. youre constantly worried around new people and strangers, do they think i look like a boy or a girl? am i passing? if im not passing am i safe? its really complicated, passing doesnt make you more or less valid but a lot of society views it that way and how people see you can change how safe you are. these things are nuanced is what im saying and i like how gwen is allowed to do what feels right for her regardless of what others think.

another point is how shes met with violence when she first essentially “comes out” as spider woman. even though its a loved one, her dad doesnt take it well. because of his duty to society he feels he cant accept her as spider woman.

so she has to run away from home. live with the people who do make her feel at home, her own band as she puts it. and only then, when she’s is able to stand on her own does she face her dad.

they both needed time. to work on themselves. and something important is that he stops being a cop. stops this duty he feels he owes to society to get rid of spider woman to protect their children.

only when he takes time to truly understand her perspective and actions is he able to accept her.

as trans people our identities are constantly considered something cis people and the government get to determine. but with spiderverse we see gwens story as being portrayed as a villian by society. we see it from her perspective. not her dads perspective. not miles, an outsiders perspective who has to come and fix everything. her own perspective. and in the end she doesnt want society to accept her. she just needs her dad. her loved ones. because shes never given a damn about outsiders, there’s never a focus on how some random j jonah jameson feels about her. they instead focus on her dad. because he is who hurts her. and for me at least that’s very relatable.

spider man in general is a very trans subject because society hates him and he has to disguise himself to stay safe. but gwen stacy as ghost spider or spider woman really stands out to me. because it feels so much more personal to get to spectate her life. she’s so real, so human. and that is essence of what makes a spidey.

#gwen stacy #across the spider verse #across the spider verse spoilers #atsv #atsv spoilers #ghost spider #spider gwen #spider woman #transgender #gwen stacy is trans #lgbtqia #character analysis #spiderverse #spider verse #spiderverse atsv

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years

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Quill’s Swill - The Worst Of 2018

Congratulations dear reader. You survived 2018. And you know what that means. It’s time for another best of/worst of list. Welcome to Quill’s Swill 2018. A giant septic tank for the various shit the entertainment industry produced over the course of the year. The films, games, TV shows and various other media that got on my bad side. As always please bear in mind that this is only my subjective opinion (if you happen to like any of the things on this list, good for you. I’m glad someone did) and that obviously I haven’t seen everything 2018 has to offer for one reason or another. In other words, sorry that Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald isn’t on here. I’m sure it is as terrible as some have been suggesting. I just never got around to watching it.

Okay everyone. Grab your breathing masks and put on your rubber gloves. Let’s dive into this shit pile.

Hold The Sunset

The news that John Cleese would be returning to the world of BBC sitcoms was incredibly exciting, being a massive Fawlty Towers fan and all. Unfortunately Hold The Sunset was not quite what I had in mind. It’s one of those rare breed of situation comedies that chooses to offer no actual comedy. It’s not a sitcom. It’s a sit. Like Scrubs or The Big Bang Theory.

An elderly couple plan to elope abroad only for Alison Steadman’s son to barge in, having left his wife, and forcing them to put their plans on hold. Hence the title ‘Hold The Sunset.’ It’s like a cross between As Time Goes By and Sorry, but if all the humour and relatability were surgically removed by a deadpan mortician. The characters are weak, the plots are thin on the ground and the humour (hat little of it there is) feel incredibly dated. The middle aged mummy’s boy is something that hasn’t been funny since the 90s. It’s an utter waste of great talent and what hurts even more is that this tripe is actually getting a second series. I can only assume the people watching this are comatose. Either that or there’s an epidemic of people in Britain who have lost the remote.

Avengers: Infinity War

Yes this is one of the worst movies of 2018 and no I don’t regret saying that one little bit. Avengers: Infinity War was fucking terrible. Period. There were too many plots and characters going on, which made the film hard to follow (and what staggers me is that the so called ‘professional’ critics have condemned movies for having too many characters and plots before. Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice and even Deadpool 2. But because this is an MCU movie, it gets a free pass. Fuck off). The characterisation was weak due to sheer number of characters they try to juggle, resulting in characters coming off as one dimensional caricatures of themselves and scenes where characters such as Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Star-Lord sound completely interchangeable. The villain, Thanos, is a stupidly and poorly written villain, but that’s hardly surprising considering what a shit job Marvel have done building him up over the course of these 20+ movies. And let’s not forget that pisstake ending. A bunch of prominent Marvel characters die and it’s all very, very sad... except all these characters just so happen to have sequels planned, which makes this ending fucking pointless and have less impact than a feather on a bouncy castle.

I don’t know which is more shocking. That Marvel and Disney think their audience are that stupid and gullible, or that their audience are actually validating their view. Fuck you Disney.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

I’ve always wanted a Harry Potter RPG, where you could customise your character, choose your house and actually live a full school life at Hogwarts. This year, Warner Bros and Jam City gave us just that.

That was a mistake.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with the mobile gaming market right now. The gameplay is boring and involving where you just tap images on a screen until a progress bar fills up. Wizard duels are little more than rock-paper-scissors challenges that require no kind of skill. Bonding with friends and caring for magical creatures just consist of pathetically simple pop quizzes and yet more boring tapping. Oh and of course you only get a certain amount of energy to complete these tedious tasks. If you run out of energy, you wait for it to fill up... or pay up for the privilege. So determined are they to extract your hard earned cash from your wallet, there’s actually a bit where Devil’s Snare strangles your eleven year old avatar and the game effectively tries to guilt trip you into paying micro-transactions to save them. It’s sleazy, gross and manipulative. Honestly, you’re better off just playing Candy Crush.

Agony

When the developers of this game said they wanted to give the player a trip through Hell, they had no idea how true that statement really was. Agony is dreadful on a number of levels. The design for Hell itself, while visually interesting at times, is often not very practical and gets quite dull and repetitive after a while. The stealth mechanics are a joke and the AI of your demonic enemies are pitiful. All of this alone would have been enough to put this game on the list, but then we also have the casual misogyny. Agony is a gorefest trying desperately to shock the player. We see men and woman get tortured, but it’s the women that often get the extreme end. The violence inflicted on them is often sexual in nature and the game seems to go out of its way to degrade and dehumanise women at every turn. The orgasmic cries of ‘pull it out’ quickly become a staple of the game’s experience as we see naked women raped, tortured and murdered, all for the purposes of ‘entertainment.’

I would call Agony sexist, but honestly that would be giving it too much credit. Agony is like a little child trying desperately to be all dark and edgy in a pathetic attempt to impress everyone around him, and we should treat it as such. Go to your room Agony. No ice cream for you.

Peter Rabbit

If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Beatrix Potter rotating in her grave.

Yes we have yet another live action/CGI hybrid, but instead of something innocuous like the Smurfs or Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sony instead decides to adapt Peter Rabbit, with James Corden in the title role.

It’s about as bad as you’d expect.

Their attempts to modernise the story are painful to say the least with pop culture references, inappropriate adult humour and twerking rabbits. Plus rather than the gentle, but slightly mischievous character we got in the source material, here Peter is a sociopathic delinquent who seems to revel in making the farmer’s life a living hell. He’s unlikable and unwatchable as far as I’m concerned and the film doesn’t in anyway earn the emotional moments it tries so desperately to sell to the audience. And the worst part is it’s getting a sequel.

Wait. Do you hear that sound? That’s the sound of Beatrix Potter tearing out of the ground, ready to kill whatever idiot came up with this shit.

Fallout 76

I was excited for Fallout 76. A MMORPG where players band together to rebuild society after a nuclear apocalypse. Could have been great. Pity it wasn’t.

Fallout 76 is a dreadful game. Not only is it a buggy, glitchy mess that requires a constant online connection to play, which could result in you losing hours of progress if your WiFi went down, it’s also unbelievably tedious, and that’s because there’s nothing to do in the game. There’s no other characters to interact with, the various robots and computers you come across are really little more than quest givers, there’s no actual plot so to speak, and because of the sheer size of the world and the number of players allowed on a server, the chances of you actually meeting any actual players is remote. And let’s not forget all the behind the scenes drama. Bethesda falsely advertising Fallout themed canvas bags and players getting shitty nylon ones. Bethesda accidentally releasing the account information of various players trying to get a refund for said bag. Bethesda failing to program the year 2019 into the game code, meaning that the game’s nukes don’t work.

Maybe there’s a chance that Bethesda could pull a No Man’s Sky and fix everything over the coming years with various patches and DLCs, but the damage has already been done. It’s incredibly disappointing. The Elder Scrolls 6 is going to have be fucking incredible to win everyone back.

Mama Mia!: Here We Go Again

I can’t stand jukebox musicals anyway, but Mamma Mia was always one of the worst. Its boring, meandering story with its one note, obnoxious cast of characters screeching out ABBA songs like they’re at some drunken karaoke session at some poor sod’s hen party has always grated on my nerves. So imagine my delight when they announced we were getting a sequel. Ever wondered how Meryl Streep met her three lovers and founded her hotel? No? Well tough shit, we’re going to tell you anyway.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is basically just Mamma Mia again. The actors still can’t sing, the characters are still annoying and story is still boring and meandering, completely at the mercy of the chosen songs rather than the filmmakers using the songs to compliment the story (you know? Like proper musicals do?).

How can I resist you? Very easily as it turns out. Gimme, gimme, gimme a fucking gun so I can end my misery.

The Cloverfield Paradox

A lot of people were unhappy about the direction Cloverfield was going. They wanted a continuation of the found footage, kaiju movie from 2008, not an anthology series. I was personally all in favour. Partially because I thought the first Cloverfield was a tad overrated, but mostly because I thought it would be a great opportunity for more experimental film projects and could be a great launchpad for new writers and filmmakers. 10 Cloverfield Lane was a great start. Then The Cloverfield Paradox happened.

The Cloverfield Paradox is basically JJ Abrams trying to have his cake and eat it too. Maintaining the anthology format whilst connecting everything together in a ‘shared universe’ (yes, yet another shared universe). The result was a cliched, poorly edited and idiotic mess of a film that actually took away from the previous two films rather than added to them. Everyone hated it and, as a result, 2018′s Overlord, which was totes going to be part of the Cloververse, was made its own standalone film and Abrams double pinky promised to make a true sequel to the original Cloverfield. A complete and total disaster. No wonder it was a straight-to-Netflix film.

The Handmaid’s Tale - Season 2

This is probably going to be the most controversial entry on the list, but please hear me out because I’m not the only one who has a problem with this season.

I was reluctant to watch The Handmaid’s Tale simply because of how gruesome the original book was, but I forced myself to watch the first season and I thought it was pretty good. It remained faithful to the source material for the most part and included some nice additions that helped to expand the story and mythos. If it was just a one off mini-series, everything would have been fine. But then they made the same mistake as The Man In The High Castle and Under The Dome did where they commissioned another season and attempted to tell a story that goes beyond the book.

There’s a reason why the original story ended where it did. The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t meant to be an empowering story about women sticking it to the patriarchy. It’s a cautionary tale about how fragile our civil rights truly are and how easily they can be taken away from us. It’s designed to shock, not to satisfy. So seeing a handmaid blow herself up in a suicide bombing feels very incongruous and just a little bit silly. It would be like doing a TV adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 where the first season followed the source material and then the second season turned Winston Smith into this heroic freedom fighter trying to overthrow Big Brother. It would represent a fundamental misunderstanding of what the book was about in the first place.

And then of course there’s the increased level of violence in Season 2, which many have complained about. In Season 1 and the original source material, the violence was justified. In Season 2, the motivation behind the violence has gone from ‘how can we effectively demonstrate how easily a fascist patriarchy can happen in the West?’ to ‘what brutal act can we inflict upon Ofglen to shock the audience this week?’ It’s purely for shock and nothing more. And with the showrunner (who I feel I should mention is a man) announcing that he has planned ten seasons of this, it seems that The Handmaid’s Tale is going to go even further with this depravity until it effectively becomes the equivalent of a Saw film.

The Handmaid’s Tale exists as a way of shining light on and critiquing misogyny in its most extreme form. Season 2 however demonstrates that there is a serious risk of it becoming the very thing it’s criticising in the first place.

The Predator

I love the Predator franchise, but The Predator is the worst.

People thought that this would be good because director Shane Black had actually starred in the first Predator movie back in 1987. Instead we got this bloated, confusing, obnoxious and insulting mess of a film that seems to go out of its way to ruin everything that makes Predator so good. There’s no tension. No suspense. No intrigue. Just a bunch of gore, explosions and shitty one liners from annoying and lifeless characters. They essentially took this big alien game hunter from outer space and turned him into a generic monster from a bad summer blockbuster. It no longer hunts for sport. It wants to take over the world and splice our DNA with theirs. But don’t worry, a rogue Predator doesn’t want to kill humans (even though he himself kills a bunch of humans), so he gives us a Predator Iron Man suit to set up a sequel that will probably never happen because this movie was a box office bomb and it fucking SUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKEEEEEDDDD!!!

This film also has a very nasty streak towards those with disabilities. There’s a lot of jokes at the expense of a character with Tourette’s and it has an extremely ignorant and patronising view of autism, portraying the main character’s kid as being a super genius who can decipher the Predator language and even going so far as to say that he represents ‘the next stage of human evolution.’ Presumably the Predators want social communication difficulties because apparently it helps them hunt somehow.

What with Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox, the future of both the Alien and Predator franchises were very much in question. This film needed to be a success in order to make a case for Disney to keep making more of them. It wasn’t. Congratulations Shane Black. You might have just killed off this franchise for good. Thanks arsehole! :D

So those were my least favourite stories from 2018. Join me on Wednesday where we shall discuss something more positive. Yes, it’s awards season. Who shall win the coveted Quill Seal Of Approval? Watch this space...

Or don’t. It’s up to you. I don’t want to force you or anything. It’s a free country.

#quill's swill #quill's swill 2018 #worst of the year #review #opinion

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

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Do alpha males even exist? | Dean Burnett

Dean Burnett: Donald Trump has repeatedly been described as an alpha male, but theres no technical have proven that such a thing even exists in humans

We all know what an alpha male is. An alpha male is a man who takes charge, one who enforces his will on others , not the other way round. Other mortals want to be him, females want to be with him. An alpha male intimidates, hes unquestionably in charge , no matter what developments in the situation. An alpha male is thunderous, sassy, doesnt care what anybody else makes. An alpha male says what he wants, does what he wants, wears what he requires, as long as those invests are roomy enough in the trousers to accommodate his gargantuan gonads and dont melt responding to all the testosterone constantly leaking from his pores.

Thats members of the general impression, anyway. But the notion that human servicemen can be alpha males is actually far from scientifically accepted. This may come as a surprise, given how common and pervasive the concept is. The latest example “wouldve been” Donald Trump in his presidential debates. People have labelled him an alpha male, Nigel Farage even protected Trumps obscene commentaries about ladies as alpha male boasting and likened him to a silverback gorilla, which for those very well known primate dissection is actually quite an revile. So what, scientifically, is particularly so for alpha males among humen? As ever, its reasonably complicated.

Alpha males are supposed to be good with the maids. Photo: Ron Cohn/ BBC

The parentage of the human alpha male

New York Magazine has a very informative and detailed section about this, but the take-home letter is that before the 1960 s there used to be scarcely any examples of humans being described as alpha males, the term be confined to environments like primatology research. Species like chimps and gorillas do have social organization and hierarchies with a prevailing individual at the top, frequently a male who has achieved that positon via parades of fortitude and physical prowess. The information that alpha males prevail isnt feuded, its whether humans can actually be such a thing.

The term started implemented at humans with the publication of Frans de Waals Chimpanzee Politics, which prepared direct likeness between human and chimp behaviour, including the dominant the behavior of males. It became more mainstream when used in the context of Al Gores presidential safarus.

It genuinely became accepted as something soldiers should want to be with the success of Neil Strausss The Game, based on readings he acquired from the Pick Up Artist community. This should trigger alarm bells for many; terms and methods acquired from Pick Up Master should be treated with extreme scepticism at the least. But, sex being the strong motivator that it is, the idea that being an alpha male aimed at improving your life and establish you more successful with women substantiated unbelievably cheating, so acceptance and use of the expression has now become the norm. But this doesnt necessitate its valid, just that its common.

Alpha males expect to get their own practice at all times, and often do. Why that happens is another matter. Image: Alvarez/ Getty Images

The action for the human rights alpha male

One reason that, despite a lack of concrete prove, the idea of the human rights alpha male is so compelling is that is makes a great deal of intuitive gumption. The big, raucous, foolhardy people who swagger and reign and bully have been part of our society for as long as its dwelt, so its nice to have a handy label for them if nothing else.

Its hard to deny that humans are exceedingly susceptible to the process of social reign; we exist in disproportionate hierarchies with inferior and superior individuals in virtually every context, so its not far-fetched is of the view that some gentlemen rise to the top of these hierarchies due to a mix of physical and psychological excellences( such as height, a deep singer, and so on ).

Humans are, for better or worse, quite easily influenced by displays of confidence, after all. And by behaving confident, followers could well find they get their practice more often, and thus be compelled to continue. A self-fulfilling revelation that advocates fake it til you make it is a valid approaching to becoming an alpha male, and therefore propagate the relevant recommendations. After all, maidens love a bad boy( maybe )~ ATAGEND.

Overall, human behaviour has many aspects that, working together, suggest that alpha males are a real thing.

Displays of strength and prowess are common in the wild. They rarely concern petroleum and present pockets, though … Photo: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/ AFP/ Getty Images

The lawsuit against the human rights alpha male

The conclusion in the previous section highlights the main problem with the arguments for human alpha males; it focuses on supporting evidence, and dismiss that which denies it. Because while human do share a number of features and practices with our primate cousins, we are invariably far more complex.

People can belong to different hierarchies, for example; a person who is the most vocal, reigning party in his amateur football team might be under the heel of an aggressive boss during his era profession. Is he an alpha male, or not? It depends on situation, obviously. Humen have many different social groups and diversifying characters within them, because were more complex. A universal alpha seems unlikely.

Rather than relying on aggressive preeminence, humans are actually far more cooperative and social. Some evidence suggests that our friendliness and sociability is what became us so smart to begin with, so rather than being the top humans, you could argue that alpha males are something of an evolutionary throwback, the civilizational equivalent of an supplement; no longer expended, precisely hangs around and rarely fills everything with poison.

Supposed human alpha male practice also often doesnt coincide alpha male practice in other species. Numerous non-human alpha males also have a corresponding alpha female who exerts same levels of dominance and control, whereas human alpha males invariably have a little respectful position towards women, shall we say. Also, the fact that numerous communities of men( particularly online) are apparently convinced that they can all be alpha males is a contradiction in terms; there should only be one alpha male per parish, thats sort of the whole object. The rest should try and depose him as and when the opportunity presents itself, but until then they are, at best, beta males, a term often used as an revile by members of said community with no feel of paradox.

Its as if the idea of being an alpha male is very reassuring to those who scarcity confidence and are feared by the wider world and beings in it, so want to turn the tables.

This may be key. Theorized alpha males may ever get their practice not because of to some evolved bia in humen to respect and obey men who parade a particular place of peculiarities, as if beings were video games that respond to certain defraud systems, but simply because theyre creepy. If a large, shouty gentleman starts bellowing in your face, thats very unsettling, so people may do what he says to stop him from becoming violent, or only to construct him go forth. Said man would plainly perceive this as evidence for his own superiority.

Maybe the expected human alpha male is an association of disgruntled male wish fulfilment and borderline-pseudoscientific reasons for resorting to bully, coercion and generally all-round distressing practice by men hoping to impose their will on a world-wide they find too complex and unnerving so revert to their baser inclinations to get what they crave, despite knowing deep down they dont deserves it and shouldnt have it?

In fairness, alpha male is a lot more succinct.

Dean Burnetts debut book The Idiot Brain is available now in the UK , USA and Canada .

The post Do alpha males even exist? | Dean Burnett appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

Text

Do alpha males even exist? | Dean Burnett

Dean Burnett: Donald Trump has repeatedly been described as an alpha male, but theres no technical have proven that such a thing even exists in humans

Alpha males are supposed to be good with the maids. Photo: Ron Cohn/ BBC

The parentage of the human alpha male

Alpha males expect to get their own practice at all times, and often do. Why that happens is another matter. Image: Alvarez/ Getty Images

The action for the human rights alpha male

Overall, human behaviour has many aspects that, working together, suggest that alpha males are a real thing.

Displays of strength and prowess are common in the wild. They rarely concern petroleum and present pockets, though … Photo: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/ AFP/ Getty Images

The lawsuit against the human rights alpha male

Its as if the idea of being an alpha male is very reassuring to those who scarcity confidence and are feared by the wider world and beings in it, so want to turn the tables.

In fairness, alpha male is a lot more succinct.

Dean Burnetts debut book The Idiot Brain is available now in the UK , USA and Canada .

The post Do alpha males even exist? | Dean Burnett appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2ttN5gg via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

apsbicepstraining · 7 years

Text

Do alpha males even exist? | Dean Burnett

Dean Burnett: Donald Trump has repeatedly been described as an alpha male, but theres no technical have proven that such a thing even exists in humans

Alpha males are supposed to be good with the maids. Photo: Ron Cohn/ BBC

The parentage of the human alpha male

Alpha males expect to get their own practice at all times, and often do. Why that happens is another matter. Image: Alvarez/ Getty Images

The action for the human rights alpha male

Overall, human behaviour has many aspects that, working together, suggest that alpha males are a real thing.

Displays of strength and prowess are common in the wild. They rarely concern petroleum and present pockets, though … Photo: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/ AFP/ Getty Images

The lawsuit against the human rights alpha male

Its as if the idea of being an alpha male is very reassuring to those who scarcity confidence and are feared by the wider world and beings in it, so want to turn the tables.

In fairness, alpha male is a lot more succinct.

Dean Burnetts debut book The Idiot Brain is available now in the UK , USA and Canada .

The post Do alpha males even exist? | Dean Burnett appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2ttN5gg via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes