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bomberqueen17 · 2 years

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middle-aged sex and the middle ages

so i sort of wrote meet death sitting partly based on my moderate annoyance about how fandom handles the concept of a character not being Nebulously In His Mid-Twenties, so it’s not like I haven’t ranted about this before, but I just saw somebody’s exhaustive headcanon post about yet another character, whose age isn’t specified anywhere in canon, and who is sort of (waves vaguely) Not Young, and they had bent themselves in absolute knots including setting some of his early life events at improbably young ages just to make sure he was no older than 33 in the present day of their storyline, because, and this is as close to an exact quote as I can come, “I want his dick to work good”, and like

....

*drags hands down face* I just want all of you children out there in fandom to understand that you don’t suddenly Become An Old Person when you tick over from 34 to 35. Right? Like, Age doesn’t Suddenly Descend Upon You. (And when Age Hath Descended Upon Thee you’re not immediately Barred From All Fun.) It’s a gradual process. Some things that are usually considered age-related are actually health-related. Certain things happen at wildly different stages in one’s life than in others’ lives. Some people go gray early, some late. Some people’s dicks work differently when they start having heart problems or something, it varies widely. You don’t suddenly wake up unfuckable. Your joints don’t totally fall apart all at once. None of it is linear. [And honestly for like.... a lot of people (of my acquaintance, so, anecdata, but, data) your thirties are a time when due to experience and some hormonal shifts and usually, I think, finally just self-acceptance, for many of us, your sex life is going to be fantastic and you can finally actually really enjoy shit you spent your twenties nervously thinking you were missing the point of. (You were. It’s okay. Don’t sweat it. It’ll make sense as you get older. I promise it’s nice, surviving your youth. It really is. I swear to fuck that’s not just me being condescending even if it sounds like it is.) Or even finally just accepting yourself enough to try stuff you were too self-conscious to ask for before, that can be huge. But-- I have digressed.]

There’s a stunning amount of diversity in the human experience. I understand that it is difficult to write something you have not yourself experienced. There’s a terrible fear of getting obvious things wrong and getting ridiculed or, worse, accused of malice in your Incorrectness. The easiest way to conceptualize non-firsthand experiences, and therefore write them into your own works, is to read accounts by other writers. But this does tend to echo-chamber some things. It’s why, for example, sex between two people with penises can be so formulaic, in fic, because it’s often written by inexperienced writers who do not themselves have those kinds of bodies, and so have no idea how penises really work beyond the basics, have no idea how prostates work at all, and no easy way to find out for themselves, relying on accounts by other writers who similarly don’t have bodies like that and are relying on accounts by others etcetera. And it’s definitely why older characters are so often very rigidly defined into occasionally-wildly-inappropriate behaviors or tendencies, or why many writers are reluctant to write them at all-- for fear of getting it wrong, the writer avoids unfamiliar territory. And then everyone writes precisely the same story, for fear of Getting It Wrong.

Fair. So I am here to tell you, babes, from the right (as in, I have survived it) side of forty, that it’s okay. Getting older isn’t that bad. It happens very slowly.

Your perfectly unexceptional human character’s dick can perfectly plausibly “work good” well through their thirties, through their fifties, and on upward (heh) if it suits your story for it to do so. That’s not unrealistic, there doesn’t need to be magic, they doesn’t need to be part elf or something, that’s a perfectly normative human thing. No one who “knows better” will question you. A 38-year-old, 48-year-old, 78-year-old can have as much sex as you want them to. They can have erectile dysfunction if it suits your fic, but so can your 22-year-old character; that sort of shit has tons of causes, and age is only related to some of them.

It is genuinely not true that cis males* hit their sexual peak at 20, which is a figure I’ve seen bandied about a fair bit. Yes, often a younger person’s circulatory system is better, and their interest in sex greater, but the reason Youths get such frequent and sometimes-inappropriate erections is not that their dicks work better, but that they don’t have experience at controlling themselves mentally or sexually. The ease with which a person with a penis can attain an erection is not based primarily on their age, but on a number of other factors. And with age and experience comes better control, and overall-better function. It is literally the same with young people of all genders of that age-- as they become sexually mature, they are wildly curious about it, often inappropriately horny, don’t really know how their genitals work, and don’t know how to understand or control their own appetites. It’s not a Dick Mystery, it’s a perfectly normal part of being very young.

Something far more likely to correlate with youth is premature ejaculation, actually. Your 20-year-old Dick Novice is likely not going to take you on a really fantastic ride; it’s probably going to be a bit bumpy but rather abrupt, and not of great duration. Maybe they can get it up again quickly after that, but not quickly enough to make it not a problem; their sexual partner is going to have to find other ways to amuse themselves in the meantime. Meanwhile, your 40-year-old knows how to control themself, is much more likely to know what their sex partner actually requires, and can pace themself, and is likely going to have an approximately similar refractory period as the 20-year-old, but less patience for bullshit. The 40yo is vastly more likely to have both given you what you wanted, and taken what they wanted, the first time, and not really need a repeat. But if it’s something they really want, their age is not going to be any particular hindrance so much as their body’s own non-age-related limitations, and they will generally know their own body and be able to call upon it for whatever purpose they require, with far more ease than they could when they were young and inexperienced.

If you gave me the option between a 20-year-old dick-wielder and a 40-year-old one, all else being equal, I would literally never choose the 20-year-old, for many reasons but the preceding paragraph chief among them.

(This is not to say any of this is set in stone. Some people with dicks never get very good at controlling them. That could be interesting to explore, in a fic. What do you do then? Human sexuality is, as I said, super diverse, and many different things are possible. And if you have a 40-year-old dick wielder, let’s smack some hypothetical he pronouns on there for this example, who doesn’t have great control over how fast he orgasms, he’s probably gotten really good with his hands, I’m just saying, because at that age he’s likely to have had the time to practice and figure out that that’s what he ought to do about it. And it may well turn out his similarly-aged sex partner has figured out that’s what they prefer, too, when it comes right down to it.)

All of this is to say, don’t be afraid of writing older characters, but more importantly, don’t be afraid of writing diverse characters. Don’t feel you have to write formulaic sex. Look it up. Let your characters have “bad” sex, and see how it plays out. Let your characters have unusual sexual experiences. Don’t feel like you have to write the same exact sex scenes as everyone else. Not everyone has to be a hard-bodied 23-year-old porn star with a monster cock. Let dicks be small. Let them be limp sometimes. Let sex not just be inserting Tab A into slot B the same way every time. Let nothing get inserted anywhere, once in a while! Let something else happen. Let sex be different. Let people be more like real life.

(*I’m specifying cis male up there because that was the original context and is where I see these fossilized echo-chamber Facts getting crusty. I’m not specifying anywhere else, really; I started to, in my first draft of this post, but the more I think about it, the more I realize not all penis-havers are male, and I’d bet there’s even more diversity in how all this works if you take that into account. There’s not really a wrong way to have a body, friends.)

The part that really distresses me, though, in all of this, is thinking about all these very young writers and how there’s nothing in their lives that gives them any reason to think there’s anything to life if they’re not themselves 23-year-old porn stars. Babe it’s okay. Survive your youth, hit middle age, find out it’s not that bad. Live. It’s all right. I promise. It doesn’t have to look like the movies. I wish the movies looked like more different things, instead of always the same; the same gets really boring, compared to what’s really out there. Imagine things not always the same. it’s so much better for you. You’ll have really good sex in your forties, probably; if that’s a thing you like now, you’ll probably still like it then, possibly even more. It’s not any more inherently gross than any other sex. Again, you will not suddenly wake up Unfuckable. There’s not an expiration date on your life. There’s cool stuff ahead of you.

...

... relatedly, life expectancy-- if you’re writing in a society with a low life expectancy that does not mean your characters age more rapidly it means the average age of death is dragged down by very high infant and child mortality, a 45-year-old in medieval Europe is more rare but is not actually older, to gaze upon, than a 45-year-old in modern Europe, he just might have more wrinkles on his face if he works outdoors, but his dick will work just fine probably, and if it doesn’t that’s a separate plot consideration now isn’t it, oh my god it does not mean he looks 80 at 50 and will die peacefully white-haired in his sleep on his sixtieth birthday. that’s not how that works that’s not how any of this works

edited to add I forgot, but meant to say, sometimes you reach A Certain Age and realize that it wasn’t that you were doing this sex thing wrong but rather that you are in fact not suited to it at all, and that is also perfectly valid, and it is super fine and normal, I did not mean it to come across as You’ll Like It When You’re Older at all! Aces are valid and sometimes age and experience helps you stop worrying so damn much and just enjoy your life the way you are and that is so valid!!! And if you’re sort of questioning that and you’re young and it all seems terrible, just know that it’s often easier when you’re older and know yourself a bit better to stop worrying about that shit, that was the point I meant to make!

#real life #rants #aging #sexuality #fandom

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autogyne-redacted · 3 years

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Transmisogyny and Masculinity

Essay on Transmisogyny And Masculine Status Hierarchies

Body 777 words

Footnotes 574 words

(Please read on let me know what you think!!)

The general cistem

In addition to recognizing the way that patriarchy creates a hierarchy of men over non-men, I want to examine the way hierarchies exist between people classed as men* (and similarly between people classed as women).

Patriarchy sets up separate cistems of gendered morality for men and women: a set of virtues and sins that apply to men and a separate set that apply to women. Thus a hierarchy with exemplary men at the top and failed "men" at the bottom can be formed and a separate one for those classed as women.

These separate value cistems are useful for cisiety as they enable a more complicated division of labor / cistem of control than would otherwise be possible. Compliant men strive to meet one ideal and compliant women for another, each performing different functions for the cistem In the classical form, this looks like men as producers (and warriors) and women as reproducers (and as property).

Men and women are only coherent / meaningful categories because they are governed by these gendered moral logics

Masculine Status Hierarchies

The rules of masculinity** vary across space and time but generally the logic of masculinity consists of avoiding what is considered feminine and showcasing ones power / ability to dominate.

Avoiding femininity often looks like internalizing pain, refusing to show empathy, avoiding the aesthetic markers of femininity, etc.

Showcasing dominance may look like doing violence, or simply being muscular. It may mean wooing (normative, high status) women or being overtly misogynistic. A key part of how you gain masculine status is by wielding power over those with less status than you

/////

The rules of masculinity are not simply specific to a nation / culture, but to a specific social setting.

Example 1) In a macho space, playing classical music may be seen as feminine. But in an orchestra men are perfectly capable of forming a masculine status hierarchy in which their common relationship to music is not counted against them. In fact, it is likely that technical proficiency, classical education, and other such factors play into that masculinities of these spaces.

Example 2) A boys school or other gender-specific space will have a different set of rules (often especially regarding what kinda of sexual acts are considered gay) than a mixed gender space (and the social politics of school locker rooms will be different from the halls).

Generally speaking, the harsh edges of masculinity are softened when (respectable, normative) women*** are around. EG the idea that men shouldn't cuss around ladies.

Since trannies fall outside of normative/respectable womanhood, we are regularly subjected to the full force of misogyny.

///

Social Contract as a Model

The rules of masculinity are a kind of implicit social contract / agreement. ****. The rules of a specific space will be a compromise between the specific interests of the men in that space (according to the amount of social power they have) and the general cisietal values of masculinity, tempered by the presence of women to the extent that they are respectable / have power.

In any group of men who have not thoroughly rejected hierarchic masculinity, a status hierarchy and accompanying value cistem will emerge with men advocating for rules that maximize their power.

As men invested in masculinity move between spaces, they will carry with them a personal masculine code that they will assert (more or less forcefully) in interactions with strangers.

/////

Transmisogyny As Foundational

While those at the top of masculine status hierarchies might voluntarily participate in them*****, those at the bottom surely would not. Like any pyramid scheme, the top would crumble without those beneath it. Thus the foundation of masculine status hierarchies (and of manhood itself) is the coercive inclusion of camab gender deviants.

Transfeminity is best understood (in my opinion) as a refusal to comply with masculinity and a disidentification with manhood.

Thus we can understand transmisogyny******, the punishing of transfems, as an inherent and necessary component of hierarchic masculinity.

Camab expressions of femininity and refusal to embrace manhood are met with extreme hostility, rendering it unthinkable for most, producing a class of cis men for whom manhood appears natural and a class of fags/failed men.

--------

Thus a number of factors within masculinity lead to transfems being targeted:

1) a central piece of masculine status hierarchies is punching down and transfems are at the bottom of the list of acceptable targets.

2) transfems are broadly painted as perverted/predatory and thus opposing them is in line with masculine warrior / protector values.

3) normative men can channel the untempered misogyny of "all male" spaces towards transfems without facing sanctions for attacking a respectable woman.

In short, transfems are the antithesis of masculinity and thus the targets again which men can most freely prove their masculinity.

_______________________________________

Footnotes

*I use the terms "people classed as men" and "people classed as women" to talk about how individuals fit into gendered moral logics and hierarchies. I want to talk about the realities of how we are often misgendered rather than insist on viewing these social dynamics through the lens of our identities.

"People classed as men" includes both anyone who is choosing to seek masculine status and also anyone who is read as camab / as a man.

///

** When I talk about masculinity, masculine status hierarchies, and manhood, I do not wish to imply that identification as a man or with masculinity is necessarily hierarchic. I simply wish to describe normative masculinity as it exists in cisiety at large which is inseperable from coersion and hierarchy

///

*** I talk at various points about respectable/normative women, women with power, and ladies. This is not simply a binary divide, but in the interest of not making this piece incredibly wordy I choose to merely gesture at this divide rather than try to parce out all of its peculiarities.

In reality, I fully expect a given woman (or person misgendered as a woman) to have this social position in some spaces but not in others. These protections can be removed at any time, and there are absolutely spaces (often including in the private of a relationship) in which they do not apply.

///

**** I view social contracts not as historical events but as thought experiments that can effectively model the ways oppressive norms are build, perpetuated, and adjusted in real time.

We can imagine a group of would-be men sitting down before manhood and masculinity existed deciding that it would benefit them to assign manhood and masculinity to all camab people. We can imagine them fighting and bargaining over which characteristics should be seen as masculine and valorized and which should be condemned.

At times there are intentional discussions where high status men debate what direction they should push masculinity in before creating propaganda or curriculum, and the image of this kind of bargaining table can bring to light the ways in which men advocate for traits they embody to be more valued within the logic of masculinity. But in general these decisions are made informally and unconsciously in real time.

While I primarily focus on how men shape the logic of masculinity, women also contribute in meaningful ways, as peers and through the power granted by schools, the family, and other such institutions.

///

***** While privilege frameworks would suggest that masculine status hierarchies function to the benefit of men as a whole and high status men in particular, I see concepts like "benefit" as far more complicated. Hierarchies grant in-cistem power and status to those at their top. In-cistem meaning that should these individuals betray this power structure or exist in a space where it is not dominant, this power would disappear.

Further, I think it is important to note that normative masculinity (regardless of your status within/under it) is a prison. While my position is biased as someone who finds the social position of tranny far preferable to the compromised necessary to reconcile with masculinity, I firmly believe that everyone who fully reconciles themself with normative masculinity goes through a process of painfully suppressing their non-conforming desires and impulses. The isolation and repression of masculinity are brutal and I refuse to see normative manhood as a "benefit" to anyone. (this is true in general of seeking to fully assimilate into a rigidly defined external category)

///

****** I want to talk about transmisogyny not as a mysterious, metaphysical force, but as an aggregate effect produced by individuals based on the incentives given to them by their social context. Shaped by propaganda and cisietal values that have grown out of these motivations.

_______________________________________

#writing #transmisogyny

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star-anise · 5 years

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why would your social environment affect if you identify as a woman or nb?

I don’t know if you meant it to be, but this is a delightful question. I am going to be a complete nerd for 2k+ words at you.

“Gender” is distinct from “sex” because it’s not a body’s physical characteristics, it’s how society classifies and interprets that body. Sex is “That person has a vagina.” Gender is “This is a blend of society’s expectations about what bodies with vaginas are like, social expectations of how people with vaginas do or might or should act, behave, and feel, the actual lived experiences of people with vaginas, and a twist of lemon for zest.” Concepts of gender and what is “manly” and “womanly” can vary a lot. They’re social values, like “normal” or “legal” or “beautiful”, and they vary all the time. How well you fit your gender role depends a lot on how “gender” is defined.

800 years ago in Europe the general perception was that women were sinful, sensual, lustful people who required frequent sex and liked watching bloodsport. 200 years ago, the British aristocracy thought women were pure, innocent beings of moral purity with no sexual desire who fainted at the sight of blood. These days, we think differently in entirely new directions.

But this gets even more complicated, in part because human experience is really diverse and society’s narratives have to account for that. So 200 years ago, those beliefs about femininity being delicate and dainty and frail only really applied to women with aristocratic lineages, and “the lower classes” of women were believed to be vulgar, coarse, sexual, and earthy, which “explained” why they performed hard physical labor or worked as prostitutes.

Being trans or nonbinary isn’t just or even primarily about what characteristics you want your body to have. It’s about how you want to define yourself and be interpreted and interacted with by other people.

The writer Sylvia Plath lived 1932-1963, and she said:

“Being born a woman is my awful tragedy. From the moment I was conceived I was doomed to sprout breasts and ovaries rather than penis and scrotum; to have my whole circle of action, thought and feeling rigidly circumscribed by my inescapable feminity. Yes, my consuming desire to mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars–to be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording–all is spoiled by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and battery.”

She was from upper-middle-class Massachusetts, the child of a university professor. A lot of those things she was “prohibited” from doing weren’t things each and every woman was prohibited from doing; they were things women of her class weren’t allowed to do. The daughters and sisters and wives of sailors and soldiers, women who worked in hotels and ran rooming houses, barmaids and sex workers, got to anonymously and invisibly observe those men, after all. They just couldn’t do it at the same time they tried to meet the standards educated Bostonians of the 1950s had for nice young women.

Failure to understand how diverse womanhood is has always been one of feminism’s biggest weaknesses. The Second Wave of feminism was started mostly by prosperous university-educated white women, since they were the people with the time and money and resources to write and read books and attend conferences about “women’s issues”. And they assumed that their issues were female issues. That they were the default of femaleness, and could assume every woman had roughly the same experience as them.

So, for example, middle-class white women in post-WWII USA were expected to stay home all the time and look after their children. Feminists concluded that this was isolating and oppressive, and they’d like the freedom to pursue lives, careers, and interests outside of the home. They vigorously pursued the right to be freed from their domestic and maternal duties.

But in their society, these experiences were not generally shared by Black and/or poor women, who, like their mothers, did not have the luxury of spending copious amounts of leisure time with their children; they had to work to earn enough money to survive on, which meant working on farms, in factories, or as cooks, maids, or nannies for rich white women who wanted the freedom to pursue lives outside the home. They tended to feel that they would like to have the option of staying home and playing with their babies all day.

This is not to say none of the first group enjoyed domestic lives, or that none of the second group wanted non-domestic careers; it’s just that the first group formed the face and the basic assumptions of feminism, and the second group struggled to get a seat at the table.

There’s this phenomenon called “cultural feminism” that’s an attitude that crops up among feminists from time to time (or grows on them, like fungus) that holds that women have a “feminine essence”, a quasi-spiritual “nature” that is deeply distinct from the “masculine essence” of men. This is one of the concepts powering lesbian separatism: the idea that because women are so fundamentally different from men, a society of all women will be fundamentally different in nature from a society that includes men.

But, well, the problem cultural feminism generally has is with how it achieves its definition of “female nature”. The view tends to be that women are kinder, more moral, more collectivist, more community-minded, and less prone to violence.

And cultural feminists tend to HATE people who believe in the social construction of gender, because we tend to cross our arms and go, “Nah, sis, that’s a frappe of misused statistics and The Angel In the House with some wishful thinking as a garnish. That’s how you feel about what womanhood is. It’s fair enough for you, but you’re trying to apply it to the entire human species. That’s got less intellectual rigor and sociological validity than my morning oatmeal.” Hence the radfem insistence that gender theorists like me SHUT UP and gender quite flatly DOESN’T EXIST. It’s a MADE-UP TERM, and people should STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. (And go back to taking about immutable, naturally-occuring phenomena, one supposes, like the banking system and Western literary canon.)

Because seriously, when you look at real actual women, you will see that some of us can be very selfish, while others are altruistic; some think being a woman means abhorring all violence forever, and others think being a woman means being willing to fight and die to protect the people you love. As groups men and women have different average levels of certain qualities, but it’s not like we don’t share a lot in common. The distribution of “male” and “female” traits doesn’t tend to mean two completely separate sets of characteristics; they tend to be more like two overlapping bell curves.

So, like I said, I grew up largely in rural, working-class Western Canadian society. My relatives tend to be tradesmen like carpenters, welders, or plumbers, or else ranchers and farmers. I was raised by a mother who came of age during the big push for Women’s Lib. So in the culture in which I was raised, it was very normal and in some ways rewarded (though in other ways punished) for women to have short hair, wear flannel and jeans, drive a big truck, play rough contact sports, use power tools, pitch in with farmwork, use guns, and drink beer. “Traditional femininity” was a fascinating foreign culture my grandmother aspired to, and I loved nonsense like polishing the silver (it’s a very satisfying pastime) but that was just another one of my weird hobbies, like sewing fairy clothes out of flower petals and collecting toy horses.

Within the standards of the society I was raised in, I am a decently feminine woman. I’m obviously not a “girly girl”, someone who wears makeup and dresses in ways that privilege beauty over practicality, but I have a long ponytail of hair and when I go to Mark’s Work Wearhouse, I shop in the women’s section. We know what “butch” is and I ain’t it.

But through my friendships and my career, I’ve gotten experiences among cultures you wouldn’t think would be too different–we’re all still white North Americans!–but which felt bizarre and alien, and ate away at the sense of self I’d grown up in. In the USA’s northeast, the people I met had the kind of access to communities with social clout, intellectual resources, and political power I hadn’t quite believed existed before I saw them. There really were people who knew politicians and potential employers socially before they ever had to apply to a job or ask for political assistance; there were people who really did propose projects to influential businessmen or academics at cocktail parties; they really did things like fundraise tens of thousands of dollars for a charity by asking fifty of their friends to donate, or start a business with a $2mil personal loan from a relative.

And in those societies, femininity was so different and so foreign. I’d grown up seeing femininity as a way of assigning tasks to get the work done; in these new circles, it was performative in a way that was entirely unique and astounding to me. A boss really would offer you a starting salary $10k higher than they might have if you wore high heels instead of flats. You really would be more likely to get a job if you wore makeup. And your ability to curate social connections in the halls of power really was influenced by how nice of a Christmas party you could throw. These women I met were being held, daily, to a standard of femininity higher than that performed by anyone in my 100 most immediate relatives.

So when girls from Seven Sisters schools talked about how for them, dressing how I dressed every day (jeans, boots, tee, button-up shirt, no makeup, no hair product) was “bucking gendered expectations” and “being unfeminine”, I began to feel totally unmoored. When I realized that I, who absolutely know only 5% as much about power tools and construction as my relatives in the trades, was more suited to take a hammer and wade in there than not just the “empowered” women but the self-professed “handy” men there, I didn’t know how to understand it. I felt like I was… a woman who knew how to do carpentry projects, not “totally butch” the way some people (approvingly) called me.

And, well, at home in Alberta I was generally seen as a sweet and gentle girl with an occasional stubborn streak or precocious moment, but apparently by the standards of Southern states like Georgia and Alabama I am like, 100x more blunt, assertive, and inconsiderate of men’s feelings than women typically feel they have to be.

And this is still all just US/Canadian white women.

And like I said, after years of this, I came home (from BC, where I encountered MORE OTHER weird and alien social constructs, though generally more around class and politics than gender) to Alberta, and I went to what is, for Alberta, a super hippy liberal church, and I helped prepare the after-service tea among women with unstyled hair and no makeup who wore jeans and sensible shoes, and listened to them talk about their work in municipal water management and ICU nursing, and it felt like something inside my chest slid back into place, because I understood myself as a woman again, and not some alien thing floating outside the expectations of the society I was in with a chestful of opinions no one around me would understand, suddenly all made sense again.

I mean, that’s by no means an endorsement for aspirational middle class rural Alberta as the ideal gender utopia. (Alberta is the Texas of Canada.) I just felt comfortable inside because it’s the culture where I found a definition of myself and my gender I could live with, because its boundaries of what’s considered “female” were broad enough to hold all the parts of me I felt like I needed to express. I have a lot of friends who grew up here, or in families like mine, and don’t feel at all happy with its gender boundaries. And even as I’m comfortable being a woman here, I still want to push and transform it, to make it even more feminist and politically left and decolonized.

TERFs try to claim that trans and nonbinary people reinforce the gender identity, but in my experience, it’s feminists who claim male and female are immutable and incompatible do that. It’s trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer people who, simply by performing their genders in public, make people realize just how bullshit innate theories of gender are.. Society is going to want to gender them in certain ways and involve them in certain dynamics (”Hey ladies, those fellas, amirite?”) and they’re going, “Nope. Not me. Cut it out.” I’ve seen a lot of cis people who will quietly admit they do think men and women are different because that’s just reality, watch someone they know transition, and suddenly go, “Oh my god, I get it now.”

Like yes, this is me being coldly political and thinking about people as examples to make a political point. Everyone’s valid and can do what they want, but some things are just easier for potential converts to wrap their minds around.. “I’m sorting through toys to give to Shelly’s baby. He probably won’t want a princess crown, huh?” “I actually know several people who were considered boys when they were babies and never got one, and are making up for all their lost princess crown time now as adults. You never know what he’ll be into when he grows up.” “…Okay, point. I’ll throw it in there.” Trans and enby people disrupt gender in a really powerful back-of-the-brain way where people suddenly see how much leeway there is between gender and sex.

I honestly believe supporting trans and enby people and queering gender until it’s a macrame project instead of a spectrum are how we’ll get to a gender-free utopia. I think cultural feminism is just the same old shit, inverted. (Confession: in my head, I pronounce “cultural” with emphasis on the “cult” part.)

I think feminism is like a lot of emergency response groups: Our job is to put ourselves out of a job. It’s not a good thing if gender discrimination is still prevalent and harmful 200 years from now! Obviously we’re not there yet and calls to pack it in and go home are overrated, but as the problem disappears into its solution, we have to accept that our old ways of looking at the world have to shift.

#staranise original #lgbt discourse

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doomedandstoned · 5 years

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FAMYNE

~Songs in the Night~

Interview & Photographs by Angelique Le Marchand

I am wrestling with all the crap in my pockets for ages as my mobile goes off on a London double-decker bus. I just missed a call, and it’s neither my bestie nor a robot calling to offer me PPI. It’s Jake Cook drummer for the band FAMYNE calling to finalise our plans to meet up for an interview in Camden, just before the band’s gig at The Black Heart. This proper phone call feels like such a good omen. It is refreshing to come across someone like Jake, who doesn’t solely rely on texts or emails nowadays.

As I had feared, my quest for a reasonably quiet room suitable for recording the interview is not fruitful, and the initial plan of booking a copacetic space ahead of time was impeded by the band’s busy schedule prior to tonight's show. As a result, all seven of us decide to make the band’s tour bus our "office" for the duration of our discussion. Parked outside the venue, it’s perfect -- quiet and well lit, with plenty of armrests to prop pints of cider on (the band’s drink of choice).

Famyne is:

Tom Vane (vox)

Jake Cook (drums)

Martin Emmons (rhythm guitar)

Chris Travers (bass)

Alex Tolson (lead guitar)

Justin Crouch (silent member and head roadie)

Famyne by Famyne

Origins

The Canterbury doomers were inspired by Opeth’s song "Famine" to name their band. The song is an extract from the pivotal album 'Heritage' (2014), which Famyne’s founding members have a predilection for, and although their taste in music stems from a variety of influences, all five share an admiration for the Swedish prog-metal legends.

At the time that Famyne were formed, Tom was studying the history of English as part of his undergraduate degree, which played a big part in personalising the band’s name. The spelling is a reference to orthographic variations in Old English, with the vowel "i" being interchanged with “y” depending on your geographical position across the country during the Early Medieval Period.

Like all bands, Famyne went through a great number of possible names before coming up with one that clicked. "It’s like naming a baby almost," says Tom. "You think of how people could take the piss out of it. In that case, no. Let’s not be called that." Their search had to be brought to a halt when the band was offered their first gig with Skull Tank and Death Truck Mutiny at their local bar. They already had a set put together, but they still hadn’t decided on a name. They needed to come up with one -- fast -- if anything, for the gig’s promotion poster. "Famyne seemed to fit," recalls Jake.

Famyne underwent several changes before progressing to their final line-up. The band was initially put together by founding members Jake on drums, Tom on vocals, and first lead guitarist, Wesley. Wesley departed the band after their first show in October of 2014, as he was unable to commit to an increasingly busy live schedule. Jake slowly met the other members of Famyne in local pubs, including bassist Chris Travers. Both admit having no clear recollection of their first encounter due to the consumption of large amounts of alcohol, although the legend goes that Chris may have been found headbanging on his own at either The Cherry Tree or The Foundry in Canterbury.

Jake also met lead guitarist Alex Tolson in a Canterbury bar. Alex was invited to one of the band’s practice after making a big impression at one of his early live performances. He was instantly enthused to becoming part of the project, interestingly bringing with him some amps specially built for Famyne by his father. Alex Williams and Alex Johns successively played rhythm guitar, with Johns serving as long-standing guitarist for two-and-a-half years, although he never officially committed as a full-on member of the band.

As touring and the release of Famyne’s debut album required a more permanent rhythm guitarist, it felt a natural progression for Martin Emmons to complete the line-up, and he made his first live appearance as official member of the band at The UCA Bar in Canterbury on the 29th of June 2018. Martin, who has known Jake since he was 14 years old, is another eminent musician on the Canterbury scene. His prog-punk band Witchdoctor shared stage with Famyne several times, and he stood-in for Johns at some of Famyne’s shows, enabling a very smooth transition. To date, Martin continues to play with Witchdoctor and they are currently working on new material.

Guilty Pleasures

Having a peep at somebody’s music collection is a quick way of breaking the ice and getting to know them better. But picking out unexpected pieces is even more interesting as it helps defining their quirkiness, so I am curious about surprising records that may be dotting the bandmates’ personal collections. Jeff Beck’s guitar play and the way he becomes one with his instrument are an inspiration for Alex. At the moment, he is also digging Funkadelic for their fusion of funk, rock and metal. Tom’s revelation that Cocteau Twins and The Cure -- with attention to Disintegration -- get a regular spin, is coherent with some of the discrete brush strokes of post- punk in Famyne’s outputs. In his own words, Martin likes a lot of "weird shit." Quite a range on the spectrum in fact, from math rock to Zappa and King Crimson, with Cardiacs being top of his list of weird.

Although the bandmates tease the head (and only) roadie Justin that he has no choice but to listen to Famyne, he manages to explain that he is also a nü-metal fan, particularly enjoying Korn and Slipknot. Chris cites "Voulez-Vous" by Abba as one of his guilty pleasures. A single that he does own and that gets blasted in his living room, together with a lot of doom. His disclosure is met with roars of laughter from the rest of the band, but a spirited approval from me as a fellow owner of Abba’s records. If you’re going to indulge in unpretentious pop, you may as well listen to the good shit. But Chris currently also listens to a lot of Uncle Acid and the deadbeats, as well as 1000mods, and some early Metallica. Time to turn to Jake and ask him about any records in his collection that may surprise our readers.

Jake: "I’ve become a very big Ghost fan."

The "office" erupts in a huge scream. I’m ashamed to say, I suddenly forget my place. I catch myself curled up in fetal position, repeatedly punching my knees. In stitches, Alex and Martin, have completely disappeared behind their seats, while Justin is crying so hard that he looks dangerously close to having a fit. Chris briefly recovers to come to my rescue with a sympathetic handshake and a piercing "Yesssss!!! Her, too!!!" Jake is a man who will stand by his convictions, and he calmly continues.

Jake: "I know there’s a lot..." (interrupted by more laughter).

Tom: "He’s always trying to play it at parties and stuff."

Jake: "Well, say what you will but they influence me, it’s a band I like. I can’t argue with the thousands of turns up at shows."

Tom: "Yeah, you can say that about Britney Spears."

Jake redeems himself by talking us through his boundless admiration for Opeth. Then comes the revelation that he also recently acquired a soft spot for The Darkness.

Chris: "Because you can hit those notes!"

Jake (grinning): "Of course, I’m a very impressive singer actually!"

Chris proceeds to entertain us with a superb impersonation of Justin Hawkins, beating Jake to it.

No Stone Left Unturned

It’s difficult to listen to Famyne’s debut album and pick just the one favourite song, and one that would remain such as set in stone. All of them sound so unique, yet they work harmoniously juxtaposed in an album. In just over four years in existence, the band have already created a signature sound that, within split seconds of a first listen, is capable of prompting inner-monologues running along the lines of: "Ah, I recognise this...it’s Famyne."

Describing their own sound and uniqueness is not an easy task for a band. Famyne are self-aware about revealing their personal thoughts on the subject as they are interested in their listeners’ interpretations without influencing them. "Famyne is Famyne," says Jake. "We all have one central point that we’re influenced by, and that is doom. That’s why we all come together." Doom may be the binding agent of their sound, but the bandmates’ varied musical influences prevented them from falling too rigidly within the frames of the genre.

Famyne EP by Famyne

"Everything gets thrown in and we knock each other’s ideas," adds Jake, "we’ll change this and we’ll add this, and it all gets messed around." "We do what we like to do," explains Chris. "What appeals to us and what we think sounds good. No stone is left unturned, for sure." If the bandmates agree on the importance of sounding different, their self-awareness guards them from placing this thought process before the quality of their songwriting. "I wouldn’t say we try specifically to sound different," Jake says. "We don’t do it at the expense of the song," adds Tom. "The song needs to feel right, it needs to flow."

Working in a super-tight collaborative way plays a big part in sounding unique, but Tom pushes the concept further by explaining how Famyne work as a true democratic band. "Let’s say someone is really passionate about how a song needs to be. It doesn’t matter how passionate they are if four of us disagree, it’s not going to happen."

"There is a good mixture of the heart and the head in the direction of the band," he adds. Tom’s vocals stand out as a distinctive piece of the jigsaw defining Famyne’s unique sound. "I know that my vocals aren’t the same as everyone else’s," he reflects. "It’s definitely influenced by a range of different artists. Every time I sing something, I kind of have a meter in my head saying: how predictable is this? I don’t want it to be so predictable, but I also want it to feel right."

With an imposing vocal range technically flawless on record, his precision on stage singes a lasting impression. As Tom reveals that he was stage trained, his ease suddenly makes perfect sense; he has been singing since the age of four, working in musicals in several different countries as well as in the West End. Having gained a lot of singing practice from such a young age certainly shows.

‘No one really knows the whole full story of how we got this album put together’

Famyne released their self- titled, first full- length in September 2018. The band recorded the album over four different studios, each chosen to craft a specific sound envisioned not only for the band’s vocal parts and own instruments, but also for guest string musicians Cat Ledgerwood (cello) and Karen Jolliffe (violin/ viola).

Every single detail gone into putting the album together was overseen by the band themselves. As there is a heartfelt abundance of detail, it’s surprising to hear that the album was entirely self-funded. Producing such an accomplished piece with no backing financial support strikes as a respectable tour de force, and a good measure of the passion that Famyne poured into their output.

While the bandmates pride themselves in their independence, discussing recording their new album also spurs on memories of considerable hardship. "We’ve gone to do what we do, we’ve just gone for it no matter what," says Chris. "No one really knows the whole full story of how we got this album put together and our struggle in places, especially financially, sometimes. But no matter what, we just spent the money to do it. If it needs to be changed, and that means another day in the studio for this little bit, it doesn’t fucking matter. We’re doing it."

Tom composed the lyrics and cites Neil Peart as influential on his writing process. He likes the way the Rush’s lyricist produces massive songs that develop into concept albums. Tom observes that he may be perceived as goobledegooking the lyrics, but he does in fact put a lot of thought into them. I suggest that the atmosphere and themes developed have a feel of the poètes maudits from the 19th Century, but the texts are in fact quite personal. "It’s a mixture of philosophy, and fear, and also just honesty. These three things are what are behind a lot of my lyrics, a lot of the time," says Tom.

The album comes beautifully presented with an ongoing monochrome theme. A refined band shot by photographer Phill Morgan adorns the inner sleeve, while Russian artist Vergvoktre was commissioned to create a dramatic tryptic, reminiscent of Romanticism and the engravings of Gustave Doré. Vergvoktre featured the city of Canterbury on the front panel as Famyne are close to their local roots and heritage, as well as being inspired by the Canterbury sound and scene.

This is a feel they wanted to represent in the album’s artwork. "We don’t know much about the guy," says Tom about Vergvoktre. "He’s somewhat mysterious. We had these ideas for four panels that were interconnected and when put together, provided a kind of 360 degrees feel, which is why they blend together if you put them next to each other." "Like a Famyne lampshade!" Jake adds, prompting laughs and my comment that they could easily sell those in Ikea. "We could brand that," he adds, "We need to go to Stockholm, boys!"

On point with their natural attention to detail, the band put a lot of planning into the artwork’s commission, carefully assembling ideas and atmospheres inspired by different sections of Vergvoktre’s existing pieces. This resulted in a thorough brief emailed over to Vergvoktre, comprised of themes and pictures. "As well as stick man drawings!" photobombs Chris, with his customary wit. "If you looked at it, you’d see the difference. It’s like a very young child’s drawing and then we just said, do your thing, dude! He did it justice, I’d say."

"The best gig for me is when you see people mouthing the words as I’m singing."

Tom should be pleased with tonight’s show at The Black Heart, and both "Slave Ship" and "Grand Majesty" were particularly notable in prompting this very reaction in the audience. Slightly unusual for any band opening up on any night, but truly remarkable given that "Grand Majesty" hasn’t even been released. Enquiries on reasons why the empyrean song hasn’t been committed to record yet are met with a shroud of mystery: Famyne may have some surprises in store for us.

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Film by Mathijs Kooij of VoidManiac

The band’s presence live has increased tenfold over the past couple of years, with Bloodstock already under their belt. Despite being a relative young band, Famyne are steadily growing a legion of converts thanks to their sterling musicianship combined with their trademark neck brace-inducing energy.

Over the past few months, on top of recording and releasing their debut album, somehow the bandmates found the time to play a sizeable number of dates in the UK, as well as across eight different countries on the Old Continent. Playing Into The Void last year in The Netherlands and Germany for the first time were highlights for them. "The thing that was good about the tour was playing in places we’d never played and being busy," says Jake. "Beautiful place, beautiful people -- really beautiful people. Everyone was really ready to get down. The set went really well," Chris adds about Karlsruhe. "We had space on stage so we got to do our thing a bit more." Witnessing Chris fiendishly jumping on stage twenty minutes later will enlighten on the latter detail being of importance to him. It comes as a relief that live, his bandmates have apparently become very good at dodging -- although Martin still has room for improvement.

Touring, Tiger Bread, and Transport Police

One of my favourite questions to ask a band is if they have any unusual items on their riders, as it usually prompts some interesting responses. "We like to have uncut tiger bread," Jake starts off. "It hasn’t turned up once," adds Chris, solemn. The band’s need for starchy food was once covered by their promoter in Austria. He once baked a Famyne cake for Martin’s birthday and decorated it with the name of the band. Two of the letters were missing, though, as the cake turned out to be quite small. It’s the thought that counts, as they say.

Film by Mathijs Kooij of VoidManiac

As the band’s reach progresses and their touring schedules grow, so do their riders. They are appreciative of folks putting them on in the first place, but they don’t expect anything outside of the essentials. "I think we don’t want to put people into too much trouble, as we don’t want to inconvenience them," Tom says. "It’s unnecessary crap for us. All we want is some food, we want some alcohol, some soft drinks, and a nice printed picture of Bill Ward," Jake adds, as a nod to Monolord’s response to this very question in a previous Doomed and Stoned interview. "I’ll wait for the day when we get some nice lemon scented towels," says Jake.

Famyne recently came across a band (which they will not name) who was asking for hot lemon-scented towels on their riders for when they came off stage. Although they initially laughed at the extravagant requirement, looking back some of them are finding the idea quite smart. "You know what? You’re a sweaty mess, you’re dying. Shove my face all over a nice, hot lemon-scented towel. That would be fucking nice, actually!" Chris muses. Famyne do love their cider, as I will discover at my expense while naively trying to keep up with them at The Dev in Camden following the interview. It's an experience that will leave me crucified by the cruelest hangover for three days solid. "I think double the amount of cider next time, never enough cider!" concludes Chris. Terrifying.

Looking at the band’s social media feeds gives the impression that the band are striking the balance right between hard work and brothers-in-arms fun, especially on tour. "We’re in this band not only because we love the music, but because we are friends. We have a good time," says Jake. "We want to play music, we want to travel," Chris chimes in, "so we get to do the best of both while touring."

The band is planning to go back on tour across Europe in May, and they are looking forward to playing in front of fans who have wanted to see them live for some time. They are also planning to revisit places they travelled through in 2018, including Slovenia, where Chris and Justin famously jumped in Lake Bled in their underwear...in the middle of winter. Due to the freezing temperatures at the time, they had to abandon their plans to swim across to the picturesque Bled Island popping out of the lake, with its cliffs mounted by an opulent church and a medieval castle. But Chris is determined to give this another go. "I’m getting to that, I’m swimming to the middle man. I’ve got targets," he says, sparking laughter and cheers.

The tour went really well for the Canterbury doomers, aside from them being chased down the motorway by the Slovenian traffic police. The bandmates were unaware that they had to purchase and display a little sticker before jumping on the carriageway. As their rider was a little slower than the vehicle chasing them, it soon caught up with them, causing quite a fright with a yellow flashing sign demanding that they pull over. A distressing experience for those amongst the passengers who were chilling out by listening to some music, while consuming considerable amounts of alcohol. Fortunately, the incident drew to a close with the payment of a hefty fine then and there, and didn’t affect shows the band were travelling to.

Famyne’s album launch is one of their personal highlights of 2018. The band invited prog-doomer friends Garganjua to open up for them, and the event took place on The Golden Jubilee, a 240-capacity cruiser on London’s river Thames. Why go for the logical choice of Camden venues, when you could have a boat to doom on? Knowing of the financial struggles associated with self-recording their debut album in the months preceding the event, it is quite telling about the bandmates that they should decide to treat their fans to an unusual, lavish party. Not only did the bandmates chip in to book the boat, but they also hired a coach travelling from their home city to London, as they wanted to give something back to all their friends and fans from Canterbury.

On the trip down to London, the coach got packed with party-goers who got in the mood with a couple of drinks (or ten), further relaxed by the thought of safely returning home after the show. Karma must have heard the rumours. As the album launch was popular with fans, the memory wasn’t tarnished by a financial hangover that could have been the albatross dangling from the bandmates’ necks for months to come.

The party sounded like a hell of a lot of fun. Instead of being crammed in a stuffed venue, folks mingled around in the fresh air, admiring iconic London landmarks as the boat sailed on. It must have been quite a sight for those tourists perched on London bridges. Attracted to look over by waves of extreme music booming out of the boat’s lower decks, they were cheerfully greeted by a crowd dressed in black, partially composed of pirate-resembling hirsute gentlemen yelling at them while brandishing the sign of the horns. "We released our album in I think the best possible way," says Jake, "and we made..." "A SPLASH!" is yelled, of course, by several people at once.

I suddenly become aware that I have spent almost an hour with Famyne in their "office." The other bands billed tonight at the Black Heart are still playing, but I have lost track of time and missed most of their sets. I have become completely relaxed in the company of Famyne, to the point that I have lost the awareness that I was entrusted by our editor with a specific task. With time, folks who gravitate around lots of bands must learn to tell the difference between a genuine human interaction and a PR exercise. This is something that I am generally aware of, yet meeting the band for the first time strangely feels like catching up with old friends that you haven’t seen in a very long time. So many great stories, so much laughter -- and banter! -- some of which was at my own expense (well, most at my own expense). Also a great candeur, particularly in relation with some of the challenges that everyday life throws at folks making space to express their creativity.

In such a short space of time, the bandmates’ gentle manners and openness have enabled me to find out so much about this band. A band that, until now, had remained rather mysterious, other than through the medium of their music, and some photographs shared on their social media feeds. Jake had used these words to describe the sound of his band at the start of the interview, and as I press the stop button on my Dictaphone they resonate with a deeper amplitude: Famyne is Famyne.

LIVE & LOUD

Famyne, Serpent Venom, and Iron Void at The Black Heart

~Review by Connah Davies | Photos by Angelique Le Marchand~

The Black Heart is the scene of day two of the three-day jaunt for this ragtag gang of doom metal miscreants as they roll down from Coventry, having just played The Phoenix on the previous night. Their run finished the following day in Bristol at The Old England pub.

This is Iron Void's first London show in quite some time and it comes off the back of the release of a new album. Having originally formed in 1998, these guys are no strangers to the scene, and their 2008 reformation saw them release a string of interesting EPs and LPs. The band's latest effort, 'Excalibur' (2018), was released in October on Shadow Kingdom Records.

Serpent Venom are the only band on their home turf tonight. After regrettably having to cancel an appearance in early-October, they seem keen to get back out there and conquer the stage again.

Canterbury doomers Famyne recently concluded a spate of European shows following the release of their self-titled LP, before taking to the stage at Camden’s The Black Heart. With the venue's long history of incredible gigs, this would be a fitting place for tonight’s line-up.

Famyne

Famyne started the evening with a barrage of riffs as subtle and powerful as the turning of the tides. Drone-like at times, with subtle and nuanced variation and instrumental interplay, while at other times the riffs leap from the stage and forcibly bang every head in the room. Songs reach a level of incredible intensity before resolving, then the next song starts working its way over you.

Famyne by Famyne

The reverb-soaked vocals from Tom Vane coax and lure the listeners in, before infecting them all with the same brand of insanity he throws himself into throughout the performance. By the end of their set, one might swear the sound of his voice originated from within their own head. These guys have mastered the art of decelerating the tempo of a song in an exceptionally musical way, appearing to never really lose any steam and certainly never losing any bite from the insistently heavy riffs. This, combined with great use of dynamics across their set ensure that they never lose the audience's attention.

Jake Cook (drums), Chris Travers (bass), and Martin Emmons (guitar) are really locked in tight and allow the music to sway and swing about the room or stampede as they see fit. Famyne’s lead guitarist Alex Tolson uses his understated, but technically fantastic, leads sparingly. The ethos of serving the song could leave some listeners wanting more, but that’s quite the point. Never overstaying their welcome, the solos always lift the song exactly when needed before the weight of the riffs come crashing down again. All in all, an equally vital and menacing performance.

Serpent Venom

From the word go Serpent Venom were an altogether different beast. The guitar tones had a more metallic edge to them which, whilst being less atmospheric than the evening's opening act, did allow for more fist pumping from the crowd. The tone of the single guitar on stage added a real weight to the riffs, which came thick and fast, designed to force feed every ear in the room hot gravel. It really sounded like there was more than the one guitar on stage.

Of Things Seen & Unseen by Serpent Venom

Garry Ricketts’ vocals were well-delivered and came in a direct fashion, fitting nicely with the instrumental factions of the band. It could be said that the reverb on the vocals (ramped up to obscene levels) slightly drew away from the poignancy and edge of the vocal performance. A little less would have been a real benefit to this band. Despite this, Ricketts still commanded the attention of everyone in the room. There were a few moments where it seemed he might push into a slightly more aggressive delivery but that never came. If only to occasionally match the snarl, grunt, and crash of the guitar, bass, and drums, it would have been nice to see.

The instrumental sections of the songs often come in a relentless gallop of fuzzed-out madness. It’s during the shifts from these up-tempo moments to the slower sections where it’s genuinely apparent just how tight these guys are. This is accentuated further by the way Ricketts allows his melodies to drift around and in between the band.

One misstep from the engineer during the show temporarily took the wind out of the sails of the performance, when a request for no more strobes was mistaken for a request for no more reverb -- and for half a song that was the case. Serpent Venom didn’t miss a beat during this and the issue was soon rendered, but it did disrupt the atmosphere of the set.

Serpent Venom closed out with a Sabbath-inspired bombardment of riffs. When all was said and done it seemed that, despite being very good, they were capable of putting on a more compelling show under different circumstances.

Iron Void

Opening with "Dragon’s Breath" from their new album, you know where you stand with Iron Void almost immediately. They’ll do little to change one’s mind over the course of the set, but if they’ve got their hooks in and there’s no escape.

Jonathan Seale (bass, vox) and Steve Wilson (guitar, vox) really opened up the sonic range of tonight's show with their vocal harmonies. This lends their sound a more grandiose quality, with the vibe of Gregorian vocal chants thrown in. They use a good dose of pace throughout, with their average tempo being the fastest so far.

Excalibur by Iron Void

Wilson's blues-scorched guitar lines move both with and against the vocals, creating lifting counter melodies and sturdy reinforcements. The well-constructed riffs fit remarkably well with the lyrical themes of the material. The overall sound had a certain ‘70s hard rock twist, which is just as present on their recorded material.

Nothing bad can be said of the lead guitar parts, as they live to serve the almighty riffs they stem from. The new material was comfortably at home amongst their older songs and really added to the slew of fuzz-soaked guitar work and soaring vocals. The only thing that could be said about the performance is that it doesn’t come with too many surprises throughout. This was by no means a boring show, but perhaps with a more carefully curated setlist Iron Void could have kept heads banging more consistently.

Conclusion

All in all, a solid night of doom. With the headline act being the most niche of the three bands that performed tonight it was always a risk that they might experience some drop off in the room, but this wasn’t the case. The room stayed pretty much full, excited, and in motion throughout the night.

The only gripe one might have is the same one you would find in this venue during any gig. The FOH level is always pushed to the very limit of what the system can handle. This causes a degree of clarity to be lost during the fuller on moments. Fortunately, the roster tonight didn’t suffer too greatly from this and there wasn’t many of the issues this can cause for other bands.

Taking a genre like doom-stoner, the parameters of which are well defined, and having such different corners of it touched during a three band lineup really says a lot about the creativity of those who played tonight and love this music. With the same artists playing in Bristol the following evening, one can only hope that things went down as well there, too.

The highlight of the night came early on with Famyne. They had the right blend of strut and intensity, but also knew when to hold back. This may be relatively early days for the band, but it’s clear they’ve got an interesting future ahead of them.

More Famyne

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bulbwalrus6-blog · 5 years

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Why should the government interfere with the very personal process of gender identity?

Transgender historian Susan Stryker wrote in her 2017 book Transgender History that the contemporary meaning of the word "transgender" is still under construction. It has been redefined often since the word was first created in the mid-20th century, but even then the very concept of moving from one gender was already very old. While Roger Severino, appointed by President Trump as the director of the office for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, would call this concept "radical gender ideology," the history books and Chicago activist groups call it reality.

Severino's memo, leaked earlier this week by the New York Times, argues that gender should be rigidly defined under Title IX "on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science," as a male/female binary that is unchangeable and determined by genitalia perceived at birth. HHS is encouraging the other government departments that also enforce Title IX—including Education, Justice, and Labor—to follow suit. Under this rule, genetic testing is the only option to determine a person's gender. The memo doesn't just define a gender binary as a rule, it also invalidates gender confirmation surgeries, ignoring any possibility of a person transitioning from the gender assigned at birth. The memo all but explicitly states that all people must identify as either male or female, whichever they were registered at birth. Many trans people feel this strict binary erases their identities.

The crux of Severino's argument is that X and Y chromosomes determine gender, a theory that has been disproven. And even before genetics were discovered, no one talked about regulating a person's gender expression based on anatomy. Before the 20th century, there was no standardized system of birth certificates that assigned gender. Our contemporary understanding of gender is relatively new, only dating back to physician Magnus Hirschfeld's work in early 20th-century Germany. In his studies of gender and sexuality, Hirschfeld coined the terms "transsexual" and "transvestite," both of which have changed in definition and connotation over the past century. As time passes, the terms we use to define gender change along with the way we perceive gender roles. Past cultures have used systems that have organized people into social genders through a variety of methods different from our contemporary binary, often by the work people did rather than by the bodies that did the work. Some gender systems were determined by social, legal, or religious obligations. Some people changed gender roles based on dreams or visions. Many indigenous American communities have three or more genders. Ancient rabbinical texts explain seven distinct genders once recognized in Judaism.

Gender varies by time, place, and culture, not just science. Yet another factor influencing gender identity for many people is genitalia deemed "ambiguous" at birth. With so many contingent factors, gender is difficult to explain, making it an easy target for bigotry. The memo's leak coincidentally occurred during the week of Intersex Awareness Day and protests in Chicago and New York, which aim to educate people about the often overlooked group of intersex people in the queer community.

The existence of intersex people is stark proof that bodies exist outside a gender binary. One in 100 people is intersex, possessing some combination of male and female genitalia, internal sex organs, and chromosomes. Oftentimes intersex people have combinations of chromosomes that aren't male or female, such as XXY or XO. When intersex babies are born and doctors are unable to determine a male or female gender, they often assign one to the infant. Surgeries that are considered "cosmetic," such as clitoral reductions, vaginoplasties, and the removal of functional testes are forced upon the child, and may not match their identity. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago is still performing these operations, which the United Nations has deemed a form of torture.

The Chicago-based Intersex Justice Project launched a campaign outside Lurie last year on Intersex Awareness Day to end intersex surgery, and will be leading another protest on this year's Awareness Day on Friday, October 26, this time organizing a train occupation. Pidgeon Pagonis, cofounder of the project, summarizes their demands: "We want a public apology for the irreversible harmful surgeries that have been done on intersex people without their consent." The group also wants sensitivity training for Lurie staff and clinicians who handle intersex children, taught by intersex individuals. They demand reparations, Pagonis says, "including free medical care that doesn't position intersex variations as problems to be fixed." This would include hormones and psychological support for intersex people and their parents.

Friday's protest, which begins at 1:15 PM at a location that is only disclosed privately on Intersex Justice Project's Instagram account, is inspired by the first (and last known) intersex protest in 1996 outside the American Academy of Pediatrics' annual convention. The idea for the train action, Pagonis says, was inspired by the Black Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Collective and #NoCopAcademy who crowded CTA Red Line cars to commemorate Rekia Boyd and chant against Mayor Emanuel's proposed cop academy, respectively. IJP's protesting arguments against "corrective" surgeries will conflict with the administration's historically and scientifically inaccurate definition of gender.

Sex defined by a male/female binary is too rigid to accurately label the many ways we express gender socially. Bodies are too varied in their chromosomal makeup and genital formation to accurately conform to the social categories a person lives in. They can't be defined on such a narrow binary. Many people—myself included—have taken years to come to an awareness of their own gender identities. Why does the government need to intercede in that already complicated, and very personal, process?

So why does the Trump administration insist on defining gender as a binary? Comments in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and even from MSNBC's Rachel Maddow speculate that it's a simple tactic to score political points before the upcoming midterm elections. Maddow framed her coverage of the story by recalling President's Bush's homophobic remarks before the 2004 election to encourage conservative voters to come out and vote against marriage equality. This is not a scientific debate on whether or not 1.4 million transgender people exist in the U.S.; this is political, using real people as pawns to gain power.

Should other government departments follow HHS, the results would be bigger than the ongoing bathroom debate. On Wednesday, the Justice Department told the Supreme Court that businesses can discriminate against their own workers based on their gender identity, suddenly reversing the position of 2008's Schroer v. Billington. People may begin to face discrimination at work and while jobs-hunting. Social services and health care (including gender-affirming surgeries, hormone replacements, and other necessary care for transgender patients) could be denied. Military bans lifted during the Obama era could go back into effect. Identification documents such as drivers licenses, birth certificates, and passports might be impossible to change. Medical records would be inaccurate. The memo's broad support from the government, says Pagonis, "will only serve to give surgeons who ignore the United Nations more fuel for the already existing intersex-phobic fire. A parent of an intersex kid who (rightfully) decides they don't want to allow surgeons to 'fix' their child could be met with, 'Sorry, sex reassignment surgery is the law now.'"

Pagonis cites the colonialists who attempted to decimate the two-spirit people of indigenous communities, the medical-sanctioned genital mutilation of infants since the 1950s, and the U.S. government's refusal to acknowledge the existence of AIDS in the early 80s, even as it plagued and ravaged the queer community. "Yet we fought back," Pagonis says. That might be where the Trump administration's political trick for votes goes wrong: transgender and gender-nonconforming people have historically turned out to fight and vote more so than their cisgender counterparts, and in disproportionately high numbers for Democrats.

Following the memo's leak, activist group Voices4 and Lambda Legal gathered hundreds of people in Washington Square Park in New York City, the same park where activists Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries in 1970. They shouted "Hell no to the memo!" Hundreds more protesters gathered outside the White House.

The Trump administration's definition of gender becoming policy would undo legal work to protect trans people dating back to the Minnesota state legislature's ban on discrimination against transgender people in 1993, all the way through President Obama's protection of trans identities on a variety of federal fronts. But this unprecedented setback on one vulnerable community's civil rights might not take shape should the election favor a democratic senate. With 33 Senate seats on the upcoming ballot, a shift in power might see HHS's Roger Severino out of a job.

Source: https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2018/10/26/why-should-the-government-interfere-with-the-very-personal-process-of-gender-identity

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vidhi-fate · 6 years

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Do we really need “culture”?

Let me clarify what I mean when I say culture. I come from a land steeped in heritage and culture - India. We tend to glorify our past and ignore our follies. Our past has given us and the world amazing inventions, concepts, people, etc. We are proud of our culture and Indians the world over try to hang on to notions of the past and dreams of the future.

Our culture also has unpleasant things, which we hang on to refusing to let these practices go. What unpleasant things? The list can vary from person to person. For me though, the two things that I really wish we let go of and look beyond are (a) the caste system, and (b) toxic patriarchy.

These concepts worked in the past for historical reasons, and were rigidly enforced to keep people in check. It was perhaps felt that for a population comprising millions of people, society needed to find a place for everyone and define roles. Seems logical enough. Where the system breaks down is when people don’t want to be defined by those rules anymore and want to change. Then society steps in to either “discipline” these individuals or ostracize them altogether. No free will here.

Let’s take the caste system first. It is a logical construct, an ancient division of labour, if you will. Roles are dished out to different communities about what is expected of them and how they are to behave. The system enabled vast volumes of knowledge to be passed down from one generation to the next. A plethora of ideas, concepts and inventions. Universities that were known the world over in ancient times and attracted one and all as beacons of light. Even though these universities were destroyed, a lot of the knowledge survived through the people. I am not saying that this is because of the caste system, only that perhaps it was one plus side of the system of knowledge transfer that happened within castes.

Unfortunately, people are people and instead of looking at the castes as guidelines, and allowing people to move within caste due to merit rather than birth, people abused it for their own personal gains. Caste fiefdoms were formed and continue to this day. These are not only “upper caste” fiefdoms, but each caste has their own set of organisations, committees, lobbies which fight for their own personal gain. It builds and fosters a sense of mistrust, entitlement, and violence, the likes of which puts even animals to shame. Mob lynching, rape, discrimination, opportunism - everything we see in the news - are a symptom of a deeper rot. A rot which is well known and exploited by nefarious elements which exist in all strata of society. Why blame just politicians, or cops, or administration? They come from among us. The rot exists in the common man too. The famed common man who is often shown as a hapless pawn in the hands of the corrupt. The common man who sits silently when a woman is being eve teased; who sits silently when people suffering from mental health issues are labeled “mad”; who knowingly attends weddings where dowry exchanges hands; who cuts people from inter-caste marriages out from society; who blames the victims rather than the oppressors. We, the commoners, are all responsible for this rot. And we do nothing about it. No one wants to rock the boat. Everyone wants to move in a herd mentality. Because of our silence and cowardice, our society has cases of child abuse, the Muzzaffar Nagar abuse racket, violence on helpless citizens who just want to express an opinion, and so on. Why go out? Look at domestic violence and abuse in our own homes.

The next is toxic patriarchy, and in the same breath toxic matriarchy too. For both concepts attempt to subjugate one at the expense of another. Men don’t cry, mard ko dard nahi hota (a man doesn’t feel pain), men must not show weakness, men must bottle up all emotions except aggression (that one can be on free display; the more aggressive the more “manly” one is), men must provide, men must fight, the list is endless! Women must not wear this or that, they must protect their socially defined “modesty”, must not go out late at night, must not trust boys, must not be aggressive or ambitious, must cook, must take care of the house, it’s a pretty demanding list too. And now with the MeToo movement, ironically we can’t even object for fear of having our careers torpedoed. Men and women are both trapped in this vicious cycle of hate and deprivation. We receive it and hence dish it out with equal fervour. We become vanguards of the very system that represses us. For what? To score imaginary brownie points with the culture police? With our own society? With our own family? To show we stick to the line and will also enforce it? Why can’t we respect people for who they are rather than who society wants them to be?

Scores of reformists in the past attempted to change this mindset. They made significant headway for their times. Unfortunately, somewhere in the rush of making money and earning our daily bread, we forget that this fight must go on. The fight to remove this plague from our society, not just some isolated sections of society, but every town, every village, every home, every person. We forgot that while India has existed for hundreds of years, still it is but a 70-odd year young country united under one banner for the first time in history. We were a collection of kingdoms, each subject to the personality of its monarch. If the monarch was good and progressive, the people prospered. If not, the people suffered. They were divided and hence open to constant invasions. No one spoke in one voice, and hence we were ruled by many outsiders over our history.

For the first time, we are united under one banner - India, or perhaps a more apt description would be United India. For the first time, our diverse populace is all in it together. What affects one, affects the other too. For the first time, we have a collective voice as one nation. Unity in diversity, as we were taught in school and a lesson I kept close to my heart ever since.

We must remind ourselves that we are a young old nation. Old enough to have a memory, but young enough to know that there is a lot of work ahead of us and a lot we must do. We need to clear our house of the scourge of the past and move forward to a new country. Unfortunately, it isn’t only economic growth we must focus on, but social growth and unity as well. That isn’t going to happen if fringe elements with violent dispositions start taking the centre stage and hijacking the narrative. Misguided and outdated custodians of “culture” cannot make us feel unsafe in our own country and tell us how to think. Our “culture” has always been open minded and open to interpretation. Each person’s side has been demonstrated in epics such as the Ramayan and Mahabharat, and no one is spared the rod of Karma. Jaisi karni, waisi bharni (you reap what you sow).

It is time that people stood in support of sense rather than mindless violence. In support of ambiguity rather than absolute autocracy. In support of many truths rather than one absolute truth. We are, after all, the land of 33 million gods; a fact that stuns foreigners, but as Indians we know that it stands of freedom of faith for each individual. Each individual has always had the freedom, as enshrined in our “culture”, to debate and come to their own conclusion. As long as our faith harms no one else. We will continue to believe and not try to change others to our way. That freedom is what constitutes culture, in my opinion. The freedom to see perspectives of both Ram, and Ravan, and understand that the truth perhaps lies with neither one but with both, or somewhere in between.

So do we really need “culture”? No, definitely not some archaic, one-sided version of what someone thinks our “culture” was, is and should be.

What we need is perhaps a new shape of culture, free to take the good from the past and let go of things that divide us. Free to craft a new version of the future to build a pluralistic and humanitarian society where every job is respected and every person is important. Not every community or caste, but each individual person on a very personal level. Just like the human body with its various organs which all look different, and serve different functions but at the end are united in one body. Every organ can’t be the lung, neither the toe. We need each disparate part to make a whole. Everybody need not have the same religion or eating habits or worship the same god or even the same method of worship, but we all come together under one body of United India. With one goal - a pluralistic society that lives in peace with one another and its neighbours. India has the amazing opportunity to be a beacon, perhaps once again, for the rest of the world to achieve this dream given the sheer scale of our country. And for that we don’t need outdated definitions of culture, but new ones.

#culturepolice #culture #India #freedomofthought #freedom #faith

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cglcomm106 · 6 years

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Midterm Essay

Midterm Essay: Analysis of “commodity self”

Theorists may posit that an identity is socially constructed, meaning that our sense of self is derived from the stimuli which we are exposed to by society. Sturken and Cartwright state that as a consumer culture, we live in a culture where commodities are central to cultural meaning. A commodity is defined as anything that is bought or sold in a system of exchange. They also claim that the concept of commodity culture is intricately allied with the idea that we construct our identities through the consumer products that inhabit our lives (Sturken and Cartwright 279). As a child of the dawn of the 21st century, my entire life has been packed to the gums with these consumer products and commodities constantly influencing my self-expectations of everything from masculinity to virtue and cultural values. Media are nigh inescapable and inextricably tied to these commodities we grow up with, and they shape us every day of our lives.

My identity is influenced by my commodities of choice from my first steps out of bed to my last steps of the day back in. When I wake, I check my phone and open up Facebook to see what’s “trending,” what everyone is talking about. This could range anywhere from another (all-too-unfortunately frequent) public shooting, to the latest drama to rock the executive branch, to the death of a celebrity or simply a cute video of a dog chasing its tail in a swimming pool. From the start of my day, I am connected to a global community and partaking in or observing the day’s newest batch of content for public discourse.

During lunch, I might get on my phone to check Snapchat or Facebook Messenger to see how my friends are doing. I might see a selfie from a friend talking about how bored he is in class with a goofy filter adorning the picture frame and strike up a conversation from him while I am snagging a sandwich at subway. I could settle down with The Onion, Clickhole, or The New Yorker for a good laugh, or visit Reddit and read strangers’ stories on the day’s trending AskReddit thread. Even if I am the only customer in that Subway, the computer in my pocket has turned the world into my crowded middle school cafeteria, except the tables are less sticky and I can mute the child next to me if he is being a bully.

Lastly, at night, I will pull out my phone or go to the Netflix website on my computer to continue watching whatever television show I had been watching the night before, not particularly seeking any discourse and opting to indulge in the chronicles of the starship Voyager into the twilight hours of the evening, or perhaps play an inane mobile game about tapping lemonades to make virtual money or some other mind-numbing yet bizarrely satisfying stimulus.

Through these stimuli we’re exposed to all day, we intake more information that influences our social identity. As we process the information we’ve taken in, our reactions are shaped by our ideologies and influence our desires. Louis Althusser defines ideology as a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to the real conditions of their existence (Sturken and Cartwright 69). The use of the word imaginary here is not meant to be taken as an implication that this relationship is composed of false or mistaken ideas, but rather a set of beliefs shaped through the unconscious in relationship to other social forces, such as the economy or institutions (Sturken and Cartwright 70).

I will never forget seeing the New York Times post on Facebook about a construction accident at a Saudi Arabian mosque on September 11, 2015, and the resulting “flame war,” a vicious widespread argument, in the comment section. Thousands of people with varying ideologies were out for each other’s blood, with more reactionary christian commenters praising Jesus Christ for the deaths of heathens on 9/11 to more secular elements chastising them for their insensitivity. The ensuing public discourse in weight of this news undoubtedly entrenched participants in their own ideologies, or perhaps (albeit less likely) changed some people’s minds.

The influence of media on our desires, however, is arguably more grim than a jubilant reaction to a number of tragic deaths half a world away. On most platforms that facilitate communication and the exchange of information, we are also bombarded by advertisements riddled with commodity fetishism. Sturken and Cartwright call commodity fetishism a process of mystification that separates a commodity from the context of its production and fills it with new, more appealing meanings, such as empowerment, beauty, and sexiness (Sturken and Cartwright 282).

From that sporting debate over the latest turn in the stock markets to the aforementioned video of the adorable dog in the swimming pool, we are sent messages from advertisers and producers of commodities to further adjust our perceptions and how we can fulfill our desires. Despite the internet’s boundless utility for conversation and exchange of information, we are still bombarded by sponsored content and deceptive advertising practices all along the way. Ads work tirelessly to appear as anything but advertisements, from making advertisements about candy or beer look like sketch comedy, or making advertisements for new cars look like movie trailers or music videos.

That is not to say that advertising is necessarily evil. Sometimes I will not know what to have for dinner, and an ad for a nearby chain restaurant or dangerously fattening pizza place will show up in an unexpected and timely manner. Trailers for movies will give me an expectation for their quality or get me excited for an upcoming release I planned on seeing anyway. Or, as happens all too often, I will see an advertisement or announcement for an upcoming game that will pique my interest.

When I’m done with work for the day, or putting off a COMM 106 midterm, I will settle in for online gaming with friends and strangers. The sophistication of cultural exchange ranges from chatting with a stranger from Serbia about how he sees America, to attending rigidly scheduled bi-weekly gaming parties online to coordinate assaults on elaborate dungeons and demonic fortresses, to simply making crude jokes about genitals and bodily functions with my friends in a private voice chat over a game of cards. Funnily enough, the most socialising I get done happens when I’m physically around the least amount of people.

So, naturally, I feel that the commodities that influence me most of all pertain to online gaming. I’m writing this paper late into the night before the night it is due rather than a few hours before the deadline in order to free up more of my Friday for teaching my friends a new game they have just picked up. I was still awake to start it at 2:30 in the morning because I’d just drank a fresh cup of coffee to prepare for an abruptly-ended late night game of Europa Universalis IV with a close friend I often embark on such ventures with. For as long as I remember, I have been deeply involved in “gamer” culture.

Gaming is a lucrative industry, and therefore it is one with competitive advertising. Take this trailer for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, for example. On the heels of its new record of all-time concurrent player count on PC, Ubisoft extols the virtue of how different its tactical shooter is from the competition, implicitly PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnite, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. “The rules are different,” they claim, boasting the tagline “FPS (first-person shooter) has a new set of rules.” The advertisement beckons fans of the genre to play the game because of its tactical variety, boasting its fully-destructible walls and ceilings, which are rare in the genre, as “opportunities.”

Commodity fetishism takes place in the FPS subgenre of gaming culture in the form of empowerment through competition. The player is separated from the concept that the game they are playing is a complex program that plays sounds and displays animation and instead takes on this commodity as the experience of blasting a hole in a foe’s head from 50 yards with a .45 caliber bullet. Ubisoft is hailing prospective players to take on the excitement of this experience, leading them through an explosive and colorful battleground and coaxing them to claim victory in this chaotic and thrilling environment they have created.

For the more relaxed and serene gamer, advertising is presented in a less dramatic fashion, as in this trailer for Stardew Valley, darling of the indie gaming scene. The menacing strings and imposing voiceover of the Rainbow Six: Siege trailer are a far cry from the whimsical keyboard music, woodwinds, and cute pixel art of this gentle simulator about farming and small-town life. A new and exciting experience is still offered, with the viewer being enticed to “shape your land into a thriving farm,” “learn to live off the land,” and “become part of the local community.” While one might think it would be difficult to compare an ultra-violent game commodity about tactical military operation to an adorable simulation which presents situations no more stressful than selecting which crops and produce to bring to the autumn harvest festival, the underlying attraction remains the same: the offer of a new and exciting experience full of opportunity.

While it’s an entirely noninteractive medium, and thus devoid of opportunity, another commodity that influences me greatly is film. Particularly superhero films, especially those produced by Marvel Studios. Last month, Marvel released a new trailer for its highly-anticipated new release in the Avengers series, Infinity War. As a viewer, I derive meaning from this trailer as filtered through my ideology and experience with the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.

Sturken and Cartwright say that meaning is created in part by context, and when, where, and by whom images are consumed (Sturken and Cartwright 55). Someone who has not seen any Guardians of the Galaxy or Iron Man movies will not feel a fraction of the excitement I feel seeing Starlord and Iron Man bantering on screen, or if they have not seen any Captain America movies they may not understand how terrifying and powerful Thanos appears when he grapples the red-white-and-blue-clad superhero near the end of the trailer.

As with all negotiations of meaning, my interpretation of these images is altered due to a deep contextual knowledge of the characters and setting. I experience a surge of emotion and wonder as I observe the trailer’s grand spectacles of armies clashing, spaceships flying, and all of my favorite superheroes coming together for one epic crossover film to beat the ever-loving crap out of warmongering bad guys. I may speculate what will happen in the film, which characters will fight and die, and so on. This meaning will vary even amongst opinions of others who have seen all the films as I have, because of the logical framework they have constructed while viewing all the preceding films through their reactions to them.

Short of destroying all methods of communication and moving to a log cabin in the middle of some deserted woods, media are impossible to escape, so what do we need to know about how they affect us? The short answer to that is that the information we exchange and the commodities we partake in influence us each time we encounter more stimuli. The reactions elicited by these encounters, and the messages we receive filtered through our ideology, endlessly work to build a self-identity that conforms to or rejects an endless myriad of content and social norms.

Ultimately, this self-identity is how we present ourselves to ourself and the rest of the global community. Our interests, our social activity, and the products we consume are directly influenced by our engagement with commodities and meaning. This is the primary reason why it is so important to cultivate a critical approach to the media that we consume. Consumption of media influences how we perceive everything, from how we perceive each other to how we perceive ourselves. It is important to keep a critical eye on our content intake in order to continually strive toward being a happier and empowered individual.

Works Cited

MARVEL. “Marvel Studios' Avengers: Infinity War - Official Trailer.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Mar. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwievZ1Tx-8.

Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: an Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press, 2009.

TheAmazingApes. “Stardew Valley Trailer.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 Jan. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot7uXNQskhs.

Ubisoft North America. “Rainbow Six Siege - Free Weekend February 15 - 20 | Trailer | Ubisoft [NA].” YouTube, YouTube, 13 Feb. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkHAdXs32nA.

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hardtostudy · 7 years

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lit.

1. What is theory? - Theory is interdisciplinary discourse (debate) with effects outside an original discipline. - Theory is analytical and speculative - Theory is a critique of common sense, of concepts taken as natural. 2. What is Literature? - Elusive term (always changing) - modern sense of literature is 200 years old - prior to 1800 literature was ‘'memorized'' not INTERPRETED - in fiction, the relation of what speakers say to what authors think is always a matter of interpretation - lit-er-a-ture n. Abbr. lit. 1. A body of writings in prose or verse 2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value. 3. The art or occupation of a literary writer. 4. The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field. 5. Printed material. 3. ‘Literariness' of nonliterary phenomena. - Qualities often thought to be literary turn out to be crucial to non-literary discourses and practices as well — For instance HISTORY or historical NARRATIVE — Everyday language (we use FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE) — Advertisements, newspapers, magazines, leaflets 4. Literature = Imaginative writing - The term literature seems best if we limit it to the art of literature, that is, to imaginative literature. (from Wellek and Warren, 1973, pp.20-23) 5. Imaginative vs. non-imaginative - non-imaginative writing employs logical abstractions - imaginative writing employs artistic images 6. Criteria for literature - content, considering aesthetic principles and semantic characteristics of language.

7. Literature as the ‘foregrounding' of language Literature is a speech act or textual event that elicits certain kinds of attention 8. Functions of literature - Mimetic, Aesthetic, Didactic, Entertaining, Social, Ideological, etc. 9. So what is literature then? - Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value foregrounding aesthetic principles and semantic characteristics of language - In order to call a text literary, it should fulfill certain function: Mimetic, Aesthetic, Didactic, Entertaining, Social, Ideological, etc. 10. Genre - The term genre usually refers to one of the three classical literary forms of: — fiction / prose / prose fiction (old-fashioned term epic) — drama — poetry 11. Text type - Beside the genres which describe general areas of traditional literature, the term text type has been introduced, under the influence of linguistics. - The term text type refers to highly conventional written documents such as instruction manuals, sermons, obituaries, advertising texts, catalogues, and scientific or scholarly writing 12. Discourse — usually a learned discussion, spoken or written, on a philosophical, political, literary or religious topic. It is closely related to a treatise and a dissertation. — is the broadest term, referring to a variety of written and oral manifestations which share common thematic or structural features. The boundaries of these terms are not fixed and vary depending on the context in which they appear. 13. Literary scholarship — Literary history follows the historical development of literature from the earliest times to the present (DEVELOPMENT). — Literary criticism analyses the content and form of creative literature, making use of the knowledge of literary theory and literary history. It addresses both, readers and writers. It employs aesthetic and formal criteria in the evaluation of literary works (INTERPRETATION) — Literary theory studies the forms, categories, criteria, techniques, literary types, genres, language, composition, style and other relevant aspects of creative writing (METHODS) 14. 4 major approach to text — text — author — reader — context 15. TEXT — Philology — Rhetoric — Formalism and Structuralism — New Criticism — Semiotics and Deconstruction 16. AUTHOR — Biographical Criticism — Psychoanalytic Criticism — Phenomenology 17. CONTEXT — Literary History — Marxist Literary Theory — Feminist Literary Theory — New Historicism and Cultural Studies 18. READER — Reception Theory — Reception History — Reader-Response Criticism 19. Literary canon - term originally used for holy→texts. It now refers to the entirety of those literary texts which are considered to be the most important in literary history. 20. Intertextuality - A term coined by Julia Kristeva in 1966 to denote the interdependence of literary texts, the interdependence of any one literary text with all those that have gone before it. - literary text is not an isolated phenomenon but is made up of a mosaic of quotations, and that any text is the 'absorption and transformation of another'. (Cuddon, 424). 21. Connotation vs denotation — Connotation: the suggesting of a meaning by a word apart from the thing it explicitly names or describes (implied/associated meaning) — Denotation: a direct specific meaning as distinct from an implied or associated idea 22. Specifications of poetry - The oldest genre in literary history - Origins in music (‘'lyre'' / ''harp’') - ,,poieo’' (greek) - to make, to produce) - Traditional attempts to define poetry juxtapose poetry with prose (limited) - Verse, rhyme, meter - Modern poetry/experimental poetry/free verse/prose poems 23. Major categories — Narrative poetry — Lyric poetry 24. Poetic language? - Lexical-thematic dimension: DICTION, RHETORICAL FIGUES, THEME - Visual dimension: STANZAS, FORM - Rhythmic-acoustic dimension: RHYME, METER, ONOMATOPOEIA 25. Traditional classification - Lyric poetry - plotlessness, subjectivity, reflexive, meditative — Ode (a song) — Ballad (a tragedy narrated in from of a song) — Elegy (a funeral song)

— Epitaph (life of a dead person, inscription on grave) — Pastoral poem (bucolics) — Psalm — Romance (similar to ballad, love story) - Epic poetry - composition of a story in verse — Epic (long narrative poem) — Chronicle (historical event in verse) — Historical song — Ballad (both lyric and epic) 26. Meter - Meter is the rhythm established by a poem, and it is usually dependent not only on the number of syllables in a line but also on the way those syllables are accented.

- This rhythm is often described as a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

- The rhythmic unit is often described as a foot; patterns of feet can be identified and labeled.

- A foot may be iambic, which follows a pattern of unstressed/stressed syllables.

- For example, "The DOG went WALKing DOWN the ROAD and BARKED."

- Because there are five iambs, or feet, this line follows the conventions of iambic pentameter (pent = five), the common form in Shakespeare's time. Stressed syllables are conventionally labeled with a „/" mark and unstressed syllables with a "U" mark. 27. Basic feet UX – iamb (iambic)

XU – trochee (trochaic)

XX – spondee (spondaic)

UU – pyrrhic

UUX- anapaest (anapaestic)

XUU – dactyl, dactylic 28. Line-lengths One foot per line: monometer

Two feet per line: dimeter

Three feet per line: trimeter

Four feet per line: tetrameter

five feet per line: pentameter

Six feet per line: hexameter

Seven feet per line: heptameter

Eight feet per line: octameter 29. Rhyme - The basic definition of rhyme is two words that sound alike.

- the most recognizable convention of poetry,

- Rhyme helps to unify a poem; it also repeats a sound that links one concept to another, thus helping to determine the structure of a poem.

- When two subsequent lines rhyme, it is likely that they are thematically linked, or that the next set of rhymed lines signifies a slight departure.

- Especially in modern poetry, for which conventions aren't as rigidly determined as they were during the English Renaissance or in the eighteenth century, rhyme can indicate a poetic theme or the willingness to structure a subject that seems otherwise chaotic.

- Rhyme works closely with meter in this regard. 30. Varieties of rhyme - internal rhyme functions within a line of poetry, for example alliteration, assonance

- end rhyme occurs at the end of the line and at the end of some other line, usually within the same stanza if not in subsequent lines

- Eye rhyme 31. Rhyme - There are also a number of predetermined rhyme schemes associated with different forms of poetry. Once you have identified a rhyme scheme, examine it closely to determine

(1) how rigid it is,

(2) how closely it conforms to a predetermined rhyme scheme)

(3) what function it serves 32. Figurative language SIMILE = rhetorical figure which „compares“ two different things by connecting them with „like“, „than“, „as“ (e.g. cold as ice, my love is like a red, red rose)

METAPHOR = rhetorical figure which „equates“ one thing with another without actually „comparing“ the two (e.g. my love is a red, red rose)

PERSONIFICATION = a type of metaphor, comparing something to a human being (e.g. the wind sighed gloomily)

ALLITERATION = words starting with the same sound (burning bright)

ASSONANCE = repeated vowel sound (e.g. dark arms)

ONOMATOPOEIA = words that sound like what they mean (e.g. bubble, bang) 33. Synecdoche, metonymy, oxymoron - Synecdoche (substitution): is the rhetorical or metaphorical substitution of a part for the whole, or vice versa (when you refer to workers as "hands," you allow a part (the hand) to stand in for the whole (the person)

- Metonymy: (association) the rhetorical or metaphorical substitution of a one thing for another based on their association or proximity („Crown“, Oval office, )

- Oxymoron: The juxtaposition of two contradictory ideas is oxymoron in order to create striking effects (such as Milton's "darkness visible"). 34. Personification, simili, metaphor - Personification: when something other than a human being (often an abstract quality) is treated as a human being — as when we speak of blind Justice — it is said to be personified.

- Simili: An explicit comparison of two things, usually with the word "as" or "like

- Metaphor: A metaphor is an implied comparison of two things 35. Blank verse vs. Free verse - Blank verse is the technical name for unrhymed iambic pentameter — i.e., verse of five feet per line, with the stress on the second beat of each foot. It's one of the most common kinds of verse in English: many passages of Shakespeare's plays are in blank verse, as is Milton's Paradise Lost and Wordsworth's Prelude.

- Free verse — most common in the twentieth century, but by no means unique to it — has no fixed metrical foot, and often no fixed number of feet per verse. Free verse is sometimes called by its French name, verse libre. 36. Caesure - Caesura is a pause somewhere in the middle of a verse. Some lines have strong (easily recognizable) caesurae, which usually coincide with punctuation in the line, while others have weak ones. It's conventional to mark them with a double bar;

Alas how changed! || What sudden horrors rise! 37. Verse forms and Stanza forms - Couplet: two rhyming lines of verse following immediately after each other

- Heroic couplet: Rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter

- Tercet (triplet) – is a stanza with three lines of the same rhyme ( -baker-forsake her-Quaker)

- Terza rima – a variant of the tercet used by Dante. It uses a chain rhyme: the second line of each stanza rhymes with the first and the third line of the next stanza (aba, bcb cdc etc. ) Quatrain – stanza comprising of four lines of verse with various rhyme patterns. When written in iambic pentameter and rhyming abab it is called heroic quatrain

Rhyme royal – 7 line stanza in iambic pentameter ababbcc

Ottava rima – stanza with 8 lines abababcc 38. Enjambment Enjambment: When the units of sense in a passage of poetry don't coincide with the verses, and the sense runs on from one verse to another, the lines are said to be enjambed

She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; 39. Sonnet - Sonnet: A lyric poem of fourteen lines. There are two common species of sonnet, distinguished by their rhyme scheme: the Italian and the Shakespearean.

- The Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet can be broken into two parts, the octave (eight lines) and the sestet (six lines)

- he Shakespearean (or English) sonnet is instead three quatrains and a couplet: 40. Irony - verbal irony (sometimes called rhetorical irony), probably the most straightforward kind of irony, the speaker says something different from what he or she really believes

- In its crudest form it's called sarcasm, where the speaker intentionally says the opposite of what he or she believes,

- Understatement (figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is

- Hyperbole (exaggeration)(it cost a fortune)

- Euphemism is used to express a mild, indirect, or vague term to substitute for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term (pass away, fade away) 41. Satire vs. Parody — Satire: is the ridicule of some vice or imperfection — an attack on someone or something by making it look ridiculous or worthy of scorn.

— Parody — not to be confused with satire — is the imitation of either formal or thematic elements of one work in another for humorous purposes 42. Chiasmus Chiasmus: a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect

“Never let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You.” 43. Objectives of lecture Elements of Fiction

- Style

- Tone

- Language

- Symbolism

- Allegory

- Image

- Classification of intermediate and minor fiction

- Classification of genres between fiction and fact 44. Style - refers to the language conventions used to construct the story

- A fiction writer can manipulate diction (choice of words), sentence structure, phrasing, dialogue, and other aspects of language to create style

- Formal? Informal? Minimalistic? Richly detailed? Descriptive? Flowing?

- The communicative effect created by the author's style can be referred to as the story's voice - TONE 45. Tone - refers to the attitude that the story creates toward its subject matter:

- Dramatic? Humorous? Imperative? 46. Image - is a sensory impression used to create meaning in a story.

— visual imagery: Imagery of sight — aural imagery: Imagery of sound (e.g., the soft hiss of skis) — olfactory imagery: Imagery of smell (e.g., the smell of spilled beer) — tactile imagery: Imagery of touch (e.g., bare feet on a hot sidewalk) — gustatory imagery: Imagery of taste (e.g., the bland taste of starchy bananas) 47. Symbolism - If an image in a story is used repeatedly and begins to carry multiple layers of meaning

- Symbol indicates rather than explicates

- It is an indirect suggestion

- Symbol is a term for „objects“ in a literary text which transcend their material meaning (Klarer, p. 153)

- Symbol is one of the most characteristic means of artistic expression and is material for the construction of a myth

- Symbols can be universal or culturally based - Symbol is a word or a group of words which stands for a meaning other than the literal or purely denonative

- Origins in Greek symballein – „to compare by throwing together“

- Generally undestood symbols are CONVENTIONAL/ARBITRARY/TRADITIONAL symbols

- As opposed to PRIVATE SYMBOLISM

(Franko, p. 22-23) 48. Allegory - An allegory is a work of fiction in which the symbols, characters, and events come to represent, in a somewhat point-by-point fashion, a different metaphysical, political, or social situation

- Greek allégorein – „to talk differently, in images“

- Political allegory (J.Swift´s Gulliver´s Travels, G. Orwell´s Animal Farm)

- Moral allegory (N.Hawthorne´s The Scarlet Letter) 49. Fiction Term to differentiate the literary prose genres of short story, novella, and novel from drama and poetry; in older secondary sources it is often used synonymously with epic (Klarer, 139) 50. Fiction genres - development Epic (7th century BC) – Homer -Iliad, Odyssey

Romance (14th century)(Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)

Novel (17th c. Don Quixote, 18th c. Robinson Crusoe 51. Novel Picaresque novel

Bildungsroman

Epistolary novel

Historical novel

Satirical novel

Utopian novel

Gothic novel

Detective novel 52. Intermediate fiction — Fabliau (predecessor of a short story)

-narrative in verse

- Often comic

- Implies criticism of the manners and morals

- Based on folklore 53. Short story Simple plot

Short time span

Number of character limited

Limited setting 54. Intermediate fiction - Exemplum (Moral anecdote)

- Legend (medieval epic genre with religious theme, in verse or prose, contains motifs of fantasy and miracle

- Idyll (epic poem with a pastoral theme) 55. Minor fiction - Fable

- Parable

- Bestiary (compendium of animals)

- Fairy tale (set in imaginary world, supernatural elements, fictitious nature, stereotyped characters, moral lesson

- Anecdote (short narrative depicting a real or imaginary event, humorous, witty, brief narration

56. Between fiction and fact — Essay

- Emphasis on the individuality

- Primary concern is to report a fact however it employs devices of fiction, poetry or drama

- Subjective tone

- Highly individualized statements 57. Drama - Draó (Greek) – to act, to perform

- Drama as a genre: all works written for the theatre

- A single play

- A serious play

- Any event charged with conflict and tension (Franko, p. 162)

- A drama or play is a form of storytelling in which actors make the characters come alive through speech (dialogue) and action (stage directions). 58. Drama Combines aspects of all three Literary Genres - Literature

— fictional or factual

— common literary elements like plot, setting, characterization, and dialog

- Poetry

— Many plays are written in verse (for example, “Oedipus Rex” and “Othello”)

- Drama

— Its unique characteristic is that it is written to be performed 59. Play is to be performed in front of the audience - Playwright

- Script

- Dialogue

- Staging: stage directions (Acts, Scenes, set, props) — the history of western drama is rooted in ancient Greece 60. Greek Theatre - Ancient Greek theatre developed as part of religious festivals

- A “choric hymn” called the dithyramb was composed in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility

- The hymn was sung by a chorus of 50 men

- Over time, Thespis, the first actor, added dialog between one actor and the chorus 61. Thespis - Added the first actor to interact with the dithyramb chorus

- Called the actor the “protagonist”

- Is said to have performed in Athens in 534 B.C.

- The term “thespian,” (having to do with drama or theater) comes from his name.

- When the Dionysian festivals changed to drama competitions, Thespis was the first winner 62. Aristotle’s Rules for Ancient Drama - Classical Unities

— Unity of time (action must occur within 24 hours)

— Unity of place (action takes place in one location)

— Unity of action (single plot)

- Catharsis

— Socially acceptable purging of emotions such as anger, fear, or grief 63. Dramatic structure — Plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denoument

— Character

- Dialogue: conversations of characters onstage

- Monologue: long speech given by one character to others

- Soliloquy: speech by a character alone onstage to himself or herself or to the audience

- Asides: remarks made to the audience or to one character; the other characters onstage do not hear an aside

— Setting (realistic and detailed?) or (abstract and minimal?) 64. Classification according to genre - Tragedy: obligatory composition (resolution is tragic)

- Protagonist vs antagonist

- Prologue (exposition)

- Chorus (ode)

- Epilogue (summary of the play) 65. Comedy - Comedy of manners

- Satiric comedy (employs hyperbole and burlesque)

- Romantic comedy

- Picaresque comedy

- Comedy of situation (situational humor and comicality)

- Masque (allegoric play based on mythology) 66. Drama - Serious but not necessarily tragic

- Genre between tragedy and comedy

Lyric drama (reflexive mood, widely employed metaphors, psychological motivation)

Realistic drama (serious moral and social issues)

Drama of the absurd (anxiety, breaks the established requirements imposed on play, violates principles of communication, disturbs the unified model of the world - Melodrama: sentimental, pathetic, emotional

- Monodrama: one character play

- Burlesque: high mixed with low (Cyrano de Bergerac)

- Farce: exaggeration and caricature of situation

- Grotesque: hyperbolization of reality, fantastic elements are used, presence of disharmony

- Variety show: purely in order to amuse

- Cabaret: satirical performance accompanied by music

- Vaudeville: theatrical genre of variety entertainment 67. Musical genres - Opera - Operetta - Musical 68. Critical Approaches - reveal how or why a particular work is constructed and what its social and cultural implications are

- to see and appreciate a literary work as a multilayered construct of meaning

- reread, rethink, and respond

- recent theory can be seen as an attempt to sort out the paradoxes that often inform the treatment of identity in literature 69. Link between literary explorations and critical/theoretical claims - Literary works characteristically represent individuals, so struggles about identity are struggles within the individual and between individual and group: characters struggle against or comply with social norms and expectations. In theoretical writings, arguments about social identity tend to focus, though, on group identities: what is it to be a woman? to be black? To be colonized? To be gay? To be „other“?

- Literature plays an important role in construction of identity 70. Meaning of Theory - Theory offers not a set of solutions but the prospect of further thought

- Theory is a DISCURSIVE practice

- Linked with education and institutions 71. Russian Formalism FORM and TECHNIQUE

The Russian Formalists of the early years of the twentieth century stressed that critics should concern themselves with the literariness of literature: the verbal strategies that make it literary,

- Roman Jakobson, Boris Eichenbaum, and Victor

Shklovsky (Culler, 122) 72. New Criticism - 30s , 40s in the United States

- the unity or integration of literary works

- Shift from understanding literature as a historical document towards aesthetic perception (from memorizing to interpretation)

- How each element in literature contributes to meaning (Culler, 122) 73. Feminist Literary Criticism - Simone de Beauvoir, Second Sex (1949)

- Emerged in the 70s

- Identity of women

- Position of women in the society

- Opposition between man/woman

- Discussion of the patriarchal perception of history/literature 74. Psychoanalytic literary criticism - Based on Freud´s psychoanalysis

- Explores the nature of the unconscious mind

- Analysis literary work through symbolism, myth, taboo, association, sexual relations

- Looks at the unconscious meaning of work 75. Marxist literary theory - Based on German philosopher, Karl Marx

- The role of class, ideology, social order

- Literature as a means of manipulation

- Literary works are seen as products of work (reflection of economy)

- New perception of the canon (middle class?) 76. Postcolonial criticism - Based on Edward Said´s work Orientalism (1978)

- involves the analysis of literary texts produced in countries and cultures that have come under the control of European colonial powers at some point in their history

- Reevaluation of the stereotypes, myths associated with marginalized groups 77. Reader-Response Criticism - The reader is active

- “Reading is . . . something you do.„

- the intended reader vs. implied reader

- For the reader, the work is what is given to consciousness; the work is not something objective, existing independently of any experience of it, but is the experience of the reader

- form of a description of the reader’s progressive movement through a text, analysing how readers produce meaning by making connections, 78. Structuralism Structuralism is a theory of humankind in which all elements of human culture, including literature, are thought to be parts of a system of signs.

In structuralism literary texts are linked to a larger structure, which may be a particular genre, a range of intertextuality connections, a model of a universal narrative structure, or a system of recurrent patterns or motifs. 79. Post-structuralism - Theory that rejects the certainty of meaning.

- It demonstrates that the meaning of a text is undeterminable by showing readers that the connection between the text and real world is

- unstable and has endless meanings. 80. Deconstruction - Deconstruction is most simply defined as a critique of the hierarchical oppositions that have structured Western thought: inside/outside, mind/body, literal/metaphorical, speech/writing, presence/absence, nature/culture, form/meaning.

- Based on Jacques Derrida

- A postmodern approach to exploring meaning by taking apart and examining taken-for-granted categories and assumptions, making possible newer and sounder constructions of meaning. 81. New Historicism New historicists acknowledge the importance of the literary text, but they also analyze the text with an eye to history

— history as a social science like anthropology and sociology, whereas older historicists tended to view history as literature's "background" and the social sciences as being properly historical.

— New historicists remind us that it is treacherous to reconstruct the past as it really was—rather than as we have been conditioned by our own place and time to believe that it was. 82. Introductory paragraph what/how/when/why? - outlines topic,

- Methodology

- structure of your paper

- What” is the paper all about?

- “How," i.e., with what method, do I approach the topic?

- “When" in the course of the paper am I dealing with which issues?

- Why? Possible contribution 83. MAIN Part - Subsequent paragraphs should be self-contained argument developing one particular aspect of the overall topic.

- every paragraph has a topic sentence which highlights the main idea of the paragraph and establishes a connection to the overall topic of the paper (i.e., the thesis statement). 84. Transition tips End of each paragraph should connect to the next one

(Subsequently, Furthermore, Arguably, Comparably, On the other side, However.......) 85. Concluding paragraph - briefly and concisely summarize the most important results of your discussion

- This is your final opportunity to remind the reader once more of your overall line of argumentation by repeating the thesis statement and by giving a short summary of your results.

- Contribution (wider implications of your paper?) 86. Critical apparatus - conventions that are concerned with the documentation of sources, a feature of scholarly writing

- Modern Language Association (MLA)

- Footnotes

- Bibliography

- Primary sources

- Secondary sources 87. Bibliography and footnes

- Last Name, First Name. Title of the Text. Place of Publication: Name of Publisher, Year of Publication.

- Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957.

- First Name Last Name, Title of the Text (Place of Publication: Name of Publisher, Year of Publication) Page Number.

- 1 Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957) 52.

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spookywinnerpainter · 7 years

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How You Can Use Passion in Modern Living Proposal Style – to Achieve Your Goals

New Post has been published on http://articlesworldbank.com/2017/08/09/how-you-can-use-passion-in-modern-living-proposal-style-to-achieve-your-goals/

How You Can Use Passion in Modern Living Proposal Style – to Achieve Your Goals

How You Can Use Proposals to Achieve Your Goals The notion layout is one of the most formidable equipment in the author’s toolbox. Although typically relegated to the expert/business realm, the inspiration is also useful in lots of instructional and personal writing situations.

Its variability apart, the suggestion’s actual magic is that its effectiveness is not restrained to written verbal exchange. With a little ingenuity, you can free up the notion format’s electricity and use it to boost up your progress toward dreams and goals. Master the logic of the notion, and also you’ll get extra out of your personal and professional interactions.

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What is a suggestion? At its most fundamental degree, a proposal is an offer. You are supplying some thing of price to someone or group in alternate for something you fee, consisting of money or time.

Although particular notion necessities can vary, they usually follow an easy shape. Let’s consider each a part of the suggestion structure one after the other and examine how we will apply a proposal-fashion technique to getting greater out of lifestyles.

1. Introduction.

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A robust suggestion’s advent doesn’t mince phrases. Rather, the introduction definitely and concisely states what you propose to do.

For instance, if an employee writes a proposal designed to negotiate a far off working agreement along with his or her employer, the advent ought to kingdom that purpose.

Living Proposal Style – Be Direct

The lesson from the Introduction – be direct – is straightforward to the kingdom but tough to do. Yet consider how much of our communique will be streamlined if all of us worked to be more clear and concise. It might exchange current lifestyles dramatically. For evidence, try the subsequent for one week:

State your unique reason for writing in every e mail’s situation line. The key here is “precise.” For example, as opposed to sending an email classified “Party?” inside the difficult line, replace it with, “Invitation to Loren’s Housewarming Party on May third.” State an opinion or a preference on every occasion a person asks for one. For instance, while a person asks you what you need to do nowadays, don’t reply with, “I don’t understand. What do you need to do?” Instead, offer a suggestion. You’ll be amazed at how much time this saves. (For a pleasing primer in this method, see Tim Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Work Week.)

2. Description of the Problem.

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Before you can persuade the reader to simply accept your proposed solution, she or he needs to be satisfied that there’s a problem that needs to be solved. The problem phase need to vividly describe an unwanted circumstance; in addition, the hassle section has to highlight reasons why the reader ought to care approximately this trouble.

Returning to our far off work though, the enterprise might not apprehend why the employee needs to make money working from home. To make the business enterprise apprehend, the employee could provide an explanation for the issues she or he has confronted while operating inside the workplace: commuting pressure, commuting cost, office distractions. But to make the business enterprise take an extreme interest in this suggestion, the worker must additionally give an explanation for that those factors are reducing his or her productivity and motivation. Considered from this perspective, keeping the employee working in the workplace is truly costing the business enterprise cash.

Living Proposal Style – Adapt your Behavior to Suit the Situation

People can be stubborn creatures, motive on proving their attitude’s validity on the expense of another’s. Unfortunately, human beings additionally don’t like to be established incorrectly. This way that the more rigidly one character defends his or her function, the more the opposite person is going to dig his or her heels in. Often, taking a less rigid tack would be a great deal greater effective. When it comes down to normal interactions like these, might you as a substitute be proper or happy?

3. Solution.

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After analyzing the problem phase, the reader has to be involved approximately the problem you have got defined and encouraged to do something positive about it. In the solution phase, you describe the solution you have proposed in the element. A robust solution section will assure the reader that the solution will fix the trouble. Moreover, the author needs to provide details to provide the reader self-belief within the answer’s efficacy.

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Continuing the above example, the worker needs to recognition on how operating at domestic will increase the worker’s motivation and productiveness in this phase. The employee should also provide a few specifics to increase the company’s self-belief that the answer will paintings. The employee should now not spotlight how a whole lot greater handy or proper it would be to work in his or her pajamas, even though that could be an enormous enjoy the worker’s angle.

Living Proposal Style – Step Into Someone Else’s Shoes

Writers particularly regularly war to speak because they fail to step into their readers’ footwear. They don’t don’t forget whether the piece meets the readers’ desires, focusing as an alternative on pronouncing what they want to say. Writers don’t always consider what would make it easier for readers to understand the message, and their writing suffers as an end result.

There’s an easy, yet effective, mental motive that considering some other man or woman’s attitude works so properly. People like to win. It doesn’t rely on whether they’re triumphing an issue or a carnival prize. It just feels good.

When you spotlight a plan’s benefits for others instead of your self, it demonstrates compassion. A compassionate gesture, in flip, builds goodwill. And if a person feels good will close to you, they’re more likely to agree on your inspiration. And if they agree to your notion – that’s proper – you win.

4. Plan of Action.

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This segment flows certainly from your answer. Your reader has many questions about how you will put in force the answer, and you have to persuade the reader which you have the information, competencies, and assets to show the solution from an amazing idea into fact. For instance, the worker might give an explanation for how he or she would attend conferences, complete tasks, and meet with clients from domestic.

Living Proposal Style — Concreteness Inspires Confidence

What prevents people from making changes in their lives or environments when they recognize that their lives could be better if they made the exchange? A not unusual trouble is that their desires are too abstract. The sentence, “I desire I ought to get prepared” They are much more likely to make changes if they have particular, actionable steps to complete. This is one purpose that a lot of us (myself blanketed) in no way appear to tire of analyzing organizing and decluttering suggestions.

A concrete plan now not simplest tells what steps need to be taken, however, it additionally provides a clear vision of the end result. It’s the imaginative and prescient that empowers trade.

5. Costs.

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Worry over how a great deal it’ll fee to put the notion into motion is the important obstacle for maximum proposals. Like the alternative sections, this segment needs to have specifics. Specific numbers provide the reader wished facts and help to persuade the reader that your inspiration is well researched.

But the crux of this section is rhetorical, not monetary. Whatever the particular expenses are, the value segment must goal to convince the reader that the concept’s blessings are well really worth the implementation price.

Living Proposal Style – Consider Both Absolute and Relative Costs

When thinking about an expenditure of any kind, it’s smooth to cognizance on the price tag by myself. But that is most effective 1/2 of the records: you should also keep in mind whether or not its cost is cheap given its price to you. I am no longer suggesting that you use the concept of relative value to rationalize unneeded prices or a wasteful lifestyle. But “frugal” and “reasonably-priced” aren’t the identical aspect. Being frugal way getting the most value, use, and joy from every dollar you spend.

6. Conclusion.

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A sturdy thought concludes with a stirring call to movement. The creator wants to propel the reader out of his or her chair. Passion for the outcome is a suggestion author’s secret weapon.

Living Proposal Style – Passion is Everything

Modern existence can put on every person down. Many of us have forgotten what it’s miles like to have dreams. Too frequently, we change the-sky’s-the-restrict goals for 5-12 months plans. If there may be one factor to analyze from the proposal, it’s that it is by no means too overdue to recapture our exhilaration for existence. The time is now. The suggestion has concluded; now, get out of that chair.

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#How You Can Use Passion in Modern Living Proposal Style – to Achieve Your Goals

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moon-battery · 7 years

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From the article:

New ‘Social Justice’ Math Class Teaches Kids That Math Is Evil, Dehumanizing

“Mathematical ethics recognizes that, for centuries, mathematics has been used as a dehumanizing tool… mathematics formulae also differentiate between the classifications of a war or a genocide and have been used to trick indigenous peoples out of land and property.”

From the original article:

To remedy math’s contribution to oppression, teachers are thus encouraged to think of ways that math can be used to advocate for marginalized populations, to which end they are encouraged to read an article by an English teacher from Hawaii, Christina Torres, who argues that failing to teach students about social justice is a “wasted opportunity” to provide them with the “tools to subvert power, question normalcy, and change society as we understand it.”

This is not to suggest, by the way, that there aren’t problems. We’re seeing computer algorithms being used to help make “impartial” sentencing decisions in criminal cases–and discovering that we are seeding those algorithms with a racist set of assumptions. The Association for Computing Machinery has long recognized the power of computer systems to violate privacy rights and significantly alter social compacts, and has promulgated a code of ethics which require members to abide by standards which recognize this.

But math, just like guns or horses or cars or computers or hammers or a million other tools, are simply that: tools, which can be wielded for good or for bad.

To me, while it is good to remind students of the ethical requirements to behave in an honorable way, it would be preferable if we were to simply teach a class on ethics, rather than steal valuable time that should be spent teaching math skills. And I say this because all too often as citizens we are being repeatedly manipulated by bad statistics and terrible math–and mathematical illiteracy plays into the hands of those who would push their own agenda.

Including those teaching “social justice.”

If the “social justice” crowd believes students need to be trained in ethics, I actually have no problem with this. But let it be its own class.

Otherwise we are not giving students the tools for them to decide. Instead, all we are doing is reinforcing mindless training in order to create adults who do not have the tools to think critically.

Reminding everyone of the crimes without giving them the tools to understand and think critically and reason future events does not create utopia. It indoctrinates the crowd into passivity for the next Hitler to rise to power.

And that’s the real problem I have.

The far left and the far right are not struggling for equality and fairness and a population able to engage in self-determination. Both sides would rather pacify the crowd so they can take power–so they can put their own left-wing Hitler or right-wing Hitler into power. (And if you are saying the Right has won with Trump, you are a fucking moron–because your ability to say that negates your assertion. Just look at how, in certain areas–such as college campuses and in certain professions–conservatives are no longer entirely free to speak their minds.)

Just look at the pathetic state of most Liberal Arts colleges. There was a time when someone studying the Liberal Arts was sought after by corporations for leadership positions, as Liberal Arts colleges taught intellectual literacy and critical-thinking. This was done by exposing Liberal Arts students to a wide variety of thought, including lines of thought many of us may find deplorable, such as Nietzsche and Machiavelli, as well as drilled down deeply into topics including Classical History, and pointed an unwavering eye at at subjects as wide and varied as Mathematics, Psychology and Religious studies.

Such individuals often came out of these colleges able to speak or read in a classical language (such as Latin or Greek), had a solid background in the philosophy of science and scientific methods, and was exposed to economics and business informatics. Many colleges required studying at least three modern languages, as well as civics and world history.

It is easy to imagine such a person, who has a solid grounding in business methods, but who has exposure to the arts, who can puzzle out multiple languages, and has an understanding of philosophy and the scientific method, would be sought after for management positions at large companies: such an individual would be an engaging conversationalist but also capable of managing large groups of people.

Today, the joke goes, a Liberal Arts college education leaves you prepared to ask that all-important question “do you want fries with that?”

And that’s because in the United States, the Liberal Arts has become increasingly experimental, and increasingly disdainful of the classics–seeing it as a form of mental imperialism. But without a solid philosophical theory all we are left with is indoctrination rather than education–in training seminars rather than in critical thinking, in goodthink over crimethink without even recognizing the source of those terms. Deconstructionism has not helped; deconstructionism is predicated on the notion that truth is relative and meaning is shallow–and acceptance of meaning is a form of mental rape as dead (and therefore worthless) texts are permitted to outlive their authors.

Without meaning there can be no critical thought, and in a nihilist world full of problems all that is left is mindless indoctrination and supplicating oneself to authority.

Which is precisely what we are now seeing the far Left demand.

(This criticism cannot be levied on the far Right; instead, an honest appraisement of the far Right by those on the far Left who are still capable of critical thought would reveal a far Right concerned to the point of paranoia about overly powerful individuals imposing themselves–and a call to arms to fight back, legally if possible, by violence if necessary. The difference between the far Left and the far Right is that the far Left is demanding conformity, while the far Right is demanding people to get off their fucking lawn by gunpoint–even if it destroys the fabric of society.)

The barrier thus far to the “Social Justice” crowd is that the STEM subjects are resistant to the same indoctrination philosophy which has turned the Liberal Arts into a pathetic joke.

After all, no amount of deconstructionism in the world will change the fact that 2 plus 2 is 4.

Further, there is recognition in many quarters that the upper-middle class in our country is increasingly populated by those students who study STEM subjects–even those who do not directly use their science or math degrees. In some countries (such as China and Taiwan), most politicians tend to be engineers rather than law students.

I suspect that’s because the critical thinking that used to be demanded of Liberal Arts students–the sort of critical thinking which is important to large corporations–is still being taught in STEM classes, albeit in a more limited fashion: you may not be asked to discuss how the Battle of Salamis represented a conflict between two managerial styles and how the superiority of one came to drive the rise of Western Civilization. But you may be asked to discuss how the Millikan Oil Drop experiment–used to measure the charge of an electron–demonstrates how observational bias can affect scientific results.

Of course this sort of critical thinking must be stopped.

Which is why, I suspect, my observation that if we wish to teach “Social Justice” we should do so in a single set of ethics classes, will never happen.

That’s because if we were to concentrate “Social Justice” into a single ethics class, it would permit us to point a critical eye on the assumptions underlying “Social Justice.” And the point here is to do away with critical thought; to teach goodthink, to encourage the right responses while “rous[ing] the minimum of echos in the speaker’s mind.”

‘Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.’ Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there’s no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It’s merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won’t be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.

It is fortunate that we shoot revenuers, and celebrate that fact.

And it is fortunate that the “Social Justice” crowd are in conflict themselves as to what Social Justice really means.

Otherwise:

O’Brien smiled faintly. ‘You are no metaphysician, Winston,’ he said. ‘Until this moment you had never considered what is meant by existence. I will put it more precisely. Does the past exist concretely, in space? Is there somewhere or other a place, a world of solid objects, where the past is still happening?’

‘No.’

‘Then where does the past exist, if at all?’

‘In records. It is written down.’

‘In records. And—-?’

‘In the mind. In human memories.’

‘In memory. Very well, then. We, the Party, control all records, and we control all memories. Then we control the past, do we not?’

‘But how can you stop people remembering things?’ cried Winston again momentarily forgetting the dial. ‘It is involuntary. It is outside oneself. How can you control memory? You have not controlled mine!’

O’Brien’s manner grew stern again. He laid his hand on the dial.

‘On the contrary,’ he said, ‘YOU have not controlled it. That is what has brought you here. You are here because you have failed in humility, in self-discipline. You would not make the act of submission which is the price of sanity. You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one. Only the disciplined mind can see reality, Winston. You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking that you see something, you assume that everyone else sees the same thing as you. But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes: only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston. It needs an act of self-destruction, an effort of the will. You must humble yourself before you can become sane.’

He paused for a few moments, as though to allow what he had been saying to sink in.

‘Do you remember,’ he went on, ‘writing in your diary, “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four”?’

‘Yes,’ said Winston.

O’Brien held up his left hand, its back towards Winston, with the thumb hidden and the four fingers extended.

‘How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?’

‘Four.’

‘And if the party says that it is not four but five–then how many?’

‘Four.’

The word ended in a gasp of pain. The needle of the dial had shot up to fifty-five. The sweat had sprung out all over Winston’s body. The air tore into his lungs and issued again in deep groans which even by clenching his teeth he could not stop. O’Brien watched him, the four fingers still extended. He drew back the lever. This time the pain was only slightly eased.

‘How many fingers, Winston?’

‘Four.’

The needle went up to sixty.

‘How many fingers, Winston?’

‘Four! Four! What else can I say? Four!’

The needle must have risen again, but he did not look at it. The heavy, stern face and the four fingers filled his vision. The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, blurry, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four.

‘How many fingers, Winston?’

‘Four! Stop it, stop it! How can you go on? Four! Four!’

‘How many fingers, Winston?’

‘Five! Five! Five!’

‘No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four. How many fingers, please?’

‘Four! five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain!’

Abruptly he was sitting up with O’Brien’s arm round his shoulders. He had perhaps lost consciousness for a few seconds. The bonds that had held his body down were loosened. He felt very cold, he was shaking uncontrollably, his teeth were chattering, the tears were rolling down his cheeks. For a moment he clung to O’Brien like a baby, curiously comforted by the heavy arm round his shoulders. He had the feeling that O’Brien was his protector, that the pain was something that came from outside, from some other source, and that it was O’Brien who would save him from it.

‘You are a slow learner, Winston,’ said O’Brien gently.

‘How can I help it?’ he blubbered. ‘How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.’

‘Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.’

The book 1984 was a warning, not a user’s manual.

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spookywinnerpainter · 7 years

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How You Can Use Passion in Modern Living Proposal Style – to Achieve Your Goals

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How You Can Use Passion in Modern Living Proposal Style – to Achieve Your Goals

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1. Introduction.

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Living Proposal Style – Passion is Everything

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#How You Can Use Passion in Modern Living Proposal Style – to Achieve Your Goals

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