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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Why You Should Watch Young Royals

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This article contains some spoilers for Young Royals.

WIth an overabundance of teenage-oriented romance shows on television at the moment, it can be hard to conjure up a reason to watch yet another one. Every streaming service seems to have something in the genre to fit a need, whether that be a gay protagonist, a female hero, or an ensemble cast. It’s very difficult to stand out amongst the crowd because there are very few places left untapped in exploring adolescent life styles.

Enter Young Royals, a Swedish-produced LGTBQ romance drama that was released on Netflix at the beginning of July. When Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding) is sent to boarding school by the Queen after getting in some trouble at a nightclub, he feels out of his element and overwhelmed with expectations. His only reprieve from the rigidity of this environment comes when he meets Simon (Omar Rudberg), a kind and charismatic child of an immigrant mother.

Prince Wilhelm and Simon’s burgeoning relationship eventually turns into one of the most evocative and explorative love stories in contemporary queer TV. A keen understanding from the writers and actors of what can make a show like this stand out amongst a repetitive crowd of competitors is what will hopefully lead to enough viewership for many more seasons. Here are some more reasons you should watch Young Royals.

The Teenagers Actually Look and Behave Like Teenagers

Far too often the young people in coming-of-age entertainment vehicles look, act, and feel a little too mature for actual teens to relate to on any sort of deeper level. The actors who are casted infamously have birth dates well before the people they are portraying on-screen (Darren Barnet, who plays 16 year old Paxton Hall-Yoshida on Mindy Kaling’s hit series Never Have I Ever, is a whopping 13 years older than his character!) Not only does this force an unrealistic standard of beauty on the viewers to live up to, it also breaks up the immersive quality that truly great TV possesses to transport us to different worlds that connect to our own.

Edvin Ryding is 18 and Omar Rudberg is 22. With faces spotted with pimples and makeup sparsely used to mask other superficial blemishes on the actors, the people in this show seem like they could show up at any secondary school in your neighborhood and fit right in. This provides an authenticity to the storytelling that you simply don’t get with the majority of teen romance media. Perhaps the reason for such realism is because European filmmakers strive for higher artistic standards when filming, shunning the degrading expectations of sexiness and maturity that directors in the United States have grown obsessed with. Whatever the reasoning behind it is, the show’s casting is a breath of fresh air.

The Story Skips the Often-Redundant Coming Out Journey

I want to start by getting one thing very clear: the coming out journey is one of the most important tropes used in LGBTQ movies and television; I wrote a whole essay on how Love, Victor’s exquisite and heartfelt depiction of this plot point helped me come out of the closet in my own life. When done properly, this storyline can be both inspirational and important to the young queer community. The problem is that far too often the coming out process is the only focus, and all of the other dynamics of gay teenage life get shelved and under-examined.

Young Royals gives you a negligible amount of hand-holding when it comes to spelling out the sexuality of the two protagonists: Simon mentions in one conversation with his dad that he is gay, and Wilhelm’s own musings are so focused on the former that we know immediately how smitten he is with his charming classmate. There is a little bit of internal denial from Wilhelm when he tells Simon he “isn’t like that” after they share an awkward first kiss, but we know he’s kidding neither us nor his lover.

The intense romantic energy is so new, raw, and real that there is no need for anybody to come out; it’s obvious that these two are gay as hell for each other and that discovery is absolutely beautiful. As mentioned, though, Wilhelm is a part of a royal family and publicly coming out as a celebrity is a whole different topic that the show sets up nicely for in a possible second season.

Sexual Expression is Explored on an Emotional Level

The show is rated TV-MA, but it can’t possibly be for nudity or graphic sexual expression. The passion between Wilhelm and Simon is certainly physical to an extent, but the little things, the tiny moments of young love are so much more meaningful than watching two actors maul one another like wild animals or porn stars. Short kisses in the forest, holding hands while watching a movie, and dropping off a quick breakfast in class are all amongst the enviable acts of emotional desire that are displayed from the characters.

TV shows rarely understand what actual love looks like in the real world. It isn’t always 12 hours spent in the bedroom or excessive PDA in front of classmates and family. It’s what two people feel about each other that words can’t possibly describe. It’s an emotion that bonds a couple into one. Wilhelm tells Simon when professing his love midway through the season that nothing in his life feels real except for how he feels about him (a line improvised by Edvin Ryding). That’s so much more than a one-night stand or a cheap hookup and it’s something every other teen rom-com should learn from and aspire to emulate.

A Delicate Discussion on Classism in Relationships

A melancholy sticking point in the relationship between Wilhelm and Simon is their difference in social class. Wilhelm is the second-in-line to the throne of Sweden while Simon is the poor son of an immigrant mother who cannot afford to live on campus at the boarding school the characters attend. When the two boys are together, money and celebrity status become irrelevant. It’s an absolutely beautiful give and take where both kids get to learn how attraction has nothing to do with societal expectations and pressures, but keeping a relationship definitely does.

When their love affair gets leaked in a sex tape á la Kim Kardashian, Wilhelm is expected to hide his sexuality and his desire for someone low on the social ladder. The way both young men work together to figure out a common ground solution is simultaneously touching and heartbreaking, as homophobia within the Swedish Kingdom makes the love forbidden and creates the main tension in the finale’s climax. Classism is such an underutilized topic in romance stories and Young Royals does a great job finding that fine line between forcing the issue and exploring it thoroughly.

A Small, Strong Cast

Many shows that follow a romance struggle to give equal screen time to both parties. It can be tempting to flesh out the main protagonist more fully than divide attention among both characters. If you add in supporting roles around the couple it can get really flimsy in the hands of a shoddy screenwriting team.

This show only has three true supporting roles: August, Sara, and Felice. This leaves plenty of material for both Wilhelm and Simon to be equals in spite of the central focus being on Wille. When you get to see the POV of each person independent of the other, it becomes a much richer experience and you are more easily able to sympathize with both young men instead of taking sides during a conflict. Their personal lives, especially their unique family dynamics help inform the audience about the romance. By the end of the six episodes, you feel like Wilhelm and Simon are amongst your own social circle because you know them intimately. That just doesn’t happen with most coming-of-age series.

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All six episodes of Young Royals season 1 are available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Why You Should Watch Young Royals appeared first on Den of Geek.

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astrozones · 4 years

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Sanders Behavioral Health, Chapter 2: Roman Has a Rough Time

Angsty fic incoming

my discord server if you wanna join- Astro’s Zone

Three hours.

If Roman had to guess how long he had been staring at himself in the mirror, it was three hours.

From an outside perspective, Roman might seem conceited and narcissistic. But while staring at the mirror, all Roman could see were mistakes.

His hair looked messy, people were going to laugh at him.

His freckles stood out. He could cover them with makeup, but if others found out he was wearing makeup- god he could barely stand the thought.

His face looked odd in general. And his weight? Don’t get him started! Looking at his arms, his legs, his chest, all he could see were flaws, flaws , flaws !

Roman felt tears threatening to spill and shoved his head into a pillow. Why did he have to be so… ugly? Why must whatever God up there curse him like this? And no matter how many times his grandparents and aunt told him he wasn’t, he just couldn’t see what the fuck they were talking about.

Well, at least he was in therapy. Maybe they’d fix him.

Roman’s parents weren’t too fond of him, he knew. They were the only ones that would admit the truth, that he was ugly, and that they didn’t deserve such a disgusting son. They would take any opportunity to get him away from them, and once his distant relatives had suggested taking Roman to therapy, citing his ‘sudden declining happiness’, and ‘inability to eat’, his parents had leaped at the possibility, taking the chance as soon as they could.

They had talked about putting him in the six-hour program that started earlier in the day. The only reason they didn’t was because the school would start coming after them for attendance issues. Well, more than they usually did, anyway.

Roman glanced back up at the mirror, frowning. He couldn’t go to school looking like this, no, they’d just make fun of him.

Another day of skipping school it was.

His parents wouldn’t care, they never did until they were being yelled at. He’d just creep downstairs and tell whatever parent was down there taking a swig of alcohol that he was staying home, they’d just grunt and wave him off. And once the school called, they’d tell them he was sick, and rush upstairs to yell at him that he hadn’t told them before heading off to work.

Today was no different.

It was about noon when Roman opened the cupboard for the first time that day. Skimming over the options, he bit his lip. There was nothing there that he wanted . He had everything he should want, plenty of options that many kids would kill to have, and yet Roman didn’t want any of it. He didn’t really know what he wanted, he was barely hungry anyway. He’d just come back to it later and choose something then.

He ignored the voice in his head that told him he wouldn’t.

Grabbing his backpack, he made his way back to his room to start his homework. Well, “start” his homework, which actually meant wallowing in his sorrow while thinking about the week so far.

Therapy was… okay so far. He couldn’t tell them a lot of stuff, just that he was insecure. He wouldn’t tell them about how he hated looking in mirrors, or that he struggled to even eat a snack during the day. No, no, then they would know too much. If his parents found out, there would be consequences. Not hitting or anything! His parents would never abuse him.

Never.

His first day had been mediocre. He filled out questionnaires, and they played a board game for rec. Nothing important. Nothing new. Nothing, just like how he saw himself.

At least he wasn’t the only new kid. There was the hoodie kid, who he had made uncomfortable with his stupid assumptions , and who he had given a terrible nickname to. Really, Roman? You could at least come up with something better . And Patton told him he arrived last week Wednesday, and Logan two days prior. So, all in all, they were all new. Which was great!

Roman couldn’t help but feel happy at meeting the others. Sue him, he loved meeting new people! The prospect of finding out something about a person you barely knew was fun, at least to him.

You should stop, you’re prying into people’s lives when they don’t want you to. The voice in his head said. Roman didn’t acknowledge it in the rest of his internal monologue.

Logan was nice, despite his attitude the day prior. On Roman’s first day, he had been very helpful in his own, stubborn way. They had a couple of back-and-forths, and while that might seem aggressive to others, it made Roman feel more comfortable. Logan liked him enough to argue without any hate behind it.

Patton was unbelievably kind. He would go out of his way to help Roman and Logan, even when they were battling via a board game. Patton had hugged him the moment he saw Roman, but when Roman had seemed apprehensive he backed off a little bit. Not to say that he calmed down in the slightest, he was practically bouncing in his chair when they played.

And then there was Virgil, the one who had taken on the resident ‘New Kid’ title. He was quieter than the others, more resigned. When Roman had actually started getting him to talk, he started coming out of his shell, or hoodie, a little bit. This made Roman extremely happy, at least he was likeable enough for the more apprehensive to talk to him! Roman had also noticed that Virgil had black nail polish on, which made him want to do his own.

Well, Roman never really had good impulse control.

20 minutes later, Roman’s nails were red and absolutely fabulous.

5 minutes later, Roman realized in a panic that he had run out of acetone, and would have to either pick at his nails or go outside with nail polish on. He was a boy! He would definitely get made fun of, and Roman was not in the mood for that today, no thank you.

He settled down on his bed, ‘forgetting’ about the homework that was glaring threateningly at him from his desk.

Roman ignored it.

Roman spent the rest of his free time scrolling through Instagram and YouTube.

And then it was time to go.

Roman settled into the lobby seat, earlier than he had planned. The lobby was silent, and felt awkward with no background noise. He was used to buzzing, the wind, birds chirping, literally any noise, but in here? Nothing.

He wasn’t very comfortable.

Minutes went by as Roman sat, waiting for the others. He knew he shouldn’t have come so early, curse his anxieties over coming in late. He was currently in a very heated stare-off with the carpeted floor as of now. Just waiting.

After what felt like hours, Virgil entered the room in all of his emo glory. He looked surprised at not being the only person to arrive obnoxiously early.

“Oh, uh, hey. Roman, right?” Virgil muttered, walking to the front desk to sign in. Quick, Roman, act normal!

“The one and only,” Roman said, with a grin that felt as fake as the Kardashian’s “drama”. And it appeared Roman was a good actor, since Virgil didn’t react at all other than a scoff. Jesus, the voice in his head said. No wonder he doesn’t want to talk to you, you’re so boring. Roman grinned at Virgil, attempting to seem more… well, positive, but Virgil didn’t seem to notice him. Or he’s just ignoring you.

The receptionist grinned at Virgil once he was done. “You should go sit by Roman and talk!” She said, apparently oblivious to the anxiety radiating between the two. Virgil spluttered for a few seconds before walking towards Roman and sitting down. Both of them were silent for a few seconds, both trying to think of something to say.

“So, what’d you think of your first day?” Roman asked, just barely hiding the stress he was feeling. Acting really was the only thing he was good at, and despite how much his parents shunned it, it was useful in situations like this. Situations he faced every day, really.

“I don’t know, I guess it was fine.” Virgil said. “Nothing really happened, y’know?”

Nothing . He hated that word.

“Eh, you’re right. Still, rec was fun, yeah?”

“Rec?” Was all Virgil said, staring at him in confusion. Oh, right.

“Rec is, well, just what we say to shorten the whole recreational therapy thing. Sorry, I keep forgetting you’re new!” Goddamn it, Roman! You’re such an idiot . “I guess you just… fit right in, yeah?”

“Fit right in with the mentally unstable. Great,” Virgil deadpanned, causing Roman to snort.

“I mean, I suppose you could say it like that.” He said between quiet giggles. He hadn’t expected that answer. Virgil gave a small smile in return, clearly feeling at least a bit awkward. Oops.

“Well, today’s gonna be way different,” Roman started, with a smirk. “‘Cause you’ll have to actually join us in the cafeteria this time.” As he said that, Virgil’s smile slipped and he groaned, practically shoving his face into his palms. Roman laughed. “Me too, man.”

“Really? Would’ve pegged you for the type to be ecstatic about being around others.” Virgil stated, turning in his seat to face Roman a bit more. Roman shrugged in response.

“I mean, kinda? There’s pros and cons to it, y’know? And-” Roman cut himself off before he could continue. Stupid Roman, you don’t just rant all your problems out to an innocent stranger. He shook his head. “Eh, nevermind, I dunno where I was going with that”

Virgil looked slightly concerned, but didn’t comment on it. Roman slapped another cheery grin on his face before continuing. “So, what’d’ya think of the others?”

“Well… one seemed nice, Patton, if I remember correctly. I don’t know about Logan though… No offense to him or anything!”

“Logan’s pretty nice from my experience. I may not have spoken to him long, only a couple days, but those days were pretty chill. I guess something happened? Maybe it was so many new people or something?” Roman started tapping his foot on the ground, and fidgeting with the zipper of his jacket. He didn’t want to insult Logan, but his behavior yesterday was pretty aggressive.

Virgil started chewing on his hoodie strings, which only slightly muffled his voice when he answered. “I guess. I’ll just… go with the flow. I don’t… want to get myself into something I can’t get out of, y’know? I’ve had enough of that in my life.”

“I don’t think I’m following here…”

“Oh! Um, I didn’t really… uh mean to say that out loud…? Heh, sorry… just not really… um, open to talk about that?” Virgil stammered out, shrinking into his hoodie.

“Heyheyhey, no need to worry about it! I’m not gonna pressure you into something you don’t wanna talk about. After all, this is therapy, we’re gonna go through worse. Probably.” Roman quickly responded in a panicked state. Virgil buried his face in his hands once more, muttering “don’t remind me we’re in therapy”. Roman smiled. He didn’t want to call it too soon, but… maybe he could make a friend?

After talking for about 10 minutes, everyone had arrived and Becca called them into the back. From here, it was a game of ‘try to get to the check-in room first’ to get into one of the two spinny chairs. Usually, Patton and Roman would get the chairs, as Logan would say, “There’s no use grabbing a revolving chair when we’re only going to be here for a few minutes.” But with the addition of Virgil to their daily group, Roman wanted to make sure he got one of those seats. They were the most comfortable, and they were fun! Both were a plus.

Arriving first in the room, he plopped down into a spinny chair, spinning himself around before grabbing a check-in sheet. Success!

Becca joined him in the room soon after, Virgil trailing behind her. After Becca handed Virgil a sheet and motioned for him to choose a seat, he sat in the swivel chair beside Roman.

Patton and Logan joined them soon after, having been walking slower while they talked. Patton didn’t look disappointed as he lost the title of Swivel Chair Holder, only smiled brighter as he grabbed a sheet and asked Logan to sit beside him.

Logan himself, however, looked at Virgil and winced, presumably because of his behavior the other day. Logan looked apprehensive, torn between sitting by Patton or apologizing to Virgil. But once Becca kneeled down to show Virgil what to fill out, Logan knew his chance was gone.

Well, that’s what Roman thought, anyway.

The room was silent other than the sound of pen on paper. Roman tapped his foot unconsciously as he thought.

See, at Sanders, they ask you to rate your anxiety, avoidance, and depression every day. But instead of using 0-5 or 0-10 they decided to use a 0-7 scale for who knows why.

So, what was his anxiety today? Roman bit the inside of his cheek as he thought. Maybe a 4? Or maybe a 5? Well, seeing as his anxiety was raising as he struggled to find an answer, he put down 5. As for avoidance and depression, 3 and 4 respectively.

Just a couple more questions down, and then he was free to doodle. It had become a ritual during his time here, despite not being here that long. Today’s piece of art was a doodle of a Prince. A crown, sash, and a dazzling grin, and he was done. He glanced up to see Virgil was the only one still filling out the sheet.

Well, he supposed he could add some more sparkles.

Once Virgil was done, Becca clapped her hands and asked for them to share. Patton went first, going through his emotion, his anxiety, avoidance + depression, and other questions. Logan was next, doing the same but refusing to share his emotion. Then it was Roman’s turn, and he sped through it as quick as possible, not wanting to concern any of the others.

On Virgil’s turn, he went quiet and stuttered numerous times throughout the reading. He was reluctant to speak about the bottom four questions, specifically. Well, kinda. There were the two questions of ‘since yesterday have you had thoughts of harming others/have you actually done it’. There was also the ‘have you had thoughts of harming yourself/done it’. Quietly, Virgil asked not to share, and Becca agreed, though looking thoroughly disappointed.

Pulling out his binder and a pen with an excessive plume, Roman sat down at the middle table. Patton and Logan sat near him, while Virgil took a seat at a corner table, Becca joining him soon after to brief him on the ins and outs. Keep in mind, there were only three tables, so the options were at a minimum.

Shocked back into reality by someone sitting next to him, he turned to see the other therapist, Charlie, seated at his right.

“Hello, Roman! You finished your introduction exposure yesterday, right?” She asked. And she was right, yesterday had been spent introducing himself to the various staff around the building, and at the extreme lack of such, had to introduce himself to some of them twice . At Roman’s nod, she continued.

“So, today we’ll set you up with a couple more exposures, based on what you’ve told us. So, here,” she started, pointing at the next unnamed category on the page. “The first exposure is to put a mark on your face. It has to be noticeable, too. Just use a pen for that one, you don’t need anything special. Then all you need to do is talk to people.”

Nodding, Roman scribbled it down on the page, telling himself he wouldn’t do that one until he absolutely had to.

“And the next one is just wearing jewelry. Anything like a necklace, bracelets, rings, will work fine. You won’t have to wear them the whole day, just do trials for about 30 seconds. If you don’t have anything to wear right now just bring some tomorrow and we’ll start then.”

Fuck. Now he had to.

“Uh, yeah I don’t have any… jewelry. So, for the first one, do I gotta like… do any specific thing, like a word or…?”

“Just a line will do.”

And with that, Roman got up to go to ask to go to the bathroom, only stopped by Charlie’s hand on his arm. He gave her a questioning look.

“I was just gonna go to the bathroom… to put the mark on my face. Is something wrong?” He asked. Charlie shook her head.

“Do it here. If you use the mirror, it will loosen some of the anxiety. The point of this is to combat the anxiety, full on. No avoiding.”

“But I like avoiding.” Roman mumbled to himself. He didn’t think anyone heard, but the quiet giggle from Patton proved otherwise. Charlie just gave him an encouraging smile.

Sitting back down, Roman picked up his pen, while Charlie walked to her computer. Roman stared at the pen as if he were about to make a life-changing decision.

Just put the pen on your face, it’s not that hard . Except it was hard, at least for him. God, he really was a failure if he couldn’t force himself to make a mark on his face.

It was oh-so-simple. A mark on the face. But all Roman could think of were the consequences. They could laugh at him, they could ignore it, and worst of all, they could point it out . Just the thought of people making assumptions or putting themselves in awkward situations just because they didn’t want to embarass him made him want to throw himself off a roof.

He could feel his hands shaking, and, looking down, the rest of him was shaking too. Calm down, he told himself. What was one of the coping methods he learned?

Name 5 things you can see. He glanced around. The table, the window, Patton, Virgil, and his binder. Okay.

4 things you can feel. His clothes, the chair. He could feel his hair flopping into his face, and suddenly another spark of anxiety ignited in his chest. Deep breathing, Roman. Deep breathing. He could feel his hands starting to shake again.

3 things you can hear. All he could hear was the tap of fingers against a keyboard, what else… He strained to hear, and found he could hear the cars on the highway, something his brain had apparently decided to discard. And the sound of the door opening, with Logan walking in to prove it.

What was next? 2 things you could smell. Okay, well, he couldn’t smell much. There was the smell of mint, but other than that he couldn’t smell anything. He found himself glancing around, anxiety increasing once more. And, yes! A whiff of perfume blew past his nose.

1 thing you can taste. Well, not much. Did the inside of this mouth count? Well, he supposed it had to, since he wasn’t about to go lick the wall.

Roman took another few moments to himself, distracting himself by tapping his foot against the floor.

He found himself in front of Nurse Vicki’s office, a pen mark on his face and the dread of what was to come. Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door and let himself in.

Vicki turned to him. “Hello, Roman,” she greeted. “What do you need?”

What was he supposed to say? Charlie told him he wasn’t supposed to mention the mark, and rather to just make small talk. He would rather have had a topic but he hadn’t taken those improv classes for nothing!

“How has your day been?” he said.

Welp. He had taken those improv classes for nothing.

Vicki explained that she was doing well, she had gone to her sister’s house after group yesterday, so she was happy about that. She didn’t mention the mark.

Thank god .

He cycled through a couple other staff, anxiety slowly loosening its grip as he progressed. And no one had pointed out the mark! When he looked at his sheet after his sixth trial, he noticed his anxiety had went from a 6 to a 4, and he was feeling proud of himself as he walked into the hallway once more.

He spotted Virgil down the hall, fiddling with the timer in his hands. Roman strutted towards him, intending to make Virgil his seventh trial of the mark exposure.

“Hey, Virgil, you busy?” he asked. Virgil shook his head. “Aight, cool. How’re exposure’s going so far?”

“I don’t like them.” Came his response. Roman laughed, replying with, “No one likes them.”

“All I’ve been doing is introducing myself but… I introduced myself to all the staff and I still have 4 trials to go before I’m finished and, honestly-” Virgil ran a hand through his hair, voice strained. “I don’t know what to do and I’ll feel awkward asking Becca what I’m supposed to do now… Sorry for ranting…” He finished.

Roman smiled. “I just finished that exposure yesterday, and Charlie, er, the other therapist, told me we can introduce ourselves to the same staff twice.” Virgil wrinkled his nose at this, frowning slightly.

“If I’m being honest, that’s even worse.” Virgil started fidgeting with the edge of his hoodie. He seemed apprehensive about something, whatever it was Roman had no clue.

“Uh, also… you have a mark on your face. Uh, just figured I’d tell you, sorry”

And with that, Roman felt his anxiety get to a 7 faster than soda out of a newly opened can. “Heh, yeah. I mean, uh- thanks, Virgil. I’ll fix it when I can. Um, gotta go now, so, see ya!” He called as he powerwalked his way back to the cafeteria. He could barely hear anything as he sat down in his seat, staring out the window across from him. Oh, god. Someone had noticed. Someone had noticed and now he was going to laugh at him behind his back. He was going to tell Patton, and Logan, just how stupid Roman was. Roman stopped breathing for a few moments, trying to calm himself down.

Virgil wouldn’t do that, he was just trying to be helpful. And Roman had run away from him, oh god , he was probably confused and Roman had not helped the situation. He supposed he would have to apologize later, he was too frazzled now. He wanted so bad to wipe the mark off his face, but he knew Charlie and Becca would be disappointed in him if he did.

5 minutes later, he felt much calmer, his breathing normal, and his chest felt less compressed. His anxiety had come to a 3, so he stopped the timer at 6 minutes and 24 seconds. He scribbled down the results as Virgil came back into the room, seemingly just out of an exposure, so Roman gave him a smile in lieu of an apology, not allowed to talk to someone while they were in the middle of an exposure.

Roman decided he would apologize at rec.

Roman never got to apologize. Today’s rec was a hands-on activity that left him with no time to talk to Virgil. And just after rec, he saw Logan talking with him, and since he didn’t want to stay there too long, Roman decided he would just get in the elevator.

His mind told him he should take the stairs, else he would just gain more weight.

Once he got down, he took some time to shuffle through his binder, he had a weird feeling that he left something, and-

The elevator dinged, and the door opened as Virgil, Logan, Patton, and their parents shuffled out. Patton tugged on his mom’s shirt, telling her to stop for a moment. He practically bounced up to Roman, a grin on his face.

“Roman! I’m glad I caught you. I got Virgil and Logan’s phone numbers, and I was wondering if I could have yours? No pressure, of course! But it’d be nice if we were in touch outside of therapy. And I can give you the other’s numbers so we’re ALL in touch!” Patton extended his phone to Roman, the latter of which taking it and inputting his number. Maybe this could work out after all?

[ Hey, this is Roman and I sure as hell hope this is Virgil.]

| yea its virgil |

[ Oh thank god. Just wanted to say sorry for running off on you earlier, wouldve said it after rec but i saw you talking with Logan and didnt want to intrude. ]

| don’t worry about it, it’s fine. |

| what’s not fine is you sending that right as i walk into my house |

| i nearly faceplanted the ground cause of you |

[ And i oop- ]

| did |

| please tell me that was ironic |

| i might have a stroke if it wasn’t |

[ Youll never know ;) ]

| oh my god |

| i just |

| i can’t |

| have a good night Roman |

[ Right back at you, buckaroo ]

| oh my god |

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radwolf76 · 4 years

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FLASHBack: Week 52 - Charlie the Unicorn

Here we go, Major Milestone time here on FLASHBack -- The 52nd weekly installment, which marks the end of year one. Almost a birthday of sorts. Soon we will be entering the final year of Adobe's support for Flash, which was the inspiration for this whole project in the first place. I thought it best to mark the occasion with something truly magical, like say, a unicorn. Flash Animator Jason Steele had a tradition of making a unicorn themed Flash for his mother's birthday each year, which she would then turn around and upload to her Newgrounds account, TypeQueen. This started in 2003 with Evolution of the Unicorn a painting-like animation set to the William Tell Overture, inspired by Disney's Fantasia. 2004's Birthday would take a more comedic turn in The Last Unicorn, which was not based on the Rankin/Bass animation of the Peter S. Beagle novel of the same name but is instead an alien abduction story. The next year, Steele would lean even harder into the comedy along with a heavy dash of absurd non-sequiturs. On 26 November 2004, Charlie the Unicorn would be uploaded to TypeQueen's account on Newgrounds. The story centers around a curmudgeonly grump of a white unicorn (named Charlie, if it wasn't obvious from the title), who wants to be left alone so he can nap. And since conflict is the engine that drives narrative, he is set upon by two other unicorns, one pink and one blue, both equally overly cheerful and more vapid than a sack full of Kardashians. They insist that he needs to go off on an adventure with them. (As an aside, in Jason's script the two other unicorns also have names, which are never mentioned out loud. The blue one is Lolz and the pink one is Roffle, but the fandom just calls them Blue and Pink.) The two have just acquired a map to Candy Mountain, and Charlie finally agrees to go along just to get them to stop bothering him about it. When their quest brings them to a Liopleurodon ("A magical Liopleurodon") who is supposed to give them advice on how to get to their destination, Charlie has a crisis of faith, declaring that there's no such thing as Candy Mountain. Blue and Pink immediately shun the non-believer ("Shhhhhuuuuuuunnnnn!!").

The Liopleurodon dispenses its sage advice, in that way that only a land-bound Jurassic-era carnivorous marine reptile can. Then after crossing a "magical" bridge that gives Charlie splinters the trio of unicorns finally arrives at the fabled Candy Mountain. Pink and Blue try to convince Charlie to go inside Candy Mountain's cave, and of course he refuses. This prompts the letters of the word "Candy" in the Candy Mountain sign to hop down and break into a musical number. (Originally Steele was going to have Blue and Pink sing the song, but he felt it was too uptempo for the voices he'd given them, so he gave the song to the letter Y instead.) At the end of the song, the letters explode inexplicably. Charlie who has had quite enough of absurdity after absurdity in his day, gives up and agrees to go inside. The other two ominously say goodbye as the cave seals itself, and then in an unexpected twist, Charlie is mugged for one of his kidneys. Three years later on 14 April 2008, a sequel, Charlie the Unicorn 2 would be released. This time Charlie finds his TV watching interrupted when Pink and Blue float by in full scuba gear, claiming to be exploring the ocean. Suddenly a glowing vortex erupts from Charlie's back and sucks the other two in. Unnerved by their sudden disappearance, Charlie calls out to the guys and then admits that he doesn't know if they're guys or girls. The pair do return, having retrieved a magic amulet from the vortex. It must be taken to the Banana King to prevent the vortex from releasing a thousand years of darkness. As they journey, they encounter the letter Z, who speaks Spanish. Eventually, they arrive at the temple of the Banana King, where a green... thing wearing a Santa hat (Damnit, there's another seasonal reference, I was trying not to make a habit of that this month) sings a song to Charlie about sticking a banana in his ear. At the end of the song he bursts into flames. When the time comes to return the amulet to the Banana King, it turns out the real Banana King was the Charlie we met along the way. And also this was all some elaborate ruse to distract Charlie so his TV could be stolen. Jason would put out Charlie the Unicorn 3 a year later on 6 April 2009. This one finds Charlie accosted by Blue and Pink from a future where the world is about to end because evil has overrun good. Naturally they need his help with a snowman. The usual hijinks ensue, culminating in them taking a ride on a submersible duck. There's another musical number, lead by a capricorn sea goat, about how all sea life loves Charlie, especially one Starfish who's so eager to profess his love that he more shouts than sings. Halfway through, the song turns into the sea creature version of the PokeRap. Keeping up the trend, all the singers then explode at the end of the song, just in time for Charlie to find the snowman. He's then knocked out with sleeping gas, because Blue and Pink want his horn for the snowman nose. And while kidneys aren't traditional snowman decorations, Charlie's missing kidney is there too. It would be another three years before the next sequel, Charlie The Unicorn 4. Premiering on 28 December 2012, Pink and Blue crash a rocket in the middle of the forest meadow. As they're frantically trying to warn Charlie (who has had to reattach his horn with a band-aid) about the danger of a Millipede on the Moon, Charlie cuts them off. He's been in enough of these situations to know the explanations don't help, and so he tells them to just take him to the moon already. They flip the world so that he falls off into space. On the way to the moon, Blue and Pink get up to their usual shenanigans. When they land on the Moon, The Millipede immediately shows up, and she launches into a Broadway-quality "I am" type song (as opposed to the other major song type from musical theatre and film, the "I want" song). The song feels like it should be an homage to the song Shiny from Disney's Moana -- both feature narcissistic arthropods who spend their entire songs bragging about how great they are. Except that Charlie the Unicorn 4 predates Moana's release by 4 years. One significant difference between the two songs: as Tamatoa isn't singing to Charlie, he doesn't blow up at the end of his song. The Millipede is not so lucky. Having "defeated" the Millipede, the trio then enter the Cavern of the Red Wind. Inside, Blue and Pink reveal their plot to blow up the moon, with Charlie still on it, and then float off, leaving him stranded next to the bomb with its digital countdown. However, the Starfish who was so in love with Charlie in the previous chapter (and who didn't blow up because he didn't actually sing) shows up to rescue him. He talks Charlie into using him as a wishing star to get back to Earth. Pink and Blue are rather shocked to see that Charlie survived, after all the trouble they went to. Steele produced plenty of other Charlie the Unicorn content, but as this post is getting long, we're going to save the rest for the day after Christmas. In the meantime, there will be a short intermission somewhere in Nevada. Also, if you'd prefer to see all four of these chapters together in one HD video, Here you go.

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xandreblueshifted-blog · 6 years

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Imagine:

Some perhaps not so far distant future, watching with amazing clarity while picking up their radio communications or civil broadcasts (television). The drama unfolds, this life is not unlike our own and surprisingly similar; bipedal with two arms and two legs, and engaging in a life we might remark as simply a cultural difference to what we know. They have beliefs and ideas we can relate to; religion, politics, love of music, art, and literature. They have cast systems much like our own, both professional and political. They have social hierarchies similar to ours with the more affluent reaping the majority of benefits and the fruits of the working casts that toil in a life that is destined to die in that labor with little to show for their effort. They, the oppulant, rationalize that it is their birthright, similar to the plutarchs of Earth. Various casts in academia or the arts, close but never as reaching as the unearned or inherited self-righteous and over privileged plutarchs reach or treasures, truly say and believe that theirs is a labor of love and to die in research or performance is not a waste of their life, but the fulfillment of their dreams. Meanwhile, those far below simply work as great cogs in the industrial machines; easily replaced, never missed, certainly never recorded or documented, and never achieving or actualizing a percentage of their dreams.

Social and economic disparity is not dissimilar to our own. The wealthy invoke the religion of the masses that they themselves do not believe in; malignantly believable attempts to ingratiate and seduce those that work without end, all the while promising untold riches in an afterlife that they themselves know or at least believe doesn't exist. This, the great illusion that keeps the unclean masses from living their lives for today, a well known even on earth method to keep the precarious balance of control, always works because even the lesser of us will succumb to a dream or false hope for more. It’s no just human nature, but the nature of all life; sentience or self awareness not required.

We call them barbaric and unjust while the same drama unfolds daily on Earth, because they are not us and so we feel self-righteous to judge. Various political parties arise on their world, much as on ours, with claims of seeking equality, but it's all a well intended and orchestrated illusion; just smoke and mirrors that serves as a similar opiate to the masses as religion. In practice, it's just another type of mass control and it works effectively and efficiently the more unaware and superstitious the populace and so while education is praised, in policy it isn’t practiced and often shunned, “belief is the evidence of that unseen,” becomes a catchphrase of the gullible and easily influenced, while demanding proof is discouraged amongt the masses. Political parties also arise to further that agenda, and also to condemn one another just as on Earth, to keep the masses fighting amongst the masses... just as on Earth, so too in heaven. The hypocrisy of the sacredness of life is an obvious platitude and illusion when it comes to healthcare and feeding those in need; it’s important because ancient religious texts of both their world and ours demanded it in a time when infant mortality was high. In a world where the majority of resources go those they least require them, this hoarding of assets is yet another means of mass control.

War on their world, just as ours, is not just needed for negotiation but as a silent form of ethnic cleansing, just as much as it is a diversion and of course another control. The true leaders of Earth realize a problem and quickly begin to edit the footage for fear of compromise in vain, for there will always be hackers and bootleggers. World History proves that wars are rarely about opposing ideologies, resources, or which side upon which to crack the egg as much as it is a means to separate and segregate those with the least of means and to dispose of them; they wrap those heroes in a flag of nationalism before they head to the front lines then silently ignore their passing and the grief of the survivors when the hero returns draped in that same flag. On Earth as in the heavens. The questioning the validity or need for such war is quickly and balefully reversed on the questioner as an insult to the flag and for those that died for a now meaningless piece of cloth; absolutely it meant something in the wars of independence, but quickly lost its meaning when it was realized as yet another means of control and a diversionary tactic. While the more scholarly and observant see this species, their history, and the progression of corruption to no different than us, such beliefs are cast into that ineffable and often mocked realm of the conspiracy theorist. The truth would undermine the intricate web of lies and controls, and so the first step is to ridicule and when that fails, ostracize or shun, make them an enemy of the state, then finally imprison or execute and claim it an accident. On Earth as it is in the heavens.

Overall, they are no more vile and uncaring than we are, no more advanced, and similarly they never attempted to harness that which makes even the lesser of us greater than those species that preceded us, or those we keep in private prisons for our entertainment; you’d call them zoos. Their world, like ours, is consumed in the passive flames of the self-righteous; burning in effigy, consuming without end or direction, without pity, without sign of an end. The fire can not be extinguished because doing so would require those with the most to exercise true altruism to those with the least; to lift up their equal brother or sister in the inheritance of the birthright of all sentient creatures: to dream and to be able to seek a means to make those dreams a reality.

For forty years, it is an ominous spectacle and true to the more deviant natures in humankind, bets are made on the winners and losers. In 40 years as we observe, as our technology improves and the ability to observe and listen more closely, we watch in perverse enraptured as the last of them spit out its last breath of life into the void of an uncaring, unforgiving universe. No redemption, no avenging angel, just a world consumed in war of dominance and become an irradiated hell of their own making. The self entitled privileged few are the last to die, but all the wealth in the universe can't save them from themselves. While some do escape to other worlds, casting their seed to the winds and to the void as paupers they once fed upon, they similarly meet that quiet and pitiable paupers end. Those whose sweat and blood they fed on in endless anthropophagy no longer exist for them to feed upon or serve them, and left to their own devices, all their plots and plans bring them no further than the systems edge; to freeze and sleep, to dream in the deserved hell they created for their brothers.

Here on Earth, we laugh and scorn them. We revel in their folly, but no lesson is learned; it was for the uncaring and unlearned masses just entertainment. Bloggers Blog, political analysts spin lies on what is seen. All the while as we watched the Fermi’s proposed great-filter in action, nature, entropy, the elements play out its drama, the same games continue to play out. “It won’t happen here because we are human and they were stupid aliens,” some blissfully and deliberately unaware will say. Sixty years later, when the last survivors of the great failed experiment of sentience on Earth meets a similar end, there is no one left to laugh. As in the heavens, so too on Earth.

Somewhere, far away, another observer remarks the spectacle. All the while watching, cataloging, and scorning by yet another species not so dissimilar to us. They too, blogging while paying tribute to their own false gods and false flags, and nationalistic dreams and zeal; the gods of their plutocratic overlords silently snicker knowingly. So in the heavens, so too on our Earth. No lessen is learned from those that seek fulfillment and riches only in the moment at the cost of the future.

While we are amused by the foibles and spectacle of the Kardashians or the Trumps, its just anesthetization and a type of control. All the while, a very real truth is screamed at us from the universe every moment, but no one pays heed or listens. Life is indeed sacred. Sentient life more-so. The miracle of our existence is indeed profound and could be called sacred. To diminish it to a djinn that blinked us into existence insults the very struggle it took us to become what we are. Magic and the supernatural thinking diminishes the blood of those that died to make our world. Magic is not fun or being edgy, magic and the supernatural is a control and those believe in it are were never in control of it; they volunteered to be slaves to it and accepted a bondage that was tens of thousands of years in the making. So it is with most controls of the powerful, but none is more obvious because it is the most widely accepted.

Let not the millions and billions of the sovereign of this Earth dissuade you otherwise, because it only requires one very bad decision to end it forever. Slavery comes in both voluntary and involuntary forms. The voluntary ones distract and manipulate your emotions, and if this writing angers you, perhaps you should look for your collar and ask who your true master is; somewhere unseen there will be a human behind that curtain.

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my-job-is-to-fangirl · 5 years

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Hiiii. I think I saw this ‘tag’ on youtube for multiple topics- books, movies, tv shows, etc. I hope I do justice by actually finding connections between these books :p

»»» If you liked Sadie by Courtney Summers, I think you will like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

~ Sadie is about a girl (Sadie) who is on the hunt for her sister’s killer. She goes on a trip, from city to city, in a car she bought herself. She finds new people, new leads, and she gets hurt to the point where you’d expect her to fall over and die. And she still never rests until she finally finds him. What is novel about this book is that it is told in podcast style. It alternates between a man who is investigating this case through a podcast, and the narrative of Sadie on the other hand. We see the fear, the grit, the need to solve this gruesome murder in every single character. Another side to this is the man doing the podcast, he is terrified of finding more dead girls and he is not ready for that (Sadie is missing the whole time the podcast is being recorded). I loved his angle, because it showed the human, sensitive side to investigators- they’re not always strong, things affect them too, and it cripples him, the amount of fear he has over Sadie being dead. It is a very unique book, in plot and in format, both.

~ I read Speak about five years ago, my aunt gave it to me. I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t know it would be this impactful. It follows Melinda, an outcast in her school. I’ll admit, its the cliched character who gets humiliated and laughed at, but it deals with her character more than her background, if that makes sense? What I mean is, we see her be herself only in art classes, when she expresses herself through her art. She was raped by a senior at a party; a party where she called the cops because things were getting out of hand, hence her being outcast. Her art through the book evolves and gets deeper and more impactful, much like how she feels. I want to reread this book someday and see if I still like it as much.

⇒ Both of them deal with heavy topics, so they’re definitely not easy reads, don’t say you weren’t warned. I made the connection between these two because both authors do brilliant jobs at building characters and making the stories relatable and raw.

»»» If you liked Autoboyography by Christina Lauren, I think you’ll like The Book of Essie by Meghan Maclean Weir.

~ Autoboyography is about Tanner, who moves to Provo, Utah, from California. He was out in California as bisexual, but while making the move to Provo, Tanner’s mom tells him to never say a word about his sexuality, because she knows how unaccepting they are in this Mormon town. His best friend, Autumn, dares him to take a writing seminar class where they have to write a book in four months. He joins the class, and taking one look at his mentor, Sebastian Brother, he knows he’s fallen deep, in trouble and also in love. Their relationship evolves through doubt and comfort, and the whole thing is heartbreaking(ly cute). It is a mixture of religion, writing, school, coming out, moving away, all packed tightly together. The major plus point for me was the fact that Sebastian, being gay, being religious, being shunned by his family just for hypothetically asking what they’d do if someone they knew was gay, being torn between admitting that he’s gay and still wanting to stick to his religious commitments- through all this, he never loses faith. I appreciated that no matter what happened, he never went out of character and said he didn’t believe in God. Honestly, one of the best YA books I’ve ever read.

~ I think I’ve mentioned The Book Of Essie way too many times, bear with me please. I love this book so so so much. It is about Essie, who is part of a family that has their own reality show (think Keeping Up With the Kardashians, but make it religious). Essie’s mom finds out that she’s pregnant, and she starts to talk to their producers to figure out what to do. Should they send her off somewhere? Pass it off as her older sister’s baby? Parallelly, Essie talks to Roarke, a boy in her school, takes him home, and both families talk it over and agree that they can make it seem like they’re a young couple in love. Roarke is, in fact, gay, but still keeps up this facade of a relationship for tv. They have some of the sweetest conversations and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. The book is full of drama, scripted lives, lights, cameras, sexuality, young people finding their way, and how not everything you see is real. A person may look one way, but they could be completely the opposite, off screen. It is not revealed until the very end who the father is, and it hits hard.

⇒ Both these books deal with religion, LGBTQ+ characters, acceptance and faith. Both of them have similar themes, but are different in so many ways, and beautiful in all those different ways.

»»» If you liked either one of these, I feel like you’ll like the others- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell.

~ The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian fantasy world that is a little too close to home. It’s not that impossible, and it feels like any second now, this book will come to life. It is set in Gilead, where women, if fertile, are given the role of a Handmaid, and sent to Commanders’ houses to get pregnant. Essentially, the book deals with how women are stripped of the *limited* power they have and are made to be like rag dolls, submitting to every whim and fancy of the ‘government’. They are fired from their jobs, their bank accounts are blocked, they are taken away from their families. All of this happens in a mere few days, all of a sudden, with no warning. That’s the point though, something like this could happen to us any minute, and we are just blissfully unaware. The only role women have anymore is to breed, and if they can’t do that either, they’re considered ‘Unwomen’ and are just hired as help. This book is important because it talks about gender roles, patriarchy, and mainly, the position and perception of women in society.

~ Brave New World was the first dystopian classic I read, and man, it messed with my head. I did some research and realized how many things he included that were a part of society back then- LSD was just starting to gain momentum and he talks about a drug in the book called ‘soma’ that lets people forget about everything and be happy for a while. The book is so forward thinking for being written in the 1930’s, it talks about test-tube babies, genetically modified people, society that is distinguished on the basis of intelligence, sleep hypnosis, and conditioning of the mind to instill ideas. It’s insane how Huxley wrote all this, predicting that in the 2050’s, the world would be essentially the same as it was then. Look around now, the caste system is still rampant, there are several new methods of reproduction, the world is a lonely place where people are either looking for love or have no love, the concept of pleasure is very different, and drugs are on the rise. It’s scary how he managed to predict so much back then.

~ 1984 is another example of dystopian society that is just teetering on the edge of reality. Oppressive governments, dictatorship, wiping out people and covering it up, the way language is being distorted, and individuality being something that everyone prays for. Whoever called this the most terrifying novel ever was right. It made me cringe how real everything felt. The book is set under the eyes of Big Brother, who watches everything the citizens do. Literally everything. What you do is monitored, what you say is monitored, and worst of all, what you think is monitored. They have a concept called ‘doublethink’, where if someone thinks of an idea that isn’t proposed by the government, bless your soul, you will be tortured and probably killed. Another very interesting idea that Orwell uses is the erasing of news that the government doesn’t want the public to believe anymore. They basically burn the newspapers and books that have a piece of news, and republish it with new information that the public must believe now. It’s scary to see how every single action you do is being watched.

⇒ All three of these books are a little too close to our world, and things like these can happen overnight and that is terrifying to comprehend. I feel like they were written way ahead of their time and written to last way ahead of our time.

»»» If you like Gillian Flynn books (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, Dark Places), then I think you’ll like Kanae Minato books (Confessions, Penance).

~ Gillian Flynn writes a lot of messed up things. If you’ve read any of her books, or watched either of the adaptations, you know. She always creates these situations where all you want to say is ‘what the hell?’ > Gone Girl deals with a psychotic woman who wants to take some warped version of revenge on her husband. Very messed up, pretty good book. > Sharp Objects is my favourite of the three (it’s the most messed up one in my opinion), it is about this woman who has to go back to her hometown to investigate the murder of two young girls. She is spooked by her little 13 year old step-sister who seems to have the entire town wrapped around her pinky. > Dark Places is about a woman who survived a massacre where someone killed everyone in her house but her. Back then, as a kid, she said it was her brother who killed them. 15 years later, there is a club dedicated to discussing murder cases, and they want her help to free her brother. This book has a lot of gore and satanic rituals, just a warning. All her books are pretty gory, read at your own risk if you can’t stomach a lot of blood.

~ Kanae Minato I’m not entirely sure how I came upon, but mAN, she’s good. Both her books are highly highly messed up and I love it. I love how weird the ideas are in her books, they’re not cliche, they’re not the usual tried and tested formula, you know? I just saw someone say there are three broad types of thrillers- US/UK/Canada- Nordic- Japanese. I have to agree, Japanese thrillers are just on another level. She creates messed up characters, in comparison to Flynn’s situations. Minato has mastered the art of making a character so flawed, so strange, it makes you want to crawl into their heads and try to understand their minds. I liked Confessions more than Penance, because it had shock value. I honestly put the book down for a minute, pulled at my hair, and then resumed. It’s that weird. Take my word for it though, they’re brilliant books.

⇒ Both these authors just know how to write readable, gory, strange and overall, interesting books. They just know. I envy them.

»»» If you liked Circe by Madeline Miller, I think you’ll like The Bear and the Nightingale series.

~ Circe has made it into my top ten, top five, top three books of 2019. It is about Greek mythology, of Circe, who is banished to an island and is punished to live there alone with no help from the Gods. Her father, Helios (the Sun god) sends her to the island, and the second he disappears from there, she accepts the fact that she is destined to be there, and doesn’t spend any time unnecessarily lamenting about it. She is a fiery, scheming, idealistic witch who spends her time by breeding animals, making potions and concoctions, and occasionally taking men to her bed. No one who enters the island knows that she is a witch, because they are usually mortals who come for shelter. She lives her entire life on that island, and the way her life unfolds is inexplicable. This book talks about power, the ability to handle both being stripped of power and earning it back, being ostracized, being a woman, sorcery, magic, and majorly, motherhood.

~ The Bear and the Nightingale is a story following characters and the setting of Russian folklore. Honestly one of the best series I’ve read. The idea of having folklore as a backdrop was genius. It is rich, it is atmospheric, it’s hauntingly beautiful. I learnt about 40+ creatures and gods from Russia and how each one plays a very important role in keeping the people living their life. I love how history is a part of fiction, no matter where you look in this book, no matter what you’re reading, it feels as though its a record of the time. The strong belief in the supernatural, the superstitions, the forests, the foraging, the war, the killing, everything. Also the idea of making the frost demon and a young, fierce girl the main characters was sheer brilliance. Who would have thought of that?

⇒ Both of these are historical fiction, highly atmospheric, appeal to all five senses in a way, and have strong female characters who do not give up and are stubbornly fighting their own battles. Beautifully written.

I was originally going to do 13 book comparisons, thank god I didn’t. Let me know if you like this, I can do a part two! 😀

If you liked this book, you’ll enjoy this (I think) Hiiii. I think I saw this 'tag' on youtube for multiple topics- books, movies, tv shows, etc.

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plxyboi-blog · 5 years

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Beyoncé’s 22-day, 100 per cent plant-based diet ’embraces food myths’ and promotes crash dieting, experts say

New Post has been published on https://healthy4lives.com/beyonces-22-day-100-per-cent-plant-based-diet-embraces-food-myths-and-promotes-crash-dieting-experts-say/

Beyoncé’s 22-day, 100 per cent plant-based diet ’embraces food myths’ and promotes crash dieting, experts say

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It is not as restrictive as the maple syrup rapid that famously served her shed 9 kilograms in two weeks for her job in 2006’s Dreamgirls. Nevertheless, Beyoncé’s new 22-day, 100 for each cent plant-based mostly diet is marketing the same intense messaging, observers say.

Very last 7 days, the pop diva posted a YouTube online video, “22 Days Diet,” marketing a diet strategy produced by her coach and “exercise physiologist” Marco Borges. (The singer doubled up and adopted the diet for 44 days in preparation for her 2018 Coachella effectiveness.)

The online video opens with a barefoot and write-up-partum Beyoncé, who gave beginning to twins in 2017, stepping on to a scale at five a.m. on the very first day of the Coachella rehearsals. “Every woman’s nightmare,” the singer says prior to the electronic scale flashes a hundred seventy five (79 kilograms). “Long way to go. Let us get it.”

In the online video, Borges promises that a plant-only diet — Beyoncé reportedly shunned carbs, sugar, dairy, meat, fish and alcohol — will “definitely” increase electricity, rest and complexions. “Your temper is likely to change absolutely,” he tells Beyoncé’s dancers in the online video.

In the footage, Beyoncé does deep squats, struggle rope instruction and other rigorous exercises, in amongst gruelling rehearsals. “She’s expending extra calories than she’s getting in, so, yeah, there’s likely to be excess weight loss,” mentioned Joe Schwarcz, a professor at McGill College.

“I have totally almost nothing against a plant-based mostly diet,” Schwarcz mentioned. “A thoroughly well balanced, plant-based mostly diet is in all probability the best diet. But it doesn’t have any specific qualities for excess weight loss.”

A thoroughly well balanced, plant-based mostly diet is in all probability the best diet. But it doesn’t have any specific qualities for excess weight loss

Nor does it mechanically equivalent healthy. It depends on what men and women eat in that plant-based mostly program, mentioned Dr. Valerie Taylor, head of psychiatry at the College of Calgary.

Taylor also significantly issues the assert that a plant-based mostly diet can increase temper. When men and women occur to her with signs and symptoms of melancholy, 1 of the very first items she does is a professional medical workup, which consists of generating sure they aren’t deficient in vitamin B12, which, amongst other items, is related with not having ample meat.

Vegetarians have to eat meals high in protein “to make guaranteed you do not get into these deficits that can guide to exhaustion,” Taylor mentioned. “And, so, it is precisely the opposite: A restrictive nearly anything is likely to make you truly feel worse, not far better.” (‘I’m hungry,” Beyoncé confessed in her Netflix Homecoming documentary released very last year.)

Any restrictive having strategy is doomed to failure, Taylor included. Persons will eliminate excess weight, simply because they’re eradicating numerous food stuff teams, including the meals most men and women acquire excess weight from, specifically high-fat or high-sugar snacks.

But famous people can have a profound effect on dieting conduct, mentioned the College of Alberta’s Timothy Caulfield.

NFL quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen observe an 80 for each cent alkaline, 20 for each cent acidic diet. No white sugar, white flour or nightshade veggies (tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms). Practically no fruits (“I’ve by no means eaten a strawberry in my everyday living,” Brady after famously informed New York journal), and no caffeine, MSG, iodized salt or dairy. The insanely restrictive diet, Brady has mentioned, restores “balance and harmony by my metabolic technique.”

Recently, Katy Perry disclosed to an Australian radio demonstrate host that she’s staying performing “lots of enemas” for extra electricity, and to ward off growing old.

A critical rapid will drop excess weight immediately after 22 days, if men and women can hold out that prolonged. But most men and women will set the excess weight back on, Taylor mentioned.

“People need to understand that Beyoncé’s job is to glance a sure way,” Taylor mentioned. “She has a myriad of trainers and personal chefs at her fingertips and, just like the Kardashians who encourage excess weight-loss teas, these men and women are promoting a products.” (The 22 Days strategy costs US$fourteen a month.)

“People need to understand: You are not likely to be Beyoncé by performing some kind of outrageous diet,” Taylor mentioned.

Beyoncé’s diet “also embraces a bunch of food stuff myths — no carbs, no dairy, no meat — giving the perception that there’s a magical system to eliminate excess weight and maximize health,” mentioned Caulfield, Canada Investigate Chair in health law and plan.

“This variety of movie star sounds can distract men and women from the science-knowledgeable, and extra sustainable basics: plenty of fruits and veggies, complete grains and healthy proteins.”

The singer, who has celebrated her “full curves” in the past, also starts off her message with the strategy that men and women should really truly feel shame — each individual woman’s “nightmare” — about their excess weight, and that shame should really be what motivates change, Caulfield mentioned.

“This is barely a overall body optimistic strategy.”

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rememberebonyjanice · 5 years

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This is me. 24/7. In church on the front pew. In the pulpit. At every academic conference. In the classroom. In predominately white womens coworking spaces. In the rain. On a train. This is me. 🤷🏾‍♀️ My living is a journey towards myself and I have no time to take breaks by code switching to be deemed appropriate. Whiteness is not the standard by which I gauge my worth. Especially when black women and black femmes pretty much dictate cultural phenomena years before the world catches up. What sense would it make for me to be a watered down version of myself only to see Kimberly Shaquanda Kardashian’s praises for what I created and was shunned for today 10 years from now. 😬 For white ppl that want to really do the work of dismantling their white supremacy I think you should find all the black folk that make you the most uncomfortable and register for their classes, workshops, courses... whatever they have but it, sit with it, linger in it... interrogate what it feels like for you to not be the center and ask yourself what and why your expectation is such. 💁🏾‍♀️ I am intentionally myself. As much as I am a child of God and will be quoting scripture and referencing the ancestors all the live long day... imma also be leaning deeper into my #AAVE and my Black Girl coded behaviors. Imma be quoting #JayZ and Princess from #CrimeMob. Imma be reciting monologues from The Color Purple. Imma be in Paris twerking in front of the Eiffel Tower... and in all of that, there is something worthy and necessary and all people benefit from my decision to show up as myself. You’re welcome. ☺️ If you would like to learn in community with me on a deeper level, you can register at my Patreon - Patreon.com/EbonyJanice 👩🏾‍💻 Also, I have a school. It’s called BGM Institute. We just launched a new class today and new courses and live online community workshops coming in the coming weeks! Www.bgminstitute.com #TheFreePeopleProject #BGmInstitute #NiggasInParis #BlackGirlMixtape 📽 x @33caratswebzine (at Paris, France) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuEy_Ewln1t/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1c30xw1evbj3d

#aave #jayz #crimemob #thefreepeopleproject #bgminstitute #niggasinparis #blackgirlmixtape

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titoslondon-blog · 6 years

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New Post has been published on Titos London

#Blog New Post has been published on http://www.titoslondon.co.uk/how-shivan-narreshs-indian-roots-inspire-their-bikini-designs/

How Shivan & Narresh’s Indian roots inspire their bikini designs

From bikini saris to skimpy trikinis inspired by Alexander Calder’s work, designers Shivan Bhatiya and Narresh Kukreja have been instrumental in shaping the identity of swimwear in the country. After 10 years of being in the industry, the Shivan & Narresh brand has grown from being India’s foremost resort wear label to include accessories and now a wedding planning vertical—Shivan & Narresh Celebrations. But the route to establishing a luxury swimwear label in a country that is still coming to terms with the bold new identity of the Indian woman, was not always easy. On World Bikini Day, Vogue got in touch with Narresh Kukreja to talk about the evolution of the label, women and their relations with their bodies, and the most iconic era for swimwear.

How did the idea of creating a swimwear label come to you?

When we finished our education, we wanted to start a new category, something that the Indian fashion scene had not seen at all. As designers, we both love to travel, to surprise people. We were also hugely driven by the fact that we really wanted India to have its own global luxury brand, for which we really wanted to take on a global category. To us, swimwear was the only category that had all the answers we were looking for.

From 3D swimsuits to halter bikinis, how has Shivan & Narresh, the brand, evolved?

When we began, we started as the first swimwear brand that did stitch free-swimsuits, so it was a completely couture driven swimwear category. We’re the only ones who don’t do any naked stitches on swimsuits—that was our first evolution. Second was that we came up with a new silhouette of the bikini sari, which went on to add a new category of swimwear to the international fashion directory—to be defined as what swimwear from India can do to global fashion. Of course, Kim Kardashian West wearing it for Vogue helped put in on the global map.

What inspired the bikini sari?

The thing is that after the bandhgala, India hasn’t made a contribution to global fashion. The bikini sari was a silhouette that didn’t exist in the fashion dictionary, but it was one that was relevant for millennial Indians. It provided a very important design solution as to what do you wear when you go to the beach. You can’t wear a sari, you can’t wear a salwar kameez, you can’t wear denim… what do Indian women wear? It was a very relevant question and it needed a design solution, so it did both the things. It did the problem solving for millennial women and gave the western fashion dictionary a new silhouette from India.

India has both fetishised the bikini and shunned it. How do you find the middle ground between those two extremes?

That’s our responsibility as designers. We are the bridge in the middle of what society looks like and what it should look like. We very sensitively show the people of the times that we’re living in, how they should ideally be living. A brand should be able to inspire relevant changes in the society to be considered successful. I think the bikini has been a very westernised concept for Indians even though ironically, we as a culture have been far ahead of our own times when it comes to women and body positivity. When you trace back to the ancient days, we wore smaller garments because they were more functional. We packaged our own history, relevance of the culture, relevance of recreation around water and put it together in a millennial brand and served it to India. People react to it so well because it’s something they needed.

In your research so far, what have been the most daring bikinis you’ve come across?

Honestly, the most daring that we’ve come across are all the sculptures that you see at the temples of Khajurao in Madhya Pradesh. The skimpiness that you see of costumes there, not only in the silhouette but even the transparency of the costumes, that you can literally imagine [that] the fabric draped on the woman was also finely woven. Just how daring could that have possibly been shows you how ahead we were of the times! How body confident we were as a society; how proud Indian women were! I don’t think, even in recorded western history, anything ever has been as daring asour own heritage.

What have been some of the challenges of working in swimwear?

Oh, everything! Manufacturing, for one, because we have a lack of trained labour in this industry. None of the Indian mills manufacture swimwear fabric, so we still procure all of ours from Italy. Marketing is another one, because in our country, people tend to be very culturally sensitive to a brand like ours. We have a very disorganised retail chain here—when you’re catering to prêt in such a western category, how do you prospectively sell a swimsuit of the right size to a woman? Women in our country are very different when it comes to swimsuits, and you cannot be there across all cities to help them pick up the right size—so there’s education involved, right from design and manufacturing to marketing and the sales level. It’s been a huge task, but I think because our love for the category is so immense, we find it fun; it’s creatively very challenging and we like that.

Women have really complicated relationships with their bodies. How do two men try to find solutions to their problems?

I think the fact that we’re men here makes it very simple. Being men, we’re actually very detached from the problems that women face when they wear swimsuits, and actually look at the swimwear from a purely design solution point of view. The byproduct of that is that you tend to seek a very different approach to swimwear. Instead of covering up with fabric, we’d rather solve the problem by graphically playing with more colours, choosing a certain print, by cutting a different pattern…

Art and travel really inspire the brand’s print and theme, but have they ever been instrumental in shaping the silhouettes that you make?

Always. I think what happens is that in a very typical design process. When we travel, we come across a good artist and get inspired. The collection that ensues is not just influenced by the colours and print elements, the design lines are as well. For example, if you look at the one that we did inspired by Lucio Fontana, who cut canvas in the middle, you’ll see ripped bikinis.

You’ve spoken about the daring bikinis. But what have been some of the most iconic bikini moments in history that you can think of?

I feel that India is always a starting point, but beyond that, more recently in recorded history, I feel that the end of the eighties and the nineties were a huge era when it comes to swimwear. I think the extremely dangerously high cut swimsuits, something that we also got to see in mainstream fashion in Baywatch… it transformed fashion, it started to almost define the times of the nineties.

Over the years, what has been the most audacious bikini Shivan & Narresh has created?

I think it has to be what we did with in our collection inspired by Alexander Calder’s aerodynamic sculptures. They were super skimpy but sold really well.

1/9 The first stitch-free design by Shivan & NarreshShivan & Narresh, spring/summer 2015Kim Kardashian West in Shivan & Narresh's bikini sari

Image: Greg Swales

'La Digue' bikini'La Digue' halter bikini'La Digue' trikiniBikini, Shivan & NarreshBikini, Shivan & NarreshBikini, Shivan & Narresh

The post How Shivan & Narresh’s Indian roots inspire their bikini designs appeared first on VOGUE India.

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vdbstore-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on Vintage Designer Handbags Online | Vintage Preowned Chanel Luxury Designer Brands Bags & Accessories

New Post has been published on http://vintagedesignerhandbagsonline.com/does-the-fashion-industry-still-need-vogue-in-the-age-of-social-media-fashion/

Does the fashion industry still need Vogue in the age of social media? | Fashion

For a new boss to dismiss the “old guard” who were the legacy of their predecessor and bring in new faces is not unusual. Indeed, when Alexandra Shulman vacated the editor’s chair at British Vogue, having occupied it for a quarter of the magazine’s 100-year history, it was wholly expected that her replacement, Edward Enninful, would bring in a team to put his own stamp on the industry glossy.

Last week Emily Sheffield, Shulman’s deputy and predicted by many as a shoo-in for her job, handed out invites to her leaving party, while Enninful – who officially takes the helm on 1 August – announced film-maker Steve McQueen and long-time friend Naomi Campbell as contributing editors. Kate Moss, already a contributing editor and regular cover girl, will continue working for the title.

That his shake-up would cause ripples beyond London’s Vogue House, or the front row at last week’s haute couture shows in Paris, was unthinkable. That is, until Lucinda Chambers, the long-serving fashion director ousted in favour of Enninful appointee Venetia Scott, vented her frustrations in a little-known industry publication – and it went viral.

It was the sometimes scathing and often cynical comments Chambers made about the fragrant world of glossy magazines that caused a public furore, and it spread faster on social media than a Kardashian wardrobe malfunction.

“The June cover with Alexa Chung in a stupid Michael Kors T-shirt is crap,” Chambers remarked of a Vogue shoot she’d done under commercial constraints. “He’s a big advertiser so I knew why I had to do it. Truth be told, I haven’t read Vogue in years … The clothes are just irrelevant for most people – so ridiculously expensive.”

While many in the industry are terrified to speak out, fearful of biting the bejewelled hand that feeds, she spoke candidly to Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, the founder and editor of Vestoj, a niche magazine that aims to “bring together academia and industry in a bid to combine academic theory, critical thinking and a bit of good old-fashioned glamour”.

Chambers’s recent comments have reopened the debate about the challenges facing the world of fashion publishing in the digital age. Catwalk shows used to be held twice a year for a closed shop of editors and buyers, who would reveal their carefully considered vision of trends to readers and customers a few months down the line. Now runway shows are live-streamed and consumers can order the clothes as soon as they have appeared.

Thus, the glossy magazine doesn’t have the power it once did. While Vogue transports the reader to a fantasy world of high fashion – in much the same way watching a film offers an escape from the everyday – and is still seen by many as the bastion of high-end style, the magazine’s influence has nevertheless been diluted.

“The evolution of technology and social media has allowed all consumers to have a voice,” says Professor Frances Corner, head of the London College of Fashion and an adviser to Vestoj. “The fashion world has been shaped in the same way as politics – where Trump, Corbyn and Macron have captured the imagination of sections of society who previously went unheard. Fashion is now far more democratic. There is no one bible and there is a marked shift in the way we consume fashion: the sources of our inspiration are increasingly fragmented and tailored to more specific audiences.

“I follow numerous Instagrammers and bloggers who appeal to my personal aesthetic, and there are many niche, magazines challenging the status quo of traditional fashion publishing and setting a different agenda for diverse audiences.”

Former fashion director at British Vogue Lucinda Chambers at Paris fashion week last year. Photograph: Dvora/Rex/Shutterstock

So how does the slow-moving monthly magazine keep pace with the frenetic speed of social media and the almost instantaneous coverage from bloggers and online media? Does a publication such as Vogue still have a place in modern society? “Magazines aren’t going to disappear,” says Bronwyn Cosgrave, former features editor at British Vogue. “People still like to have something tangible to browse – the book industry was predicted to collapse in the wake of the Kindle, but it has rebounded. I think magazine publishers simply have to work harder for attention in a competitive market. They need to diversify and become omni-platform businesses – Alex Shulman successfully launched the Vogue festival, which is a massive revenue stream for them now.”

Condé Nast recently attempted to expand into the retail sector, aiming to create an online shopping portal that would sell products featured in the editorial pages of its portfolio of magazines.

The evolution of technology and social media has allowed all consumers to have a voice

After all, Net-a-Porter had created a beautiful print magazine, Porter, to sell its collections. Launching with fashion brands, but failing to attract the hoped-for sales figures, the beleaguered venture collapsed a fortnight ago with losses of £78m. So, diversification isn’t always the way to go, and there’s still the dilemma of the future of the print publication and how it meets the needs of modern readers. “I don’t think news reporting is the way to go for print publications, that’s why I’ve shaped Vestoj to be more about reflection and analysis than the latest anything,” Anja Aronowsky Cronberg explains. “Reading longform writing on paper is still my preferred method. Photographs also tend to look much more enticing on a page than on a screen. One of my big bugbears when it comes to fashion publishing is how homogenous most magazines are. I’d love to see more diversity in how fashion is dealt with.”

The August issue of Glamour, one of Vogue’s Condé Nast stablemates, has just hit the newsstands, with the coverline “The Instagram issue”. Shunning professional models in favour of an array of social media influencers – including a plus-size model, a baker, a beauty vlogger and more – the magazine is turning to the digital space to provide print content.

“There is a certain prestige that comes from appearing in the print media that takes those people from the online world into a different sphere,” says editor Jo Elvin. “Speaking to powerful, high-earning social media stars such as Estée Lalonde and Tanya Burr, they tell me that being in or on the cover of a magazine is the final word in validation for them. And Glamour sells more copies now than many magazines I worked on in the 90s, pre-internet/smartphone, because we’re part of a fluid mix of media they consume and part of the conversations they want to be involved in.”

Ultimately, the fashion industry is a commercial behemoth with the remit of selling clothes – and lucrative, profit-heavy accessories, fragrance and cosmetics with the attached kudos of each coveted brand. Prior to the digital revolution, designers and fashion businesses were heavily dependent on the magazine industry to help them reach customers and endorse their collections.

“The one thing that has changed dramatically in recent years is the direct relationship brands now have with their consumers,” says Imran Amed, founder and editor in chief of the Business of Fashion, an independent publication that has become to industry insiders what the Financial Times is to the City.

“In this new hierarchy, the consumer has the ability to amplify or negatively impact on business, through sharing positive or negative responses. Once brands and magazines dictated what we should buy, now consumers are telling us what they like and want, and the power structure has been turned on its head.

“We are at a time of disruption in the wider world, and all businesses, in fashion and beyond, are testing new models to see what works and keeps them relevant to their audience.”

THE CHALLENGERS

The Gentlewoman Writer and academic Penny Martin launched her twice-yearly magazine in 2010 to “celebrate modern women of style and purpose with a fresh perspective … on the way women actually dress”.

The Business of Fashion A blog started by Imran Amed in 2007 to challenge Women’s Wear Daily now runs on subscriptions, and has a roll-call of respected writers, spin-off print editions and an events arm.

Vestoj Founded by another academic, Anya Aronowsky Cronberg, this annual journal aims to look at “fashion as a cultural phenomenon”, and “encourage and champion a critical and independent voice”.

10 magazine Founded by Sophia Neophitou, who began her career with a placement at British Vogue, 10 is a cult quarterly that sells around the world. “I chose the title because, at school, 10 out of 10 symbolised excellence.”

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