#and thus legitimizing and glamorizing the profession

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Tues 4 May ‘21

Louis had an added tour date and a bunch of reschedules announce today! Next March in Utah and April in Belgium and Amsterdam and Doncaster-- Spring ‘22 LT Tour it is! Tickets for the Belgium show go on sale Friday. The newly added venues are significantly larger than the ones the tour was originally booked in, to accommodate the growth in his fandom since those first shows were booked. I’m happy for him but we really missed out forever on the tiny venue tour we were supposed to have huh? Sighhhh.

And real pics of Harry on the My Policeman set are here at last! The paps are on site and we are flooded with HQs of filming, SO MANY of them. Yep, he’s really out there in a full cop uniform: it’s a good thing I can distinguish acting from life, unlike most of the people sending anons today, or that would really bother me, though ofc some people who do get that it’s just pretend are also unhappy about him in a role as a cop. The rest are mostly worked up about seeing him standing next to David Dawson and kissing Emma Corrin. Book readers remind us that the awkwardness you’re seeing in that kiss scene is GOOD acting, not bad, as his character is gay and attempting to play straight, with difficulty; I have No Comment with regard to people pointing out that it looks just the same as every other time we’ve seen him canoodle with a woman. At least we can finally put the Harry-is-blond thing to rest though, and next time someone cites THE SUN as a reason to believe something please remember that they told you he had bleached his hair. Also, actor and instagram sensation Leslie Jordan says Harry slid into his DMs and they chatted about acting and specifically My Policeman and Harry’s role. Regarding him ‘playing gay’ Jordan (an out gay actor) says he told him, “well you’re halfway there!”, referring to the way he dresses. Yes; at least halfway!

Niall was also papped, out and about in London with girlfriend Amelia. They’re both in high cuffed white trousers and look like they’re stoically suffering through the process of being photographed. Also he posted a bunch of pics (“NEW CAMERA” and there the camera is, visible in a mirror selfie- it’s a little film camera!) mostly of himself this time, nice. He’s with friends, he’s in the studio making music, he’s hiking a beautiful trail, he’s on the MV set with Anne Marie, he’s looking good!

Jesy from Little Mix said that Liam reached out to her after she left the band to let her know he was available if she wanted to talk. I remember him commenting on it at the time, saying “Zayn left for pretty much the same reasons and I do feel for them,” and I love that he acted on that, that’s so sweet. He also posted about Trussel Trust’s Hunger Free Future campaign to end food insecurity in the UK.

#Harry styles #louis tomlinson #niall horan #liam payne #but Discourse you ask don’t YOU hate cops? Why aren’t you upset about Harry playing one #and thus legitimizing and glamorizing the profession? Well dear reader I’m gonna be honest with you #Harry is a celebrity who I enjoy and find it fun to keep up with and I do truly feel so much love for him #but he occupies a totally different category for me than people I know in real life who work against capitalism and oppression #and my expectations for him are tbh very low #Harry is a caring and well intentioned man who occasionally mentions trendy activist causes #and cares deeply about causes that effect him (ie LGBT stuff) #and he’s also a capitalist and a reformist and he’s not even trying to participate in conversations about restructuring society #nor does anything he’s ever said or done suggest he would support that and many things pretty clearly show the opposite #like I’m sorry: but he will 100% call the cops on us when we have to storm his house with the guillotine :’{( #that said he is SO MUCH better than so many people- for example when he was being stalked and instead of calling the cops on the homeless pe #person #camping out across from his house he gave him food and tried to negotiate with him etc until the situation got so bad that #he was scared and needed to take steps. That’s great! He took pretty much all the steps suggested by ‘don’t call the cops’ trainings #(which sadly do generally end with ‘because society has not yet replaced this institution with alternatives #if you feel physically endangered and would be in less danger from cops and aren't going to get someone shot #you may need to resort to their involvement') #I love him for that! but he’s still ultimately not trying to tear down society and he was offered a great role and took it #and who knows maybe he’ll do great things for the conversation around it he often surprises with his thoughtfulness #as for me #I think it’s actually been really good for me to feel so much affection for these imperfect boys #I’ve always been a pretty intolerant person in real life and quick to write people off for not living up to my standards #learning to clearly perceive someone’s flaws and finding I can still feel love for them has been a really good practice for me tbh #that said they are random celebs who are basically a product you’re buying-- you do not have to feel guilty to unstan! Ever! #Do what supports your journey! But if you’re just moving on to the next celeb I have to warn you they will also disappoint you #the rich cannot save us and are ultimately irrelevant and have much less of interest to say than oppressed people

[fullmetaliconoclast-blog]

Contrarian Investing and Mass Psychology relations

Contrarian Investing Is a Relatively Simple Concept a standout amongst the most ideal approaches to get a grip for the fundamental standards of mass psychology research would be for us to list a couple of things we have seen throughout the years. We trust this will help give the understudy who needs to assist his insight and comprehend of mass brain science with a firmer balance. So, mass brain science is realizing when to purchase and when to move, by using mass assumption further bolstering your good fortune. You don't simply purchase or move in light of the fact that the majority are doing as such. One needs to trust that the feeling will hit the breaking point, sometimes, it needs to hit the extraordinary of outrageous extents. At the end of the day, individuals ought to foam with Greed or dread before you step or out of the business sectors.

Elements to recall and remember with regards to Mass Psychology and Investing

Calamity travel every which way and this cycle will never finish until Fiat is completely dispensed with

Stress is the most ruinous power known to mankind, along these lines attempt to not stress over things you have no influence over. Concentrate on the now, for the now shapes what's to come.

A standout amongst the most ideal approaches to help your pressure is to stress over an occasion you have no influence over and after that lose the open door that is gazing you in the face. For instance, agonizing over a financial exchange crash and in the process missing the securities exchange bull. At the point when the bull closes you revile yourself not grasping it thus the despicable procedure proceeds. The illness and the fix exist in your very own hands. Take care of business or another person will and the result won't be the one you wish, need, or sought after?

Dread mongers will dependably be there however consider them entertainers as opposed to considering them important and you will do fine and dandy. Their recommendation is keeping pace with trash so use them to get a decent snicker from rather than tuning in to their rubbish.

Try not to be a piece of the group that serenade's "I wish I purchased when the business sectors were going into disrepair, however when they get that chance yet these equivalent people will be the initial ones to escape for the slopes.

Try not to stress over kicking the bucket; its unexpected individuals invest more energy agonizing over biting the dust then they spend on living. Concentrate on the best way to make every snapshot of this limited life increasingly critical. Dead men tell no stories on the grounds that the living are greatly improved at it.

The presumption that it's a static field is held by the new type of style contrarians, whose just commitment to this field has been to glamorize it and twist the genuine thought of being a contrarian financial specialist.

These style contrarians are the same as those with the mass mentality; they just profess to do things any other way, yet the minute dread or vulnerability is noticeable all around, they escape for the ways out like crooks being pursued by the dogs of damnation. A genuine contrarian much of the time comprehends the fundamental standards of mass brain research. On the off chance that you are not acquainted with these principles, you are doing yourself an injury and should get up to speed with them ASAP. These straightforward seven standards for contrarian contributing will furnish the amateur with a firm establishment on which the person can work from.

Genuine Contrarian Investors Understand The BasicPsychologyhology

At the Tactical Investor, while we grasp the idea of contrarian contributing our actual spotlight is on joining the key principles of contrarian contributing with the influential idea of mass brain research. We trust this is the most vigorous framework out there as brain science is the key main impetus behind pretty much every human activity.

We will give a rundown of principles that we accept are the most imperative with respect to contrarian contributing. It will give both the amateur and prepared dealer with thoughts that should help enhance your exchanging aptitudes whenever executed legitimately. Control and persistence are basic qualities in the event that you need to succeed; nothing comes effectively, for on the off chance that it did, everybody would probably do what you are doing.

These contrarian rules in no way, shape or form envelop every one of the guidelines related with the idea of contrarian contributing. Be that as it may, they do furnish you with a firm establishment on which to manufacture your speculation vocation.

[sansarellio]

Mass Psychology view on Contrarian Investing

Contrarian Investing Is a Relatively Simple Concept a standout amongst the most ideal approaches to get a grip for the fundamental standards of Mass Psychology research would be for us to list a couple of things we have seen throughout the years. We trust this will help give the understudy who needs to assist his insight and comprehend of mass brain science with a firmer balance. So, mass brain science is realizing when to purchase and when to move, by using mass assumption further bolstering your good fortune. You don’t simply purchase or move in light of the fact that the majority are doing as such. One needs to trust that the feeling will hit the breaking point, sometimes, it needs to hit the extraordinary of outrageous extents. At the end of the day, individuals ought to foam with Greed or dread before you step or out of the business sectors.

Elements to recall and remember with regards to Mass Psychology and Investing

Calamity travel every which way and this cycle will never finish until Fiat is completely dispensed with

Stress is the most ruinous power known to mankind, along these lines attempt to not stress over things you have no influence over. Concentrate on the now, for the now shapes what’s to come.

A standout amongst the most ideal approaches to help your pressure is to stress over an occasion you have no influence over and after that lose the open door that is gazing you in the face. For instance, agonizing over a financial exchange crash and in the process missing the securities exchange bull. At the point when the bull closes you revile yourself not grasping it thus the despicable procedure proceeds. The illness and the fix exist in your very own hands. Take care of business or another person will and the result won’t be the one you wish, need, or sought after?

Dread mongers will dependably be there however consider them entertainers as opposed to considering them important and you will do fine and dandy. Their recommendation is keeping pace with trash so use them to get a decent snicker from rather than tuning in to their rubbish.

Try not to be a piece of the group that serenade’s “I wish I purchased when the business sectors were going into disrepair, however when they get that chance yet these equivalent people will be the initial ones to escape for the slopes.

Try not to stress over kicking the bucket; its unexpected individuals invest more energy agonizing over biting the dust then they spend on living. Concentrate on the best way to make every snapshot of this limited life increasingly critical. Dead men tell no stories on the grounds that the living are greatly improved at it.

The presumption that it’s a static field is held by the new type of style contrarians, whose just commitment to this field has been to glamorize it and twist the genuine thought of being a contrarian financial specialist.

These style contrarians are the same as those with the mass mentality; they just profess to do things any other way, yet the minute dread or vulnerability is noticeable all around, they escape for the ways out like crooks being pursued by the dogs of damnation. A genuine contrarian much of the time comprehends the fundamental standards of mass brain research. On the off chance that you are not acquainted with these principles, you are doing yourself an injury and should get up to speed with them ASAP. These straightforward seven standards for contrarian contributing will furnish the amateur with a firm establishment on which the person can work from.

Genuine Contrarian Investors Understand The BasicPsychologyhology

At the Tactical Investor, while we grasp the idea of contrarian contributing our actual spotlight is on joining the key principles of contrarian contributing with the influential idea of mass brain research. We trust this is the most vigorous framework out there as brain science is the key main impetus behind pretty much every human activity.

We will give a rundown of principles that we accept are the most imperative with respect to contrarian contributing. It will give both the amateur and prepared dealer with thoughts that should help enhance your exchanging aptitudes whenever executed legitimately. Control and persistence are basic qualities in the event that you need to succeed; nothing comes effectively, for on the off chance that it did, everybody would probably do what you are doing.

These contrarian rules in no way, shape or form envelop every one of the guidelines related with the idea of contrarian contributing. Be that as it may, they do furnish you with a firm establishment on which to manufacture your speculation vocation.

[thesethingsofours]

Black is King: Africa Beyoncéfied

I really enjoy watching old music videos on YouTube. It reminds me of simpler times: before CGI, insanely big budgets and, well, YouTube.

​Lately, I’ve been tripping on Kate Bush. Wuthering Heights sees her as a cosmic, cherubic teenager wafting alone in a field. In Army Dreamers she’s running through a forest with a  blonde kid, stopping only to mesmerise with her phantasmal, milky eyes. In Breathing she’s stuck in a Zorb until freed to join some green-faced virologists in a lagoon.

Those are all delightful, but my favourite has to be Babooshka. Shrouded in a black veil, she cavorts, improvised and imperfect, with a double-bass; like a mime artist bride's first dance at an enchanted wedding reception. Then, the chorus kicks in. Wailing, she transforms into a steampunk warrior temptress, back-lit by a heavenly white glow; her hips uttering truths even Shakira’s could never profess to know. There is one camera, one room, one performer, two outfits, and one special effect – zoom. It’s lo-def, simple, cheap, and in its way, purely spectacular.

Fast-forward almost exactly forty years and, NOW STREAMING ON DISNEY+, Beyoncé releases Black is King – an ostentatious, opulent, enormous, 85-minute antithesis to the austerity of Babooska. In keeping with BEYONCÉ and Lemonade, it’s a “visual album” to accompany her (I suppose we need to call it now) “audio album” – The Lion King: The Gift. Both are inspired by last year’s CGI-update of the classic 1994 animation, following a similar storyline.

The film opens onto an “African” river. A wicker basket floats downstream, interspersed with shots of colourfully clad “Africans” in a variety of settings. James Earl Jones resonantly reiterates that “we are all connected in the great circle of life”. Under a pastel sunset, Beyoncé materialises on a beach in a flowing, white mille-feuille dress, holding a baby. There is spoken-word poetry, earnestness, shots of her daughter, a man painted blue. A group baptism ensues. Church organs sound. “You’re part of something way bigger”, she exclaims as she paints the face of a pre-pubescent boy.

The imagery steeply escalates, every colour luminescent and outfits increasingly innumerable. Beyoncé in horse-print… on a horse. Beyoncé in a painting… as Mother Mary. Beyoncé in water, dripping with red rope. It turns out we’ve been in heaven. Or space. Or somewhere beyond both - blacker and more kingly. The boy takes off, becomes a comet, hurtling towards earth. Is this in 4K? 8K? 16K?  Did they shoot it in Bey, not K? Whatever the definition, it is high. Babooshka, it is not. ​ This is irrepressible Beyoncé, lofty Beyoncé; the terrestrial goddess, progenitor of pop. To make the film, Queen Bey – who also wrote, directed and produced – drafted in a wealth First off, a word about Beyoncé’s “Africa”. It is relentlessly proud and picturesque in a way perhaps no other film about “Africa” has ever been. It is cool, hot, sensual, and sincere. It is appealingly traditional yet ambitiously modern. It’s Africa filtered first through the American kaleidoscope, then again through a diamond encrusted Beyoncéscope.

But as my Ghanaian mother relentlessly reminded people, Africa is not a country. It is the second largest continent on earth. It is not at all a singular culture. To chop up a kilo of its prettiest bits and squish them all into one tasty, palatable burger would be horribly reductive. One can fairly assume that patty-fying Africa is not Beyoncé’s intention, but if Black is King’s aim is not to represent a real-life place, what is it intended to do? In Beyoncé’s own words from a June 29 Instagram post:

I wanted to present elements of Black history and African tradition, with a modern twist and a universal message, and what it truly means to find your self-identity and build a legacy.

So it’s an idealised agglomeration of cultural concepts in service of Beyoncé’s ideas about her true heritage, and by association, those of anyone that identifies as black. ​Pastiche-ifying Africa. Fair enough.

But as I watch, innumerable questions arise, thudding inside my skull to the rhythm of jovial afrobeats: Where is the line between race and culture? Where does glorifying one’s ancestry end and appropriating a foreign culture begin? What legitimate connection does a billionaire American musician have to the African continent (where she has rarely visited and even more rarely performed)? Does being a dark-skinned American, 10-15 generations removed from your African ancestors, deliver a free pass to portray a place of 1.3 billion people you have barely been to?

What if Beyoncé was white, but born and raised in Ethiopia, and she made this same film? Is Beyoncé, in fact, the best – or only – person to show a positive version of modern “Africa” to a global audience? Is she creating a falsely romanticised version of heritage for Black Americans or a necessary interpretation of the continent they have a natural, genetic attachment to? Is animal print and people in trees cool or offensive? Is it cool or offensive to present all black people as the descendants of Kings and Queens? Is Disney+ available anywhere in Africa and will it ever be?

Is this just a pop music video, geared towards Beyoncé and Jay-Z adding to their billion-dollar empire? Or is it a deeply meaningful, glamorous exposition of what it means to be black, whether diasporic or native to Africa? Is Black, in fact, King?

I can’t answer most of these questions because I could argue both sides ‘til the Beys come home. Black is King is simultaneously superfluous and necessary; respectful and insulting; clever and vapid. It’s completely absurd, and completely logical. Part of me is appalled, but the majority, absorbed; addicted.

​I can’t look away. It’s the Beyoncé Paradox.

Many of these contentions arise because Beyoncé is so often front and centre; royally, religiously presented. In fact, the scenes without her – those dominated by West and South African rappers, singers, and nameless dancers – offer the most exhilarating, authentic, and refreshing moments. Had she chosen to purely direct rather than star, or stayed a little more in the background, her broader message may have been elevated. Instead, with her plumb in the middle, Africa is necessarily re-invented in Beyoncé’s image; moulded to fit the Beyoncé narrative - not that of the global Black diaspora, “Africans”, or nationals of its 50+ territories, hosting 2000+ languages. In this world, Beyoncé is King, albeit a benevolent one that invites her African subjects to participate in amplifying her personal glorification, ancestral identification and iconographic myth-building.

This is the artist’s prerogative, but ultimately, attributing deeper meaning to the film than it being a fundamentally superficial exercise in branding Beyoncé as Disney’s African Queen feels pretentious. Arguable, but pretentious.

That said, just as a joke is only offensive if it is insufficiently funny, when something is as beautiful, stimulating, and cool as this, does anything else matter? If people are happy to pay $7 a month and find some fantastical personal solace in it, what harm does it do? In the end, it’s a big, sexy, pop music video. Entertainment. Treated predominantly thus, it is, in its way, purely spectacular.  So watch it. While Lemonade had far deeper meaning because of her proximity to the subject matter, Black is King is still Beyoncé’s most stunning video to date. Its form and existence raise challenging questions about race, heritage, culture and society, but in the end, the sheer scale and sumptuous visual onslaught will inevitably win out. Streaming now on Disney+.* (*Not available in Africa)

Black is King Trailer

Babooshka

#beyonce #disney plus #film #film review #movie #movie review #godontgo #music #visual album #disney

[ralphland]

With the recent scandals rocking Hollywood, it is easy to believe that the entertainment industry is more debauched these days than it was in its silent and golden eras. Umfortunately, this is not really the case. Hollywood was just better at hiding its scandals than it was in the past. This week, we’ll look at Hollywood’s scandals and how it used to deal with them.

Throughout history, acting was never seen as being glamorous or a legitimate career. Before mankind could record action on film, people seeking to make a living in acting had to join traveling troupes that would move from town to town putting on plays. Most “regular” people saw them as little more than transients who traveled like nomads. Some religious types objected to their “play-acting.” When the actors came to town, however, most people would still turn out in droves. It was a way to pay the bills, but acting didn’t provide much more than that.

Once it became possible to capture performances on film, acting became more of a viable career. It also allowed the actors to finally settle down and make a decent living. Believe it or not, however, there were still people who looked down upon actors. When the film industry was chased out of New Jersey by Thomas Edison, it ended up in Southern California. Its new hometown, however, was loathe to welcome it. Some of the wealthy and powerful citizens of Los Angeles actually tried to stop this incursion and fought against this new industry. The film studios, however, were able to fully take root in Southern California and the region became forever entwined with the motion picture industry.

The major studios, eager to clean up the bad reputation the acting profession had at the time, established strict guidelines for how their talent should comport themselves. Fearing that any major scandal would tarnish the industry’s image, the studios setup extensive public relations and “security” departments. These departments would make sure that anything that would reflect badly on the industry would be suppressed. Actors and actresses were given cleaned up bios and members of the LAPD were given monetary incentives to look the other way. If a scandalous act was committed, actors and actresses were advised to call the studio security department before calling the cops. The studio would then evaluate the situation and provide whatever assistance was necessary, including cleaning up the crime scene, scheduling illegal abortions and making “donations” to everyone with knowledge of the event.

When the Studio system collapsed, these security departments were dismantled. Actors and actresses were left on their own to resolve scandalous situations. Thus began the rise of talent agencies. These agencies were primarily supposed to negotiate salaries for their clients, but they would often do their best to hush up scandals. The rise of tabloid television and a 24/7 news cycle would make this task difficult, though as we’ve recently learned, it wasn’t necessarily impossible.

#IFTTT #Blogger

[moesunamigendertheory-blog]

Project Write-up: Theorist Influences on Metaphors and the Sexist Alphabet

One salient influence on the content of Metaphors and the Sexist Alphabet for Phillips Academy was the theory of Carol Mavor, author of Pleasures Taken, a text analyzing the influence of sexuality and autonomy of the subjects within the photographic medium. In Pleasures, Mavor writes of one woman: “Hannah’s pictures annihilate us by refusing categorization, which then undoes our subjectivity . . . As Lacan remarked, ‘The picture is in my eye. But I am not in the picture” (Mavor 115). How does the patriarchy inform presence in the real world, and within the photographed image of Metaphors and Sexist Alphabet? In Rr: Racism, for example, a white woman commands the attention of the camera, blocking from view two women of color who, it is barely apparent, look at one another with frustration. In Oo: Objectification, set among bottles of shampoo and perfume, a woman’s face takes on the appearance of an appliance, separated from her body and placed among the inanimate. The picture is in her eye, in other words, but she is not in the picture. Within the community at large, the role of the camera in erasure is clear: the commercial camera’s love affair with white bodies serves to objectify white women and erase people of color while personal use of the camera allows the individual to force the subject into an attitude that expresses how the photographer views that subject. It is thus that Sexist Alphabet was designed to explore and test the power of presence as it is influenced by marginalization; here, women become objects and props to the agenda of male dominance. Additionally, Mavor suggests the ethics of “pleasures taken,” or the ability of the camera to disenfranchise and violate the subject. Sexist Alphabet explores different power dynamics—oppression between students, the injustice enabled by the administration, greater themes of subjugation not specific to Andover—in order to discuss the way in which pleasure is taken from the subjects of the photograph by the society in which they live.

With her theory of performativity in gender, Butler informed the creation of both Sexist Alphabet and Metaphors. As Metaphors delineates the ways in which sexism and misogyny function, Sexist Alphabet applies those forms of oppression to the context of Andover, allowing the audience to appreciate the salience of those themes in their own lives, as well as their own complicity with those systems. Within Metaphors’ Clenched Hand/Open Hand, the theme of performativity is directly explored; just as the hand clenches upon the flowered necklace, our society is inclined to hold tightly to the gender norms that govern our behavior. Because many of the people featured in Sexist Alphabet—including the project creator herself—do not align themselves with the values or beliefs depicted in the photographs in which they appear, an aspect of performativity was necessary to the project. This was perhaps most visible in Ff: F*ckboy, in which a young man in sportswear makes a gesture well-known as a symbol of the young men who participate in toxic masculinity and rape culture. The student himself self-identifies as a feminist, and professed his distaste for f*ckboy culture; in order for him to participate in the project, therefore, it was necessary for him to briefly assume a brand of masculinity that was not his own. Similarly, in Ll: Locker Room Talk, the male students involved in the photograph approached the staging of the shot with sheepish humor, simultaneously acknowledging both the ridiculousness they perceived in the macho behavior traditionally involved with the locker room and the fact that the nation’s current president is now generally associated with the toxic masculinity it evokes.

Butler’s theory of gender performativity impacted the choice of Buddhism as an inspiration for the Metaphors series. Like Gender and Sexuality Studies, Buddhism seeks to destabilize and reconstruct reality as it is easily perceived, and is rich with visual metaphors that show the constant evolution of of reality. This is a consequence of one of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism, which dictates that that delusion is at the root of all human suffering, and the spiritual path in Buddhism seeks to untangle the mind from these biases. The Buddhist acknowledgement of the constructedness of all experience has a specific resonance with Judith Butler’s theories of performativity. Buddhism says that there is no essential identity to a self, be it as a woman, son, merchant, or other identifiers; these are all habituations from past thoughts, behaviors, and actions. Likewise, Judith Butler criticizes the “essentialism” of supposing heterosexual norms of masculinity and femininity has some internal permanence.

Mavor and Butler intersect at the crossroads of identity politics: how can one engage in self-preservation and maintain one’s identity in a society bent upon erasing it or forcing it into an expression with which it does not align? As Metaphors’ Stool reminds us, things are not what they appear to be; as theory asserts, identity is far more complex than it may seem. Images of photography in Sexist Alphabet (i.e. Cc: Cultural Appropriation and Gg: Gaze) show the power of the gaze to perpetuate racism and sexism, as well as the Foucauldian obsession with the image of the self or Other. It is often more expedient to cling to normative forms of gender and sexuality, or to allow a camera to reduce one’s self to a single image, yet more fulfilling is an acceptance and embrace of the true self that a camera cannot capture. Sexist Alphabet is, of course, not a full depiction of sexism at Andover, because the truth is that most people tend to make exceptions in their prejudiced worldviews for the people they admire, like, and love. One cannot help but imagine the shouting male student in Mm: Misogyny returning to Commons to have lunch with a close female friend who is “not like other girls,” or speaking highly of a female teacher whose class he enjoys. As both Mavor and Butler assert, therefore, all forms of self-expression, especially the camera, can only explain a single facet of the systems of oppression at work in our world; our identities, particularly in terms of gender, cannot be contained within an article of clothing or a snapshot in a photo series.

Yet, we have attempted to work with and expand on the limitations of photography in capturing reality, with especial attention to the gazes employed. When viewed in the light of Laura Mulvey’s theory of a scopophilic gaze in cinema, our series do not allow the viewer from the satisfaction of being an ‘invisible guest.’ Our series invite confrontation, physically and thematically, whereas the masculine gaze seeks passive objects to glamorize. In Sexist Alphabet’s Oo: Objectification, the subject stares directly at the camera. Aligned with bottles of shampoo, it challenges the viewer to equate her with the other objects; although the photograph does not speak, it is not silent. Without an instrument of passivity it is impossible for the female figure to be tamed into an object for visual pleasure. Furthermore, our series reject one of the exclusive tools of a masculine gaze: identification with the male object. The photographs in Metaphors are impersonal, and thus there is no intermediary gaze that compromises the viewer from seeing reality as is. Meanwhile, no sympathy with one character is expressed in Sexist Alphabets either. Through this project, we sought to explore what a feminist photography may look like, one in which images of women exist not to give pleasure but to reach beyond the silence of photography. Just as Butler says that fantasy “establishes the possible in excess of the real” (Butler 217) photography serves to legitimize what we believe to be possible - a shared understanding of the causes and faces of sexism.

Can there be a pure feminism? Relying upon the master’s tools, can we bring down the master’s house? In “Moving Beyond Pain,” renowned theorist bell hooks criticizes Beyoncé for her depiction of pain and suffering as a result of male misbehavior in Lemonade. Cannot she rely, wonders bell, upon a new language, creating new tools for the deconstruction of the patriarchy? Responding to those criticisms, a round table of modern feminists have since weighed in, saying that it is unfair to expect Beyoncé and other women of color to use their power for social justice, as few white performers are held to the same standard. Sexist Alphabet in particular explores the notion of a new language; it redefines the traditional alphabet in terms of the injustices faced by women. While the words and concepts utilized in the project are familiar to the viewer, the placement of our alphabet in a new context allows for the understanding of language as an expedient of power and ideology. As most people at Andover are introduced to social justice through informal settings such as PACE and YouTube videos, many people, although passionate about radical transformations, lack the intellectual language and theory that enriches the understanding of the work they do. Photography, as an accessible medium, establishes connections between the intellectual feminism that seeks radical transformation and a practical, mass-consumed feminism.