you guys… we did it!!!

just wanted to thank you everyone for being a part of this blog… “big things to come soon”

A Little Horrifying Primer on Transphobes

Some time ago, I put together a Little Fact Checking Primer on Trans People, as a basic resource for disabusing people of some of the many completely ridiculous yet absurdly widespread beliefs about trans people that simply have no basis whatsoever in reality. And wouldn’t you know it, every single lie exposed in that primer is not only still widely believed, but is presently being used as a basis to sign some absolutely horrific human rights abuses into law. So it’s high time I follow that up, in this case focused more on who keeps actively spreading these lies and why. I’m going to try and keep things as light as I can here, but we’re going to be looking at the most monstrous side of human nature, so apologies in advance if this is a dark read.

First, let me just note that there are two things I don’t plan to do in this piece. I’m not going to waste time debunking the arguments of the people I’m highlighting (much of this is already covered in my earlier primer, others have done the work in cases where I haven’t, and frankly these people’s claims should be self-evidently utter nonsense to begin with). I am also going to be very selective in what I link to, or even share related images of, as I would frankly not like to fill a post on a blog I generally try to keep safe for all audiences with media directly dealing with, for instance, child sexual assault, and much of the relevant information also involves stochastic terrorism against innocent people, and I would prefer not to throw more fuel onto such fires.

Transphobes lie constantly, about everything.

To some degree this is obvious. We’re talking about people who scaremonger about the possibilities of trans women dominating competitive sports and assaulting people in restrooms, despite the status quo already reflecting the conditions they insist would make these inevitibilities for decades and centuries respectively, and their grim visions never once having come to pass, and also constantly insisting that the woman in the photo below is actually a man, going further to say this is evident to anyone giving her the merest glance.

It goes beyond that though. There’s at least a little plausible deniablity in claims like this, or that “science is on their side” if they were simply uninformed about the world they live in, never actually looking into what laws exist, what science actually says, and never actually meeting a trans person or even seeing a picture of one of us. I’m talking really bold lies here. Like wholecloth fabricating a story that a convicted murder was trans, including anecdotes about wigs dresses and a planned name change, in a major newspaper. Or to cite an old favorite of mine, the time a pack of bigots walked up to a crowd of people peacefully picketing a transphobic legal proposal, started roughing them up and taking closeup photos of members of the crowd to stalk online when they got home, got sufficiently riled up for one to straight up assault an innocent person half her size, filmed the whole thing, uploaded it to youtube, and used stills of that assault as acomanying photos when they went home to write articles about the assailant being a “grandmother” attacked by rowdy trans women. And yes, they did monkey’s paw my wish to see that specific image on newspapers. Interesting side note, when it came to real public light that J.K. Rowling endorsed this sort of hatred, it was because she accidentally pasted some profanity laden rambling about how the imagined moral character of the other party in that incident, years after the fact, into a post praising a child’s fan art of her work.

To be a little less niche, transphobes can’t get enough of spreading the lie that the young fellow in this photo is a girl. Specifically a trans girl, providing proof that all their scaremongering about the dastardly threat of trans girls in competitive sports has finally come to pass.

To be fully clear, that’s a man (or a boy if you want to split hairs about him being 17 in that photo). Mack Beggs. A rather insidious choice for this sort of story, considering the actual context for that photo. See, Beggs attended high school in Texas, during a (still ongoing as I write this) period wherein that particular state had caved to this exact sort of propaganda, and in order to head off a wholly imagined wave of trans girls competing on girls’ sports teams, and enacted a law mandating that in all such competitions must compete under whatever gender is stated on their birth certificates. And as it happens, the first, and to my knowledge ONLY time this has come up was with Beggs here, who again, is a man, as no one with a grip on reality could argue against, has “female” on his birth certificate. Which is another way of saying he is a trans man. The guys in the same boat as trans women who we talk about a whole hell of a lot less because their existence is extremely inconvenient to the majority of transphobic propaganda. Case in point. And this is all information it is really impossible to come across if you’re coming across this photo in any sort of respectable source. Take this story, which is as unambiguous about this as you can get. And yet, in the very comments section of that story, there they are. Carrying on like this story about a trans guy, forced by a transphobic law to compete as a girl, which he absolutely did not want, and received horrific threats over, using phrases like “female to male” and bringing up that he was assigned female at birth and is on testosterone-based HRT, is about a trans woman cheating the system. Or to quote word for word, “Now also transgender female want to be male also compete in female sport. biological born“ That’s not “being confused,” that’s standing next to you in a white desert and complaining about being adrift in a black ocean, bald-faced, not even trying to be convincing just make a power play, lying through one’s teeth.

I could spend this whole article on just this point. Lying about who they are, various people’s falsified credentials, whole websites full of “anonymous parents of children who think they’re trans” turning out to be one single woman documenting the abuse of her very much trans son, or of course the people behind the whole “bathroom bill” panic candidly admitting it was all based on utter fiction. I do have other points to cover though.

Transphobes are firmly entrenched in the media.

It is extremely difficult to find oneself in a position of having to explain to people that a particular group of people is effectively in control of press outlets, as that is rather classically a claim conspiracy theorists absolutely love to toss around at various marginalized groups (including trans people hilariously enough, but of course the most common and lingering version of this is the antisemitic variant). I really can’t get around it here though. Specifically in the U.K., you honestly can say that transphobes control the media. I already touched on this with the assault case I mentioned above and the fabricated story about the murderer, but this is a pretty well-documented situation. I mean, even The Guardian calls out The Guardian on this, and that’s the outlet that gets the most attention because it’s the one with the most otherwise respected name, but every paper in the country has been running transphobic propaganda pieces on a weekly if not daily basis for years now, and while they do get reprimanded by watchdog groups and have mass walk-outs over the worst of it, it’s not like there’s some governing body with the authority to step in about it. Meanwhile the BBC is constantly inviting diehard zealots like Graham Linehan to news programs where he compares being trans to being a nazi, and hosting debates where someone just sits down and repeatedly chants the word “penis” at a trans woman.

Things are better in the rest of the world, but we still have right-wing creeps like Jesse Singal both writing horrific propaganda pieces (we’ll get back to that one) and blackballing trans writers out of covering trans issues ourselves (and personally stalking the hell out of those of us who try). We’ve got our Joe Rogans and Tucker Carlsons out there (no way in hell I’m linking videos here, have a real information link and a still).

The line between diehard transphobes and straight-up nazis basically does not exist.

What even is there to say here? You can easily poke around havens for nazi activity for yourself and compare the particular unique vocabulary used there to the primary bastion of anti-trans hate speech on the internet (the “feminism” section of what was originally a site for parenting tips before violent fascists took the forums over) or just peruse the follows of the thousands of people I’ve blocked on social media and see if you can sort out a clear division in the networks of channers with frog avatars and the accounts with names like GoodieXXrealwoman, or you can read up on Gab and Spinster, the two twitter alternatives that are just different portals to the same server, set up by the same guy. Maybe do some research into “the LGB Alliance,” or WoLF but any way you slice it the only real difference to be found is the general purpose nazis take a little time off now and then to watch borderline pedophilic anime and the really dedicated transphobes think to use language that sounds vaguely well-educated and left-leaning. I mean, this came from the “feminist” side of the fence:

And not to belabor the point here, but the ones claiming to be a bunch of “feminist mums” sure do let the mask slip any time they’re confronted with the fact that “women” includes black women, and oh just have a whole thread about all the weird conspiratory theories these people have about how trans people’s whole existence is some sort of Jewish plot for world domination. I swear a few months ago they were all passing around a story about some bank having an above average number of trans employees and they were all just “and we all know who controls the banks, right?” about it.

Transphobes endorse an awful lot of people who are openly pro-pedophila.

This is the part where I am really loath to link the many many specific examples I have on hand. Or to talk about this at all for reasons of good taste. Or, for that matter, to talk about this in a tumblr post when there’s an ongoing problem of people with backgrounds strongly tied to this site making baseless accusations of pedophilia against every queer person they can find, so let me be very clear just what I’m talking about while avoiding anything too graphic.

That’s James Cantor. Transphobes love him for being one of the closest things they have to a scientist on their side. And I am featuring him in a screenshot here showing that he is followed by current queen of the transphobes J.K. Rowling, while speaking to both another big name in transphobic circles, Debra Soh, and based on their names, what I’m guessing is at least one straight-up nazi. And in case you think “the P” he’s talking about adding to LGBT (or “GLBT” as weird anti-queer bigots who also have issues with women often write it) might stand for “poly” or “pan” he’s all too happy to clarify that.

This is the entire thrust of Cantor’s work and life. He is the world’s biggest pedophile rights advocate. He wants it declassified as a mental disorder, all stigma on it removed, and tirelessly pushes forward the idea that the majority of.. people who feel compelled to sexually assault children are good people who present no potential harm to anyone and should in fact be lauded.

I am not generally one to claim that someone with a PhD is spewing out questionable garbage with regard to their field, but the reason I am aware of Cantor at all is that other transphobes keep trying to hold up a particular post on his blog as "a study” (which it is not) that offers “proof” (in the form of a blurry jpeg of basically some random numbers) of some ridiculous quackery about how trans kids will “grow out of it” if exposed to conversion therapy (another way of saying torture), which Cantor himself seems to be pushing, so I am somewhat skeptical of his academic chops. And I am, of course, REALLY suspicious that all these other bigots gravitate to him purely because they’re that desperate to find anyone with a PhD in anything that backs them up against literally every scientist in a relative field, to the point that they merely forgive his particular advocacy they are plainly all aware of, particularly when such a common fig leaf used by transphobes is “keeping children safe from sexual deviants.”

And of course, Cantor is most often invoked when coming to the defense of Kenneth Zucker. This Kenneth Zucker.

Those are separate papers. Zucker isn’t controversial though for organizing panels to discuss how attractive people agree small children are (at least not exclusively). Mostly, he’s known for running a conversion therapy center which subjected gay and trans children to various sorts of torture in an effort to “fix” them, which at least for those trans "patients” I have spoken with involved a fair amount of having them strip completely naked and talking a lot about their genitals.

Zucker is something of a controversial figure with the transphobic scene, as they are extremely on board with his sexual torture of queer children, but he does actual work (for some value of the term) involving trans people and thus is not able to commit as fully as they would prefer to making life horrible for trans people, due to a professional obligation to acknowledge reality now and then. As an aside, the similarly positioned Ray Blanchard, while not to my knowledge particularly interested in the attractiveness of children, lives in a similar purgatory of trying to reconcile his career, bigotry, and sexual hangups, yielding compromises like this:

Of course, that’s just looking at the straws transphobes grasp at when looking for scientific credibility. Real leaders of the movement include Germaine Greer, author of The Beautiful Boy, which is about what you are afraid it might be, and features a very young child in a cover feature he did not consent to posing for. Or Julie Bindel, who among other things is rather infamous for writing whole articles on subjects like whether a teenage girl she came across maybe has a huge penis you can totally see if you really squint at her skirt. Again, I will not share a link to go along with that one.

Transphobes terrorize and attempt to defund charities and other unambiguously good organizations.

Graham Linehan, previously best known for cowriting some sitcoms and possibly spending a year angling to get into my pants so awkwardly I didn’t pick up on it is now best known for trying to pull the plug on a children’s charity, in a story that somehow also involves Donkey Kong. Well, and the interview about nazis. And possibly the other interview about “defending me from nazis” until it got into his head that I might not be as young and hot as he imagined. Rather not link to a far right extremist youtube channel though.

There’s also a current effort to replace Stonewall (an organization named after the location where a pair of trans women kicked off a riot which is generally agreed to be the start of the LGBT+ rights movement) as the UK’s primary LGBT+ rights organization with the “LGB Alliance.” The hate group mentioned above, with the skull face and the rifle. Closest I can find to an article on that effort on short notice that isn’t propaganda.

Transphobes paper areas in truly disgusting propaganda.

I don’t want to directly link to grown adults skulking around children’s playgrounds and bathrooms plastering surfaces with mass printed stickers of crudely drawn penises, but would encourage you to read this very long post, being sure to load all the images, to really understand how deeply strange this behavior gets.

Finally, I cannot stress this enough, this really extreme behavior I’m citing, and the specific people involved in the examples I’m giving, these aren’t random cranks on the fringe of things. The people going on televised panel discussions, writing up news stories, and testifying before lawmakers in efforts to pass horrifically discriminatory if not literally life-endangering laws (there is a major ongoing effort to legally end all medical care for trans people, and I don’t just mean care directly relating to being trans) are literally the same people involved in the sexualization of children, nazi collaborations, and roving gangs assaulting people in the street. At a bare minimum I urge people, when booking guests and handing out writing contracts, to do background checks and see if they’re platforming actual terrorists. If we could actually bring legal consequences to bear against the worst of this, that would be great too. As things stand though, the whole world is just consistently citing a bunch of racist, woman-hating, serial liars with no real credentials, and questionable attitudes towards the sexual abuse of children, as “trusted experts” and refusing to seat actual trans people or people who have legitimately committed lifetimes to academic and practical work with trans people any seats at the table.

Probably literally no one wants to read this, but on the off chance anyone wants to CHOOSE to read my thoughts on fanworks in relation to traditional western culture and not merely be subjected to them via DM during an innocent (though angsty as all hell) convo on the parallels between Stucky and Destiel well, here’s 1700 words on it:

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Actually. And here’s the thing that works so damn well with both bucky/Steve and Dean/Cas is that there is no clear “damsel/hero” dichotomy that we see in classic heteronormative relationships.

But like.

The thing about fan fiction, and AO3 specifically, is that it primarily features homoerotic and homoromatic relationships between two cisgender white men. Yes that is changing- mostly thanks to the rise of KPOP (the surprise lord and savior of 2020) and Hulu and Netflix optioning East Asian movies and television series to spread those narratives. Which is an entire thing on its own because so many of those like- is it Untamed? Feature homosocial environments and thus- the point is. The landscape is changing and yay.

But AO3s success is largely predicated on two main ships: Stucky and Destiel. Yes there are others that are huge and continue to grow, but these are the two that I feel (with no data or research to support my assertion) helped AO3 take precedence over ffnet as THE site for fan work hosting.

Now, the contradictory thing about fan work, the thing that is so often described as hypocritical and/or fetishizing is that the majority feature two cisgender white men engaged in homoerotic and/or homoromantic relationships when the majority of the readers and creators of fan works are neither.

Data supports the supposition that most fan work creators and consumers identify as non-male. And in that subset the majority identify as female.

Simply based on generic population data, the correlation can be made (again no effort put into googling this because I have sewing to do) that the majority of this group is likely cisgendered heterosexual (white) women.

However, fan works and fan engagement are a proven community for fans who do not ascribe to the heteronormative gender binary or heterosexual and/or heteroromantic relationship structure and are, in fact, not just white. Again- imagine numbers that are factual because sewing.

Fandom is not unique to entertainment media. We can trace it back to, well, as long as we can trace it back. What are the Venus of Willendorf statues of not fanart? The Parthenon? Egyptian funereal pyramids and their contents? Renaissance art in general? Is the King James Bible not a “fix it” for the previously canonical literature (that’s a hot take don’t come for me.) (you could also consider the King James Version an attempt at song fic).

In more contemporary culture, we have sports fandoms- primarily male dominated. Primarily cisgendered heterosexual white male dominated.

The fandom culture of sports fans has been described as that of collectors and curators- they want memorabilia and statistics and gatekeeping actions often require proof of knowledge or commitment via possessions.

Meanwhile, entertainment media fandoms- such as those experiences on AO3- are more creative than curatorial. Instead of efforts to organize, delineate and create hierarchies within fandoms (yes this happens but is not the overriding force), these sorts of fandoms seek to create fanWORKS and fanCOMMUNITIES. Yes, fantasy sports leagues exist and so do sports teams fan communities. But I ask you, where in sports fandoms is there a GISH?Or an AO3?

The reality of contemporary western dominated culture (entertainment,sports,economic,political, artistic and philosophical) is one that features white cisgendered heterosexual men at the apex-

Both as creators and consumers despite prevailing realities in population and cultural zeitgeist.

As such, most western dominated fandoms are homosocial: dominated by one group, that of white cisgendered heterosexual men.

All that is to say, most star athletes are straight white dudes. Most movie stars are straight white dudes. Most politicians. Most wealth holders and distributors. Most creators.

Why? Because patriarchy. But the WHY isn’t the point of this long ass word vomit.

It’s the So What?

Sports fandoms are the territory of these same homosocial networks.

But media fandoms are the territory of those NOT at the top of that hierarchy.

While the CONTENT and the original content creators remain part of that homosocial white cisgendered heterosexual group, the consumers of media are largely NOT OF THAT GROUP despite what the content creators may desire or believe (see: the creatives behind supernatural and their ridiculous ability to convince themselves that their core demographic are straight white dudes 15-40).

As such, content that features the patriarchy is primarily heterosexual, heteronormative, racist (acutely or passively), misogynistic, homophobic, homosocial and, well, lacking.

Take, for example, MCU and Supernatural as franchises. Our main characters are primarily white dudes. White dudes who mostly interact with other white dudes, whose “tribes” (brethren, compatriots, coworkers) are also white dudes. Yes, smurfs exist- the token woman or non-white person. Sometimes even a queer person (gender or sexual, though very, very rarely gender queer).

The fact that whenever our “heroes” interact with anyone outside their tribe or homosocial group they are almost inevitably evil, dead or about to die is telling. How many women die in supernatural? How many people of color? How many villains in the MCU (and while the X-MEN franchise isn’t necessarily within the MCU because Hollywood, the queer coding within X-MEN is encyclopedic) are queer coded?

Now, I’ve said repeatedly that heterosexual and heteronormative relationships are the mean within such media. Our white dudes bang white ladies, love white ladies, but act like manly white men and don’t put romantic feelings ahead of things like patriotism and pain unless they have “earned” the right to such (a trial that often involves a lot of deaths that are never addressed or given recourse. See:endgame)

Bros before hoes is more or less the rule of western mainstream media.

As such, relationships that demonstrate respect, trust, vulnerability, compassion and resiliency are almost always homosocial: or they are between two bros (no homo) and not between a man and a woman.

You trust the guy at your back, not the woman because you 1. Want to bang her 2. She’s probably going to die 3. She’s a damsel 4. Seriously she’s probably going to die.

Which all means: most of the well developed characters and relationships within mainstream western media are homosocial- they exist between two members of the same group. In our case, those straight white bros (which of course within supernatural can sometimes be taken literally in the case of Wincest).

Which means, the consumers of this media- mostly not white straight cisgendered dudes- are left with content that doesn’t represent who they are or what they want or even can aspire to.

So what’s the solution? Collect data and memorabilia? Sure why not.

OR: use your beloved media, those well developed characters and relationships, to create something new.

Fan work.

We circle back, at last, to the idea that fan work creators and consumers can be hypocritical or contradictory by creating works that feature that which they are not- these white dudes in love (romantic, sexual) with each other.

This supposition suggests that creators and consumers are using the characters and situations in fan work as replacements for what they lack in heterosocial relationships- either in media or in their own lives. Or, put another way, fans replace either Bucky or Steve with themselves and image the other to be their “love” interest.

To an extent, this may be true. That both parties are usually written to have male genitalia while most fans do not is where so many of the hypocritical and fetishization issues come into play.

But the reality is, fans are working with what they are given. Most fans don’t have dicks. A generous portion of fans don’t want to engage with dicks is sexual ways (or engage in sex at all) (and it must be emphasized that the majority of works on AO3 are rated T not E).

But the value in reimagining, subtextualizing, or deconstructing the mostly platonically presented homosocial relationships in western media as homosexual or homoerotic or homoromantic is not (for the most part) about fetish or about placeholders and substitutions for the fan.

It is about creating fanwork that reflects the society a fan lives in or wishes to live in.

Just as the sports fan will go to a bar and paint themselves blue and deride the Yankees because they want to envision a society that upholds a white cisgendered male patriarchy, media fanWORKS are created because we do NOT have a society that values romantic or erotic relationships between equals (for in traditional western society the only equal to a white cisgendered man is another white dude).

So, at last, a return to Stucky and Destiel.

The relationships created in fanWORKS between these two aren’t simply those where one is the “‘man” in the relationship and the other is the “woman”.

Yes those fanWORKS exist.

But most utilize the strong bonds of trust and respect and vulnerability and dare I say shared experience to create romantic and erotic relationships that are both more complex and more realistic than those actually portrayed in the same media.

In Stucky, we see Steve save Bucky and Bucky save Steve. We see Bucky hurt Steve and Steve hurt Bucky. We see their positions as EQUALS as a means by which to create a world where fulfilling relationships can exist that do not automatically restrict one (or more) parties to that of “chattel”.

The same is true of Destiel.

And both relationships feature key similarities within the original media that make for such rich possibilities.

Castiel saves Dean from hell. Castiel is brainwashed by the patriarchy to view Dean as lesser and even to kill him (this happens multiple times).

While Steve saves Bucky from Azzano, it is Bucky who saved Steve for almost their entire lives before that point. And after that point the two go back and forth to save each other. And let us not forget that Bucky was ordered to kill Steve but “he knew me”.

Dean and Castiel go through a similar ping pong match of saving each other.

This isn’t just about being equal in strength- it’s about being equal in vulnerability.

Which, to belabor the point, doesn’t exist in mainstream media’s romantic or erotic relationships nor is it widely taught or reinforced in western culture as a whole.

In conclusion.

Stucky and Destiel can save the world.

But probably KPOP would do it better and faster and cooler.

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Totally feel free to engage with your own opinions. Because I have to go sew now but later? Later we should talk friends and foes.

Here is why conventional healthful-thinking is not working on Millennials.

Have you ever had that terrifying dream where you are stuck in a dark forest or sketchy alley, frantically running for your life from some kind of feral monster or mad man? Most of us can personally recall at least once being roused from sleep in a cold sweat because their brain had spent the last few hours perfecting the latent image of a made-to-order nightmare. While that experience is certainly not exclusive to Millennials (rather quite the opposite), the waking reaction or at least how it is processed later by this roughly categorized group of mislabeled people is unique to say the least.

For years now, people in marketing have been fervently dissecting and attempting to recreate what has been loosely categorized as "Millennial Humor". And in all of their efforts to connect with this flock of black sheep, the grand majority of them seem to be missing a key factor in the psychology at work here. For all the unwarrantable bilge that modern advertising haphazardly cobbles together, only a small percentage of the nonsense is seasoned perfectly with the secret ingredient. What is this singular spice? Well, while indulgent to profess and speculative, from someone "sitting in millennial class”, it's obvious: A touch of salt.

Never will I sit here and cry to the general public about how unhappy I am that the modern advertising industry is just not scratching my itch for the wares it’s peddling, but I think it's important for us now to look at how this systemic lack of understanding is reaching beyond the world of subliminal profiteering. Society has other significant quality-of-life effecting systems that are also missing the mark when trying to aim and reach out to help this specific group of people. Puns aside, "a touch of salt" as I quipped, is flavoring the lives of a lot of people in their mid to late 20's and early 40's. And the most frustrating and difficult to reconcile attempts that I personally have made to better myself, have been those that were guided by people who just cannot seem to put their brain into that salty head space.

For example, trying to focus on and internalize a well-organized medical presentation about the encompassing negative effects of stress or insomnia and its seemly simple solution of just "changing your thinking", is about as easily digestible as a two-decade-year-old fruitcake for someone who is imprisoned daily by the symptoms of chronic stress. While I may sit there and give listening (ironically) "the old college try", the sound quickly turns to fuzzy white noise the deeper the lecture dives into positive thinking.

You see, Millennials are not generally fluent in positive thinking. More and more of them seem to be speaking a very distinctive dialect of realism, which incorporates a robustly cultivated sense of sarcasm and a somewhat grim shade of hopelessness. A lot of millennials grew up with a laughably poetic twist on "Growing Up" and "Being Successful", which in turn has colored their day-to-day interactions and created this defeatism-culture. Millennials will openly joke about their death as a needed release, their eulogy as a retirement card, or emotionally decompile themselves over something simple like saying "you too" in a situation that doesn't warrant it.

A good percentage of Millennials were old enough to understand the destructive consequences of the most recent housing market disaster on a very personal level; At an impressionable age, watching their own parents, who may have worked excruciatingly hard at the expense of any number of personal or family goals, lose just about everything resonated in a way that cannot be unheard. Then add the borderline criminal and unscrupulous "sheep-shearing" that became common place when the generation was herded off to college, trade school, or other form of career-building education. Not to mention the fact that upon completing said programs, a proverbial "step-in-the-right direction", a substantial number of these "hopeless wanderers" were faced with yet another barbed-wire hurdle when the job market in countless fields were oversaturated with potential employees. Many positions had not been vacated as they normally would have been with the age of retirement being stretched further and further down the road due to increased cost of living and financial demands; the finish line or lap marker was just not getting any closer. To add insult to injury, Millennials, sometimes unbelievably hardworking, are frequently being listed as perpetuators of the clashing reality we have today. This being what the modern media is calling "The Great Resignation"; a dubious combination of a labor shortage amidst an unemployment spike fueled by uncompetitive wages left unchecked, the government's inability to reel in the situation, and a general devaluing of laborers overall.

Oh. And also, we were killing the diamond industry at the same time. Or was it simultaneously the marriage and divorce industry? Wait! I think it was cinema? Or no....maybe it was fabric softener. For a complete dissertation of all the things Millennials brutally murdered over the last two decades, perhaps I'll include a link below if for no other reason to drive my point home.

You have this group of people who are conditioned to endlessly swimming upstream, against the current, with nothing but chastising and bitterness to listen to. So, when it comes to something universal like learning to "sleep better" or "problem solving", the indifferent but somehow time-honored approach of saying "it's as easy as just taking control" is over time if not immediately rejected as dissonant information.

These people don't feel like they have control; some of them feel like they never had any to begin with.

Why is this a problem?

Our society is not developing a taste for "salt" at a pace in which it can prepare social-sustenance for its population. We're not getting any younger, and neither are the generations in front of us.

Millennials are already, by some definitions the mass-population of workers, voters, and other titles that we've yet to embrace. And our lack of interest is not because we do not have a passion for positive change (even on a global scale). Millennials have voiced over time that they feel they are the silent majority amidst a group of people who will not give them breathing room and don't respect the validity of their opinions and ambitions. And it is by no means restricted to one region or country on this planet. This is a global phenomenon.

I could spin a vast yarn about the political ramifications of continuing to exclude the Millennials from the metaphoric Counsel of Elders, but I'm more concerned about the neglect that is spreading elsewhere. We need our leaders in the medical and social fields to really respect and dig deep into how to incorporate "Millennial Thinking" into their treatment and development plans. A large amount of the global population is going to need carefully tailored treatment for things as old as depression, bi-polar tendencies, or schizophrenia as well as newly discovered mental encumbrances like imposter-syndrome.

While “positive-thinking” may have been easily cultivated in the past, we may need to start from a more negative approach and build from there to educate and treat a group of down-on-their-luck millions. Pumping drugs into a populace is not going to permanently patch the leak either, so there truly is precedence for a rehashing of how we should prioritize mental health in modern society.

Stop spending so much time and energy assigning blame to modern technologies and social norms. Are these going away? No? In that case, those things are much like our other daily stresses that are unavoidable. Yes, you can change your nightly routine to de-stress the same way that you can change a job or a daily commute, but there needs to be a fundamental shift in accountability divvied to circumstances out of a person's control rather than scolding them for not being able to manage it.

Do I have all the answers? No.

But this was less about offering a solid a solution and more about opening a dialogue. A starting point.

So yeah. I've had that dream of being chased through the woods by a life-leeching alien. It felt very similar to being sucked dry of my pitiful wages for an education that was at the time, barely panning out. Even now, as a 32-year-old, slightly more successful version of the starving student I've become, I still feel as though my rat race will end when my heart gives out; and all I can hope for is enough money when I drop to cover the ambulance ride to the over-crowded emergency room and a large pit to rot in. But I just hope that the generation behind me has the benefit of a system that understands how to create and sustain “Millennial Inspired” social structures that will allow them to flourish in what little we can leave behind for them.

Also, could you pass the salt?

:: Fuck This Shit, I’m Out ::

So, there’s a certain incident that’s been going on the past couple of days. To be honest, I wanted to drop this post about it a whole lot sooner, but out of respect for the victim of this in question, I chose to hold off until it hit a pretty evident conclusion. 

Because god only knows if I said anything, it’d be used against her in some ridiculous fashion given my proximity to the circumstances.

Yeah, I was keeping up with the play-by-play on all of this, and frankly, it’s abhorrent.  And no, I’m not putting this under a read more; we’re going PSA on this.

Seeing as how this all went down without any kind of human decency from any of the guilty parties, I have no intention on being gentle with any of you.

So! Let’s start with the weasel responsible who’s been making the rounds on anon.

I saw those asks she was sent. Our little firestarter, hiding behind that mask? You’re a gutless snake.

“Oh but- but defending yourself just makes you look MORE SUSPICIOUS you really should just admit it tho” fuck that and fuck you, I can read between the lines. “If I try and look amicable, maybe I’ll get you to bow down”, that’s what your ass is looking for, and don’t you dare pretend anything otherwise. 

Don’t think you’re clever or unique; I’ve seen this exact shit too many times before. It’s always the same with your type. You stir up the most ridiculous, inflammatory slander, you mask yourself on anon and act all mousy and friendly to get them to budge just a little pretending you’re some totally-different-stranger, and then you go all in with the most hurtful and abrasive shit you can muster now that you’ve gotten your foot in the door. You’re a manipulator, and you disgust me. 

But above all? You’re pathetic.  Lemmie guess, no job? No meaningful relationships or hobbies that keep you occupied? That’s the usual impetus. You have nothing going for you and no better use of your time; the only way you can get any kind of excitement in your life is to try and ruin someone on social media, sling as much dirt you can their way, try and turn their friends and other contacts against them, make up some salacious bullshit or start spreading some asinine rumors to spice that up however you can, and you drag it out. You drag it out to milk as much empty schadenfreude as you can get before you have to return to your miserable doldrums without a target to harass.

Funny thing is, for all the hurt you’ve done? She actually has stable income and a life. That’s likely far more than anybody’ll be able to say about you for a good, long time.

Oh, but we’re not done yet. Mods, mods, mods -- let’s talk about you for a hot minute.

That person spent so much time being worried over this, presented clear and concise reasoning for her position, wanted to make sure she handled this as properly and well-organized as possible on your account -- and none of it was considered at all. Mods, I know full damn well you didn’t even try to give it a look. All you kept replying with was, “yeah, but we’re triggered by the idea so you’re out though, lul”. Even those she knew didn’t try to actually vouch for her, they just kept informing her of the childishly stubborn refusal to budge. You couldn’t be more transparent in this behavior if you were made of fucking glass.

There wasn’t an ounce of good faith in any of this. She kept trying to play by your standards but you kept shifting the goalpost every time because you had no intention of fair assessment to begin with. Words of wisdom from one of my Psych teachers, “You can’t have a discussion with someone who’s already decided for themselves that anything you say is wrong.”

Your heads are getting too big. I mean, it started way back with banning entire series from application, not even R-rated or pornographic, just exclusively because they bothered your little feefees, but the slow burn’s been encroaching. Now you’re making irresponsible judgement calls and acting on sensationalism rather than anything remotely resembling good sense. 

The fact that at least one of you has bias in this instance towards getting rid of her because she has muses you want doesn’t help matters.

This exact shit is why citta-alverea sunk, and you’re not gonna be too far behind at this rate. A bullshit incident like this is just where it starts. 

I mean, keeping someone around who nuked the masterlist because of relationship issues certainly wasn’t a good start in the first place.

So, out just like that, without anything of an honest say?  Well, nifty. So am I.

It should go without saying. I mean, you’ve tarred and feathered my friend on a whim with one of the worst labels you can put on a person, and you think “just try again in six months teehee” helps the situation? As if any of the people she’s RPing with are still going to be here, to speak nothing of being able to come back after what you’ve just done; fuck off, nobody’s dumb enough to buy that.

Besides. To begin with, the job that just got started with her Roll Caskett? Obviously can’t proceed now. I tried to get Kunio involved with other Atlus muses, but I keep getting passed over, so there’s no point in him sticking around if Ume’s gone. And for crying out loud, I apped Arthur for her to begin with.

So, that’s about the long and short of it. Though I do have some specific words in parting to give--

@gungnirclad​, @beyond-use​, thank you for your interest in the guild. Sorry about this turn of events; I’d been drafting up some introductory job things, but seems that won’t be taking off. I wish you luck in finding other jobs for your muses!

@edgeworthwrightanythingagency, assuming this place is being checked anymore, Kunio’s out in the investigators as well. Hey, upside, there’s another open investigator slot for muses so inclined.

For all the Fate muses who gave Arthur a great opening, thanks, seriously. I got a pretty universally warm reception, and it didn’t go unappreciated. Never forget Roman is guilty of brownie crimes.

Mods? ...I can’t really say anything. Pretty sure you’re beyond help.  Our little upstart who’s probably so proud of themselves? [ by request of the actual victim in this situation, I’ve been asked to specify the obvious that this is not speaking in regards to real csa victims of which the instigator is obviously not, not for you jokers’ sake ] you are bad and you should feel bad

Oh, and the responsible party who started this shit; if you want to go stirring the pot in my inbox for speaking out against this?  Go ahead. Anon’s off. Put up or shut up.

I’m out.

Review: Exhibition Talk

The exhibition talk was regarding the stories of displacement, where Max Hirzel talked about his own view on this topic and his interests in working on his long-term project called “Migrant Bodies.” He started off his talk by discussing the representation of migrants in media and how there are used as tools to promote political and marketing propaganda. He emphasizes on the complexity of this issue, as it is not being expressed efficiently due to lack of concern. He believes it is portrayed by simplicity and boredom, because the images spread on media are usually similar, allowing people to get used to this crisis. Accordingly, I agree on the notion that media outlets fail to present the issue with its heavy severity by deluding to show images that are more impactful, which demonstrates the lack responsibility of drawing attention to significant matters. Thus, Hirzel explains that media chooses not to expose people with the rightful kind of images, in order to show the issue as a natural tragedy rather than a brutal situation. Within his talk, Hirzel quoted an interesting concept that “perception of reality is more important than reality,” which makes sense as people, especially journalists and photojournalists are afraid from the propaganda and the consequences that may follow. To clarify, they may be frighted of losing their identity or work, due to control of political power on limiting realities. Therefore, Hirzel’s video work aimed to use a unique key and a diverse approach, in light of grasping the attention of people and allowing them to gain awareness of the crisis by seeing it from a different corner. He was highly interested in showing the world the harsh reality that he witnessed, as he believed it’s significant for everyone to see the true struggles of migrants. He chose photos that speak to themselves by keeping them unedited and colored to trigger audience’s senses. His documentary included: photos from shipwreck and their victims, analysis of anatomy and belongings, freezer truck with dead bodies, victims’ rooms and clothes, trucks transporting coffins, as well as graveyards and coffins. All these photos shocked me as I had never seen such realness in photos, specifically regarding this sensitive issue. Moreover, I found the behavior of recording the victims’ bodies and coffins with code numbers, rather devastating and disturbing. I was emotionally touched after seeing the video and I believe it to be a powerful tool, to shed the light on the profound harsh reality of the migrants dying every day and living in horrible conditions.

APH China Musings

When I start thinking about China, and sometimes countries in general, I get this total disconnect between how the anime/manga portrays the country (especially China) and how a lot of headcanons have them as, especially reading headcanons and art about ancient days. 

Ok China-specific content below (headcanons at the very end): Very long post warning

Most of the canon shows him as a sort of weird old grandpa who doesn’t really have all his nuts and bolts in his brainpan and pretends to be cool or whatever (when he’s really not) while his kids all mock him. That APH China has a soft spot for cute things and can’t really understand the others ig, which again kinda makes him a laughingstock for his kids. But, the headcanons I’ve read show him as a really manipulative, sly Old Man who enters contracts/treaties/friendships to benefit him, not for the sake of being kind, and doesn’t really see everybody else on an even level with him which... clashes somewhat to a lot with the canon. HOWEVER, this cunning, darker (?) version of him is way more historically accurate... I like certain things from both versions (and I also like being historically accurate as much as possible) and the fact that headcanons vs canon is so contrasting makes it kinda hard to have one concrete China for my headcanons, it’s like he has split personalities or something lol.

Side note: I’ve never heard/known of anyone Chinese ever saying -aru in English, so... It might be just a voice tic of Chinese people when speaking Japanese, but I sort of get annoyed when it’s added in every other sentence he says in a fanfic. He doesn’t talk like that in the English dubbed anime either, and it seems that the English translations of the manga have also omitted the -aru (except for one strip I believe, correct me if I’m wrong). So please don’t add it in fanfics unless you want the characters to all be speaking Japanese with their own unique voice tics.

However, I do like some parts of the canon portrayal, SUCH AS: his doing tai chi every morning, the portrayal of his relationship with Japan before the “betrayal”, and apparently how he “isn't one to waste a second of time” (from the wiki). So in my head, I try to meld the canon and Sly Old Man together, because I like some aspects of China that may not be explained by either the country’s history, culture, or stereotypes, and honestly I feel like some parts of a country’s personality can just appear spontaneously; you don’t need to be able to explain every part of you from your past experience or the people and country that you make up and represent.

Without further ado, the Headcanons!

- MORNING PERSON, does the whole tai chi thing in the morning with the birds in his garden or something, finds it very relaxing, and then goes back inside for an actual breakfast (I have no idea what he’d eat because Chinese cuisine varies A LOT from region to region, ex. in the north/Beijing region there’s usually soy milk, “Chinese oil stick” which is basically like salty fried dough sticks, and “tofu brains” <-- literal translation, it’s a sort of soupy thing with very soft tofu (very good). In the south, there’s a lot of sweet meats and dim sum, almost like a mini lunch sort of thing, etc.) He’d also drink tea, and never adds sugar (I don’t think restaurants in China ever actually give you sugar packets with tea)

- I feel like he’d be a CAT PERSON nowadays dogs as pets have become more popular in China but before, cats were more common (I think) because of their usefulness as pest control and the fact that they can get their own food; dogs weren’t really kept except to be guard dogs. I feel he’d have gotten used to cats, and also he’d enjoy a quiet pet’s company more

- ANCIENT DAYS/RELATIONSHIPS: He’d probably be slightly manipulative, and ENTER relationships for a trade benefit/power/control/good stuff, but if the relationship goes well and the person is charming (Rome cough cough), he’d slowly warm up and become real friends after a while.

- I agree with the Sly Old Man treatment of COLONIES/TRIBUTE STATES, he’d probably just protect them for the benefits instead of actual Love (but isn’t that what all countries do these days). I do see him as very patronizing to his underlings, because of a) his age and him thinking that he’s seen it all with his dynasty changes and wars and stuff and b) Confucianism, which said to respect your elders and all that, so I think it’d make him slightly full of himself and patronizing (the wiki says this is also his current attitude and I can see that). But I see a situation similar to the relationship one playing out here; as he gets more and more contact with a tribute state he actually grows closer to them in the Normal Human Feeling way, so that would explain his feeling of betrayal when Japan left (literally back-stabbing him), as well as his feeling sad (not just because he lost a trade partner and revenue maker) when Korea was taken. For his tribute states, my headcanon for their relationship is pretty much summed up in this post (esp his relationship with Korea, but also Japan a bit): https://stirringwinds.tumblr.com/post/119403708770/tsk-look-at-you-all-battered-and-bruised-its (patronizing but still caring)

- VERY PRAGMATIC AND EXTREMELY BLUNT. I have no explanation, he just seems like this kind of person (and according to the wiki, he “isn't one to waste a second of time”). Doesn’t care at all if he offends you, intentionally or not (unless he’s trying to impress, of course).

- VERY TRADITIONAL. He probably knows at least a handful of traditional instruments, pipa, ma tou qin, gu zheng, erhu, xun, etc. And will roast people on the internet if they play them wrong (a while back at some really fancy gathering, there was a performer who was in front, mind you, playing a yu (wind instrument) upside down and totally wrong, and that caused a huge firestorm in Chinese social media. I’d like to think China would have been one of those people to be like “what are you doing you know you just made a fool of yourself right?” Incidentally, there’s also an idiom related to the yu that is literally about playing it wrong (literally it’s something like one bad apple can be covered up in a sea of good ones but one by one, people will see you’re bad))

- TRADITIONAL pt. 2: good at calligraphy and also very good at guessing dui lian (apparently called antithetical couplets) hung up during the Lunar New Year. Also adhering to tradition, he gathers up everybody for every single big Chinese/Asian festival to eat together. I know Japan doesn’t interact much with China and China still feels betrayed by him in the manga (the Japanese and Chinese relationship nowadays still isn’t the greatest/closest for multiple reasons) but I’m going to take liberties (and my heart needs fluff). Also, if China invites/drags everybody but Japan to his house, I feel like that’s awkward and one of his kids/siblings would get Japan to come anyway. There would be a lot of arguing at the dinner, about food, politics, memes (from HK), trends, or anything really, but it’s all in good fun, yeah?

- MODERN POLITICS: still a bit of Sly Old Man, and probably very stuck in his ways. Some countries he doesn’t really respect. For example, he doesn’t see America as a fully respectable adult, probably because a) he’s still older and b) I think China agrees with his government’s structure to a point? Like with the way he suffered during the collapse of the Qing Dynasty (Boxer Rebellion, WWI, etc.) I think he’d take any system (including communism) that worked and improved people’s lives. At heart, I think China wants to do what’s right for the people, and at the time, the Communist Party promised that people’s lives would get better under their leadership, and for some, it did. That convinced so many people to take their promise, and I think China would have supported it at the time. As well as, I believe that country’s perspectives of their government is /somewhat/ influenced or warped by their people’s perspective, and /most/ people in China are /okay/ satisfied with the central govt. (not extending this to regional govts, that’s kinda a different issue). So I see China (as a character) being mostly satisfied, and America’s criticism and complaints about him pretty much bounce off, because China doesn’t see his comments worthy of respecting, especially because his govt. is doing ok from his point of view. There are definitely things that need working on, but he won’t take US criticism.

- SLY OLD MAN pt. 2: Basically the same as the tribute state thing, he’ll help you out initially to get your benefits, but if you last long enough, he’ll gradually grow friendship feelings. I feel like this is what real China is trying to do with the “Belt and Road”, basically spreading influence to less developed countries, although it may not be working out. Sort of like manipulation, which also fits in with the Sly Old Man thing.

- I can see why Hima originally designed China as being a bit cold, because I feel if he doesn’t need you, he won’t really talk to you. Although as mentioned above, I also see him start to care for somebody once he takes the effort to get to know you, and will probably care for his close friends long after they’re actually needed.

- I agree with the canon that he can GET ANNOYED EASILY AND SNAPS A LOT, but I see this happening only with people he thinks aren’t interesting enough, are below him, or don’t get him (or are just incessantly annoying).

- Also a bit EGOTISTICAL, but doesn’t show most of the time. Unless you happen to mention a recent achievement, and then he’ll go “Haha! I did that ____ (pick a number from 1,000 to 4,000) years ago!” or something and probably roast you

- SENTIMENTAL OLD SOUL: often reminisces about the past when alone, or with someone he truly trusts (that used to be Japan, but...). Slips into “how did the world get like this?” sometimes to a lot. Feels lonely sometimes too, and can be found stargazing on his front stoop at night

- RELAXING: if he doesn’t have work, he’ll just relax at his house, probably take a long bath/shower and just do nothing, maybe play some sort of instrument for fun, go into his garden and paint/walk around and enjoy the flowers, or watch some new addictive show. If he feels like working, he’ll cook dinner for all his kids/siblings and invite them over (this will also be done if he thinks one is overworking)

Ok those are all the headcanons for now, but probably will be more to come. My love for this Old Man is infinite <3. If you want, reblog/submit/comment your own aph China headcanons! Do you think I did him justice?

The Year 2020

It has been 4 months since the pandemic deprived us of the things we used to do on a daily basis. There were many opportunities, once in a life time events  and chances ruined by this year. It has been a struggle for us so far. The year 2020 has been like the tough waves of the ocean. We’d never know how far or how long it will bring us to the shore, how deep the waves could drown us. Most specifically, it is still unknown whether we would come across a ship someday,  that could save us in the middle of this ocean. 

‘The New Normal’ is an unfamiliar lifestyle for us. The pandemic has controlled our way of living. There are things we should do or not do from this day forward.

Masks are the new fashion

It is mandatory to wear protective masks whenever we go outside during this time. Wearing make up, waxing our hair, sporting fancy jewelries and clothes are not our priority anymore. If we were to go outside, we would see people wearing ordinary clothes, wearing no make up, no accessories and whatsoever. What is important these days is to be comfortable, be safe and be healthy.

More on needs, less on wants

We have no choice but to move forward and live our lives differently than we used to. As much as we wanted to buy fancy clothes, go on a window shopping, eat from our favorite restaurants, go to fun places, we needed to put in mind that having decent clothes, food supply that would sustain our needs, and having a good time with our families should be enough during this time. Everything we wanted to do were delayed and lots of events were sadly postponed.

Everything is modern, everything is online

We took advantage of modernization and accessed almost everything online. We buy necessities online, work online, study online, communicate online. Virtual ceremonies and parties became a thing now. It feels different from doing things how we usually do, but this is the new normal. The lifestyle we should adapt in order to move forward.

It would probably take a long time for us to get used to this new lifestyle. It may be permanent, but, hopefully not. We would miss a lot of opportunities and highlights in our life if this would continue for a long time. For the time being, we must do what we can, move forward and believe that we can overcome this situation, and go back to our usual lives.

Literature for Information and Awareness

In this time of pandemic, literature has been contributing and helping a lot in terms of spreading information and giving awareness to people.

With most of us quarantined in our homes, we are still up do date with the different happenings, events, and situations outside, thanks to different forms of literature.

TV News, online newspapers and news reports via social media are some of our major source of reliable information and facts. It is important to be knowledgeable of the current affairs of our country and others as well, so that we can be mindful and wise individuals who are aware of different situations that the world encounters.

There are also released documentaries, films and docudramas available in different streaming platforms, such as YouTube, Netflix, and in television for people to be informed of various cases and phenomenon that happened and happening around the world. These are very helpful in raising awareness, considering our situation amidst this pandemic, because some documentaries tackle about COVID-19, its effect, where and how it started, and how to avoid getting infected.

Social media posts can be a source of information as well. With articles, video clips and blogs, we are able to give and share our personal experiences, and at the same time, receive knowledge from others as well. Compared to the mentioned above, these are just mere experiences and opinions that can inform and be of help to others. An example of which can be advices, tips on how to adapt to online classes, and guidelines and safety measures of going outside for protection and health purposes.

Literature as means of preserving culture and identity

Our culture and identity define the uniqueness of our country. To show our pride and show patriotism, we share content and promote our country through means of literature.

In what way are we able to show the beauty of our country? It is through showing it to the world what it is like in the Philippines. Posts and blogs that talk about our best traits, national resources, food, culture and tourist spots are what earns the interest and curiosity of the people outside our country.

We also use literature as a platform for promoting our local products. Many people have started various online businesses as well. Through posts and articles in social media, local businesses grow and are supported by fellow Filipinos. Promoting and buying local does not only mean preserving our identity as Filipinos, but it also supports financially, especially in these trying times wherein people find ways and strategies on how to earn for a living, since some jobs are in critical state.

Credits for images:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0893rld

https://news.llu.edu/health-wellness/infectious-disease-physician-breaks-down-coronavirus-mask-myths

https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2020/04/03/Shoppers-ignore-government-COVID-19-advice-to-shop-infrequently-Data

https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/180334-online-education-and-e-learning-illustration

http://www.outlawjournalism.com/a-history-of-literary-journalism/

https://www.netflix.com/ph/title/81273378

https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/what-i-wish-someone-told-me-before-taking-online-classes/

https://blog.feedspot.com/philippines_travel_blogs/

https://movingtargets.com/blog/business-marketing/supporting-small-business-in-light-of-covid-19/

Rai@Tired | raikamudapon

[link] Tbh the discourse around the term "fujoshi" is just motivated by shaming women for their interests and sexuality, and specifically trying to seem woke by taking Japanese fan girls down a peg.

Yalls need to stop with that orientalism and colonizer attitudes. 

[link] Ok so, One of the biggest differences of how I see Japanese people digesting media and how Americans digest media is the ability to separate oneself from the topic. 

Japanese people are used to living with duality. The culture of Japan is all about honne and tatemae, and while a lot of Americans think of tatemae as situational lying, it's a specific form of communication that adds a buffer of space between people. Sometimes that buffer is helpful and sometimes it isn't but that's not what we're discussing today. 

In the same vein, Japanese fans consume media with that buffer space, and you see the difference in fandom spaces very keenly. For example, Japanese cosplayers don't tend to roleplay. I feel like the community discourages it, especially in public spaces because the idea is that you are not acting as a character or placing yourself in the character, you are borrowing a character to temporarily express yourself. In america you see encouragement of becoming the character and more closely associating with them in a way you don't really see in Japan. With cosplay, a lot of original outfits with characters isn't as widely accepted, and people are encouraged to add warning tags to heavily modified designs or non-cannon outfits. There's often a buffer between self expression and character expression, and Japanese people in general tend to have a clearer cut between fiction and reality. Americans go the opposite direction, and put themselves personally in to their fandoms. Any criticism or portrayal of a character isn't about the character, it's about *them*. 

Bl for many fujyoshi is a way to explore various topics about sex and gender, and have that safety barrier of "this is fiction that has nothing to do with reality". Theres even a famous phrase in bl circles of Japan, which is "BL is fantasy." People arent consuming bl content because they want to it be realistic. With this genre, a lot of American's first exposure to this culture is through groups that carry these Japanese ideas, especially that fiction is not about reality. There's a strong culture in fujyo circles in Japan to keep fujyo media hidden from from minors and uninterested people. 

This isn't because gay adjacent media is shameful and should be hidden, but because aside from keeping 18+ content away from minors, the content is inherently not for the benefit of non-fujyoshi, or people looking for canon content. Bl is a fantasy exploration of pre-established media, an additional step away from reality. And you see this influence in american bl fans as well. Most responsible adults discourage 18 under people from interacting with 18+ content. It is going to be much rarer for 18+ bl content to be presented to minors with no prior warning then for het media or media that explicitly sexually objectifies women. 

 And I think in conversations about this topic is where you see not just misogyny and sexual policing of woman come in, but a lot of conversations and ideas revolve around how "gross" and "strange" and "foreign compared to woke Americans" the entire culture of fujyoshi is. 

Trying to insist that Americans determine what definitions of language around a culture not originating or centered in America and sentiments about bl are "appropriate" is colonizing attitudes. It stems from the belief that the cultural values of the colonizer are inherently superior to another country. And treating the norms of a foreign sub-culture that was not only established in Japan but continues to flourish and be the center of media produced by that subculture as gross or strange is honestly tinged with Orientalism of the "sexual far east". It's hard to say that the image that all fujyoshi are women does not influence these ideas as well. 

So let's delve in to relations between Japan and America for a hot second. Japan and America have a very unique relationship, especially for countries that are separated by the biggest ocean in the world. Without examining the entire history of the two countries, I want to focus on two points that I think shape the way Americans interact with Japanese media. First, America with it's "black ships" was the one to end Japan's Sakoku policy. They forcefully demanded Japan end it's strict regulations concerning interaction with other countries, start trading with various countries, and to open up to western influences. 

This *greatly* changed the structure of Japan, and honestly the unequal treaties and inability of the Tokugawa shogunate to manage their relations with the west lead to the end of 264 years of governance. (The Meiji restoration is exciting, please read about it.) 

The second topic you don't see many people discuss is the occupation of Japan by American(and English) forces from 1945–1952. While a lot of modernization and things that benefited common people occurred during this time, there was also wide spread instances of violence and rape. You still see generational hurt and mistrust in places like Okinawa, Sasebo, and Yokosuka where American navy bases were placed(and still exist today). If you can stomach it, I would recommend looking up statistics and reports, but I warn you the occupation was nasty business for women. 

So what does this all have to do with modern fujyoshi? So in both of these time periods, prostitutes and courtesans were an essential part of political interactions. Many Americans gained their stereotypes about Japanese women through these encounters. Specifically these interactions were sexual or tinged with the sexual availability of these women, and looking at the increased rapes during the occupation once American GI focused brothels were abolished, you can see how this lens shaped Americans opinions of Japanese women. The story of madame butterfly is only unusual in that it gives the woman in it any agency in their interaction with american men. 

So with this in mind, I think it's easy to see where a lot of stereotypes, specifically sexual stereotypes about Japan and Japanese women come from. America is used to looking at Japan as "the weird strange place of loose morals and loose women of strange sexual proclivities." This is shown how strong the influence of Japanese women as "geisha girls" is to this day, and it tints any conversation of about women and sexuality in Japan. 

In modern day, you can see this carry over in to how people look at Japanese idols and women in anime. I would even say that it's evolved to infantilize Japanese women and the view of how Japanese women are expected to behave. A lot of other people have written literature and reading about fujyoshi and how it relates to the sexual liberation of women(without necessarily involving men or gay men) so I won't go in to that here, but there will be links at the end of the thread. 

What I want to talk about is how historically America is used to putting itself front and center about any topic about the culture of Japan, and how the views Americans have about morality is considered to be "better" and more "woke"... even without context or how those sentiments shape the ideas of foreign people and foreign based media. But we also have to address how Americans have a huge problem with not being the expert voice in any conversation. 

Over the last week, a significant number of Americans have been extremely comfortable in putting the power to decide what Japanese words mean and what Japanese sub-cultures are in their own hands, sometimes even attempting to remove my Japanese voice and background from me in an effort to center their own opinions. And honestly this isn't anything new. Americans are so comfortable with thinking of Asian voices as less influential then their own, that it doesn't stop people from thinking they are the experts about a topic that *does not come from their culture*. You see it with food, you see it with fashion, you see it with everything from equating Asians to *white lite* to assuming that Asians don't exist as mixed people but simply as a monolith. 

There are so many people who were comfortable with placing themselves as experts in a sub-culture of Japanese origin that they knew nothing about, simply because they assumed it corresponded with one aspect of themselves. And it is hard to say that the confidence that these people placed themselves and their ignorance in the middle of the topic did not stem from Americans feeling of ownership over everything they enjoy. 

The people supporting these people may have thought they were being good allies by blindly supporting them, but I saw very few people bothering to further their knowledge past the loose collection of stereotypes and horror stories I saw from the internet. Some of these feelings of superiority probably stem from the fact that these people assumed that all fujyoshi or bl content consumers are women. Misogyny isn't just the expression of hate towards women, but also the idea that non-women inherently have a more valuable opinion then woman, or that women's ideas are inherently less valuable then anyone elses. 

I saw a lot of misogyny this week, both internal and external. There was hate from many people, for the idea that people they assumed women were thriving in a sub-culture that does not involve real gay men. I saw people who could not imagine that men were not at the center of a subculture created and supported by both women and queer people. I even saw examples of women bringing up their experiences as a gender they do not identify with in order to raise their voice against other assumed women. But the voices that attempted to de-legitimize assumed women grew even louder once they were speaking against Asian people, because there is an inherent assumption that their views are qualified, their opinions more valid, their morals better. 

And honestly, this isn't just an issue with white and eurocentrific supremacy, this is an issue of American supremacy. 

 And that is certainly something we need to talk about.

link: thread by @futekiya

link: thread by @dionysiaca

link: thread by @raikamudapon

please consider donating to @raikamudapon’s ko-fi

[reformatting mine]

739.

Basics. What is your name? >> Mordred. What is your favorite color? >> Gold. Your age: >> 32. Where do you live? >> Michigan, USA. Where were you born? >> New Jersey, USA.

Mention one fun fact about you: >> I was born with twelve fingers.

What is your marital status? >> Married. If taken, what is his/her name? >> Sparrow. Your primary hobby: >> I’m not sure I have any hobbies, per se. Lets go Deeper… Are you skinny, fit, overweight, or obese? >> Er. None of these, actually. Your heritage: >> --- Are your teeth spaced out or together? >> Mostly together. Do you have a secret phobia we should know? >> No.

Do you take any medication? >> No. Do you have any disorders? >> Probably. How strange do people say you are? >> People are generally not brazen enough to call me strange to my face, but I know well enough that I am strange. How is your home life? >> It’s all right. Out of all the places/situations I’ve lived (or... not lived, as it were...) in my life, this is definitely the best one in which to be quarantined. You have a job? Why or why not? >> No. Because I am wired strangely/badly enough to qualify for governmental assistance, and forcing myself to work the way most people work would most likely ruin at least 70% of the progress I’ve made on my mental well-being. Which isn’t a crazy amount of progress as it is, so, like, you know. Gotta secret you’d like to give out? >> No. Name a guilty pleasure: >> --- Do you have kids? >> No. Do you have pets? >> I don’t, personally, but I live with Sparrow’s. Do you have a nice relationship with your mom? >> I don’t have a relationship with that person. Do you have a nice relationship with your dad? >> Apparently, I do not have a relationship with this person, either. Any step-parents? If so, do you get along with them? >> --- If you go back in time once, what all would you change? >> --- Do you have any regrets? >> Nothing worth the above question, that’s for damn sure. Are you happy with life? Why or why not? >> I’m about as satisfied as I’m going to get, frankly. Some measure of discontent is to be expected, and I’m not going to waste my time trying to figure out what it is the black hole of my heart is wanting (or thinks it wants) now, because that’s the nature of a black-hole heart in the first place -- wanting. It’ll never stop. Name one UNIQUE characterstic about you: >> I exist in two realms at once and behave quite differently in both. In a Boy/Girl Are you straight, bisexual, gay/lesbian, or not sure? >> I’m not any of these. What do you like in the sex you’re attracted to? >> --- What’s something you don’t like about them? >> --- Would you cheat on your significant other for a million dollars? >> This doesn’t make any sense for my relationship(s) because “cheating” isn’t really a defined thing for us (and is a completely irrational concept Inworld). When do you think is the right time to have sex with someone? >> For me, who knows. Never, I assume. When do you think it’s the appropriate time to marry? >> Blahhhh, whenever, man. Who cares. What about having kids? >> ^ Are in an open relationship? If so, why? >> Yes. Because neither one of us is particularly interested in monogamy. It’s just not a useful framework for us (and I, for one, am completely clueless about what makes it so great, despite the fact that I’ve had its supposed charms relayed to me over and over through the media et al for my entire life... guess I just ain’t meant to get it). Name some turn-ons: >> Being an Inworlder. Name some turn-offs: >> Being an outworlder. (I’m being, like... 60% facetious.) Your opinion on smoking? >> I don’t have an “opinion” on smoking, Drinking? >> or drinking, Smoking Weed? >> or smoking weed, Doing any other illicit drugs? >> or doing drugs. It’s a person’s choice. If it begins to negatively affect my life, then I’ll make a determination on how to proceed based on that specific situation. Cheating? >> This isn’t a concept for me, I don’t care about it. Watching porn? >> Literally. Could not care less. Your Beliefs Are you pro-choice or pro-life? >> I am pro-choice, but I’m not going to argue with anyone about it. As long as abortion stays legal, it’s all good in the hood for me. Are you straightedge? >> Nope. What religion do you practice? >> I don’t. Believe in death row? >> I have no opinion about death row. I think it’s a fascinatingly complex argument (when argued well), and I don’t mind reading those arguments when they cross my path. But I, personally, don’t care to have an opinion. How should the court deal with murderers? >> I don’t have an opinion, dude. Your opinion on animal rights? >> Don’t have an opinion on this, either. I think life should be treated with respect and compassion, sure, but translating that to “I don’t think anyone should eat animals ever” or whatever doesn’t jive with me. That’s not what I think at all. Are you vegan or vegetarian? >> Nope. Do you believe in spanking [your] children? >> I would not spank a child. I was raised that way and it did not do me any favours. I find it extremely difficult to believe that hitting a child is in any way compatible with being the primary person that said child goes to for comfort, protection, guidance, and support. Health & Education Are you freaked out by Swine Flu? >> I’m not really freaked out by [updated for current events] COVID-19, mostly through a fault of imagination, I guess. But I am able to reason and rationalise, so I know I do not want to catch it and I should follow the directives given by public health organisations if I want to mitigate my chances of both catching and spreading it. Are you in college? >> No. What is your highest level of education? >> I graduated high school, somehow. What was/is your favorite subject in school? >> Choir. Did you have a lot of friends in grade school? >> No, I was the weird kid that even the other weird kids were glad to not be as weird as. Did you participate in any activities? >> No. Did you take Sex-Ed? >> I took a couple different versions of it, none of which were particularly illuminating. Worst part about high school: >> All the time I spent self-injuring and being in hospital for self-injuring. Also, just... high school itself. Best part about high school: >> I got nothin’. If you could go back to the 7th grade for a day, would you? >> Fuck no. Did you get your flu shot? >> Yeah. Have you ever had Chicken Pox? >> Nope. What about Rubella? >> Nope.

Tips for first-timers in Zines

Hello! I hope you don’t mind if I show your question like this @angel-of-darkness-217 ; this is something I would’ve loved to know when I started applying to zines myself, and that I’m sure it will help more people who are thinking of applying to this one.

There are many different types of zines out there; free, for charity, for profit, only for artists, focused on writers, focused on merch (like tarot projects), and with all kinds of contributors working in them. Every zine is unique, so their applications may vary, but there are a few essential things you always need to take into consideration if you want to be a contributor to one of them.

I will divide this answer into the different stages of a zine for a better organization.

Getting interested in a zine

When you first bump into a zine, all zines look like shiny little jewels you want to get your hands on asap. However, a lot of zines sadly fail through in their earliest stages, so you need to take into consideration a couple of things before thinking of applying:

Who’s the mod team? Try to find a list/post with some information about the mods of that project. See if they have prior experience in modding a project like this one. If they have experience, there are more chances that the project will follow through until the end. Be careful, though! Zines with heavily experienced mods can also fail for multiple reasons, and people without experience can also produce a really good product. It all depends on the next points.

Check their FAQ and guidelines. A properly structured FAQ including details of the project shows very well the organization of the team. A good FAQ makes a good project. I’d also advise you to read through the FAQ to make sure you’re really interested in the project.

Is the mod team communicative? Do they answer questions regularly? Are they clear in their answers? Are they polite? Do you think you’ll be comfortable working with them? Have they answered all the questions you’ve left in their ask box? (check if it has been answered before or that you’ve left them enough time, though) If you have answered with “No” to one or several of these questions, I’d rethink my wishes to apply to that project.

Remember, if a project doesn’t follow one or two of these points it doesn’t necessarily mean the project itself is bad. However, this is what you ideally need to find in a project like this.

Applications

Now it comes one of the most nerve-wracking parts of a zine: applications. You really want to get into this project, and you want your application to knock the mods off their feet. Applications may feel daunting, but they’re pretty straight-forward once you get the hang of them!

Follow the guidelines carefully. Mods usually leave some rules for applications, like the number of samples, the maximum word count, the theme, etc. Make sure you follow all these rules, or else you risk your app being disqualified.

Make sure your work is easily accessible. Make sure the mods will have no issues viewing your samples (for example, that the links you’re posting aren’t restricted only to your followers, that the link is still active until the end of the applications period, or that you’re sending the correct link). Mods can’t give you a score if they can’t see your work. 

Answer all the questions as clearly as possible. Make sure to read them all carefully before submitting your app. Don’t worry if you have to take a while to write a proper answer, or if you need to ask the mod team about clarifications for some questions -- Mods will gladly answer any doubt you have. 

Make sure your application fits the theme. Normally, it doesn’t matter much if your samples stray a bit from the theme of a zine, but some zines ask specifically for samples that fit a certain, general theme, like nature, love, fairy tales, etc. For zines like that (and essentially all zines if you want to get more attention from the mods), it is nice to make a bigger effort to find samples that fit the theme. A very important note! To all artists who also apply as a merch artist, please don’t apply with the same samples you used for your artist application. It shows a lack of care and it might hinder the mods’ opinion on you. Including actual designs for merch in your samples and/or portfolio helps a lot.

Offer pitches if they ask for them. Sometimes it’s not obligatory, but well-explained pitches really show how interested you’re in the zine. It will leave a good impression on the mods! Again, don’t worry if you need to take some days to think about them, and get feedback if you need it. Just make sure you submit it before apps close.

Have a good portfolio. Our dear Mod Dev has written this post about what makes a good portfolio. It’s a very interesting read, so I recommend you read it, guys!

Again, if you don’t follow one or two of these rules it won’t affect your application much. Mods are pretty flexible, and they can adapt to most situations without hindering their opinion on the application. However, it will look really good if you do follow them.

And remember the most important rule of them all:

Don’t be discouraged if you get rejected. Sometimes zines get too many applications and have very limited contributors spots. Mods see themselves in a situation where they have to choose between several really good applications and discuss for hours to see who they accept and who they reject. 

Being rejected doesn’t mean you’re bad; sometimes, someone else’s application fits the theme better, they explained themselves better, or they were just very lucky and were chosen over you. So, please, don’t let a rejection email let you down and keep trying! 

Most of the people who have participated in a zine sometime have been rejected heaps of time before. I have been rejected dozens of times before (at this point it’s part of the zine experience*). However, if you keep trying and learn from your mistakes, it’s only a matter of time until you get into one yourself.

You won’t get in if you don’t try.

*And please, remember not to bring someone else down if they have been accepted in the zine you wanted to get in, and never, never say they got accepted because of their popularity. Most mods score blindly or know they can’t be influenced by someone’s popularity, and that someone has already been rejected dozens of times before, just like you.

They have tried just as hard as you, and they were lucky enough to get in, so make sure to congratulate them.

Creation process

You’ve finally gotten into a zine, cool! However, there are still a few things you need to take into consideration while working in a zine.

Follow the zine guidelines. Be it dimensions, standardizations, limited word counts, etc., make sure you follow them. Every contributor has a limited space assigned to them in a zine, so make sure you can stay within those limits and ask for help if you need it.

Be communicative, ask questions and be patient. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to your team -- mods are there to organize the project, and they will gladly answer any question you may have. But remember to be patient; modding a zine is a hard job, and sometimes the team needs to discuss the answer to your question before they can give you an answer. Don’t worry; your answer will come eventually. Feel free to remind them if they haven’t answered you in a while, though; they may have forgotten about it!

Follow check-ins down to a T and in time. Check-ins are there to help you go through your workload seamlessly while letting the mods see what you’re creating. It still shows the mods that you’re still very interested in the zine - they won’t know if they have to find someone else for your position if you don’t answer. Don’t be afraid to ask for an extension if you need it.

If you’re a writer, find a beta. Some zines offer betas for their writers, but some don’t. However, that doesn’t mean your work doesn’t need to be anything less than the best (after all, it gets to be in a zine!). Try to find a beta to spot any mistakes you could’ve missed before submitting the final piece.

If you follow all these points, I’m sure the mod team will love you forever. 

Preorders/Shipping

All the final pieces have been submitted and the zine has been assembled, so now preorders start. You obviously want this project you’ve worked so hard on to succeed, and you can actually help to make that happen if you follow these little tips:

Reblog the Preorders open post in all your social media. And if you have social media where the mods don’t have accounts for, post the link yourself! You want to attract as many buyers as possible, and that will only happen if we spread the word.

Make sure you post a preview of your work if the mods ask you to. Previews help hesitant people to finally decide to buy a zine. If you like the concept of a zine but you don’t know if you really want to pay $X for it (remember, zines are usually quite expensive), some cute art and snippets can convince even the most stubborn of buyers!

Ask for updates. See how things are doing and help promote preorders and events like giveaways if necessary. You can also ask for photographic proof when the physical zines get to the mods in charge of shipping; who doesn’t love to see shiny, beautiful products all of you have worked so hard for?

Sometimes, zines don’t make enough money to provide their contributors with a free copy of the zine. It’s really sad, but it happens. And if you’re sad, believe me when I say that the mods are absolutely devastated; they’ve made their biggest effort to lower the expenses as much as possible, but math sometimes just laughs at them in return. If it comes to this, be supportive and, if you want a copy of the zine, try to find alternatives; see if you can buy the zine at production cost, or if you can pitch in with the shipping/fees expenses.

And that’s about it! If you follow these points, I’m sure your experience in the zine scene will be very enjoyable! If you have any questions about them, feel free to ask. Our ask box is always open :D

Lots of love,

Mod Lie

Top 10 Hindi Films of 2018

January 13, 2019

by Inakshi Chandra-Mohanty

1. October

October is like poetry unfolding on screen. An amalgamation of visual pleasure, a heart-warming score, and some of the strongest, most emotional performances of the year, this film is the definition of beauty. With an extremely simple plot, October thrives on the humorous antics of the eccentric Dan (Varun Dhawan) as he develops an unspoken bond with Shiuli (Banita Sandhu). As the trailer stated, it’s not a love story, but instead a story of love. There is the love between mother and daughter, which is tested time and again as the mother (Gitanjali Rao) is pushed by her brother-in-law to take Shiuli off the ventilator. And on the other hand, there are the selfless emotions that Dan has for Shiuli. His feelings for her are never explained, while what she feels for him can never be known. There is so much more to explore in the film, so many more nuances to touch on, which is why it is the best film of the year.

2. Tumbbad

“So jaa varna hastar aa jayega.” When children cry at night, mothers say phrases like this interchanging the villain (for example, Gabbar Singh), to make the children go to sleep. It has become such a popular phrase in the media, that the Tumbbad writers used it as the catchphrase of their film. This mythological horror fantasy film told in three phases, deserves to be recognized for being one of the most imaginative, surreal films made in Hindi cinema. A combination of frightening visual effects, a heart-racing background score, mindblowing cinematography, and creative storytelling, this film is about a man who encounters a mythological demon while searching for an ancient, hidden treasure in his ancestral ‘haveli’ (mansion) situated in the village of Tumbbad. Behind this unique storyline, is a very basic concept of greed in human nature. However, the film manages to present it in a fresh way. The best aspect of this film is the fact that it is a pure entertainer, which is commercially viable. The regular Indian film-going audience would love this film, if they were taken to see it. Unfortunately there is no known name associated with the film, therefore most of this audience has not even heard of the film, let alone gone to see it.

3. Mukkabaaz

Though many people characterize Mukkabaaz as a film about boxing and the hardships sports players in India face, I believe that it is at its core a love story. The heroine, Sunaina Mishra (Zoya Hussain), is the driving force behind the hero, Shravan Kumar Singh’s (Vineet Kumar Singh), passion for boxing. The first time he sees her he rebels against his good-for-nothing, but powerful coach, Bhagwan Das Mishra (Jimmy Shergill), who also happens to be Sunaina’s uncle, in an attempt to impress her. Throughout the film, his motivations, his passion, and his support all derive from his love for her. And even his decision at the end of the film is for the safety and happiness of Sunaina. His passion for boxing is secondary to his love for his wife, which is proven again and again by his actions. Mukkabaaz is Anurag Kashyap’s first attempt at creating a love story and is much better than his latest film, Manmarziyan, which after a certain point, becomes frustrating. Not only is Mukkabaaz a fresh and unique love story, but it also contains elements of Anurag Kashyap’s trademark style, so no true Anurag Kashyap fan will leave the film feeling disappointed.

4. Andhadhun

For many critics and audience members, Andhadhun is being lauded as the film of the year. It is no doubt a great film. The writing is intelligent for the most part, the direction is crisp, and the performances are phenomenal. But in my opinion it is fourth on this list primarily because I viewed it less in comparison to the other films of this year, and more in the context of Sriram Raghavan’s body of work. If compared to his other films, Andhadhun is closest in style and storytelling format to Johnny Gaddaar. Both are told as flashbacks. Both begin with a small mistake spiraling out of control. Both are an ode to 60s and 70s Bollywood crime capers. Both have elements characteristic of a neo-noir. And both are extremely intelligent edge-of-the-seat thrillers, with twists and turns at every moment keeping the suspense high. However, Johnny Gaddaar has a far tighter script than Andhadhun, especially in the second half where Andhadhun becomes slower and slightly less interesting due to the introduction of less entertaining characters. Therefore, Andhadhun is still one of the best films of the year, but my love for Johnny Gaddaar prevents me from rating it higher on this list.

5. Raazi 

Bias is the biggest weakness of any film based off of real events. The director’s most difficult obstacle is to not let his/her own views reflect on the objectiveness of the story, while still keeping the emotions intact. With Raazi, Meghna Gulzar has so brilliantly manipulated the audience into empathizing with every character in the film, regardless of nationality, therefore feeling patriotism regardless of country. After watching this film, you won’t hate Pakistan, nor will you hate India. You will just hate war altogether. Everyone will leave the theater feeling patriotic with no specific country in mind. Raazi follows the character Sehmat (Alia Bhatt), the daughter of an Indian spy, who gets married to a Pakistani military officer, Iqbal Syed (Vicky Kaushal), in order to gather information on the Pakistani military plans during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Sehmat is such a well-written character with multiple dimensions. On one side, she is bound by her patriotism towards India, and the promises she has made to her father. And on the other hand, her growing love and affection for her husband and his family comes in the way of her mission. Ultimately, she is torn between these two and can no longer distinguish between right and wrong. There are very few films, which explore so many emotions and so many different sides to an issue with minimum bias, and Raazi is one of them.

6. Mulk

In the current times, when the Hindu-Muslim animosity is still fatal, and when anti-Muslim hatred is spreading widely throughout the world, a film like Mulk is essential. The film explores the backlash and ostracization Muslims face from Hindus and even from their own community, when the word terrorism is applied to a member of their family. After his nephew, Shahid Mohammed (Prateik Babbar), turns to terrorism, it is up to a respected advocate Murad Ali Mohammed (Rishi Kapoor) and his daughter in law Aarti Mohammed (Taapsee Pannu) to reclaim their family’s honor and fight for their prestige, as the whole family is prosecuted in court on charges of terrorism. The issues discussed in Mulk are tackled with sensitivity and minimum bias by writer-director Anubhav Sinha, and are made to resonate with the audience through the poignancy of the film. The film is not a landmark film, but it is an important one and hopefully it will allow people to gain a broader understanding of the type of anti-Muslim hatred that plagues the country.

7. Laila Majnu

It is very difficult to recreate a timeless, epic love story in a period where in film, practicality and realistic situations have begun to take over the classic notion of love. Making people believe in the intensity of emotions and craziness of love is a complicated task. The plot of Laila Majnu is a basic love story, boy meets girl, they fall in love, and their family enmity causes obstacles in the path towards their union. The first half is full of clichés yet remains fresh because of the new faces, the beautiful music, and the strong chemistry between the leads. However, it is the daring second half, when we see the love being torn apart, where Majnu’s separation from Laila causes him to succumb to depression, that makes this film worthy of being on this list.

8. Stree

After Bhool Bhulaiyaa, here is another brilliant horror comedy that has truly left the audience frightened by some scenes but has also managed to make them laugh extremely hard in others. A town is terrorized by a woman, called Stree (Flora Saini), who abducts men, leaving their clothes behind, and Vicky (Rajkumar Rao) attempts to solve this mystery and rid the town of ��Stree’ forever. The three male leads, Rajkumar Rao, Aparshakti Khurrana, and Abhishek Banerjee, as well as Pankaj Tripathi have impeccable comic timing, which is supported by the hilarious dialogues. And yet the film still lives up to its role as a horror comedy since it is filled with scary moments and jump scares, the essence of which are not affected by the comedy. Stree is an overall entertainer, and its box office success is proof of that.

9. Pari

Pari was harshly criticized by film critics and the audience because it promised a horror film, yet it was not scary. However, its approach at creating a unique universe and widening the imagination of the audience is commendable. Pari is the story of a man, Arnab (Parambrata Chatterjee), who takes in an apparent victim of abuse, Rukhsana (Anushka Sharma), after her mother is killed in an accident caused by his car. However, everything is not as simple as it seems and soon Arnab realizes he has been dragged into a very dark world filled with conspiracies and supernatural forces. The line between good and evil has been blurred, and he no longer knows whom to trust. Though not scary in the moment, it leaves people with nightmarish thoughts and goosebumps afterwards, as the concepts and characters, which are thoroughly developed, are quite frightening. It would have been on the same level of Tumbbad if not for the weak script that completely derailed in the second half. However, despite that, the film works, partly because of the daring to try something new, and the brilliant performances, especially by Anushka Sharma, which will continue to haunt you for days.

10. Blackmail

At the time of its release, this film went almost completely unnoticed, due to bad PR and few noticeable actors. When I went to see the film, there were only two people apart from me in the theater. However, this black comedy is such a hilariously entertaining film. A man, Dev Kaushal (Irfan Khan) returns home one day to find his wife, Reena (Kirti Kulhari), cheating on him, and instead of confronting her like any normal person would, his sadistic mind convinces him to anonymously blackmail her and her lover, Ranjit Arora (Arunoday Singh). What begins as a simple plan, turns into a convoluted game as Ranjit’s wife, Dolly Verma (Divya Dutta), an employee at Dev’s office, Dolly’s father, and a private detective get involved. Though I do believe that a lot more could have been done with the story to make more comedic situations using the unique characters, the film was still thoroughly engaging due to the witty dialogues and brilliant characterization, emphasized further by the amazing performances.

Industry Trend: Sony Drops Out. E3 Is Dying. Maybe That's a Good Thing?

Sony has decided it won’t have a showcase at E3 in 2019. Some see this as a terrible sign. However, even with this news, the expo has been slowly dying for some time. It might seem all doom and gloom but maybe this is all a good thing? We break down why the absence of the E3 Expo may do the industry some good.

It’s been a good few months since we all settled in to watch the events of 2018's E3 event unfold. We got to see what the beloved yearly showcase had to offer us whether it was news, surprises or cringe-worthy out-of-touch presentations. That said, the event came and went and it seems to have become largely forgettable already… Why? Because E3 is a relic of the past and something that probably doesn't need to exist anymore.

There’s no denying that E3 is a great time for video games and acts as both a celebration and showcase of what games can be, and how varied our medium is. With such a variety of genres and experiences at hand, we get to show the world just how great gaming can be and how it can resonate with people of all ages and origins. Make no mistake, that kind of event is incredibly important and is something that will always be cherished by game devs and players alike. I, like many others, absolutely love E3 week. For the past few years I’ve been able to book the time off for it so I can watch it all happen live as it happens. Sure, it usually takes place in the early hours of the morning for those of us in the UK but I don’t mind; some people go to watch their favourites sports teams or their favourite bands but this was the kind of event that could truly grab my attention.

To me, games are an important part of my life. Whether it be for the escapism of visiting weird and wonderful places, the friendships forged over multiplayer or the excitement shared leading up to a new release, there was a whole host of reasons games spoke to me and with E3 having become the golden boy of gaming conventions and shows, I always do what I can to watch. 

The past few years worth of shows have had their fair share of memorable moments. 2015 gave us Bethesda’s first showcase, the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Cuphead. 2016 gave us the reveal of Death Stranding, Project Scorpio and Spider-Man. 2017 gave us Metroid Prime 4, the Shadow of the Colossus remake and a trailer for Beyond Good & Evil 2. 2018’s E3 Expo, on the other hand, didn’t have anything that truly stood out for me. There were some surprises for sure but it all seemed to fade from memory within the space of a week. Some of the showcases given seemed almost pityful and lacking in content, with others arguably being dragged out longer than they should have been.

This isn’t something that’s unique to 2018’s show though; past E3 expo’s have seen an interesting shift and style as the landscape in which E3 sits becomes a more competitive one. E3 used to be the pinnacle of gaming events but that’s not the case anymore. As games have become increasingly embraced, more shows have expanded in influence and instead of having one huge blowout event to give us our news, we now have several. E3 is dying and, if you haven’t heard, Sony has recently hammered a further nail in the poor things coffin.

The news broke that Sony wasn’t planning on attending E3 2019 and that no presentation would be had either at the convention centre or elsewhere. Sony aren’t the first major player to turn their backs on E3 of course, with Nintendo opting to focus on their more polished Nintendo Direct presentations in more recent years. Presentations from the likes of Ubisoft, Square Enix and EA have been spotty at best and, to boot, PlayStation has an event of its own in the form of PSX. On top of all of this, other events are starting to step on E3’s toes. With so many events scattered throughout the year, there’s inevitably going to be a bit of a battle between them to see who can bring the biggest and best news to their own showfloors. PAX, EGX, GDC, Comic-Con, Paris Games Week, the Game Awards, Gamescom, QuakeCon, BlizzCon; everyone wants a slice of the pie. With so many shows in need of content and with only so much to go around, somebody has to draw the short straw.

One of the reasons so many events have sprung up and grown over the years is that it gives reveals a chance to breathe. Too often an announcement can be made and it is buried by bigger, better or simply more controversial news showing up immediately after. E3 is a prime example of this; with the conversation following such events always centering around a small handful of bullet-points, lesser known titles are being swept under the rug all too soon. By spreading out such things through the course of the year, it gives things a chance to hold the spotlight a little longer. What’s more, it also allows for more flexibility in release schedules; there’s often expectations attached to announcements and reveals that the content will surface within specific time frames afterwards. If you had the chance to reveal your game in January instead of June, people will instead have different preconceptions of when they will see more of the game and when it will release. A more flexible schedule allows for more flexible announcements and more flexible responses.

Why does this matter? Because game release schedules are getting more and more hectic. Just as they do within games conventions and conferences, releases are now battling it out for the best time to play their hand. Winter and Fall schedules are now home to countless big releases and all within a few weeks of each other. In years past we had Battlefield, Titanfall 2 and Call of Duty all surface within a matter of days. Both Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider took considerable hits in sales because they had been forced to face off against game releases that would unfortunately outmatch them. This year alone, we learned that Anthem, Days Gone and Crackdown 3 were all going to be released on the very same day in February of 2019 - something that has thankfully changed since.

E3 is arguably the largest of those gaming showcases and is seemingly shrinking. This may well open the doors to a more varied and well-balanced schedule for the plethora of conventions spread throughout the year and, in turn, the multitude of games we get to enjoy too. A less competitive peak period would also allow for games to get the focus they deserve in periods of the year we don’t often see larger titles. Would the original Dying Light have done so well if it had released in late 2014 instead of January 2015? Would the Witcher 3 have become the enormous hit it was if it had been released in the middle of the huge Fall 2014 releases such as Destiny, Fifa and the Grand Theft Auto V rerelease?

The absence of Sony at E3 next year also presents a unique situation for those who still plan on showing up. While it can be argued that Sony’s absence may well strike a significant blow against the game industry’s annual trade show, it does free up a significant amount of space for Microsoft and Nintendo to potentially occupy. It’s the first time in the event’s 23-year history that Sony hasn’t been there but with it being one of the strongest presences at the event it could prove an opportunity for others; maybe Nintendo could return to the E3 stage in full force. It’s also foolish to deny that Microsoft struggled during the first few years of this console generation. The Xbox has certainly come along way since and is in a stronger position than ever; Microsoft has done well to introduce new policies and features into their console infrastructure that have caught peoples attention. With the host of studios they have also taken control of, they may well be able to get of to a flying start in the generation to come. With an E3 stage next year that’s more spacious than ever, both Microsoft and Nintendo have the chance to grab it with both hands and show people what they’ve got that PlayStation hasn’t. More fierce competition brings fierce change.

With PlayStation having scrapped plans for PSX this year, there’s certainly a sizeable lack of Sony within the next year or so. Maybe they want to have PSX 2019 be one huge PlayStation celebration that’s topped with a PS5-shaped cherry? Maybe Sony just doesn’t want to have to be confined by the typical structure of games media year by year? Maybe Sony simply hasn’t got much to show off next year? Whatever the case may be, the gradual withering of E3 as the industry staple is actually a sign of something bigger.

We’re now spoilt for choice. While there was once a time where we had only one event to turn to, we now have a multitude of them. There is no longer just one celebration of the medium we love so much, there is a multitude of them. Gaming isn’t that hobby people didn’t understand like it used to be. Gaming isn’t seen as the cause of troubled youth like it used to be. Gaming isn’t the niche medium it used to be. We are now at a point where gaming is something that’s just part of nearly everyone’s day to day lives. We don’t need a single celebration of our industry because it’s celebrated consistently. While the slow death of E3 is certainly a shame, it symbolises more that the industry is getting bigger and better year by year.

The death of E3 might very well change the landscape of games media and the industry as a whole but it’s been allowed to happen because changes are already underway. Gaming media has embraced the culture of YouTuber’s, Twitch Streamers and Infuencers. It’s expanded into cross-media promotions. It’s working more closely with the fanbases that follow it. Games are forming passionate communities of players. Games are becoming services that are captivating players for longer than they used to. Games as a platform and medium have changed and so to must the means used to showcase them.

Sony has dropped out of E3. They’re undoubtedly gearing up for their next console and want to make sure that it surfaces with a far share games and revelations. Looking at the release schedule for big games going forward, they seem to all be releasing in the first half of 2019 or don’t have a solid date at all. Big changes are coming for PlayStation. Big changes are coming for gaming. Big changes are coming for E3.

E3 Is dying. Maybe that's a good thing? Change can be a good thing. In the next few years we will see new consoles, new approaches to gaming experiences and new ways that developers and publishers choose to interact with their players. For a group of people that love to spend their 1-UP’s and start things over, why not let our favourite trade show do the same…

Robinhood vs. Wall Street

Yesterday, social media and the news was full of thoughts about the stock market. It all had to do with shares of GameStop and what happened with it over the last couple weeks.

GameStop is pretty clearly in a shitty situation as a going concern. It’s has billions in sales, but hasn’t had a profit in a couple years. Unless it changes it’s brick and mortar business model will cease to exist. It’s main business is game sales after all: just a piece of software that can be digitally transmitted. As a result, the shares have been heavily shorted by tons of hedge funds, making it one of the most shorted stocks on the Street.

Many retail, or mom and pop investors, didn’t see the picture that way. Some even thought that bringing on a new member to its Board, a guy originally from an online pet supplies company called Chewy, would revamp the model back toward profitability. They started making bullish bets, both buying the stock and placing call options. Nothing unique here. Then they went and sold their idea like a salesman on a popular Reddit forum for traders call wallstreetbets. Again, nothing unique here. However, something was different this time about this particular idea. It actually caught on. It then lead to a short squeeze for the hedge funds. What’s that? A short squeeze is where a short position loses (the price of the stock went up), and the seller of the short position has to buy out stock at a higher price than they expected because the options contract ended and they have to deliver shares to the person they borrowed the shares from. Just like that, the little guy outplayed the big guy. It may have had something to do with the fundamentals.

But this is where things went awry. That wallstreetbets forum at some point figured out that if they collectively work together and place tons of call options and buy shares of the stock, it would continue for force another short squeeze come the next Friday expiration (options always expire on Fridays for whatever time period they last, whether weeks or months). Because the stock was so heavily shorted, unlike most other stocks out there on the market, it wouldn’t take much pushing up of the price in order to create a snowball effect. More sinisterly, the faceless, nameless people using Reddit openly talked about how they wanted to manipulate the stock in order to force another short squeeze. Then another. Then another. Unlike normal market manipulation, where a single or small number of people with large leverage push their weight in order to drive a stock’s price one way or another, this was being done by a huge number of little guys. And they weren’t being quiet or tacit about it. They blatantly said what they were doing.

The price of GameStop’s stock went from $17/share on the first day of trading in January to $347/share by January 27th. Nothing at all changed about the fundamentals or information pertaining to the company’s future performance in this time. Sure, maybe some investors became aware of the information about the stock that they didn’t know before. Hey, who’s looking at GameStop on a normal day anyways? But we’re not blind, and the Reddit forum wasn’t quiet about it either. This was pure and unabashed market manipulation. Not even speculation! Just flat out pump and dump. Seeing how high the wave can ride and get out before it crashes.

In the last two days, broker trading platforms, like mine at TD Ameritrade, put a stop to trading in GameStop and various other “meme stock” securities, the group of heavily shorted positions favored by people on the wallstreetbets forum. Volatility was too high to deal with, and I suspect they are worried regulators will soon be down their backs for allowing it to happen, given the high risk that mom and pop investors lose it all, and possibly then some, when the bubble eventually bursts. The brokerages took a beating yesterday for it. The target of all the outrage was Robin Hood, a relatively new brokerage app that is popular with Millennials and retail investors. It’s reputation is for hosting mostly unsophisticated investors attracted by the ease of the platform’s design, making it easy to buy and sell stocks, and importantly options, with zero commission fees. People on the Street refer to stocks popular on the platform as “Robin Hood stocks”, a snub at the stupidity of the cheap investment that only gains in price because of retail investors buying name brands that they know, completely detached from the fundamentals of the company’s future earnings prospects (Hertz, airlines, Nokia... GameStop). I understand that I now sound like a Wall Street snob without the income to back it, but after 20 years of researching stocks and understanding how they work, the analogy to ignorant investors during the Dot Com bubble of the late 90′s and early 2000′s shows why Robin Hood stocks are named with such disdain.

Anyways, retail investors, and populist political pundits were pissed that Robin Hood halted trading. (Robin Hood specifically halted buy or call orders, but not sell orders, which is a fair criticism, but that’s not the main focus of the outrage). The reason: this was the little guy getting even with the big guy, and the so called democratizing force in trading, Robin Hood, caved to the evil hedge funds. While I certainly love a David win over Goliath, this is not the same, at least there isn’t publicly known proof or evidence yet to confirm the suspicions. First off, people who can afford to trade in options tend to be well capitalized given all the margin requirements necessary. Sure, they are still a retail investor, but they aren’t struggling for cash to begin with. So David is usually doing fine financially to begin with, even though he isn’t even close to as big as Goliath.

Outside the comfortable lifestyle most of the traders likely already have, it’s not clear why the particular Goliaths they went after were targeted. Citadel, Citron, Melvin Capital, and the other hedge funds that lost billion from this appear to be grouped together as bad simply because they are hedge funds. What did they specifically do? Well, they are accused of a host of things, but none seem to be specific to them, just to hedge funds generally. It’s an attack on their status. Now I’ve hear a few accusations about these hedge funds, Citadel in particular, front-running orders; that is, having a buy or sell order sent to them to broker a deal for, but then doing the exact order request for themselves and then doing it for the order that was placed with them in order to take an extra cut of money on top of the bid/ask spread they get for commission from their market making activities. Confused? Look it up. Anyways, they are accused of front-running, which is illegal. They were even fined for it in the past by regulators ($700,000 for what I expect was a lot more in profits). Citadel is certainly not playing fairly. They are an evil goliath. The others, I don’t really know, and have not researched too far into.

What I mostly see though, is public justification for one bad act because of the past bad acts of another (Citadel), or another group (hedge funds generally). The little guy got it’s chance to attack the big guy for all the years of its parasitic behavior. And while I don’t have too much sympathy for the goliath hedge funds in this story, I don’t likewise think the traders here are members of the Boston Tea Party. Why is it bad when a goliath manipulates the market, but not when a group of small investors do it? Is it just because of the concentration of wealth? I assume it has to do with the redistributing effects of wealth from the goliaths to the victorious Davids, but the story hasn’t quite ended. The manipulation will eventually stop it’s momentum, and once it does, the people who will be hurt most are the late comer mom and pop retail investors who can’t get rid of their losing shares quick enough. Then the wealth transfer ends up benefiting only the early arrivers, but screws over all the late players to the game. Hell, there’s a good chance that hedge fund will be able to spot the top better and place put orders magnifying their gains on the crazy volatility in the shares. So in the end, it may just be ignorant Robin Hood investors who get screwed because the smarter small players fixed the game to their advantage.

How’s that for democratizing trading? On that point, the whole idea that Robin Hood was wrong for stoping trading because of it’s goal to “democratize trading” is stupid. Robin Hood is new to the game in the brokerage industry. Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, etc. have all been around for decades. Just because a new player entered the market with a slogan to democratize trading doesn’t mean they did anything revolutionary. In fact, the only thing they did of note was be the first to introduce free trades. Otherwise, everything they do has existed for years. Marketing to millennials better than the existing firms doesn’t mean you’ve democratized Wall Street, it just means you’ve gotten more people to join the club than previously existed. And the club was open to anybody to begin with! So the cries about how they halted trading is anti-democratizing wall street is dumb. To me, it’s a fair attempt to pull the punch bowl as the party gets going to prevent the sloppiness and ensuing hangover the fun lovers have blinded themselves to in the heat of the party.

But we will see how things go in the coming days. I could be wrong.

I’m most interested to see what the SEC and DOJ do with this. Market manipulation is illegal. But is it really market manipulation if a large group acts? Sure, there is always a tidbit of truth to the original decision to buy or sell an eventually price manipulated stock, but we know this wasn’t fundamentals driven trading. But how do you go after a group of nameless, faceless user names in a chat room who’s identities are potentially difficult to come by? There’s a strong chance that silent observers of the Reddit forum got in on the action, so how do you know if they tacitly agreed to the collect action or not? Importantly, how do we stop this from happening again? It may make it scarier for short sellers to pile so heavily into stocks in the future knowing that a group of mischievous investors working together can force a massive snowballing short squeeze on small stocks with relatively low trading volume.

I wouldn’t care so much about this event (so what, a bunch of hedge funds lost billions; I’m not particularly upset). But the strong favorable reaction towards blatant market manipulators upsets me. One bad act is not remedied by another bad act. Two wrongs don’t make a right. That whole thing. I think people have conveniently blinded themselves to what happened because of how good the story of the little guy beating the big guys sounds. But in this case, the little guy is also doing a wrong thing. So they shouldn’t be celebrated, encouraged, and heralded for it. After all, they were simply acting in a way that made them rich, for all the convenient societal righteousness they may claim. But alas, maybe they see themselves as modern day Robin Hoods (even though the “poor” they’re giving to happen to be themselves).

I’m sure there will be cool interesting articles that come out of this event in the future. Maybe even a sweet documentary or episode in a mini series. I’m eagerly awaiting to see what they have to say, especially from an author who actually understands how stocks work and can explain what’s happening from anything but a politicized view.

Interview on Sloganeering

Karin: Can you talk me through the concept of sloganeering? Isaac: Sloganeering is the act of writing a slogan or phrase on a surface (bilboarding) or spreading it through other media (radio), mainly for marketing reasons. This has developed to the application of T-shirts. As T-shirts are the most democratic clothing product, they are a great tool for marketing and branding; similar, to bumper stickers, tote bags and key chains. T-shirts are the most popular and affordable item of clothing on the planet. Classless, genderless and cross-cultural, T-shirts are everywhere and here to stay. The contemporary influx of slogan T-shirts comes from a newly frustrated generation, who feel like people in positions of power are not hearing their voices. Citizens feel they have no voice, but they can wear it on a T-shirt and the public can’t not read it. Wearing your rights on your body has resonance. Whatever your “thing” is, there is a clothing piece or accessory that can hep you express that. Karin: What does it mean and what is the history of the phenomenon? Isaac: The easiest way to think of sloganeering is in timeline format. T-shirts were invented in the early 1900’s as an undershirt for men in the military with no laundry capability. They re-emerged in the 1960’s with DIY culture through hands on techniques (Tye dye, silk screening, block printing) as part of a new age philosophy and psychedelic rock. In the 70’s T-shirts became part of punk and grass roots activism, a vehicle for stances on social and political issues. Vivienne Westwood’s “I AM NOT A TERRORIST, Please Don’t Arrest Me”. Or a shirt with a swastika, layered with a crucified Jesus, combined with the word “DESTROY”¬ – a statement against dictatorship; in general statements of solidarity and unity. Katherine Hamnett emerged in the 80’s with bold font T-shirts that you could read from 30 m away. “STOP AND THINK”, “SAVE THE FUTURE”, “CHOOSE LIFE”. Continuing the activism inspired by Westwood, Hamnett stated, “A successful T-shirt has to make you think but then crucially, you have to act”. The end of the century saw Tongue-in-cheek slogans for the fashion world to laugh at itself. Some were funny because they were good jokes, some were funny because they were classics, and a large number were funny simply because someone would actually wear them. The new millennium promoted skanky, sleazy, and vague statements. “Young, willing and eager”, “Hotter than I should be”. Even Paris Hilton was captured by paparazzi wearing a shirt that said “THIS WAS THE ONLY SHIRT I HAD WITH NO CUM ON IT”. Obviously, this was before celebrities had stylists. In this last decade the fourth wave of feminism and “woke” movement used T-shirts that were ethically and morally inspired “This is what a feminist looks like”. “Love trumps hate”. “Poverty is sexist”. Karin: Where does your interest in this topic stem from? What can be deduced from your research? Isaac: What really sparked my interest was when I moved to Europe and saw non-native English speakers wearing English statements across their chests. I understood that these products were available at high volumes,that’s why there were so many popping up – but I was more interested in the motivation for purchase besides the low price point. Why do people voluntary wear text across their chests? Do they understand the statement they are wearing? Does the mass produced T-shirt “Undefeatable” make you feel that way? Do you wear this statement as motivation to feel that way? When you bought it – did you feel undefeatable? Do you feel defeated and want others not to know? There were too many unanswered questions. And once I saw one person wearing a slogan T-shirt I started seeing 20-25 a day, not searching for them, just by getting groceries and riding the train. The role of a fashion designer has always been about making a statement or message. And since the late 1990’s, fashion designers haven’t really considered or been mindful of the complexity of the human form, especially with the evolution of fully verticalized fast fashion retailers. Today, there is less product development in construction and cut and sew techniques and more on decorative elements and graphics, with the emergence of most fashion studios being run by graphic designers. We’ve moved from the idea: “The medium is the message” to “The message is the medium”. Karin: Where do you see the slogan Tee's biggest potential as a social and cultural mobiliser today and in the future? Isaac: I think that irony has dug everyone a hole that is hard to get out of, very comparable to the tone in current politics, where confusion and satire is a commonly adapted tool for manipulation. The new generation of fashion consumers don’t possess much historical knowledge of fashion. To these consumers, whoms knowledge on fashion is quite limited to street wear like, A-Cold-Wall, Alyx and Fear of God, irony seems fresh. This is a bit unnerving and leads me to believe that a slogan T-shirt with just writing and no symbol for context, will just be regarded as a cry for help or nonsensical bullshit. However I do think that, amongst all the nonsense, a return to the roots of smart slogans that Westwood and Hamnett pioneered could evoke curiosity, an emotional response, which could lead to a counter movement. Karin: What social shifts can we see through the evolution of sloganeering? Do you believe words and statements on garments can help bring about social and cultural change? Isaac: I do see that the true investment in clothing is a personal investment in constructing ones self and social identity, and slogan T-shirts can only aid this. Sloganeering is fascinating because if you look at trends in a timeline; they really mirror societal shifts and movements. To not sound overly pessimistic, one can see the decline of slogans mirroring the decline of high quality fashion. There is nothing unique about wearing a shirt that says “Not Normal”, when 100,000 of the same shirts have been mass-produced. Karin: Slogan T-shirts have often been connected to the opposition and worn as an act of activism. However, big fashion houses and established designers have also picked up the trend – what are your thoughts on this? Isaac: I think that the original purpose of wearing a slogan T-shirt has been lost to so many other motivational factors and it’s hard to bring back that authenticity. The motivation for wearing slogan T-shirts has expanded and changed from solely activism to a myriad of arenas. Slogans can be a political voice or statement for social and cultural change, a means of self expression, a way to attract attention to yourself or a way to use your body as a walking billboard. In the era of valorising personal identity, wearing a brand acts as an identity affiliation, even though following a trend is part of something mass market. It can also be an inside joke that unites people and makes a group feel part of something. Karin: What different types of slogans do you see at the moment? Do they follow any specific trends? Isaac: There are a few categories. The designer ones range from vulgar to positive to thought provoking. Designers like Diesel, Dsquared2 and Undercover, have all been experimenting with typeface and iconic terms that become part of their brand identity. The fast fashion slogans are often overly positive or self-critical – sabotaging in a cute way. And the ironic fashion fakes are probably the most interesting in terms of originality and how crude they can be. Karin: Can you tell me about the creative process with stylist Billy Lobos and photographer Spyros Rennt? Isaac: Billy Lobos is a good friend and we always wanted to work together. One day, after reviewing my collection of slogan T-shirts, Billy proposed a concept for an archival photo shoot. The photos were meant to be similar to my way of documenting T-shirts on Instagram, stalker- like pictures where the goal is to get a photo of the text on T-shirts, with little consideration of the wearer. Billy casted and styled models in their everyday clothes and directed Spyros to take very quick, unstaged, subtle photos of essentially pedestrians. Karin: How did the photos by Spyros Rennt translate into sweaters? Isaac: Spyros Rennt did a really good job. He doesn’t work as a typical fashion photographer and Billy and I didn’t see the photos translating into a campaign or lookbook. The photos were bold and simple, which translated well optically into pixelated knit structures. When you’re far away enough from the sweaters, you can read the slogans, which is the often the situational context I find myself in when I see a slogan T-shirt. Karin: What is the point of putting pictures of people wearing garments on a garment? Isaac: This project started with a lot of questions I had for people wearing slogan T-shirts. I think it’s funny to superimpose the two – wearing a person with a specific branded identity. People who wear slogan T-shirts can’t see how they look like to the public. It’s like giving someone a mirror of their own identity and making them be self-reflective of the image they are portraying. Karin: What does wearing statements have to do with "No Shame"? Isaac: I think the people that wear slogan T-shirts, band shirts, sport teams – it’s all a way of showing your pride and alignment with something or being part of a group. When someone catches me staring at their T-shirt in the street, they don’t look down and become insecure with what their wearing and sharing, they look me directly in the eye with confidence. These people have no shame and stand by their beliefs, values and branding. I wanted to document the confidence, esteem and pride of these people. Karin: We've seen high street shops selling T-shirts with statements related to topics like feminism for years. At the same time they are called out for being more interested in profit than activism. Is it possible to avoid that these statements empty out? Isaac: I don’t think buying a mass-market product helps the associated cause, unless a financial portion is allocated to an activist group responsible for change. What Katherine Hamnett did in 1984, making an anti-nuclear protest, was innovative beyond imagination today. She made her “58% DON’T WANT PERSHING” T-shirt for a fashion reception, which Margaret Thatcher was hosting. Margaret Thatcher decided to allow the U.S. perishing missiles to be stationed in Britain, which was very controversial and many decided to boycott this fashion event. Hamnett, however thought of it as a great PR opportunity. She smuggled her T-shirt into the event, wearing a white coat over it and right when she had the opportunity to take a picture with Margaret Thatcher she unveiled her shirt. Thatcher said: “You seem to be wearing a rather strong message on your T-shirt”, and bent down to read it and let out a squawk, like a chicken. This perfect opportunity and the exposure by the media gave power to the slogan T-shirt that mass-produced activist shirts will never be able to surpass.

SHOUJO TSUBAKI

Warning: Shoujo Tsubaki, Mentions of Rape and Pedophilia.

Watched the first few parts of Shoujo Tsubaki and honestly It was good. Like it disturbed me and made me so disgusted but it did a great job of that. Honestly...I loved all the character designs and the concept of it was so disturbing. I think initially that’s what the maker wanted. To create a certain piece so disturbing and something that will rock the masses. The characters are unique and vile but they’re interesting and they make me want to watch more. I dont enjoy seeing pain but I sat through this movie for at least all that I can stomach because I want to talk about the issue right now that came along with this movie.

Many people have been saying that they liked the guy with no arms and bandages all over. Honestly, I dont encourage it but I also dont discourage someone’s interest because it is not my place. Honestly I agree with the “What happens in fiction stays in fiction” argument because I remember being reminded that though these fictional scenes may affect the public, this will still be fictional. You can cancel me or whatever however I firmly believe that instead of normalizing or romanticizing this film has been making people more aware of this issue. Yes, I understand that some romanticize this guy and to that...I have no words. I dont like that character specifically but I like the characters and the story in general because of how it opens the eyes of the public. I hope that this becomes a lesson and not something people romanticize however I know those who do like that character most of them dont condone what they did to the main person and simply like what he brings as an obstacle like the other antagonists or problems.

Extra note:

To those keyboard warriors who keep on saying rape is rape and a crime is a crime.

Instead of trying to shame people for liking that character for whatever reason (but more or less saying how they like the character’s design or the characters in general as they help provide people content that will open their eyes or those who like the character but dont condone their actions) what they’re doing isnt helping and isn’t right... Please try to help actual victims. Please try to be a safe place for others instead and try ro help those who actually have experienced similar experiences. Be respectful and dont call someone dumb for saying how they feel like that character is familiar or someone they wish they could meet because some victims do cope like this. They cope through finding a situation where they want to feel as they are in control. Also please dont invalidate someone’s experience simply because you’re trying to do the right thing.

To those who romanticize this and excuse the character’s actions, Dont. Please. Never condone actions like that. It’s not an excuse they’re hot. This rant isnt for me to defend you, this is what saying what I feel like both sides say. I will never condone rape or pedophilia or anything there. It is sick and I hope that you know...You should not consume mature media when you’re immature and you dont realize the severity of one’s actions. Dont consume mature media if you’re not mature enough to realize that these aren’t made to be romanticized but to spread awareness of situations that the movie portrays.

Thank you and I will not be responding anymore to this topic.