#so it's an accurate representation of her senior self
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i don't post her here often, as she *hates* cameras, but i figured for today she deserves to be shown as the brilliant star she is. happy birthday, opal!
#opal the dog#mutts#dogs#mixed breed#chow mix#my petses#snapped that photo on our walk this morning#so it's an accurate representation of her senior self#doesn't she look good?#if only we could all age as gracefully
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Some things to know about the upcoming 02-related movie
As someone who seems to be known for being a 02 metablogger now (and 02 lover in general), and who’s been closely following Kizuna’s development and is generally fond of the movie itself, I figured I’d probably need to address the elephant in the room that is the announcement of the upcoming (unnamed, as of this writing) 02-related movie. This is also especially because I’ve personally been on the record saying that I absolutely did not want a Kizuna sequel. And, well, on top of that, to be a bit blunt about it, a lot of us, especially 02 fans, have a lot of reason to be skeptical of Toei right now given some of the things they’ve done with this series in the past, and 02-related things in particular (trust me, the wound is still extremely fresh), so it says a lot about what it took for me to get even remotely positive about this prospect.
Well, here’s the good news: while I of course still think there’s good reason to be apprehensive, and while I wouldn’t say everyone should be getting their expectations up for it to be guaranteed fantastic (which is something I would say about anything, regardless of whether it even has to do with Digimon or not), I don’t think there’s too much to be panicked about with this movie. Again, it took a lot for the staff to gain my trust in this respect, so it’s not something I say lightly. But if you’re a 02 fan and you’re extremely apprehensive, here are my reasons for feeling this way, and, hopefully, they might make you feel a little better too.
The reason this movie exists to begin with
One of the most striking things about this movie’s reveal was that they’ve literally only just started production on this movie. This was to the point that, at DigiFes, where this was revealed, even the voice actors stated outright that they knew absolutely nothing more than what the audience knew from the trailer. Katayama (Daisuke) only knew anything in the sense that they had him record those few lines for it. So even though it’s been a whole year and a half since Kizuna released to the public, it had only just been decided to make a new movie like this. All of the statements between Kizuna and now stating that there was nothing particularly in the works at the time were completely accurate. Of course, there are obvious hints that they were setting up for this possibility (many, many people noticed the suspiciously favorable position the 02 group was in during Kizuna, and the press releases were carefully worded so that having a movie about “Daisuke and his friends” would allow any statement about Kizuna being “the last adventure of Taichi and his friends” to still be technically truthful), but for all intents and purposes it seems like there had been no actual commitment to making this 02 movie until now, and that they’d at least wanted to gauge the surrounding climate and fanbase reactions for what people were looking for before they decided to go ahead with this.
The obvious reasons as to why this movie exist involve the fact that Daisuke and co. are pretty much the only “out” you can have to continue the Adventure universe without constantly defaulting to Taichi’s group yet again, because at the very least it’d be something that you can’t deny hasn’t exactly had the best representation in recent years. Of course they’re trying to capitalize on this! I’m not going to pretend they aren’t! But producer Kinoshita left a very interesting comment about a particular goal they have with this movie:
This time, the core behind the movie is everyone from 02! Daisuke’s group has their own different kind of charm from Taichi’s, and we want to express that precisely because we’re in the times we’re in right now.
That comment alone has a lot to unpack. (For a frame of reference, Kizuna released in Japan in February 2020; development had already long finished by the time the pandemic first hit, and it was unfortunately one of the first victims of the initial lockdowns because of how bad the timing was.) Acknowledging directly that there’s something different about Daisuke’s group and their dynamic, which makes them especially suited for what we need in “the current times”...hmm, what could that be?
The implied answer is one that many 02 lovers will know very intimately: the 02 group’s particular specialty is in uplifting others and giving each other emotional support. While Adventure had traces of these themes, 02 was the one that went really hard on the themes of dealing with grief and loss, the existential crisis of what to do with oneself in a world placing heavy pressures on you, and how to move on from hardships with the help of others. The fact that the 02 group specializes in this more than anything else is probably one of the most distinguishing factors between them and their seniors, so there’s a very heavy implication here that they understand what distinguishes 02 from Adventure, and what it uniquely would bring to the table in this kind of movie. So this isn’t just “we’re relying on the 02 kids because they’re part of the same universe”; there’s some degree of substantial understanding of what makes 02 as a series unique, and a desire to use this to its fullest extent.
Still don’t believe me? Well, how about this...
This staff really likes 02 a lot
Seki Hiromi, the original producer of Adventure and 02, was involved as a supervisor on Kizuna’s development. Seki was personally involved in the creation of these kids and 02 itself -- she’s the one who noticed the story of the nine-year-old boy skipping grades into Columbia University, the one that formed the basis of 02 itself and eventually came back for Kizuna -- and even personally vetted Kizuna’s script to make sure everyone was in character, gave her thoughts on what the kids would be like in 2010, and was (repeatedly) commented as seeming to love the kids like her own children. As of this writing, it hasn’t been confirmed whether she’s involved on the new movie, but even if she’s not, this means that the staff on Kizuna that is returning all listened closely to those discussions about what the characters are like, straight from the mouth of one of their own creators. The new character song releases had a brief mention in Lounsbery Arthur’s interview that there were apparently extensive discussions with the staff on what the characters should be like at this time, so while Seki’s involvement with that is unknown, at the very least, a lot of conscientious thought seems to be put in at all times into maintaining these characters’ integrity.
Of course, just having an original creator alone on it doesn’t necessarily do it by itself, so here’s another interesting thing: Taguchi Tomohisa, director of both Kizuna and this movie, is also very fond of 02.
I suspect we’ll be hearing more from him as this new movie goes further into development, but Taguchi himself implied that 02 was actually the one he happened to connect with in particular, and when you really think about it, given the circumstances surrounding Kizuna, it’s not actually surprising that a movie trying to be conscientiously aware of 02′s position in the narrative would have someone with a particular fondness for it on its staff. (Reason being: a lot of Adventure fans don’t care much for 02, but you’ll almost never meet a 02 fan who doesn’t also adore Adventure.) The really fun part about this, however, is that Taguchi has repeatedly stated that 02′s first movie, Hurricane Touchdown, is his favorite Digimon movie -- in a climate where everyone else was talking about Adventure. The expected answer for the majority of Adventure fans in terms of “favorite Digimon movie” is almost always Our War Game! by knockout, but no, for Taguchi, it’s Hurricane Touchdown, and not only has he said this, he won’t shut up about it. He’s been saying this since 2019. Even Seki noticed. A whole article got made about this. He brings it up whenever he has a chance to. To top it all off, when a Kizuna event asked everyone present about their favorite characters, and everyone gave Adventure-related answers, Taguchi’s response was instead Terriermon and Daisuke. And I mean, look at Kizuna itself -- its entire plot revolves around having to move on from unhealthy nostalgia, represented by kidnapping people and turning them younger and an antagonist swallowed by their own negative emotions, which, well, is literally the plot of Hurricane Touchdown. (Yeah, that Wallace cameo is very, very likely to be sheer self-indulgence.) And considering that Taguchi said his favorite human character was Daisuke, not Wallace, it means that he understands what Hurricane Touchdown brought out of Daisuke, what his interactions with Wallace meant for both characters, and how Daisuke’s best strengths lie in his ability to support and uplift others.
And, finally, we have Yamatoya, who was responsible for penning both Kizuna’s script (and, thus, being privy to Seki’s corrections) and the bonus drama CD that came with it, on the script, and he personally said that he enjoyed writing for the 02 group because he felt they were important to lightening up the mood of the heavy story Kizuna was becoming. In fact, every comment from this staff about what the 02 group brings to the table in particular has showed a good understanding of what their appeal is -- that they have to be “fun”, that they were “healing in a heavy story”, and Taguchi himself said that he got the impression that the 02 group had more straightforward paths to their epilogue careers (which is interesting, considering that I’ve also personally pointed out that the 02 group seemed to have careers with significantly lower bars than their seniors’ due to their difference in priorities). All of these things are observations you make when you know this group and the importance of the story they came from.
Extend it even further to the rest of the staff members and you’ll find there are a lot of 02 fans on there, including the animation staff, who made some very neat observations about 02 and its finale. Miyahara Takuya is a particularly amusing case, because he seems to love Imperialdramon so much that in the thanks booklet for the deluxe edition for the Blu-ray, he drew a picture of Daisuke and Ken with Imperialdramon Dragon Mode because he didn’t get to be in the movie. (As in, he actually said, point-blank in the caption, that he loves Imperialdramon and wanted to draw him because he wasn’t in the movie.)
Of course, even if you’re trying your best, things may not always work out, so I’m not saying having love for the characters will necessarily guarantee that the product turns out for the best. However, considering that historically a lot of our fears come from the idea of them milking the name value of the characters without really caring about their integrity or understanding what the series was about (especially since a lot of people in the fanbase itself don’t tend to read 02′s nuances very well), I think, at the very least, we don’t need to worry about the staff for this movie not being conscientious, nor the idea that they’re making this movie without understanding or caring about 02.
Furthermore, one thing I appreciate is that they’re actually leading the advertisement with a premise that is distinct from Kizuna’s. Of course, it covers a similar topic of “partnerships”, and it’s very possible it’ll cover the issue of the solution to Kizuna’s problem (especially since the answer was already hinted to have a heavy relationship with 02), but nevertheless, it’s an actual premise that’s not just “Kizuna’s story, but more of it”. It’s an understanding that something 02-related should be allowed to stand on its own rather than just tacking it onto an Adventure-related thing. Beyond that, while I think it’s generally expected that a side story like this should have an original character, I think it’s actually very good this time in particular that there’s a new element/character for the 02 group to interact with; again, as with Hurricane Touchdown and Daisuke, these kids often have the best brought out of them when they’re supporting others, and honestly, because the kids suffered so much in their own narrative, I’m not particularly fond of the idea of seeing them having to go through too much more trauma themselves (it’s a big reason I don’t like the idea of a 02 reboot). So while I’m sure a lot of 02 fans feel a bit antsy that the actual group itself wasn’t advertised first, I actually consider it a positive sign that they have an understanding of what context this group performs best in, and, moreover, well...the last time they unveiled something that was so focused on advertising the return of old characters that it forgot to actually be straightforward about the premise, I don’t think that ended well. So to speak.
In general, the track record is good
It’s easy to just smile and nod at the portrayal of the 02 quartet in Kizuna, because in general everything from them is in-character, but I just want to point out how significant it is that they were portrayed so conscientiously when it is really easy to mess them up. (As I like pointing out very often: even official has not historically been very careful with Daisuke’s character.) There are so many easy pitfalls you could have fallen into and pigeonholed the kids into, but Kizuna absolutely demonstrated the quartet at their best, showing off all the nuances of their character and bringing up all the parts that were most important, especially Daisuke’s best quality being “positivity and cheerfulness” and not all of the other things about him running in circles or having a crush on Hikari-chan. This even goes down to the casting; Katayama Fukujuurou sounds terrifyingly like Kiuchi Reiko in terms of all the little nuances and pitch shifts she had in her performance, and the cast themselves spoke of all the nuances present in their characters as they were studying for their roles. These are things that even fans of the series tend to miss, but the voice actors for the quartet nailed their roles so well that it’s very easy to tell that the direction understood exactly what they were looking for and needed, and casted accordingly. Even those who didn’t care for the movie much had a very hard time disputing the voice casting for the quartet (and this is saying a lot given how much voice actor changes are often a really sore point among Japanese fans).
But while the 02 group had a limited amount of screentime in Kizuna, the staff also had a lot of opportunities to prove themselves with the drama CD and the new character song CDs, and every single aspect of these reflects something that was represented in 02 itself -- again, things that often go over the heads of people who aren’t paying as close attention. The drama CD captures a lot of the essence of the dynamics between the group in only short lines, and all of the statements about the characters in the character song interviews are accurate (and remember: Arthur said directly that there were discussions with the staff about keeping them true to character). On top of that, not only do the lyrics in said songs directly mirror each character’s development from the time of the original Best Partner series, there are also a lot of things in said songs that demonstrate a nuanced understanding of each person’s character and what they got out of the events of 02. Someone with only a surface-level understanding of Ken or Iori’s character might think that Ken should only have a soft song, or that Iori shouldn’t want to do anything ridiculous, but the series goes ahead and gives Ken one of the most passionately emotional rock songs in the batch and Iori outright rap with Armadimon, which are both fitting decisions in light of Ken actually being one of the more emotionally assertive people in this group, and Iori only being stoic because he’s strict with himself and being willing to let loose in certain circumstances (especially after the events of 02).
As of this writing, I don’t know if the new movie is going to be featuring the entire group in a major role, and I’m not sure if I even want it to; as much as I do strongly feel like the group should always work together at all times, one minor personal complaint I had about Kizuna was that it tries to do too much in too little time, and I’m personally fine with this new movie being more Daisuke-centric or something if it means it can just get a nice story on the table (after all, if I wanted something that more evenly represents the entire 02 group, I’d just go back and rewatch a very nice anime series called Digimon Adventure 02). There’s also the very thorny question of what to do about Tokumitsu Yuka, since I don’t personally really like the idea of still dragging her out of retirement like this (but I also wouldn’t want them to awkwardly write around her just for this, and I’m wondering if Sonozaki voicing Tailmon in the reboot would let people accept her as a replacement without much fighting).
Nevertheless, I think Kizuna’s staff has proven more than well enough that they understand the essence of 02 and its characters, so, again, regardless of how it turns out, I at least expect that this can be made with some degree of conscientiousness, and at this point, that’s all I can ask for. I don’t think it’s fair to expect or want this movie to be the second coming of 02, because, again, if we wanted that, I think it’d be better for us to all go back and watch that lovely little 50-episode anime called Digimon Adventure 02. But in terms of being something that can add a little nice thing to the mix, I think, so far, this movie at least has positive signs of turning out that way -- and, remember, think about what I just said about initially being very against this idea; as a diehard 02 fan who has a lot of very picky feelings about how to best represent it, it took a lot for the staff to earn my trust in this sense.
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Is harassment and abuse in sport an issue which is still not taken seriously ?
Harassment and abuse are considered to be serious violations of human rights. In sport, it is the women athletes who are more frequently subject to harassment and abuse on a regular basis, more than their male counterparts. Many of these athletes drop out from the sport due to regular harassment and abuse, or keep quiet out of fear.
Historical context
Harassment and abuse in sport has been prevalent since early times but only in recent decades they have been documented. For much of history this type of behaviour was viewed as normal and part of the social order with women keeping quiet about it out of fear. With the rise of feminism in the 1970’s women began to assert their rights to be free of such attention and thus the term harassment was coined. In the mid 1980’s allegations of harassment by athletes against their coaches became prevalent due to the increasing number of sexual relations between coaches and athletes .The media tried to bring harassment to the public’s attention and also the movement which pushed for equal rights for women contributed to the issue being widely recognised.
Lack of clarity on defining sexual abuse and harassment
Harassment and abuse are two distinct concepts yet related in a way. Sexual harassment is often defined as unwanted sexual attention and advances in a relationship where there is unequal power. This may include: threats, jokes, taunts, bullying, physical contact, intimidating sexual remarks and so on.
In terms of sexual abuse, it usually occurs over a period of time often associated with a concept known as grooming. In 2001 Bringer and colleagues stated that grooming is a tool used by abusers in order to get into a position of trust and there on carry out the abuse .This may include exchange of rewards for sexual favours, forced sexual activity, violence, and incest.
It is important to note that there are no clear definitions of the above and resultantly the lack of conceptual precision may be used by the perpetrators to get away with the act.
Harassment of female runners
Relatively little has been written about community athletes like public runners. Studies focusing on runner harassment have gained popularity only in recent times. However, evidence suggests such behaviours have been prevalent for a long time. These include: vehicle-honks, verbal abuse, unwelcome invitations, and catcalls. Objects may be flung from cars such as coins, food, cans, and people spitting. Women joggers occupy a special category of potential victim. In a recent survey conducted 46.5% women reported they experience harassment on the run and just 9.2% when compared to men. In most of the cases the harassment reported was not considered a threat to life but was certainly frightening.
Below are accounts of harassment faced by two female runners collected by scholar Debra Gimlin:
(36-year-old runner during the interview)
’’I often wonder what they’re trying to do. Do they think by calling me fat cow, saying things like run faster yeh fat cow, they’re going to make me feel bad about myself? I mean, come up with something original…. Or at least more accurate! I’m 5’6’’ and weigh eight-and-a-half stone!“
In her internet blog, another woman describes her experiences:
“[Running] down to the Esplanade by myself often feels intimidating and demeaning. Day-laborers are yelling things at me in Spanish that they think I can’t understand (but I can); guys are whistling and hooting…I don’t think men have an inkling of the special hatred that women keep in their hearts towards catcallers and sexual hecklers”.
The above two extracts illustrate how some women runners are being harassed. The first extract shows insults relating to the body and using one’s body weight as a focus for ridicule. The second extract is an example of being targeted as a woman. Both these examples portray that runner harassment of women can be shaped by ideologies of body and gender.
The reasons why women are targeted more than men is due to the body representation of women in the media.
Sexualization
This term is used when the media’s prime focus is on not on a women’s athletic abilities but rather on their bodies. A prime example of this is when the 2007 Australian women’s World Cup football team posed naked for a men’s magazine in order to promote the sport.
Ambivalence
Media focuses on a woman’s strength, skill, and achievement but also other attributes associated with femininity, sexualization and infantilization. An example of this was when newspaper journalists portrayed Olympic female athletes in contradictory ways. They described women athletes as powerful, precise, courageous, and skilful while at the same time they were seen as cute, vulnerable, juvenile, and manipulating.
Gender marking
When a women's sport event is identified as a women’s event, the equivalent male event is just an event. The FIFA World Cup for men is simply called the World Cup, while the women’s tournament is called the Women’s World Cup.
Non-sport related aspects
The media highlight sports women's lives such as family and personal issues. As a consequence much of the emphasis is focussed on their backgrounds and appearance rather than on their performance as an athlete.
Effects of abuse and harassment and why it is not reported
The effects of abuse and harassment can have devastating effects on a person. Suicide, depression anxiety, and self-harm are some of the common effects and it also compromises one’s right to enjoy sport. There are many physical and psychological consequences which may have long-term effects and some of which athletes may never recover from.
Some of the reasons why harassment is not reported is due to the fear of one’s career being jeopardised. More often than not athletes have a relationship with the perpetrator and due to a lack of awareness do not bring it up. Major sport authorities and organisations refuse to take up the issue as the harassers include individuals in senior positions and would damage the reputation of their organisation.
Responses and Challenges
In order for the harassers to be caught and punished, more athletes have to speak up without fear and athletes have to be better informed on the ways harassers can take advantage of them. Sporting bodies and organisations also have to take effort to shine a light on the issue rather than just suppress it in order to save their reputation. In addition, they must have adequate means in place to protect athletes. Another major challenge regarding this issue is that there is not a standard definition of abuse and harassment and different countries and organisations define these terms in different ways. Another challenge is to conduct more research in this area as not many organisations would grant access to researchers thus limiting collecting data in this sensitive area.
In conclusion, harassment and abuse in sport is an issue which occurs today. Isn’t it time that more action is taken as a whole by communities, sporting bodies and organisations rather than - to some extent - considering it to be normal?
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References:
Brackenridge, C. (1997). HE OWNED ME BASICALLY...' Women's Experience of Sexual Abuse in Sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 32(2), 115-130.
Bringer, J. D., Brackenridge, C. H., & Johnston, L. H. (2001). The name of the game: a review of sexual exploitation of females in sport. Current women's health reports, 1(3), 225-231.
Creedon, P. J. (Ed.). (1994). Women, media, and sport. Sage.
Gimlin, D. (2010). Uncivil attention and the public runner. Sociology of Sport Journal, 27(3), 268-284.
Volkwein-Caplan, K. A., & Sankaran, G. (2002). Sexual harassment in sport: Impact, issues, and challenges (Vol. 1). Meyer & Meyer Verlag.
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A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel
"Maybe she wants to remind me that she's the one in control, that as long as I'm in this room, the truth is whatever she decides it is."
Year Read: 2018
Rating: 3/5
Context: I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Sourcebooks Fire. Trigger warnings: mental illness, severe injury, eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia.
About: When Hannah's best friend and roommate falls out a window during a game of Truth or Dare and suffers life-threatening injuries, Hannah is surprised to find that Agnes's parents blame her. She doesn't argue when a judge sends her to an institution for a mental evaluation. Hannah knows this has all been a big mistake, and as long as she proves that she's not dangerous to herself or anyone else, she'll be out in time to begin her senior year at school. Her new roommate, Lucy, is a dancer, and Hannah decides to befriend her to help prove her innocence. But Lucy has her own demons, and Hannah's memory of that night may not be as reliable as she thinks.
Thoughts: It took me a while to adjust to Sheinmel's writing style. Not being familiar with her other books, I'm not sure whether it's her usual style or Hannah's narrative voice, but it's rambling and repetitive. (Far too many repetitions of the phrases "Light as a feather, stiff as a board" and "a danger to herself and others". I started skipping over them at some point.) There isn't a lot of substance to it, and it's full of pointless details and Hannah's meaningless speculation on aspects of the hospital, staff, and patients. Nothing much happens in the first half of the book; there aren't a lot of other characters, so it's just Hannah's inner monologue going full speed without really getting anywhere.
Hannah isn't a very likable character. She arrogantly believes she's always the smartest person in the room, and she doesn't see a problem with using her intellect to manipulate people. In fact, the descriptions of her numerous best friends seem to imply that she chooses girls with low popularity or self-esteem and shapes them into more appropriate friend material. She calls it helping, but it sounds a lot like self-aggrandizing manipulation. Her relationship with her parents is complicated and borderline neglectful, but all we really know about them is what Hannah tells us. Her relationship with Lucy isn't as fleshed out as I was hoping for, and most of the other characters are shadows in Hannah's personal drama. She's also a textbook unreliable narrator, since she openly lies about some of those pointless details and misremembers others that aren't as pointless.
I have mixed feelings about this book, but I think my doubts are more about the psychological thriller genre as a whole than this book in particular. I'm wondering whether books that rely on a character's mental health for "thrills" are inherently ableist and perpetuating stereotypes that people with mental illnesses are dangerous. In that respect, A Danger to Herself and Others may have a few problems. Hannah's mental health is used as a major plot twist, so much that it edges into shock value territory, and the possibility that she may have pushed Agnes out the window somewhat feeds into that stereotype of danger. Much as the author's note claims that this is not meant to be an accurate picture of mental illness or institutionalization, the representation still matters. I'm not the best person to decide whether it's offensive; just know that there may be some issues going into it.
However, it isn't all bad. From my limited perspective, it isn't even mostly bad. Hannah receives treatment for her illness, which is already an important step. She has talk therapy sessions and takes medication. Her struggle with accepting her diagnosis is well-developed and far from complete by the time the novel is over. The book makes it very clear that her illness is lifelong, and she will have to continue to manage it--but also that it can be managed without sacrificing the rest of her life. There's some effort toward the end to convince readers that patients with Hannah's diagnosis are far more likely to hurt themselves than other people (and, in the author's note, that they're even more likely to be hurt by other people). I found the second half of the book more engaging, since it deals openly and in depth with these issues. The biggest problem for me is that the two halves of the novel seem to be at odds with each other. It can’t seem to decide whether it’s a thriller or a story about mental illness, and it doesn’t really do justice to either side.
#book review#a danger to herself and others#alyssa sheinmel#sourcebooks fire#psychological thriller#ya thriller#3/5#rating: 3/5#2018#tw: mental illness#tw: mental health#tw: mental disorder#tw: injury#tw: severe injury#tw: eating disorders#tw: anorexia#tw: bulimia
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My Top 10 Books of All Time, and Why You Need to Read Them
In my first article for Her Culture, I thought it would be fitting to write about books that have changed my life and shaped my world views in one way or another. My mom was a journalism major, so I guess I could say I got my love of reading from her. She used to read to me every night as a kid and imparted the importance of good literature to me. As a sociology major currently, these were very formative books in my adolescence that not only challenged certain misconceptions about the world, but allowed me to think in a more macroscopic way by reading different perspectives and experiences as well. I put my favorite quote from each book, if it had one, underneath each title—hopefully those will be enough to give you the general gist of each book. These aren’t listed in any particular order, but they are all relatively equally important to me, and it was incredibly hard to narrow it down (stay tuned for honorable mentions at the end):
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
When I think of this book, I have so many fond and nostalgic memories of adolescence. Even though it was not too long ago, I think this book was really my turning point to begin truly questioning the social facts that govern our society. Although the novel is relatively short, the story holds a much-needed allegory for some of the major plights of Western society: elitism, greed, class, consumerism, etc. I would call this book a buffet of sorts; I say this to mean you can take a plethora of different meanings from Fitzgerald’s relatively straightforward tale. Moreover, I recently learned that Fitzgerald was an Irish immigrant, so the concept of Gatsby’s relentless pursuit to be from East Egg is similar to his own trials and tribulations of fitting into American society—and invariably, not being able to in the end. I really love the imagery and the language in this book as well; essentially, Fitzgerald paints an exquisite portrait of the problem of the consumerist God we worship in America. My favorite imagery in the book is probably the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckelburg; that’s one of my favorite images ever in literature, actually.
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
“Fear no more the heat of the sun”
This book reminds me of the conversations I’d have with my best friend in high school every day after AP Literature. We’d get coffee and drive around and talk about the various existential topics the book discusses. The book takes place over the course of 24 hours, it essentially covers a middle-aged woman’s retrospective meditation of her life and past decisions as she prepares to throw a party. Although it seems like a simple plot, it delves into ideas about purpose, free will, and even the profound effect strangers can have on your life. I loved the interpolation of other people’s narratives into the story as well; it made the story richer than just Mrs. Dalloway’s narration. Furthermore, I like the stream of consciousness style that you don’t see in many critically acclaimed works, but it makes it feel all the more intimate. Not only do you feel for Mrs. Dalloway, Septimus, and others, but the power of this style of writing makes it seem like you are in that character’s predicament. It reminds me not only of the fragility of life itself, but of the gravity of what you would consider menial everyday interactions can have—the butterfly effect.
Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison
“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”
My mother is specifically to thank for reading this book. She suggested it to me the summer before senior year, and since summer had always been my prime reading time in high school, I read it. Toni Morrison is one of the best writers of the century, without a doubt, and this book is all the proof you need to believe this claim. She created an intricate masterpiece, intertwining various double-entendres—especially with the names of characters, time periods, storylines, and more. Her language is vivid, and every word is meaningful; she has no fillers. Every aspect of the story adds to the jigsaw puzzle that is solved at the end of the book. I’d hate to give any of the plot away, but one of the characters is named Guitar because he’s instrumental to the development of the protagonist, but that’s just one example of her mastery. It explores race, ancestry, colorism, and the power of self as well. This is one of my top favorites of all time, and if I were to order them, this one would without a doubt be close to the top.
Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keys
“I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone.”
When I first read this book, I was relatively young, but it still had a profound impact. I think it challenged me to think about the power of sentience and that it’s one of the many things we take for granted. It reminds me a bit of some themes in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (an honorable mention), but in my opinion, it’s less cliché in a way. Although it’s technically supposed to be a young adult novel, I would say it has a lot of adult themes, so it was a good stepping stone into adult tragedy. Charly’s connection to Algernon is one of the most poignant relationships in literature, and I do feel like this book gets overlooked frequently when we discuss the greats. On another note, it also caused me to evaluate the power of interactions and relationships with others, as humans are innately relational; this book does a fantastic job of capturing that aspect of life.
Jazzy Miz Mozetta – Brenda C. Roberts
“Okay, young cats, let the beat hit your feet.”
This is the only children’s book in my top 10, but for a good reason. This is another book my mother introduced, but way earlier than the others she suggested, as she would read it to me at night. She’d read it probably 3-5 times a week because this was one of my favorite ones. When I see this book, I have so many fond memories of my mother tucking me in with my matching pajamas and warm milk at night. To this day, I appreciate this book as one of the most incredible children’s books of all time. Roberts’ incredible vision of music, color, and sound made me proud to be black at such a young age, in a world that doesn’t want you to feel comfortable in your own skin. Moreover, you don’t see many children’s books with black protagonists, and this was such a fantastic representation. Especially because I also love music, she did such a good job of creating that through the illustrations. It emphasizes community, music, and living life to the fullest.
Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
“Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of an unlived life. You don't have to live forever, you just have to live.”
Tuck Everlasting was one of the first books that really caused me to examine mortality in a secular sense. I went to church school once a week as a kid, and that was the only space where we discussed life and death in that way, so this was an important introduction to the concept of death altogether, in a sense. We’ve all heard about the fountain of youth at one point or another in our lives, and this novel explores that idea essentially. I also really like the tension between immortality and a normal life, somewhat reminiscent of the Greek myth of Eurydice when Orpheus goes back to the Underworld to retrieve her. This is another book connected to my mother actually, who read it at the same time as me so I would have someone to discuss my reading with and bounce off my ideas. I think this is part of the reason this book resonated so deeply with me; I had an adult to converse complex topics of mortality with.
The Virgin Suicides
“It didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house, with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together.”
The above quote is relatively long compared to the rest, but it’s one of my favorite passages in literature. I love the effervescent, ethereal nature of this book. I almost feel nostalgic reading it, although I didn’t grow up in the 70s, but there’s somewhat of a vintage quality to it. These aspects are kind of similar to Lois Lowry’s book A Summer to Die. If you can get past the gruesome, macabre aspect of the actual storyline—young girls committing suicide—you can bask in Eugenides’ masterpiece. His syntax is honestly unmatched, as well as his symbolism. In my opinion, this is a much better version of the popular young adult novel 13 Reasons Why, as it goes into detail about what led to the suicides and you get a look inside the minds of the girls, but from an outsider perspective (as young boys are the narrators of the novel, along with an occasional third person narrator). As a male, Eugenides encapsulates not only youth but the experience of adolescence as a girl as well. The writing is just beautiful, and that’s all I can say about it. The interesting part is that although I guess this would be categorized as a tragedy and certainly has a melancholy tinge to it, you don’t finish the book feeling sad necessarily. I was unsettled, but I still wouldn’t consider it a tragedy per se. Eugenides’ genre-defying classic is one that needs to be acknowledged as the phenomenal work that it is. To this day, I don’t know if I’ve read a book like this one, in the best way possible.
Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
The way this book was introduced to me was as a book “about World War II and aliens,” and that is basically the most accurate summary I’ve ever read. It’s hard to say exactly what the premise of this book is because it really is about a wide array of topics, but it’s all connected, and it makes sense when you read it. It had a huge impact on me because I’ve never read a book as non-traditional as this one. I appreciate Vonnegut because he doesn’t subscribe to anyone’s rules—another genre-bender, one could say. It would be diminishing to this work to say that it’s about existentialism, but it is in a sense. The Tralfamadorians (the aliens in the novel), teach Billy how to look at his life macroscopically, and also about the deceptive nature of time. In Vonnegut’s words, “so it goes.”
Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
“Beauty lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.”
I can’t lie, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this book when I started it because I wasn’t sure where it was going. It has a Pride and Prejudice nature to it at the beginning before you delve into the plot that makes it seem sort of outdated, and although it is a timepiece technically, the actual message of the novel is timeless. There’s a lot more than meets the surface in this novel, and the imagery is also incredible. Hardy’s message is essentially about “crass casualty and dicing time” which is basically the notion that random things happen to us at random times and there’s nothing we can do about it. This also counters the notion of free will which is an interesting stance especially for the time this book was written. In fact, when this book was first published it was banned because of the depiction of rape and of secularism as well. At the time it was written (The Scarlet Letter era), the woman was the party at fault if she was raped, so it was met with generally negative feedback at first. Once I finished the book, I was a huge fan just because Hardy went against all norms to write such a tale. I specifically like the idea that Tess essentially saves herself in every scenario in the novel; Hardy knew even in 1891 that she didn’t need a man to save her.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Díaz
“Each morning, before Jackie started her studies, she wrote on a clean piece of paper: Tarde venientibus ossa. To the latecomers are left the bones.”
This book needs to be regarded as one of the best ones of our generation, as well as Junot Díaz as an author. Not only is this book timely, but it is also timeless. I really liked the integration of the actual history of the Dominican Republic into the novel, and also the acknowledgment of the intersection of race, language, history, and culture as the book is written in Spanglish. We don’t read many books in school or any books that garner any major media attention about Afro-Latino comic book nerds and their histories, so it’s important for a number of reasons. Díaz takes us on a long, vibrant journey through many genres, full of culture, and unrefined.
These are my top 10 books, at least as of right now, as the more books I read, the more the list changes. However, many of these will always remain at the top as classics to me. These are all must-reads not just because of how significant they were to me, but because of their respective contributions to literature. Outside of the fact that a few of them aren’t even categorizable into a genre, these books were truly eye-opening and formative for me. If you like to conceptualize the world and read about various topics from free will to mortality, I would highly consider reading at least a few of these, if not all.
Separately, I would like to think of this list as an ode to my childhood, and even more to my mother. She gave me this passion and this insatiable love of literature, so I truly thank her for taking the time to read to me, with me, and even for her suggestions. I can’t thank her enough.
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Have you talked much about Valse Triste? Could be fun to go back to their first senior fd!
Ok… let’s do this *cracks knuckles* *plays vm spotify playlist*
Hi anon! I mean I’ve mentioned Valse Triste I think...? But never have I ranted about it in great detail, so... um yeah... I guess I’ll do that now.
Overall thoughts:
I think as a whole Valse Triste was super fitting to who Tessa and Scott were as skaters at the time. The music had both a sense of levity and of maturity that matched the situation of being a couple of kids thrown into a competition with a whole bunch of seasoned ice dancers. I guess the main thing that stood out to me as they performed was- to steal one of the commentators’ phrasing- how automatic they look. Even after skating together for only ten years (I know, it’s such a short amount of time), they fall into hold together so easily, they always know where the other is on the ice. Moreover, they look so prepared, they go through all the elements so smoothly and precisely as if they never have to even think about what’s coming next.
They look like they have something to prove.
So I love Valse Triste, it’s probably one of my favorite programs of theirs (that’s a lie, they’re all my favorites). I guess I see it as almost a pre-cursor to Mahler. It has the same sort of mood that I can’t quite find the words for right now... a brightness and joyfulness but with the faintest undertones of melancholy (damn, I sound like a pretentious asshole).
It’s almost like with Mahler they’re just a couple of kids dancing, showing the world what they’ve got; while with Valse Triste they’re just a couple of kids dancing, showing the world that they have something to give.
Initial notes on the limitations of my analysis:
Normally I like to give my overall thoughts (see above) at the end of these nonsensical rants, but this got insanely long and in depth (and illustrated) so I’m adding a break.
ALSO, normally when I’m doing analyses it’s from a specific competition and I’m comparing vm’s scores to another team, however, with this one, I’m not really out here arguing that Tessa and Scott were lowballed, so more than anything, I’m comparing them to themselves at present. I’m not saying that they were better or worse at any given time (although obviously Valse Triste was more than ten years ago, so they did make a lot of improvements from them until 2018...)
And, as always, I am no ice dance expert so everything that I say may or may not be complete and utter bullshit.
Oh, one last thing! I get super in depth about the program and all its elements yadda yadda, but then I have a blurb about why IJS isn’t that great of a judging system at the end so that might be worth while to read even if you don’t care about the rest of my rambling soooo yeah...
Ok hi! Hope you’re doing well!
Anywho, here’s the video that I watched. I used Worlds because, in theory, that should be their best skate / the best representation of the program as a whole.
Ok, so here’s the protocol:
The judging, base values, component scoring, etc. have all obviously changed quite a bit since 2007, however I’m too lazy to re-learn IJS based on the 2007 system, so we’re just going to have to make do with my knowledge of the 2018 system. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Technical Element Scores (aka me blabbering incoherently because I wrote this part after doing PCS and my brain no longer wants to be organized):
The first thing I noticed about the TES when looking at the protocol was that while vm got everything called (because they’re freaking legends. Oh my god.), they didn’t have super great GOEs. I guess this kind of makes sense, particularly in the lifts you can kind of see them setting up for them rather than letting them flow with the program.
I think to give this entire shit show of a post a bit more organization, I’m going to break each element down by type and give some quick, spur-of-the-moment, rapid-fire thoughts. Kapeesh?
Lifts:
I think it’s interesting how accurate of a representations Tessa and Scott’s lifts can be to the timeline of their career. The lifts in Valse Triste are all very low to the ground. Tessa has her head almost touching the ice in the straight-line lift, for example.
While the strength and balance needed to execute the lift are very obvious from looking at it, it’s not big or reaching outward like good ol’ cunniliftus or the curved lift from Prince and Moulin Rouge do. However, this isn’t a bad thing, it’s actually more fitting with the program and with who they were as skaters at the time. While they were spectacular ice dancers even back then, they also were just a couple of kids. Having huge lifts in this particular program probably would not only not fit musically, but also almost make it seem as if vm were trying too hard... if that makes sense? (Sorry, it sounds like I’m throwing shade, I promise I’m not, I really do like the lifts and think they’re perfect given the program).
Step Sequences:
Although this isn’t necessarily a technical attribute, I guess what stood out to me most about the step sequences were their confidence. They execute each turn so exactly, there’s no long drawn out edge going into them, every thing about the step sequences ooze self-assuredness, sort of like they’re saying “We’ve practiced this ten trillion times. We know what we’re doing. We’ve got this.”
Spin:
Honestly, I don’t have all that much to comment on this. A spin is a spin is a spin. What I notice more than the spin itself is the transition into and out of it, how quickly they execute it, and the speed with which they move out of it.
Twizzles:
Again, not much to say here... they’re twizzles... Scott does get a bit off on the second one but somehow manages to save it and come out at the same time as Tessa which is pretty amazing hehehe.
Program Component Scores:
Obviously, little baby 2007 Tessa and Scott had a bit of work to do before they became the Ultimate Ice Dancers Supreme™ that they are now, so there component scores were all in the 6-7 range (which is still pretty darn respectable), rather than maxing out in the 9-10 range like they did (crying that I have to use past-tense) in their later career.
Skating Skills:
Honestly, they’re fine? I mean yes they’re very good, but they still do have some work to do. I don’t know… they have very good edges and extensions as per usual, but they do seem to lack a bit of the up-and-down smooth knee bend movement that is super representative of Canadian skating and that they have boatloads of later on in their career. On a bit of a tangent, however, areas in which they do need to improve their skating skills almost lend themselves well to the program (the power of negative space, eh?). They add to the sense of innocence and youth of the program? As in as much as I love the Valse Triste, I think a lot of its meaning and pizzazz would not at all be fitting to a present day vm.
Linking Footwork / Movement:
So I’m going to equate this to the part of the score that’s now called “Transitions” because… yeah… I just am, I’m assuming it’s more or less the same thing. The transitions were actually one of the main things I noticed upon my re-watching of this program. I don’t want to say that their transitions were simpler than they are now, per se, as that makes it seem like they were bad back in the Valse Triste days, but they kind of were… simpler. Rather than using turns and footwork to link together elements, Valse Triste more used crossovers, mini lift-like moves (Tessa looping a leg over Scott, etc.)
and body movements to move from one element to the next. Now, in some ways, this is nice- especially as someone who is not an expert on every. single. ice. dance. element. (particularly those from 2007)- as it really accentuated … oop, writing pause, Come What May just came on and I need to take a sec to look forlornly into the distance … OK SO it really accentuated where each element ended and another began. However, if we’re thinking about flow, which is something that every program really should have, more full? (that’s a weird word, I know) transitions help the more modern vm programs to seem a lot more cohesive than much of their earlier work.
Choreography:
I know that technically on the protocol sheet, “Performance” comes before “Choreography” ties in to what I just blabbered about regarding transitions so… Ok so yeah, not going to lie to y’all, I’m not really a huge fan of Marina-esque choreography. She uses a lot of hops (brief side note: apparently vm got criticism for using hops to pick up speed, but this was literally part of the choreo. What gives?) and pauses as transitions which not only breaks up the elements and takes away from the cohesiveness of the program as a whole, but also doesn’t always make sense given programs with particularly um… ethereal… music, such as Valse Triste, or Mahler, or Seasons.
That being said, something that the choreography does do very well, is being matched appropriately with the music. Although some of this obviously plays into the “Musical Interpretation / Timing” score, the fact that specific body movements or elements were chosen to go at certain points in the program as the mood and temp of the music evolves is very telling of a well-choreographed program. A prime example of this is how the circle step sequence (starting here) is set to a much more lively piece of the music, which makes sense choreographically as they are required to complete multiple turns in quick succession.
Performance & Interpretation / Timing:
So, I’m just going to lump these two together because I’m lazy, because I can, and for reasons that I’ll explain in a hot sec. As always, I think Tessa and Scott did a stellar job of performing this program. Something that they excel at more than probably any other team ever…? is portraying characters and I think this program is a prime example of that. They make use of every body movement and ensure that everything is timed perfectly with even the smallest accent in the music.
Ok so sort of a choppy transition here, but in skating, I am kind of a huge fan of facial expressions (which doesn’t necessarily make sense, as I’m totally one of those people who will beat someone up if they say that figure skating isn’t a sport, but that’s besides the point). The video is not the best quality because like… 2007… but even without being able to see specific minute details of either of their faces, you can tell that they are emoting. For example…
…here you can sort of see their faces and what they’re doing with them which is great, obvs, but more than that you can almost tell the emotion that they are feeling / portraying from their extensions and from their overall body language / movement. They really emote through their entire beings which is a skill that many ice dance teams don’t even come close to doing.
The limitations of IJS:
That hot sec that I mentioned in why I lumped Interpretation and Performance together? That one? Yeah, that hot sec is right now.
Ok, so, one of the things I struggled with in trying to separate out each specific program component to look at is that any skating program is meant to be viewed as an entire entity. Yes, there are individual elements and individual components that all make up the program, but any skater and choreographer worth their salt (is that a saying? I don’t know) will try to add some sense of musicality and flow to a program, whether it be through having a storyline for the program or simply having certain movements that tie everything in the program up in a neat package from beginning to end.
This being the case, it’s really hard to look at a program and parse out which movements are part of choreography, what pieces are thought up by the skater themself as part of the performance, etc. So… yeah it was hard.
Another thing to note is that judging bias is a real thing. In this case I don’t think any biases necessarily came from judges being paid off or playing favorites or anything, but simply due to expectations. It’s not even anything to do with vm themselves, but with every newer senior team. First of all, when a team is placed higher in world rankings, they will skate in a later group at Worlds. This means that in the later groups there is a much higher expectation for the teams to do better and thus when a newer / lower ranked team is particularly good, the judges might be blindsided a bit and not give them that high a score simply because they did not expect that team to be good and consequentially do not see them as good (psychology, anyone?).
Another result of being in an earlier group is that the judges and tech panel aren’t going to want start right off the bat by giving all +3 GOEs and 10.00 component scores. There needs to be somewhere for the scores to go throughout the competition. So pretty much the earlier teams might be scored particularly harshly as they are pretty much setting the bar and being a baseline off of which all the other teams are going to be judged for the rest of the competition. (I mean technically, teams aren’t supposed to be compared to one another but like………)
Wow wow wow ok you made it! Yup, that was very long and probably made no sense and had like twenty different moods because I skipped around while writing it, but maybe you thought it was worth the twelve hours it took you to get through it? Probably not...
Anyway, thank you so much anon for inspiring my ranting :)
#Anonymous#anon#ask#rants and stuff#valse triste#tessa and scott#analyses#wow#I hate that I just wrote this whole thing#If I put this much effort into the rest of my life#...I could be so successful#ok#well have a nice night all!
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Roundtable Journal x Ace Hotel New York: Interview with Falana
Roundtable Journal is a print magazine, “not a blog” and a pioneering platform for radical representation. Here, Ayoade Bamgboye, the senior editor of Roundtable Journal, chats with Nigerian musician Falana about enjoying the journey, writing as self-therapy and blending imagination with sound.
Raised in Canada, but now living and creating in Nigeria, Falana cites Fela, King Sunny Ade, Sade and Maxwell, among others, as the musical minds that helped sculpt her writing style. She spent a year in Havana, performing and developing her own blend of jazz, soul, afrobeats and R&B, eventually recording her debut EP Things Fall Together. Falana is currently working on her next body of work, and we're excited to see what she has in store.
Listening to Things Fall Together felt like a compact journey through feelings of longing and nostalgia but also of loss, and finally, a reclaiming of oneself. What was it like creating this EP?
Creating that project was such an evolutionary experience for me. I was still very young and wasn’t quite sure the kind of artist I wanted to be. I never felt like that project represented my true sound, but it’s part of the journey and the story, so you have to embrace it. I guess the project is just a timestamp of where I was at that point in my life. I was trying to reconcile some broken relationships and prove to myself that music is exactly what I needed to be doing. The project is always a great reminder that no matter how unclear the journey is or how far I feel from my centre, all I need to do is start again, keep moving and things will fall together.
What are some of the main themes and emotions you hope to address or convey through your music?
I write a lot about perseverance in pursuing dreams and love. I write about hope and faith. Someone once said I write my songs as if I am writing prayers. Writing music is a form of self-therapy for me and so is prayer, so I can totally see why they would make that connection. But as an artist, you find that as you grow, the emotions and themes of your music will grow too.
How would you describe your next project?
I think my next project is going to represent the true reintroduction to Falana. I’m very excited because I was able to give birth to a sound that I think accurately reflects the artist I want to be. I wrote and produced every song on the project and worked with some amazing folks to take some of the tracks to the next level. My music will always be a blend of my imagination and all the sounds, and experiences (both musical and personal) that I’ve have had in my life. I grew up listening to King Sunny Ade, Yinka Ayefele, and Fela Kuti — my parents were fans — and the Lijadu Sisters, experimental highlife music. But I listened to a lot of soul sounds growing up too. Women like Etta James, Lauryn Hill, Sade and Erykah Badu. I also love jazz and absolutely adore playing around with percussion and rhythm. All these influences have really come together uniquely on this project. It feels great to be in the final stages. I’m really excited.
What is the most difficult aspect of your creative process and how has that process evolved over time?
Patience is something I struggle with when I’m writing and recording. I always need to remind myself that where you start — and where you are now — is not necessarily where you’re going to end up. The creative process is exactly that: a process. Sometimes it takes 10 drafts, 10 different versions and 15 retakes to get it to exactly what it’s supposed to be. I sometimes forget to enjoy the journey because the process can be so long. But regardless, I love it, and I love what I do!
Photographer: Christina Ebenezer
Styling: Oliva Akot
Cream Pleat Shirt by Sophia Mingoia
Beige Wide Leg Trousers by John Lawrence Sullivan SS18
Pink Satin Top and Trousers by Fuchsia Shaw
#Christina Ebenezer#Oliva Akot#Sophia Mingoia#John Lawrence Sullivan#Fuchsia Shaw#roundtable#interview#nyc#falana#yes#ace new york#roundtable journal
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Professional Logo Design in Mohali | Zirakpur & Chandigarh - Pacewalk
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Why Self-Awareness Isn’t Doing More to Help Women’s Careers
New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/why-self-awareness-isnt-doing-more-to-help-womens-careers/
Why Self-Awareness Isn’t Doing More to Help Women’s Careers
Executive Summary
Self-awareness is the foundational leadership skill of the 21st century. Leaders who know who they are, and how they’re seen by others, are more effective, confident, respected, and promotable. Research has shown that women possess a slight self-awareness advantage over men. One study found women’s self-ratings of self-awareness were slightly (though not dramatically) higher than men’s. Other research has shown that women are rated slightly higher in self-awareness by direct reports, as well as managers and peers. Women are also better able to recognize the importance of self-awareness for their career success and advancement.
Despite these advantages, women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership roles and are paid less than men. While gender inequity has wide-ranging causes, focusing on the role that self-awareness plays can give women, and those who champion them, tools to address some of these disparities. Three lessons from the self-awareness literature might help: 1) women underestimate themselves, but not in the way most people believe; 2) women aren’t getting good feedback; 3) women tend to take feedback to heart.
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Self-awareness is the foundational leadership skill of the 21st century. Leaders who know who they are, and how they’re seen by others, are more effective, confident, respected, and promotable.
When I speak to business leaders about our five-plus year research program on self-awareness, one of the most common questions I get is whether we’ve found any gender differences.
First, the data: research has shown that women possess a slight self-awareness advantage over men. In one survey study of 275 people, we’ve found that women’s self-ratings of self-awareness are slightly (though not dramatically) higher than men’s. Other research has shown that women are rated slightly higher in self-awareness by direct reports, as well as managers and peers. Women are also better able to recognize the importance of self-awareness for their career success and advancement.
But despite these advantages, women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership roles and are paid less than men. While gender inequity has wide-ranging causes, focusing on the role that self-awareness plays can give women, and those who champion them, tools to address some of these disparities.
So why aren’t women’s self-awareness advantages translating into better representation in senior leadership roles? Are there any lessons from the self-awareness literature that could help explain this persistent gap? And what can be done do to close it?
Lesson 1: Women underestimate themselves, but not in the way most people believe
It is often said that women are less self-confident than men — yet surprisingly, current findings do not support this idea. Though past researchers have documented differences in self-confidence between girls and boys, this gap shrinks dramatically by age 23. And where past research revealed gender differences in self-ratings of managerial effectiveness, more recent studies have shown that male and female leaders rate themselves similarly. As Sarah Green Carmichael aptly states, “Again and again, when we look at adult women, we don’t see a bunch of shrinking violets who could get ahead with just a little more moxie.”
Yet even though the average woman isn’t underestimating herself as a leader, she has a slightly more nuanced challenge: she may lack the confidence that others value her contributions. In one study, women and men’s self-ratings of emotional intelligence (EQ; a key leadership skill) did not differ. Yet when asked to predict how their supervisor would rate their EQ, women’s predictions were three times lower than men’s, despite being rated slightly higher by their boss than men were.
Why do women underestimate their true value? Researchers have suggested that persistent stereotypes about leadership being a male characteristic (whether implicit or explicit) can lead women to worry that they are validating negative stereotypes, which would cause coworkers to see them as less effective than they see themselves.
The ability to correctly predict how others see us, often called meta-perception, is an important aspect of self-awareness. And indeed, when women underestimate how others view their contributions, they may unintentionally hold themselves back. If a female leader believes that others don’t value her, she could be more cautious about applying for a job, putting herself forward for a promotion, or asking for a raise.
Therefore, to advance and thrive, women need to gain a more accurate picture of their contributions through the eyes of others. One approach for comparing our predictions with reality is the reflected best self-exercise (RBS). I often use the RBS with my executive coaching clients, and it is a powerful vehicle to discover our defining strengths as others see them.
A leader wishing to complete the RBS would identify at least eight people from different parts of her life — current or former colleagues, employees, supervisor, friends, family, etc. — and send them an email asking when they have seen her at her best, including a few specific examples. Once she receives the responses, she would review them to identify key themes and patterns. Finally, she would compose a self-portrait of who she is at her best through the eyes of others.
It is vital for women leaders to understand what others see as their defining strengths and contributions. It requires a bit of effort and an open mind, but in so doing, we can begin to remove any self-imposed constraints preventing us from putting ourselves forward for bigger, better opportunities.
Lesson 2: Women aren’t getting good feedback
Feedback is essential for a leader to understand her contributions, as well as the adjustments she can make to be more effective. And even though women ask for feedback as often as men, they are less likely to get it.
In my latest book, I tell the story of a client, Eleanor, who was leading a bid for a large water infrastructure program. When her team lost to a competitor, she asked for feedback from a colleague, Phil, to understand her role in the outcome. “You were there during my final presentation,” she began, “Did I do anything that could have cost us the work?” Phil replied, “No! Not at all! You did a great job!” Now Eleanor was even more confused.
A few days later, a colleague called to express his condolences. “It’s so frustrating!” Eleanor lamented, “I can’t figure out what happened! I know it wasn’t my presentation.” “Really?” he said, “That’s not what Phil told me. He said it was horrible!” Eleanor was dumbfounded. She’d gone out of her way to learn what she could have done better, and her colleague had out-and-out lied to her.
Giving honest feedback is notoriously difficult. It can become even more difficult when it crosses gender lines. Researchers have coined the phrase “benevolent sexism” to refer to behaviors that shield women from difficult information. In a work context, male bosses or colleagues may avoid giving women negative feedback because they don’t want to hurt or upset them.
When women do receive feedback, it’s typically less specific than feedback given to men. This has profound consequences: studies have shown that when women receive vague feedback, they’re more likely to be assigned lower performance ratings. Vague negative feedback tells a leader that her performance isn’t meeting expectations, but because it doesn’t identify the behaviors that aren’t serving her, she doesn’t know what to do differently.
A lack of specific positive feedback also puts leaders at a disadvantage. It suggests that she is doing well, but because it doesn’t point to the actions or results that are valued, she doesn’t know what to continue doing. And if she doesn’t have detailed, documented achievements, it’s more difficult to make the case for a promotion or raise. When women can solicit and record specific positive feedback, this has been shown to effectively eliminate men’s overrepresentation in top performance categories.
The question then becomes: how can women obtain more detailed feedback? In our research with highly self-aware men and women, we discovered an interesting pattern in how they got feedback: they turned to a relatively small circle, typically between three and five people, all of whom had an active interest in their success and a history of truth telling when it was difficult (for instance, Eleanor’s honest colleague would be a great candidate, whereas Phil surely wouldn’t make the cut).
When women leaders can identify and confer with such loving critics, they can ensure they get the feedback they need. You can formalize the arrangement in whatever way makes sense. One of my executive coaching clients likes to share the behaviors she is working on, then takes each of her loving critics to lunch bi-monthly to get their feedback. Another has a slightly less formal arrangement: after a meeting with one of her loving critics, she asks for a two-minute feedback download.
When it comes to the feedback conversations themselves, if they’re imperfect at first, it doesn’t mean they won’t be valuable. Business school professor Elle Bell Smith suggests that if feedback isn’t specific enough, women should ask follow-up questions like, “Can you give me an example [of] when I did that?” “What was the impact you saw [of that behavior]?” or “How often have you seen me doing this?”
Lesson 3: Women tend to take feedback to heart
Of course, no one should take every piece of feedback at face value, nor should they over-rely on others’ views to construct their self-concept. In general, there are three types of information we use to form a picture of who we are: how we see ourselves, how others see us, and comparisons we make with others. While men place more importance on their self-views and social comparisons, women tend to be more focused on how others see them. What’s more, even though men and women possess similar views of their performance in the absence of feedback, women are more likely than men to modify their self-views in the presence of it.
Granted, it isn’t adaptive to ignore feedback from others, but by that same token, it can be just as dangerous to discount our self-views. Placing greater importance on others’ evaluations of our performance can cause us to ignore our own standards and goals, which could make our behavior less consistent with our values. When we become over-reliant on others’ approval, we may ruminate more on our fears, shortcomings, and insecurities. (And yes, women do tend to ruminate more than men.).
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that intelligence is “the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Self-awareness is a bit like that. It isn’t one truth — it’s a complex interweaving of how we see ourselves and how others see us. In fact these two perspectives have been shown to capture different aspects of who we are. For instance, we usually understand our motives better than others, but others typically see our behavior more clearly than we do. So even though we should take others’ opinions seriously, they also shouldn’t define us or completely override our self-image.
To overcome the tendency to rely too heavily on others’ views, women can work to further develop their own picture of who they are. What are the principles by which they want to live their life? What are their greatest aspirations? What types of projects give them the most energy? No matter what form this work takes (journaling, mindfulness, conversations with loved ones, etc.), it’s important to prioritize it just as much as feedback from others. (If you want to assess the strength of your self-views — and see how they compare to others — you can take our free quiz.)
Women leaders can often benefit from an extra dose of self-reliance, especially when others can’t yet see what we’re capable of. So if, for example, you receive negative feedback from your boss on something you think you could excel at, don’t give up right away — think about what it would take to show them otherwise. As Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor once said, “In every position that I’ve been in, there have been naysayers who don’t believe…I can do the work. And I feel a special responsibility to prove them wrong.” Indeed, it never hurts for us to do just that.
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About Mor
The most interesting line to me about Mor in ACOMAF was when they encountered Jurian and he said to Mor, “‘Liar...You were always such a liar, Morrigan.’“ While at the time, Jurian was the enemy, I thought the line was important. Morrigan was supposed to have the “gift of truth,” so why would Jurian - someone with whom they fought during the war - say she was “always” a liar? It seemed ironic, and irony in SJM books is almost always important.
It was clear Mor was hiding something throughout ACOMAF, with her various disappearances, snapping at Cassian if he asked where she was, refusing to tell Azriel as well. Spending all night out “drinking” but being fresh as a daisy in the morning. I suspected she was betraying the Inner Circle, and to some degree I was right: while she wasn’t betraying them to Hybern, she was still lying to them.
I know many people are upset with how she was portrayed in ACOWAR and feel it came out of left field, but personally I disagree. SJM laid a very careful trail that Mor was hiding something and was going behind the backs of the others. Some feel that it was not an accurate representation of LGBTQ+, and I will not comment on that as it’s not my place. However, as someone who is 15-20 years older than most people in this fandom, I will say that her experience does fall into a pattern of some of the people I’ve known in my life.
In my lifetime, I’ve been fortunate to witness a drastic increase in acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. When I was a teenager, the concept of gay marriage being legal was unbelievably foreign. Through high school and college, gay and trans kids getting beaten - even to death - was not uncommon. I was a senior in high school the first time a same-sex couple went to prom in my area, and it made the newspaper (and not in a good way). After I graduated, my now-husband and I marched in our state Capitol and we went door to door in support of marriage equality, and we held off on getting married until civil unions were legal in our state (one of the earliest to adopt them and then a couple years later, true marriage equality). I know many people who remained in the closet until they were older because of fear of their families, fear of persecution in their neighborhoods, fear of losing their jobs. They married members of the opposite sex and had children and did all of the things Mor was pressured to do, all while hiding their true selves. Eventually many of them came out, divorced their spouses, and found their true partners. Some remain in the closet.
I’m telling this story because to me, Mor’s confession to Feyre rang true as that of some of my friends who realized who they were in a time and place where that particular trait could make their lives miserable or even dangerous. They didn’t have to worry about being sold in marriage, or tied down and forced to submit for the sake of an alliance, but that pressure to “breed their bloodlines,” the idea that they would be selfish not to, was high. And many of them succumbed. Mor is afraid of this deepest, most intimate part of herself being shamed by her family. This is why, after hundreds of years, she dreads going back to the Court of Nightmares. Even Rhys commented that it’s been long enough Mor should’ve gotten over it, but she hasn’t - because she hasn’t faced the source of her fear. Not that they abused her, half-killed her, and nailed a note to her body - but that they would find out her true self and demean it.
Velaris is a safe place for her - the real reason she was so upset about Rhys allowing Keir to enter it. It’s her one safe place. But of course Rhys couldn’t know _how_ important it was because she has never been honest with him. However, I do not for one second believe the Inner Circle is entirely naive. Amren advised Feyre that “’There are some truths that even Morrigan has not herself faced.’” And while we all feel sorry for Azriel, do we honestly believe he doesn’t know? With his shadows and his own disappearances? Do we really believe that Nuala and Cerridwen don’t know, and wouldn’t have told Az? I would bet Cassian suspects, and it’s only Rhys who is truly naive. Rhys, who is connected with the Court of Nightmares, who loves Mor and believes in equality but who is still so interconnected with her family. Who will make his own decisions about what’s best for his Court without necessarily taking into account the needs of the individuals around him (except Feyre).
Was Mor cruel to Az? Yes and no. Only in that she should know she could trust him and new she was confusing him by sleeping with men openly. But she was afraid, for excellent reason, and traumatized, and then it was just beyond awkward. People complain that this was poorly written, and I would love to know why. SJM had laid the foundation of Mor’s secret in ACOMAF; had outed her as a liar at a fundamental level; had dropped hints she did not return Az’s feelings (remember her surprise and then guarded behavior when Feyre asked her if she’d ever slept with him); and then Mor confessed a totally realistic and understandable fear that she had not yet overcome. Remember, we’re reading from Feyre’s perspective. She didn’t see it, so neither did we. Doesn’t mean it was out of character or unrealistic.
Thoughts?
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Young Adult Lit
by Savannah Lynn
I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. I used to defend myself when caught on my university campus with a book marketed to teenagers propped in my lap, but honestly, who has the energy? So I’ll just say it straight-out: I love young adult novels. There really is nothing like them. Lovely prosey stories wrapped up in delightful, charming youthfulness are just what the soul needs after going cross-eyed picking apart gender theory. I spend most of my days during the school year doing exactly that, as I am studying gender, sexuality, and feminist studies.
The genre could do with a good dose of feminist scholarship, though. Too often I crack open the pages of the new teen bestseller to find a girl (usually white), torn between two guys (usually also white) while maybe also surviving in a dystopic future. Fiction has a huge capacity to influence the way our brains develop and the social schemas that we internalize. The Atlantic published an intriguing article in 2012 tracking the lily-white world of YA novels, and the message it sends to our youth of color. Teens of color, immigrant teens, and LGBTQI+ teens are all being told that their stories aren’t worthy of others’ time and energy. What does that do to a kiddo’s self-esteem? Young adulthood is already a trying enough time without systemic discrimination being piled on top.
So below, find (in no particular order) a few of my refreshing feminist faves. All of these books delve into aspects of teen and young adult life that stray from the mainstream; they offer the charm of YA style without relying on antiquated tropes. None of these are without flaws. It is my hope, however, that works like these have begun to push the boundaries of what YA lit can look like. Its audience is far more diverse than what is currently being published; maybe someday, the books that are published will actually be representational of the folks who are consuming it.
1. Does My Head Look Big In This?, by Randa Abdel-Fattah
A delightful slice of life, Abdel-Fattah’s debut novel introduces us to Amal, a sixteen-year-old girl dealing with typical sixteen-year-old problems, who has recently decided to wear hijab full-time. Amal’s story offers us a heartwarming and complex portrayal of this piece of her spiritual and emotional journey. The novel subverts and openly defies Islamophobic tropes at every opportunity; Amal shuts down misconceptions from her classmates and principle about her faith, but by no means is emotionally unaffected by the conversations. Centering a Muslim family and their social network, this novel wonderfully portrays the diversity within the Muslim faith that most contemporary works collapse into flat stereotype.
2. Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel, by Sara Farizan
How did I live so long without awkward, nerdy, sapphic protagonist Leila in my life? Nudged towards dealing with some big identity questions when beautiful new girl Saskia arrives in town, our hero just wants to get through high school alive. Whether the reader is queer or not, Leila’s fear of disappointing her parents and her realizations that her classmates are more complex than previously imagined is certainly something anyone who has been through high school can relate to. After reading many books that dealt either with sexual identity or ethnic identity, I found it refreshing to see them integrated here in a way that feels natural and intersectional. feels way more realistic to see characters like Leila with such multifaceted experiences.
3. If I Was Your Girl, by Meredith Russo
If I Was Your Girl is a complex little novel despite the deceptive simplicity of its plotline. It simultaneously subverts and confirms the “mainstream” narrative of what it’s like to be a young transgender woman. The book opens with Amanda Hardy, eighteen, starting a new school after having gone through the laundry list of available gender confirmation procedures. I have always been frustrated with books, especially YA, that focuses the trans experience on what it’s like to experience dysphoria transition (i.e. get hormones and surgeries); not every transgender person chooses to go through medical processes, and not every transgender person is dysphoric about their bodies. With all of that behind Amanda, the book avoids ogling a young girl’s medical procedures. Nevertheless, we purport the mainstream narrative of a transition being binary and completed with genital surgery. Everything clicked into place for me when I read Russo’s afternotes. She addresses one letter to her cisgender readers, and one to her transgender readers, acknowledging the difference of the contexts in which people might be consuming her book. For the cis reader, this book is a boiled-down introduction to what a transgender person’s youth might look like; good for those who might want to learn more about transgender identities! For the trans reader, she offers affirmation and support and a celebration of those who have come before, offering the ultimate message of “you are not alone.”
4. Beauty Queens, by Libba Bray
The concept: fifty young women, all on their way to compete in the Miss Teen Dream USA beauty pageant, crash on a deserted island with nothing but their suitcases, their sashes, and each other. Beauty Queens is an honest-to-goodness masterpiece of satire (think “Lord of the Flies” but with sparkly dresses); its larger-than-life characters dissect everything from Eurocentric beauty standards to the way menstrual products are advertised. Bray has written things that are less anvilicious than this novel, but honestly? It works. Told almost in vignette style with shifting perspective and focus, the reader gets a look into many a beauty queen’s complicated psyche. And, of course, as soon as you’ve gotten used to the whole “beauty queens building survival shelters” thing, the sexy pirates arrive.
5. A Great and Terrible Beauty (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy #1), by Libba Bray
Full disclosure: I would add every book Libba Bray has ever written to this list if I could. The thing about her writing is that each time she comes out with something new, it’s completely different in style and focus than what came before it. Whereas Beauty Queens is high satire, Bray’s first serialized work is more in the realm of high fantasy. Hailed as a feminist Victorian Gothic romp, the reader follows Gemma Doyle, a young girl shipped from her home in British-colonized India to a stuffy boarding school in 1895 London. Along with trying to fit into her new accommodations, Gemma has the unsettling habit of swooning into visions of the future that tend to be startlingly accurate. Dancing between our world and a mysterious spiritual one, Gemma and her newfound friends delve into adventures far larger than they ever imagined. The trilogy begins with A Great and Terrible Beauty, and is followed by Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing, all satisfyingly thick and with Bray’s signature wit and knack for developing nuanced female characters in a genre that tends to lack them.
Savannah Lynn is a rising senior from Raleigh, North Carolina, studying Psychology and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies. Her spare time is filled with her dogs, her books, her tea, and her journals.
#YA#Young Adult#YA Lit#Young Adult Fiction#Randa Abdel-Fattah#Sara Farizan#Meredith Russo#Libba Bray
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FISA court slams FBI over surveillance applications, in rare public order
LTP News Sharing:
By Andrew O’Reilly, Bill Mears | Fox News
In a rare public order Tuesday, the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISC] strongly criticized the FBI over its surveillance-application process, giving the bureau until Jan. 10 to come up with solutions, in the wake of findings from Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz.
The order, from the court’s presiding judge Rosemary M. Collyer, came just a week after the release of Horowitz’s withering report about the wiretapping of Carter Page, a former campaign adviser to President Trump.
“The FBI’s handling of the Carter Page applications, as portrayed in the [Office of Inspector General] report, was antithetical to the heightened duty of candor described above,” Collyer wrote in her four-page order. “The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable.”
“As [FBI Director Christopher Wray] has stated, the inspector general’s report describes conduct by certain FBI employees that is unacceptable and unrepresentative of the FBI as an institution,” the bureau responded in a statement Tuesday night. “The director has ordered more than 40 corrective steps to address the report’s recommendations, including some improvements beyond those recommended by the IG.”
FISA REPORT DROPS: 7 TAKEAWAYS FROM DOJ WATCHDOG’S RUSSIA PROBE REVIEW
Horowitz said he did not find significant evidence that FBI agents were involved in a political conspiracy to undermine Trump’s candidacy in 2016. However, the report did find numerous errors and inaccuracies used by FBI agents to obtain permission to monitor Page’s phone calls and emails.
While Collyer’s order did not specify exactly what reforms the FBI needed to implement to its policies for obtaining permission to wiretap people under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the order did say that the FISA court will weigh in on whether the reforms are deemed sufficient.
“The [FISA court] expects the government to provide complete and accurate information in every filing with the court,” Collyer wrote. “Without it, the [FISA court] cannot properly ensure that the government conducts electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes only when there is a sufficient factual basis.”
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has dealt with some of the most sensitive matters of national security: terror threats and espionage. Its work, for the most part, cannot be examined by the American public, by order of Congress and the president. Its work has been mostly secret, its structure largely one-sided.
“The most unusual thing is that there is a body of law that the court has created, but as a practitioner that is part of that law, we have between zero and some very limited knowledge of what that law is,” Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department prosecutor and current private attorney in the consumer and computer-privacy field, told Fox News. “But, it’s the fact that there is a secret law and a secret body of law that makes it the most vexing.”
CLICK TO READ THE IG REPORT
Tuesday’s order from the court came amid a Republican-led push to reform FISA.
Reps. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, and Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, last week introduced the FISA Improvements Act in a bid to “stop these abuses” and effectively amend FISA by adding requirements on the FBI, the DOJ and on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which would also give Congress “critical new insight to perform oversight of the FISA powers.”
“The deceptive actions of a few high-ranking officials within the FBI and the Department of Justice have eroded public trust in our federal institutions,” Stewart stated. “They flattened internal guardrails, deceived the FISA court, and irreparably damaged the reputation of an innocent American” – a reference to Page.
The GOP bill would mandate that amicus curiae – an impartial court advisor – be assigned to all cases where a U.S. person is involved. It also would ensure that the DOJ disclose “any usage of unverified information in the application,” and include a provision in which any FISA extensions are heard or denied by the same judge which “ensures that the government is not able to obfuscate details of an expiring order’s newly gathered evidence to support renewal.”
The House voted earlier this year against a bipartisan amendment to FISA, proposed by Michigan Rep. Justin Amash — then a Republican — and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., which would have halted the 2020 funding for FISA’s Section 702, which was authorized in 2008 as a means to monitor communications by foreign nationals outside the U.S. Amash later left the Republican Party to become an independent.
Collyer’s order was met with praise by some Republican lawmakers, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
“Very pleased to see the FISA court condemn the FISA warrant application and process against Carter Page,” Graham said in a statement. “As Inspector General Horowitz’s report describes in great detail, the FISA process falsified evidence and withheld exculpatory evidence to obtain a warrant against Mr. Page on numerous occasions.”
Horowitz’s report was hardly the first time the court has come under scrutiny. In 2013, self-confessed National Security Agency [NSA] leaker Edward Snowden revealed a secret FISC order approving government collection of mass amounts of so-called metadata from telecom giant Verizon and leading Internet companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo and Facebook.
The revelations triggered debate about national security and privacy interests, and about the secretive legal process that set government surveillance in motion. Approvals would come from a rotating panel of federal judges at the FISC, deciding whether to grant certain types of government requests — wiretapping, data analysis and other monitoring for “foreign intelligence purposes” of suspected terrorists and spies operating in the United States.
The Snowden revelations confirmed the scope of the NSA’s efforts had greatly expanded — along with the court’s original mission. No longer were FISC judges approving individual surveillance requests. Now, in essence, they were reinterpreting the Constitution, expanding the limits of privacy and due process, critics said.
“The laws have been secretly interpreted in a way that now allows the government to monitor the communications of all of us– a dragnet of surveillance,” said David Sobel, a senior counsel at the Electronic Freedom Foundation. “Based on the statistics we have, the court appears to be a rubber stamp but part of the problem is because this process is secret, and because the public can’t see what the court is doing or read the opinions, it is hard to assess the extent the court is asking tough questions and holding the govt.’s feet to the fire.”
Fox News’ Jason Donner, Jake Gibson and Hollie McKay contributed to this report.
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by May Busch
Would you like to get noticed by senior management? In a good way, of course.
The kind of “getting noticed” that leads to being considered for exciting projects, gaining greater respect from your colleagues, and having opportunities to move up to the next level at work.
These days, you have to go beyond the obvious to get noticed. It no longer works to rely on the quality of your work, your dedication or even being a “good citizen”. Frankly, all of that is expected.
The question is, what does it take to get noticed by senior management?
What It Takes to Get Noticed
The good news is you don’t have to jump up and down or be loud and flamboyant if that’s out of character.
Instead, it’s about doubling down on what’s in your character. Tapping into the true you, including the parts you keep hidden because you’re afraid what others might think. (Spoiler alert: these aspects that don’t conform to the norm may be exactly what gets you noticed…in the right way!)
3 Simple Ways to Show Who You Really Are
The even better news is there are some simple things you can do every day or every week to show who you really are.
What I like about these is they don’t take much effort. In fact, they’ll probably save you effort because you won’t need to “hide” or “shave off” parts of yourself, both of which take up energy.
1. What You Wear
Your clothing, hair, makeup, and accessories are some of the easiest ways to show others who you really are. And yet, most of us dress in a way that conforms to the dress code of the office.
As they say, you have to look the part. The interesting thing is that beyond the formal dress code (as in “no T-shirts, tank tops, shorts, etc.”), there’s the even more powerful informal dress code.
For example, in investment banks, no one wears brown. It’s not written down anywhere, but it’s no brown shoes, no brown suits, no brown belts. I have no idea why that’s the case, but if you wear brown, it just shouts out, “you’re not one of us”.
One of my coaching clients discovered this only after buying a pair of handmade Italian shoes – you guessed it, they were brown – and getting grief from several colleagues the first day he wore them.
He decided to stop wearing the brown shoes (it was too big a “taboo” that distracted senior people from seeing his capabilities) and chose other ways to express his personality through his choice of yellow eyeglass frames and unconventional ties.
He has since become one of the most highly regarded directors at the firm and known for the creative angle he brings to solving even the most complex problems.
What you wear gives out messages about who you are and what you bring. So know where to show your personality in your clothing and accessory choices and know what’s going “too far” for others to be comfortable. I find the comfort zone for most organizations is to dress 10-20% different from others.
What does your choice of clothing say about you? And if you’re 100% conforming to the norm and not happy with it, what’s the 10-20% shift you could make to express yourself and help people notice you for who you really are?
2. What You Say
Another way to show your true self is in what you say and how you say it. When you speak, you’re expressing your thoughts, intentions, assumptions, and beliefs.
The key is being aware of what you say and how you’re coming across. Then you can determine whether that’s an accurate representation of who you are and what you want to be noticed for.
One of my colleagues was a constant complainer. If it wasn’t about the company policies, it was about our boss or other colleagues, and the weather took its share of criticism as well. It turned out she was completely unaware of how she was coming across.
Once someone pointed out her complaining tendency, she told us what a tough time she was going through personally, caring for a family member who was ill and being the primary breadwinner for the family now that her husband had lost his job.
Once she was aware, she was able to change how she was speaking and that helped her get noticed in a much better way.
In your case, perhaps it’s speaking in a way that’s uplifting and positive. Or inspiring people around you to be their best. Or maybe you’re the person people come to for your calm, measured advice. Or perhaps you’re in your element when you help people brainstorm a new idea.
Get in touch with the words, phrases, and tone of voice you tend to use, and what you say when you’re at your best. Then make conscious choices about how you can harness what comes naturally to you.
What do you tend to say and how do you say it? To what extent is your talk representing the most awesome aspects of you?
3. What You (Consistently) Do
Actions speak louder than words, so it’s only fitting that one of the ways to get the right people to notice you is through your actions.
Most of us are basically good people who mean well. But it’s easy to get caught up in our own lives and forget to think about others. That’s why the key to nailing “what you do” is being aware of opportunities where you can lend a hand or step in to help someone else.
It can be small things, like giving a quiet colleague a chance to speak up at a meeting by asking their opinion, and then supporting them by building on their point. Or publicly thanking your support team for their contributions to the event you’ve just hosted.
What you do is especially important in situations where it takes courage to step up and take action.
For example, the moment when basketball coach Maurice Cheeks came to the rescue of 13-year old Natalie Gilbert. Natalie forgot the words to the National Anthem she was performing in front of 20,000 fans at the start of one of the most important games of Cheeks’ career.
Cheeks was not a good singer, but he recognized a young girl being humiliated on stage and went to help. He walked up to her, gave her the next line, started singing along with her and inspired the entire stadium to sing together.
He was the only one out of 20,000 people who took action and you can be sure his management (and fans) noticed. As his boss said, “(T)hat’s who he is. He’s a guy that has high character. I’m lucky that I have him.”
Just remember that when you take action and put your true self out there, it only works if you do it without expecting something in return. You don’t want to make it transactional because people see right through that.
These kinds of “leadership moments” are what show your true character. And that’s worth noticing.
What can you do to be aware of opportunities to lend a hand and have the presence of mind to step up and act?
Get Noticed for the Real You
In a world where there’s not enough time to do everything we want to do, it’s helpful to focus on and leverage who you really are and what comes naturally to you.
To get noticed by senior management, the surest strategy is to double down on being yourself – your whole self, which is also your best self.
The beauty is it takes less effort and makes a bigger impact when you bring the real you to work. So let the true you show up in what you wear, what you say and what you do. That’s what gets you noticed for the right reasons.
What one simple thing can you do this week to show your true self?
Go to our website: www.ncmalliance.com
How to Get Noticed at Work for the Right Reasons by May Busch Would you like to get noticed by senior management? In a good way, of course.
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The Monumental Role Of Photography In The Fight For Racial Equality
New Post has been published on https://photographyguideto.com/must-see/the-monumental-role-of-photography-in-the-fight-for-racial-equality/
The Monumental Role Of Photography In The Fight For Racial Equality
Complexity, interiority, subjectivity: these are qualities that every human being possesses by virtue of living in a tumultuous world full of obstacles and contradictions that keep its inhabitants constantly evolving just to stay afloat.
Dignity, power, respect: these are virtues we bestow upon our fellow citizens, recognizing the intricacy and distinction of their being. It’s easy to feel degrees of compassion for those in our immediate circles. We observe our family, friends and colleagues’ struggles and triumphs firsthand.
For centuries, though, art and literature and film have allowed us to see and begin to understand people outside of these circles. Through this secondhand contact, we empathize with people from times, places and circumstances worlds apart from our own.
Jamel Shabazz, Cultured and Refined, New York, 2005
For centuries, however, people of color were not visualized with veracity and careful attention in photographs or books or movies, but reduced to one-dimensional black bodies. Their images existed only as objectified stereotypes that failed to accurately represent the realities of black lives, rendering them virtually invisible.
That time, thankfully, is no longer. Contemporary photographers and filmmakers are capturing the black experience in its full nuance and complexity, and the world is watching. Aperture magazine’s most recent 152-page edition, titled “Vision & Justice,” celebrates the artists responsible for this current cultural moment, in which black lives are immortalized through images that contain multitudes — just like their subjects.
Jamel Shabazz, Grand Master, Harlem, New York, 2010
“The endeavor to affirm the dignity of human life cannot be waged without pictures, without representational justice,” Sarah Lewis, assistant professor of history and African and African American studies at Harvard University, as well as Aperture’s guest editor, writes in an introduction to the magazine’s new edition. “American citizenship has long been a project of vision and justice … The centuries-long effort to craft an image to pay honor to the full complexity of black life is a corrective ask for which photography and cinema have been central, even indispensable.”
Lewis describes the influence of abolitionist Frederick Douglass on the magazine. Douglass, the most photographed man of the 19th century, knew that pictures, not just logical arguments, alter perceptions. Photographs spark images in the imagination that otherwise would not exist, images that change minds and hearts. For Douglass, the fight for civil rights didn’t end with abolition. He wanted to disassemble and rebuild the symbolic image of blackness, endowing it with the dignity black lives had so long been denied.
Leslie Hewitt, Riffs on Real Time (10 of 10), 2013, courtesy of artist and Sikkema Jenkins
Today, images of black stories, both extraordinary and harrowing, are all around us. An image of Barack Obama hugging Michelle after being reelected as president of the United States soon racked up millions of likes on Facebook, becoming the social media site’s most liked photo of all time.
The devastating image of high-school senior Michael Brown in his cap and gown circulated the web after the unarmed teenage boy was shot and killed by officer Darren Wilson in 2014. Social media movements including Black Lives Matter and Black Girl Magic spread like wildfire across the internet and communities such as Black Twitter, giving voices to those who had once been voiceless and faces to those who had once been invisible.
Jamel Shabazz, The Ranks, Chicago, Illinois, 1997
The stunning Aperture magazine edition celebrates a variety of current photographers who are reframing blackness and radically restructuring the contemporary perception of it. Khalil Gibran Muhammad reflects on the work of street photographer Jamel Shabazz, whose theatrical images depict black citizens adorned in various forms of contemporary regalia: a Freemason grand master in a top hat and tuxedo, a single line of soldiers in blue suits and white gloves, a group of young women in matching white hijabs.
Many of Shabazz’s subjects are caught in the midst of economic depression, having inherited a history of systemic oppression. And yet, as Muhammad writes, “Their proud belonging to each other — communal, disciplined, active — depicts a people refusing to be defined by deprivation or deficit.”
Deb Willis, Untitled, 2010
Photographer and historian Deborah Willis grew up around beauty parlors; her mother worked in one. So it’s no surprise that Willis’ photographs often revolve around the idea of black beauty, fractured and layered like the overlapping mirrors and echoing chatter in a busy salon.
Her “Framing Beauty” series explores beauty in relation to history, memory and power, simultaneously exposing the infinite, delicate strata that make up every image and truth we encounter. As Cheryl Finley notes in Aperture, “Willis’ images remind us of the spectral quality of beauty and its multiple frames of reference.”
Devin Allen, Young boy standing in front of police officers at a blockade, North Avenue, West Baltimore, April 28, 2015.
When the city of Baltimore, Maryland, joined in peaceful protest after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in April 2015, Devin Allen brought his camera. The 26-year-old self-taught photographer only had two years of experience when he posted his black-and-white photos on Instagram, and yet before long his image of a man running from an army of policemen in riot gear was on the cover of Time.
Allen has since continued to capture what curator Aaron Bryant calls “the zeitgeist of a social movement,” representing Black Lives Matter in all its cohesion and exasperation. “Allen’s visual documentation,” Bryan writes, “demonstrates how protests that may operate below the surface, or above the surface at flashpoint moments such as Freddie Gray’s death, form communities of engagement, solidarity, and revolution.”
Lyle Ashton Harris, Untitled (Face #160 Kara), 2006
Lyle Ashton Harris, on the other hand, takes portraits — close-up portraits of faces and the backs of heads, which strangely are just as evocative as the front. Using a large format, 20-by-24-inch Polaroid camera, Harris snaps confrontational portraits of individuals from Al Sharpton to Yoko Ono, with the camera rigged to take only brown-toned images.
Too often the phrase “color blind” is used in an attempt to look beyond race, while denying the weight and residue of black history and erasing the wounds of racism. In “The Chocolate Portraits,” Harris doesn’t erase race, in fact, quite the opposite. All of his subjects don a chocolate-colored skin tone, illuminating the fallacy of whiteness, revealing that all skin is, really, a shade of brown. The images toy with racial differences without confirming the status quo or effacing it completely.
Radcliffe Roye, Colours, 2014
Also featured is Jamaica-born, New-York-based street photographer Radcliffe “Ruddy” Roye, who prefers to travel for work by foot. As Darnette Cadogan writes in his Aperture description: “He roams around tirelessly, alert to the ways in which people move past each other. Whom they ignore, what they admire, how they interact: These are abiding concerns.”
Walking voraciously through the city streets, Roye photographs humans so close up it’s nearly impossible to look away; it feels as inhumane as ignoring someone you encounter on the street. The charged connection between subject and viewer puts the spectator in close proximity to the disenfranchised and dispossessed, able to witness contradictory states of rage and pride, sorrow and dignity.
Deb Willis, Self-Portrait in Mirror, Harlem Restaurant, 2015
These are a small fraction of the photographers chronicled on Aperture’s pages. From Awol Erizku‘s stylish remixes of classical paintings to Lorna Simpson‘s delicate paper collages cut from old issues of Jet and Ebony, each series communicates a different picture of blackness, simultaneously personal and universal in the way true stories often are.
The photographs, immensely valuable in their own right, also serve as flares in a larger cultural consciousness, images that turn witnesses into activists. “How many movements began when an aesthetic encounter indelibly changed our past perceptions of the world?” Lewis asks in her introduction. “The imagination inspired by aesthetic encounters can get us to the point of benevolent surrender, making way for a new version of our collective selves.”
Purchase a copy of Aperture magazine #223 Vision & Justice here.
Deb Willis, 125th Street, Harlem Poster, 2014
Deb Willis, View from Italian Restaurant, Zurich, 2015
Deb Willis, Villa La Pietra, Florence, 2014
Radcliffe Roye, Shadow, 2014-2016
Radcliffe Roye, RIP Scooter, 2014-2016
Radcliffe Roye, Black Today, 2014-2016
Radcliffe Roye, Ryan, 2014-2016
Radcliffe Roye, Storm, 2014-2016
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Lyle Ashton Harris, Untitled (Back #167 John), 2000
Lyle Ashton Harris, Untitled (Back #159 Anna), 2006
Lyle Ashton Harris, Untitled (Back #160 Kara) 2006
Lyle Ashton Harris, Untitled (Face #167 John), 2000
Lyle Ashton Harris, Untitled (Face #159 Anna), 2006
EthaLyle Ashton Harris, Untitled (Face #192 Kwame),2007n Miller via Getty Images
Devin Allen, Young men in West Baltimore cleaning up their neighborhood, April 28, 2015
Devin Allen, Daughter of Michael A. Wood, Jr., retired Baltimore police officer who spoke out against corruption and excessive force in the Baltimore Police Department, Million Man March, Washington, D.C., October 10, 2015
Devin Allen, Two boys at a peaceful protest and cookout on the day following a community uprising, West Baltimore, April 28, 2015
Devin Allen, Community cleanup, prayer circles, and protests the day after a 10 p.m. curfew was imposed, North Avenue and Mount Street, West Baltimore, April 28, 2015
Devin Allen, Two men praying, North Avenue, West Baltimore, April 28, 2015.
Jamel Shabazz, We Must First Be Brothers, Harlem, New York, 1997
Jamel Shabazz, In the Zone, East Rutherford, New Jersey, 2009
Jamel Shabazz, Remembering Malcolm, Harlem, New York, 2008
Jamel Shabazz, Sisters, Brooklyn, New York, 2003
Leslie Hewitt, Riffs on Real Time (9 of 10), 2013, courtesy of artist and Sikkema Jenkins
Leslie Hewitt, Riffs on Real Time (7 of 10), 2013, courtesy of artist and Sikkema Jenkins
Leslie Hewitt, Riffs on Real Time (2 of 10), 2013, courtesy of artist and Sikkema Jenkins
Leslie Hewitt, Riffs on Real Time (3 of 10), 2013, courtesy of artist and Sikkema Jenkins
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
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WE KNOW HOW those who practice, publish, and promote literary translation think of ourselves: some incredibly tiny fraction of books published in the United States are literary translations (surely far, far less than the “three percent” statistic we often cite), and they are mostly done by small indies whose resources are dwarfed by what a major commercial publisher would spend on any mid-list American author. In spite of that, we persist, because translation is a life-enriching opportunity to enter a community of peers and realize a true literary vocation. As we never get tired of saying, translation is the closest form of reading, and it gives you all the thrills of creativity without the terror of the blank page. Not only that, but we in the translation scene are at the vanguard of those who are rejuvenating the English language and the American imagination, and our work will serve poets and politicians alike for years and years to come.
That’s a largely generalized but probably not overly cartoonish summary of prevailing sentiments in the translation community — but what does the rest of the American literary field think of translation? What do those authors who do not have any strong interest in, affinity for, or history with translation think about it as a practice, and (dare I say) an art form?
Answers of a sort are provided in Crossing Borders, a collection of essays on literary translation as well as short stories that prominently feature the practice. Let’s deal with the fiction first. Its authors range from celebrated, like Joyce Carol Oates and Lydia Davis, to the lesser known. (Notably, just one of the creative writers here is a foreigner that has been translated into English.) Although a few of these writers have translated, most of the fiction contributors have no real experience with the practice.
What emerges in the fictional contributions to Crossing Borders is a vision of the English-language translator as an individual who engages with a foreignness that is largely defined by places over which the US psyche experiences guilt. That is, by places in which we’ve fought hot wars or have damaged in our cultural battles, mostly in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. A number of these stories revolve around an interpreter who makes communication possible either with inhabitants of some vague Eastern European locations or with traumatized immigrants from these regions to the United States. Other fictional translators broker relationships between the Anglosphere and Southeast Asian nations like Cambodia that have been the field of battle in the United States’s postcolonial wars. In the stories, the translator/interpreter figures are generally of two kinds: they either facilitate communications for governmental interests abroad or they’re American loners, self-employed or finding a home of sorts in the academy.
This is all to say that the composite picture of the field that emerges in Crossing Borders is not one that I think many in literary translation would find accurate. While it is of course true that our nation’s foreign policy, past and present, often impinges on which regions of the world Americans find literarily fascinating, that dynamic is changing. Many other factors now come into play. Chief among them are the subsidies provided by foreign governments in an ever-expanding game of cultural imperialism. International literary festivals and prizes have become so powerful as to have rocketed a nation like South Korea to the center of the translation world in under a decade — with the help of the more quotidian practice of government bureaucrats arranging editor tours and doling out funds. And as the immense success of authors like the Finnish Sofi Oksanen, Norwegian Karl Ove Knausgaard, and Italian Elena Ferrante demonstrate, the forces of international media, conglomerated publishing, and national bookselling now have very much to say about what foreign people and places occupy the interest of American readers.
Nor are the book’s fictional depictions of literary translators especially flattering. The protagonists come off as sad, occasionally weird individuals without much going on, the kind of people who are incapable of understanding why they’re so socially maladroit. While it’s definitely true that translation tends to be done by those with an eccentric and independent bent to their personalities, the translators I know have a diverse array of interests and large and active social communities. They have lots of friends and professional peers, are often raising families, and would be at home among virtually any group of young professionals. I don’t see them as the awkward, isolated misfits that predominate in Crossing Borders — they’re fun-loving, charismatic, sophisticated, and plain cool. Perhaps the people we see in Crossing Borders are more typical of the translation community as it existed 30 to 40 years ago.
What of the literary textures of these stories, the way they bring to life exotic locales and languages? Tellingly, the only piece of fiction that seemed to make deep and integrated use of the particular history behind its setting was Svetlana Velmar-Janković’s “Sima Street,” which is also the only story in this collection that is translated from a foreign language into English. Joyce Carol Oates’s “The Translation” is also strong; there is a degree of emotional depth to its lead characters, and something real is at stake. But for the most part the stories here felt quite domestic — recognizably American people and arcs transplanted to a foreign location, with a little local color but not much more to set them apart.
One other exception here is Lydia Davis’s contribution, which is characteristically hybrid in its form (one could easily argue for its inclusion as an essay). Posed as a lesson in the French language, it elegantly inculcates in the reader an intense desire to know what happened to “le fermier” — we suspect it may have something to do with the text’s final words, “le meutre” (also its title). In its coy whimsicality and its subversive deployment of linguistic principles, it becomes — in just over six pages — a text that can easily support many readings and ideas. I don’t know exactly where it takes place, but it could be France (there’s something undeniably French to it), or maybe a Calvinoesque invisible France of Davis’s imagination. Similarly, Norman Lavers’s contribution — focusing on a Southeast Asian translator who is essentially rewriting Hamlet and transforming its genre in order to make it comprehensible to her culture — while perhaps not entirely successful as a story, has the benefit of entwining translation more deeply with its protagonist’s psychology and locale, while also thinking about the practice in more interesting ways.
If the fiction in Crossing Borders strikes this reader as a somewhat inaccurate representation of the discipline, the essays are pleasingly different. All written by veteran translators who are greatly esteemed in their field, they present a broad range of translation’s possibilities. The contribution of the late Chana Bloch explores the immense joys and challenges that come with rendering biblical writing, which is among the most formally difficult — and highly scrutinized — translation work available. Primo Levi’s short piece offers poetic commonplaces about the practice; although they won’t break new ground for those who know the field, they are eloquent and rousing. The essay from late Oulipian Harry Mathews strikes a defiant note by inviting translators to drag the art away from ideas of fidelity toward which a translator like Bloch strives; Mathews instead offers a vision of translation as a creative practice that hews closer to what one might call “equivalences” — something like the “translation” that happens when a book becomes a movie. And Michael Scammell’s chronicle of working with the legendarily irascible Vladimir Nabokov as a young man is a beautifully written, thickly descriptive look at the real life of a translator.
That said, there is something dated about the essays too. One can’t help but wonder what Crossing Borders might have looked like with younger, more international names gracing its table of contents. The most interesting people in translation are often young, and they aren’t all American. In recent years, many people under 40 — some even under 30 — have been directly responsible for translating, publishing, and championing authors who have taken the world’s most prestigious literary prizes. And with many of the world’s great writers now regularly touring, and living in, the United States — to say nothing of the translators who regularly spend years abroad — the world literary community is more tightly knit than ever. Any book that aspires to take stock of what is happening in translation right now should reflect these realities in its pages. A much more broadly based and up-to-date version of this collection could make a wonderful contribution to the field of literary translation. I’d love to see Crossing Borders 2.0.
¤
Veronica Scott Esposito is the author of four books, including The Doubles and The Surrender. Her writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, The White Review, and Music & Literature. She is a contributing editor with BOMB magazine, a senior editor at Two Lines Press, and edits The Quarterly Conversation, a journal of book reviews and essays.
The post All the Thrills Without the Terror: On “Crossing Borders: Stories and Essays about Translation” appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.
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BOOK REVIEW: THE MISSING MUSEUM BY AMY KING Reviewed by Emma Bolden @ Los Angeles Review
BOOK REVIEW: THE MISSING MUSEUM BY AMY KING
Reviewed by Emma Bolden
The Missing Museum
Poems by Amy King
Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2016
$14.00; 114 pp.
ISBN-13: 978-1939460080
In February 2012, the Russian feminist punk/performance art/protest group Pussy Riot staged an act of protest against the re-election of Vladimir Putin. Between services at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a Russian Orthodox church destroyed by Stalin and rebuilt in the 1990s, the women entered and walked up to the altar, jumping and jabbing their fists in the air. Filmed footage of the performance was included in the music video for their song, “Punk Prayer: Mother of God Drive Putin Away.” The song implores the Virgin Mary to “banish Putin” and “become a feminist, we pray thee.” Although Cathedral guards removed the group in less than a minute, three group members were arrested, charged with hooliganism, and sentenced to two years in prison.
After the American election of 2016, Pussy Riot warned Americans to prepare themselves: Trump’s presidency, they predicted, would resemble Putin’s in ways that many Americans might not even be able to imagine. In a December 2016 interview, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova told New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg that it was “important not to say to yourself, ‘Oh, it’s O.K.’ [ . . . ] in Russia, for the first year of when Vladimir Putin came to power, everybody was thinking that it will be O.K.” It isn’t safe, Tolokonnikova continued, to trust that America’s institutions will protect its citizens and their freedoms, as “a president has power to change institutions and a president moreover has power to change public perception of what is normal, which could lead to changing institutions.”
Pussy Riot’s work serves as a frame for Amy King’s riotous, rapturous, and radical fifth full-length collection, The Missing Museum. I mean “frame” quite literally: a passage from the poem that shares part of its title with the first section of the book, “PUSSY PUSSY SOCHI PUSSY PUTIN SOCHI QUEER QUEER PUSSY,” is printed on the back cover. “I HAVE A WITCH-CHURCH HAND,” the speaker declares in the poem, “& / PUSSIES RIOTING A PUTIN PRAYER / ON A NATION OF PEOPLE.” Just as Pussy Riot composed the clarion call of an iconoclastic culture countering Russian authoritarianism and repression, so too does Amy King’s work spur, capture, and curate the artifacts of a burgeoning resistance movement in the United States.
Also like Pussy Riot, King’s use of the term “pussy” serves as a shibboleth for revolutionary feminism, reclaiming a term used as a slur against women—and, as the 2016 release of Access Hollywood footage shows, one often linked linguistically to sexual assault and rape. Through reclamation, feminists empty the term of its misogynistic implications, empowering themselves by taking ownership of the language of the oppressor. Now, “pussy” has become a common part of the American vernacular, wielded by women fighting to preserve their fundamental rights to control their own bodies and speech. Likewise, Pussy Riot’s music carries great meaning for the American resistance and for the poems in this collection, which serve, in many ways, as a museum preserving the gathering motion of resistance.
Unlike many museums, King’s isn’t a collection of evidence of an unchanging monolithic culture. Instead, the book protests the very idea that any culture or subculture is, was, or ever will be stable, static, and homogeneous. King’s poetry sweeps through cultural references from surrealist painter Leonora Carrington to soul singer and activist Nina Simone to pop singer Lionel Richie. The sheer breadth of references in King’s work echoes the idea that no culture is singular or stationary. The disparate works—songs, paintings, poems, acts of civil disobedience—of all of these artists cross through the collection as separate but equally essential works and workers of culture. As King writes in “You Make the Culture,” “The words become librarians, custodians of people.” If any representation of a culture is to be accurate, she continues, it is to involve movement: “I will walk with the sharks of our pigments / [ . . . ] until we leave rooms that hold us apart.” Inclusivity, and the ability to envision all groups in terms of belonging, is essential, as lines near the end of the poem show: “Nothing comes from the center / that doesn’t break most everything apart.”
After all, culture is the product of changeable, mutable human beings who, King argues in the collection’s prologue, “Wake Before Dawn & Salt the Sea,” are more action than object: “Our limits may not be expandable, but before you say, / ‘Blood and sinew,’ remember you’re making a mistake. / We are not edges of limbs or the heart’s smarts only.” As such, a worthwhile life is a life beyond “noise,” beyond “dying full of money but no one will give a shit, rich asshole.” To be stationary, to live untroubled while following the American exhortation to gain money and power without examining the dangers this philosophy poses or the system purporting this philosophy, is anathema to progress. The poem ends with a couplet that brings to mind Herman Melville’s enjoinder at the end of “Art,” in which he calls for a fusion of opposites within the self and between the self and the heavens. “Be somebody,” King implores of us, “be one who wrestles and make love to the dark / that is your deepest part, the uselessness of love and art.” The idea that the most beautiful things we as human beings bring to the light—beauty, love, art—are utterly useless comes as a shock, especially as it also comes at the end of a gorgeously-wrought poem serving as the collection’s prologue. The location of these lines creates the same kind of shock as the location of Pussy Riot’s “Punk Prayer” in an Orthodox cathedral. Both performances don’t just shock: they shift. The juxtaposition of lyric and location creates a moment in which the mind bends, allowing disparate realities to coexist.
King calls upon the work of the Surrealists to illustrate this juxtaposition. In “And Then We Saw The Daughter of the Minotaur,” a poem named after a painting by Surrealist Leonora Carrington, King writes of the need to move beyond accepted meanings, “to grow branches / between worlds on the backs of nurtured equations.” She calls for us to “[s]ay another elsewhere. Open the broom, sick with sorceries.” In “Pussy Riot Rush Hour,” King speaks of a woman traveling the Lexington Avenue Line while “hitting / herself, buck up head heavy against / the number 5 train downtown.” She describes her “self-infliction” as “a cause / that brings us away from our senses.” Here, King references Arthur Rimbaud, who called for poets to transform themselves into “seers” through a “long, immense, and reasoned derangement of all the senses.”
King’s collection carries out Rimbaud’s call through the velocity of its juxtapositions, racing through shifts in voice, structure, theme, and tone, sometimes within the same poem. In “Understanding the Poem,” “this world is anything but a poem” —and then, in the next line, “This world is this, this world is poem, and I am unusual today, at least.” The frenetic movement of King’s work—from popular culture to high culture, from Georgia pines to New York streets, from all-caps alert to expertly-groomed almost-sonnets—recalls the cry of Baudelaire’s soul to travel “Anywhere, anywhere, as long as it be out of this world!” The speed and span of juxtapositions in the collection reveals what is missing from museums: movement, derangement, change.
By this dynamic derangement of our assumptions about culture, King’s museum reveals what culture really is: an ever-changing multiplicity of perspectives that cannot be carved into different, disparate wings. The narrative of culture as a series of singular, separate factions and philosophies leads to the violence of othering and violence against others. In “Perspective,” this moves beyond theory to a matter of actual life and death:
When I see two cops laughing
after one of them gets shot
because this is TV and one says
while putting pressure on the wound,
Haha, you’re going to be fine,
and the other says, I know, haha!,
as the ambulance arrives—
I know the men are white.
At the end of the poem, King asks us to wrestle with questions about this narrative, about the curation of our culture, essential for the survival of our nation and ourselves.
Who gets to see and who follows
what script? I ask my students.
Whose lines are these and by what hand
are they written?
In that 2016 New York Times interview, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova herself echoed this idea: “‘You are always in danger of being shut down,’ she said. ‘But it’s not the end of the story because we are prepared to fight.’” With her work and words, King shows her readers how to join the fight.
Emma Bolden is the author of medi(t)ations (Noctuary Press 2016) and Maleficae (GenPop Books 2013). Her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, The Pinch, and Prairie Schooner, among others. Her honors include a 2017 Creative Writing Fellowship from the NEA and the Barthelme Prize for Short Prose. She serves as Senior Reviews Editor for Tupelo Quarterly.
http://losangelesreview.org/book-review-missing-museum-amy-king/
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