#it is still possible to feel completely alienated by mainstream society and media sometimes because it's Not For You if you're aspec

[rotationalsymmetry]

Sometimes my brain will not let go of a thing.

And, when I argue I tend to go back and forth between being very sure and argumentative, and second-guessing everything I’ve thought or said ever.

So, since I’m well into my second guessing phase, did I miss something there? I think if I missed something, it would be “sometimes it’s not about you.” Thing is though? I didn’t miss that. I’m aware of that. I’m fully aware that healthy people complaining about being inside more than usual, and missing out on stuff, isn’t about disabled/chronically ill people.

And that itself is part of the thing? Intention/impact. Not thinking about people can be a problem too. It’s...actually OK for people to notice and comment on when we’re *not* being thought of.

And it’s certainly not about not being able to handle people talking about being different. That’s...how do you even get there.

It’s not about being intolerant of people who are more sociable or more outdoorsy missing stuff. I miss stuff too. I get it. It’s fine to miss things. (We’re not different. I do miss things. I miss things so much.)

This is really not about whether it’s ok for people to be sad about pandemic restrictions. Of course it’s ok. (Feelings = always ok.)

It’s also incredibly frustrating, speaking as a chronically ill person, to hear people be publicly sad about missing things you’ve been missing from before the pandemic, while being completely oblivious to your own more enduring sadness. I get this with worship a lot: I tried a virtual worship service at a congregation that normally meets in person early on, and there was a lot of public mourning around not being able to meet in person. And I get that. Zoom worship is not the same. I miss in person worship too. And: I was already missing in person worship. And feeling profoundly alienated and ignored over it — not just that I couldn’t go to worship in person, but that I could easily see things my local congregation could be doing to be more inclusive, really simple things, that it wasn’t doing. So, zoom worship, especially everyone being on zoom, that’s actually a significant improvement for me. So hearing people be sad over something that’s a step down for them and a step up for me, without there being room for me to talk about how it’s a step up for me. How I’d been a step down (several steps down) from the current situation before. It’s.

There aren’t words. It’s like I turned invisible, or turned into a not-person, some time when I wasn’t looking.

I think that’s worth talking about. And at least as much worth talking about as the sadness of healthy people who are missing out. Who can also talk about their sadness, just, it’d be nice if sometimes they looked around.

It’s, uh, well sorry for this, but it’s a little like Dudley complaining about only getting thirty eight presents or whatever, when Harry’s right there and not getting any presents at all. There’s, uh, it’s ok to be upset, it’s not a competition, there is room for many different levels of disappointment, and of course some people are getting hit harder than others, but also...perspective please.

A little over a year ago I was in an airport, and had sensibly requested a wheelchair, and I got treated like luggage. Pushing the wheelchair without giving me a heads-up first even after I complained the first time it happened, for instance. Getting treated more like an object than a person is, tbh, not really something I’m used to happening to me. It’s jarring. To go from someone people care about. To being luggage. Going from being a valued member or prospective member of a congregation, someone who’s welcomed in and wanted. To someone that people won’t make even the smallest accommodation for, even when that accommodation would mean the world to you.

And, good grief, this is just me and I’ve still got it WAY better in many ways than a lot of other disabled people.

It’s not just about disability either. It’s also “oh it’s like being in prison” well no, you see there are actual people in prison, and they’re dying at appalling rates, and having to stay in your home that’s set up the way you like it and might even have multiple rooms you can be in and also being able to go for a walk around the neighborhood when you want, is only a tiny bit like prison even when people aren’t dying.

(And people can talk about their frustrations without bringing prison into it. And people who feel disappointed or frustrated that they’re missing out can be a bit cautious about complaining to or perhaps in front of someone who’s objectively missing out on more, or make sure they’re all ears when the person who’s missing out more wants to vent, because let me tell you a lot of disabled people find that abled people are in general not very helpful when it comes to expressing our frustrations.) (Some exceptions of course — but it is a very common experience, and personally I rarely full on vent to anyone except my partner or other chronically ill people. Healthy people tend to take complaints as a request for suggesting possible treatments, which is not constructive.)

There’s a lot of ways in which some people habitually have it much, much worse than others, and yet somehow the people who have it less bad get lots of room to talk about their troubles, lots of sympathy and understanding and getting to see their troubles represented in fiction and talked about on the news and so on, and the people who have it the worst do not get any sympathy at all. (Which of course is not to say I myself am perfect and always get it right, I’m not and I don’t.)

And when we’re presented in news articles or other media, often it’s for abled people and not for us (“inspiration porn”.)

And you see this on so many levels with the pandemic. There’s a zillion articles on working from home and reducing your risk when you don’t have to do anything more risky than a grocery run. And virtually none on how essential workers can protect themselves. I don’t know about media specifically aimed at parents, but news articles aimed at the general public rarely mention the difficulties of parenting during the pandemic. I don’t think I’ve seen a single article talking about how the pandemic and staying home might be especially hard on kids and teens, or even young adults (even though obviously it’s easier to be resilient when you’ve had a ton of positive past experiences you can draw on, which for many people includes prom night and early-twenties bar hopping, and even though young people are more likely to be in a life stage where they’re looking for a friend group or a romantic partner which is much harder to do if you can’t go places) or the elderly. (See? I get it. Nights out and road trips and so on aren’t frivolous, they’re what tie the social fabric together.) But there’s a ton of articles about how to adjust to working from home. And how the economy is doing.

Almost like we live in a society that values “workers” and “consumers” more than people. And only certain kinds of workers at that.

Let’s push back on that, OK? I’m a person. Terminal cancer patients are people. Old ladies who go to the dialysis clinic are people. Full time wheelchair users are people. People with intellectual disabilities are people. Dementia patients who don’t remember their own name, are people. Prisoners are people. Immigrants and asylum seekers are people. Sex workers are people. Black peoples are people. Indigenous people are people. Bus drivers and garbage collectors and baristas and cashiers and janitors are people. Trauma survivors are people. People with all sorts of mental illnesses — not just depression and anxiety, but psychosis and schizophrenia and personality disorders (edit: and addictions), all mental illnesses — are people. Furries or whoever is being made fun of these days, are people. People who can’t use words are people. People who “look funny” are people. People who are “I don’t know, they just have a really weird vibe, I just don’t like them, you know?” are people. People with bad teeth, with weird accents, who don’t know that thing that everybody knows, people who don’t have the right politics or use the right words, we are all people.

We all have inherent worth, we all deserve basic respect and compassion and care, we all have the same basic rights, we all deserve to have our struggles heard and taken seriously. Even when we don’t explain ourselves well. Especially when we don’t explain ourselves well.

Do you understand? Especially when we don’t explain ourselves well. Because, people who aren’t good at explaining things, also have problems and are understood less often.

Or people who want to explain things that are hard to explain, because they’re outside of the mainstream frame of reference.

#ramble #long post #political #ableism #oppression #marginalization #dehumanization #privilege #Harry Potter #coronavirus #quarantine #lockdown #treat people like people #discourse #I guess #what is discourse #what are words

[drawingconclusions]

THE 2020 ELECTION

Again, everyone and their gerbil is chiming in about the upcoming election, so I figure I should join in, too. Before continuing, you should know I haven't been studying anyone else's reasoning for which candidate they'll support. What I'm writing now is something I've been planning on doing for several weeks. So enough with the preliminaries, let me come right out with it.

I'll be voting for Trump and Pence this election. As I've said before, there are some of Trump's tweets that makes me wince, and certain public spats he gets involved in which I sometimes find completely unnecessary. But it's my opinion that the Trump/Pence ticket is the best choice for America at this point in time.

I suppose I could focus on the positive things Trump has done and act as a cheerleader for his campaign. But there are people who get paid to do that. And besides, you can look all that up for yourself (although you may have to do some digging, considering how the mainstream media hardly talk about it). But right now I'm going to mostly focus on something else, on why I can't vote for the Democrats.

First of all, it took far too long for the Biden campaign to denounce the violent protests that occurred throughout America over the past summer. In fact, some of Biden's staffers even chipped in to provide bail for the destructive anarchists who were causing the damage. So that makes me seriously wonder about their commitment to peace and whether their campaign will engage in machiavellian tendencies to anarchy, which you know I can't support.

If you're concerned about censorship in social media or in other aspects of life, then you may want to reconsider supporting a Democrat in the 2020 election. If you recall, the tech companies who have been engaging in censorship of conservative content or content that could potentially harm Democrat candidates are the same ones who were nearly brought to tears when Hillary Clinton lost the election in 2016. They've made no secret of their support for left-leaning causes and candidates, and if Biden & Harris are elected, I suspect dissidents and people with what they consider the "wrong ideas" will likely experience censorship on a more widespread level. I heard a report that the Biden campaign actually requested that Facebook begin to censor the Trump campaign. And remember, the left is the party that in some quarters declared that "speech is violence" and actively engaged in silencing speakers (sometimes violently) on American campuses. Freedom of speech is a bedrock of America. If you value it, then you should really stop and consider which candidates will fight for it and which ones will casually erode our treasured freedoms without even batting an eye.

I cannot support the left's abhorrent disregard for human life and I can never forget Governor Northam's talk about keeping a newborn baby "comfortable" while the parents gibly decide whether to keep it alive or not. Infanticide is still infanticide no matter how you may describe it. Many Democrats support unlimited abortion (or infanticide) for any reason, and I can't embrace that. And as for the thousands of elderly coronavirus deaths from nursing homes in Democrat-run states, that's an issue for another day that deserves its very own post.

The left has repeatedly made clear their disdain for people of faith. Just look at how Democrats treated Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing in 2019 and how they treated Amy Coney Barrett during her previous confirmation. Take some time and do research on how many companies & organizations besides Amazon follow the Southern Poverty Law Center's guidelines for charity giving, etc. According to them and others, many faith-based organizations are considered some kind of threat to society for simply believing (as I do) that marriage is defined as a relationship between a man and a woman. And does anyone remember how some Democrat localities and states treated churches & people who tried to attend services during the pandemic? It's just a hunch, but I have a feeling that would likely continue and possibly increase under a potential Democrat administration.

I know there are some Republicans who pay lip service to faith, if only just to gain votes. And I'm not terribly concerned about either the right or the left trying to stamp out people of faith. God is sovereign and He's in control of it all, not them. Christianity & Judaism have persevered for centuries despite severe persecution at times. God's kingdom is the rock from the vision of the book of Daniel, the heavenly kingdom that will supersede and outlast all earthly kingdoms. I speak out for freedom of religion because I don't want to see America become another communist China or socialist Venezuela where both Muslims & Christians alike are targeted for what they believe.

This not-so-recent behavior of the left to attempt to change the rules if you don't like how something turns out is another reason why I can't vote Democrat this election. Look, I'm not naïve enough to believe that Democrats are the only ones who are willing to do this. Republicans have likely also been guilty of this in terms of redistricting of voter precincts, etc. But I'm just a bit astounded (and not astounded) by the fact that Nancy Pelosi & others have proposed creating an oversight committee to decide any President's fitness for leadership, and by the various calls from the left to literally pack the Supreme Court by adding more than nine judges (and likely potentially left-leaning judges). Presidents are decided by the public & the electoral college, not by a Congressional committee & unelected board members, and the Supreme Court isn't meant to be some kind of factory for churning out legislation. They're there to evaluate laws, not make them.

And I know I'm being long-winded here, but if you would just bear with me for just a little more. The progressive left have made it public that electing Joe Biden is "a doorway to a destination". In other words, Biden isn't liberal enough for them, and if he is elected, they'll push to enact their own aggresively liberal agenda in all of its toxic forms. In my opinion, there are too many far-left liberals in all aspects of government already who have done lasting damage to America. Do you really think Lt. Col. Vindman is the only liberal in the military who strives to advance their own agenda at the expense of the country? What could have been if Lt. Col. Vindman & the Democrats in Congress had chosen to focus on preparing for this pandemic instead of spending time on an unnecessary impeachment in November & December of 2019? And do you really think Sheriff Scott Israel is the only liberal in law enforcement who would rather talk about gun control instead of focusing on the real causes & other potential solutions to society's problems? I know there are good people who work in government, but I've seen others who have become nearly psychotic in their pursuit of baseless investigations and mindless causes, so much so that I'm truly concerned about our national & local security with some of these types of people in charge. And heaven help us if green new deal subjects like cow flatulence become a top priority for America in 2021 and beyond.

Unfortunately, many of these people, or liberal activists to be more accurate, can't be voted out. But that's why I'm voting for Trump & Pence this election. I believe they're the best chance we have for addressing the problems & excesses of unelected bureacrats in government. I know that Republicans sometimes give a free-pass to certain organizations. And I realize that conservatism doesn't always equal Christianity. Sometimes they do a disservice to America's other immigrants by lumping the bad ones with the good ones. The Bible says to lookout for the alien or immigrant (...but I agree with Republicans that doesn't mean open borders or being lax on immigrants who have committed heinous crimes.) And sometimes conservatives become far too chummy with corporations at the expense of the common people, when they should be fighting injustice wherever it's found. But this is how I'll be voting in this election. Of course there are some local Republicans I still can't support, and if the Republican party ever veers off into a completely crazy zone, I'll drop my support. I'm not bound to one party or the other.

And I hope you'll take what I've written today and evaluate it for yourself. Don't let me or anyone else do your thinking for you. Do your own homework, look at the issues, and cast your vote. Future generations will thank you for it.

#vote2020 #vote #election2020 #2020 election

[aion-rsa]

The Legacy of Women in Anime with Funimation

https://ift.tt/3bZv67f

This virtual panel is presented in partnership with Funimation.

Anime has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade as it’s progressively evolved from a niche interest into mainstream entertainment. There are now more places than ever to consume anime, whether it’s on broadcast television or any of the available streaming services, some of which are devoted entirely to anime content.

It’s truly exciting to see the medium’s continued success, but part of the reason that it’s found such universal acclaim is because often anime is just as concerned about representation as it is with entertainment. Anime doesn’t just speak to everyone, but specifically highlights those that may get overlooked elsewhere and feel like their voices are diminished. 

Monica Rial (Case Closed, Golden Kamuy, and Dragon Ball’s Bulma) and Caitlin Glass (My Hero Academia, Fairy Tail, The Vision of Escaflowne) are two highly accomplished voice actors. In celebration of Women’s History Month in partnership with Funimation, we spoke with the actors to discuss female representation in the anime industry, the versatility and freedom that anime can provide women, and the joys of inspiring the next generation of talent to realize and reach for their dreams.

DEN OF GEEK: What sort of relationship did both of you have with anime—if any—before you started working in the industry?

CAITLIN GLASS: I started as a voice actor in 2004, but I’d been watching anime since I was a kid before I even knew what anime even was. I remember being really young—like elementary school—and watching this Grimm’s Fairy Tales show, that I only found out decades later was anime. So yes, I’ve been watching anime since I was a kid, but I really got into it in high school.

In college, anime was an escape for me. I was a theater student, so I spent all my time in rehearsal and I just needed something else to focus on and so I picked anime. I was like, “I used to like anime in high school. Let me go back to that!” Within months of me picking it back up as a hobby, I ended up with an audition at Funimation and the rest is history.

MONICA RIAL: For me, it was my little brother who got me involved in anime. My family is from Spain, so we would go visit over the summertime. Of course, him being a little kid, he would wake up really early to watch all the Spanish anime. One of the shows was a little thing called, “Las Bolas de Dragon” — Dragon Ball. I got to translate for him and it made me really familiar with the show and just really enjoyed it. Then when we came back stateside, he started looking into more and more anime and It made me realize that I, like Caitlin, had been watching anime since I was a kid, but didn’t realize what it was. 

After that he started getting into more mature shows like your Akira-type stuff and the big ones that were popular. I’d watch these with him and really enjoyed them. I was in college at this point too and one of my colleagues was like, “Hey, I’m doing this thing and you should audition.” It just so happened to be a company in Houston that dubbed anime and things started there. It’s really neat for us to have this history with anime, but then also get to be a part of it. It’s really, really cool.

DEN OF GEEK: With anime did you realize what you were being drawn to in particular? Did you see something in the material that perhaps wasn’t getting represented in other animation or programming in general?

CAITLIN GLASS: When I was a teenager, I had friends in theater in high school who were into Sailor Moon. I think we were really attracted to the beautiful costumes and the art in the manga, as well as in the cartoon. The more that I watched it, I  started to realize that what I loved about it is the variety of personalities represented amongst all of the Scouts. How you could see yourself in one or more of them. Liking that show immediately gave you a community when you found someone else who also liked it, because you could be like, “Which Scout are you? Who do you like the most?” 

Read more

TV

The Resplendent Queerness of Sailor Moon

By Michael Mammano

Culture

The Sailor Moon / Buffy the Vampire Slayer Connection

By Michael Mammano

There was very limited merchandise, but I remember being able to find some and feeling like I was the coolest because I had the Sailor Mars brush and then my friend had the Sailor Jupiter one. I think that anime helped pave the way for showing not just some token female with a group of guy friends, but that there could be a show that’s led by all female characters who have a variety of personalities to them. It lets the viewer truly find themselves represented in what they’re watching.

MONICA RIAL: I agree. What’s so intriguing to me as an actor is that so many of the stories in anime are character-driven. Sure, the story’s important, but the characters are really what get fleshed out and usually we really get to know them as human beings. As a result, this is also true with the female characters as well, which is not something that you see in all media. 

A lot of times you will have these female characters that are present, but they may not be as fleshed out as you would like. You want to know more about them and it just never happens. It never comes to fruition. So, being a part of a medium where women are not only present and sometimes carry the show, as Caitlin says, but they are also real humans. We get to see their good sides and their bad sides. Not just the stereotypical. That stuff is in there too, but there’s not as much of it in the anime world.

DEN OF GEEK: Like you guys were saying with Sailor Moon, I think anime does such a good job with projecting different types of female relationships. Sailor Moon specifically helped normalize same-sex female relationships way ahead of the curve. Does it feel good to be a part of that inclusivity and to get to see it evolve even further, a decade or two later?

MONICA RIAL: I would say 100%. One of my first memories in voice acting was an audition that I went to and I remember being so amazed that the character that I was playing in this audition was a lesbian. I was so excited, because at that time in the late ‘90s and the early 2000s, that wasn’t really huge in media. I remember seeing the director later and being like, “I really want to play the lesbian. She’s so great. Like what a great character.” We don’t normally get characters like this, that are so well-rounded and so much fun to play, but also have that aspect. There’s not always a lot of LGBTQ representation, especially at that time. 

It’s so cool to be able to play a character like that. I felt like it was life-changing because then you go from there and it’s like all those stigmas working in that industry just kind of disappear by normalizing it and making it a part of what we do. And I love that with anime fans today there’s not even a second thought over what a person’s gender might be. It’s like, everybody is free-rolling. We’re all putting our 100% into it. And there’s representation everywhere, which I think is fantastic, because it’s so needed.

CAITLIN GLASS: I think it’s great that people who enjoy anime fandom can really find a home and a place to belong within it because anime is not a genre in and of itself. It’s a medium of storytelling. There are so many genres of stories within it and there is something for everyone. And as far as LGBTQ content goes, I think that here in Western society, I think that we’re actually able to handle that material in a way that respects it possibly even more than the Japanese do. I’m concerned sometimes, when I see it in anime, that it’s really just there for someone’s fetish, as far as Japanese viewership goes. Because as a culture, they are not necessarily as open as anime may lead you to believe. So, it is a comfort to be at conventions and see people just getting to be themselves.

DEN OF GEEK: Something that I think is so interesting with anime is that there seem to be more roles for women, which isn’t typically the case in other fields. Talk a little bit about that dynamic and if you started more with voicing female or male characters?

MONICA RIAL: I haven’t really gotten to do a lot of male characters. I don’t know if there’s just something inherently female in my voice. I have no idea! I would love to do more of it! However, what I do adore about the medium is the ability to be completely different than what you are in reality. The roles that I’m cast in, I would not get to play on screen and I would not get to play on stage. I tend to do a lot of what I call, “critters,” which are kind of the ambiguous, not of this world, alien types of things. Or sometimes literal critters, too. That’s a lot of fun, because that’s not something I would get to do on stage. Or even the opportunity to play a little girl is something that I can’t do in real life because I’m a 45 year-old woman. Being able to have those opportunities to play things that are outside of what you would normally be cast in because of your physical appearance or biology is such a huge benefit for an actor. And it’s just so much fun. We get to play all the time.

CAITLIN GLASS: Like Monica, I haven’t played many male roles, though it is on the bucket list. I really, really want to get to play a young male protagonist who has more than just a scene, but is like a leader. The 12 to 13-year-old spunky boy or whatever. I’d love to do that. But you’re right, it isn’t as prevalent in media otherwise, outside of anime. I think nowadays in Western cartoons, the trend is to actually get real kids. Though, in cartoons when I was younger, it was still normal to have a female playing a male lead. I think of shows like Dexter’s Lab, and maybe even more recently, Fairly Odd Parents. Those shows have females in those young boy roles. The reason for it is that they intend for the show to run for a long time. You can’t  do that with a real boy who will experience puberty and his voice will change. 

I’m also a director as well as a voice actor and I love the  idea of getting to work with real young people. But I also recognize that the subject matter of anime may not be something that’s appropriate all of the time to have a real 12 year-old kid doing. So, it’s nice for us, as Monica said, to get to play against type. Sometimes the show comes along and it’s just an all-male cast. It’s an all-male story. That’s just how that story is. But I think, maybe they’ll have a flashback when they’re all six years old, and then I’ll get to be in it!

DEN OF GEEK: Both of you also have experience working as ADR directors and having a hand in casting and the performances in anime. How does your work as a voice actor affect and inform your directing work and is there anything that you try hard to bring through when you’re directing on projects?

CAITLIN GLASS: Yes. Being a voice actor certainly helps at the job of being a director, because you can understand the actor’s perspective and you know how to communicate with them. You know what is going through their head while they’re in the booth, trying to do the math, and make the words fit the animation. I will say, I started directing shortly after I became a voice actor, in 2005. Over the years, I’ve seen a great increase in female representation in the industry side of anime. I can’t do anything about what the stories are about, but it is nice to see a lot more female directors, female engineers, female ADR writers, script adapters. That’s really encouraging. I just want people to know that women are behind the scenes and doing a lot. We have producers that are women, vice presidents that are women within the company. 

I do feel it is our responsibility as directors, if you’re able to make casting decisions. At Funimation I’m able to cast my own shows and it’s really important to me that the shows that I dub sound like the people who watch them. I mentioned when we can go to conventions and we see all the people there getting to be themselves and it is the most wonderful, diverse picture I’ve ever seen in my life. People from all walks of life, all races, all sexual orientations and genders, just hanging out and having a good time together. I really want the shows that I produce and that I direct to sound like these people. I’ve made it my goal in the last handful of years to be more diverse in my casting and be purposeful about it, so that people can hear themselves in the media that they like so much.

MONICA RIAL: And it’s so appreciated! I remember back when I started that there was a group of us that were Hispanic and we would joke, “Oh, we’re the three Hispanic voice actors. Go us!” There just wasn’t a lot of diversity when we started. I don’t know why that was, but as we’ve gone through the years, we’ve gotten more and more diverse. I think, as a result, our dubs sound more interesting because they’ve got different kinds of voices and accents. Natural accents and things. I think that makes it sound much more interesting than just a bunch of people that all sound the same. 

As a director, I think Caitlin hit the nail on the head, but I think that being a director sometimes can help you be a better voice actor. I learned so much by watching the people in my booth. As an actor, you don’t ever get to see the other actors’ processes, unless you’re on a stage production or something. As a voice actor, we work individually. I never got to see Caitlin’s process in the booth or anyone else’s. Once you finally get to see that you kind of go, “Oh, wait, you can just do a wild take in between? I didn’t know that. I’m going to start doing that!” It definitely makes you a better voice actor. But I’m so proud of Caitlin and the push for diversity that she’s been doing, because I think it’s phenomenal. Her shows sound so cool as a result!

DEN OF GEEK: To expand on that, it feels like the variety of anime that get dubbed now covers a much broader range than how things were a decade ago. Have you noticed any changes in this area and if anime has become more progressive in that way?

MONICA RIAL: I’m surprised that after all of these years that they’re still coming up with these really, really creative ideas. How do you not run out of ideas, Japan!? I find that absolutely fascinating. I think that it’s really cool to watch, but it’s even cooler to think about the fact that it’s all still going. We’ve had so many periods in time where there was a question of, “Oh, is this is it? Is anime going to pitfall? Popularity is going to go away. It was fun. See you guys later.” Every time we get to that step something happens that kind of brings it back. I assume it’s the fandom. Thank you guys so much. It’s really great to see because every time it comes back it comes back a little bit stronger. Right now, anime, in my opinion, feels like it’s more popular than it’s ever been before. That’s just so cool when you’ve spent so much of your life working on something that you truly believe in and love.

Read more

Sponsored

Celebrating Black Voices in Anime with Funimation

By Daniel Kurland

TV

Anime For Beginners: Best Genres and Series to Watch

By Daniel Kurland

CAITLIN GLASS: Yeah. It’s pretty spectacular. The number of shows that come out every season, and like Monica mentioned–the sheer variety of story–just warms my heart. It means that there’s going to be even more and something for everyone. You’re going to find that thing that you like. Like I mentioned before, anime is not a genre; it’s a medium. So, that thing that you’re into? We’ve got that. We’ve got that for you.

DEN OF GEEK: Finally, what are some lasting memories from working within the anime industry that have really resonated with you?

MONICA RIAL: Well, going back to conventions will be huge because I think that for us it’s just so great to have that one-on-one experience. And I really feel bad for the actors that don’t have that connection to their fandom like we do. We really do get to speak to the people who are taking in the medium and watching it. They’re all so incredibly sweet and thankful, but I think the biggest thing for me has been playing Bulma. I’ve had so many women come to me and go, “Man, I just want to say thank you because what a strong lady! She’s strong, independent, smart, wealthy. She doesn’t need a dude. I’m pro-Bulma!” And that makes me so happy and she’s a great role model. Finally, I have a role model that I can go, “Hey, little girls. You can be a scientist, and you can be spunky, and you can be all of these things together.” And that’s cool. It’s totally okay. 

We go in individually to record and you do the best that you can. You hope that the director gets all the puzzle pieces together and it’s brilliant. But then, to see the reaction from the folks that have watched it, and to see how it’s touched their lives is just huge. How often do you get to see that you’re making a difference just by doing something that you love? It really means a lot. I’ll be happy to get back to conventions and see those guys again, because I realized how much I miss that interaction with the fandom just over the last year.

CAITLIN GLASS: For me, something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately isn’t so much who am I touching with a particular character, but what influence am I able to have just by being a voice actor? When I first started and I was going to conventions, even very early on in 2004 and 2005,  people were always asking, “How can I be a voice actor?” At the time it was kind of this, “Oh, God. Who wants to tell them?” situation. It would be this annoying question that we had to get out of the way. However, over the years I’ve realized answering that question so many times that this stuff has truly shaped a generation of young actors in a way that I did not expect. I used to just roll my eyes at it, but the folks that really had it in their heart to make this their way of life are doing it. Now some of them are even my colleagues and it’s amazing. It’s amazing.

I’m so proud of them, but it’s also really reassuring to me. I want Monica and any other voice actors out there to know that there was a time in this field when I thought, “Is this all that I could be doing? I have a degree. I wanted to go on stage and study abroad and do Shakespeare…Am I settling by putting down these roots in the anime dub world?” I look back now and I realize that we have honestly and truly made a mark on the industry, and in the West, in a positive way. It’s shaping young lives and giving young artists a place to call home. We’re doing good and let’s keep doing it. Let’s keep doing it.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

MONICA RIAL: It’s really amazing. The first few times I recognized somebody at the studio that was someone that told me in an autograph line, “Someday, I’m going to work with you.” And when you see that person it brings tears to your eyes. You’re like, “You did the thing! I told you how to do the thing, and you did it! Congratulations!” It’s such a cool feeling. You realize that we become the maternal figures to the community because these are kids that looked up to us and now are working with us. As a result–and I know Caitlin is the same way–we try to give back and help them out whenever they have questions. I always want to be available for support and to let the other kids out there that are still so interested in getting involved that there is a path to success. There is a path to becoming a voice actor, especially during the pandemic. That’s huge because now most of what we’re doing is remote. There’s a lot of people that have been able to break into the industry that may not have been able to before because of the constraints of limitations of distance. That’s been really exciting.

The post The Legacy of Women in Anime with Funimation appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3tAxqri

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[splenderai]

What does it feel like being aro? Because I identify as demiromantic and lately I've been wondering if I'm just full aro. Like I've had crushes before and can imagine being in love but like actually being with someone??? Wouldn't know what to do or anything. Or am I just being paranoid because never in my 20+ years have I had a relationship?

Hello, anon ! This got very long (I apologize in advance !), so I'll be putting this under a read more.

It's... different.

You often feel alienated from everyone else. Everyone outside of the aro spectrum (alloromantics), whether they're straight, gay, bi, pan, or any other identity, experiences romantic attraction and can, on some level, relate to other alloromantics (the shared desire to fall in love, go on dates, maybe get married, etc.) That's not exactly the case for us aros. While some of us are okay with and can appreciate romance in theory, that's not true for all aros. Some have varying levels of repulsion towards romance. For me, I don't usually mind the idea of romantic relationships, but I'm repulsed by even the mere thought of being in one myself. I feel physically ill and uncomfortable at the thought of someone being interested in me in that way, and my mind completely blocks out the idea of me being in a romantic relationship with all the fixings. It's a complicated relationship with romance. While I can enthusiastically talk about, say, a couple in a series I'm watching and share that excitement with another fan, or I can feel real joy about a friend getting into a relationship and listen with interest about what that relationship is like, I can also be really repulsed with certain discussions of romance and struggle to understand certain kinds of relationships that are just not logical to me (like people who date who aren't friends or people who say they fall in love after a week of knowing someone). Society also puts a huge emphasis on romance and makes it seem like such an enormous and important part of your life. People around you are always talking about it starting from a young age. Television shows, movies, and other types of media are oversaturated with romantic plotlines. (As a result, representation for us in mainstream media is practically non-existent.) Romantic relationships are even placed on a pedestal and viewed by some as being more valuable and just overall better than platonic ones. None of it makes sense, and you feel a real disconnect from all these ideas and feelings that are just natural and commonplace to just about everyone around you.

It's tiring. Amatonormativity also leads to a lot of negativity and ridicule directed at single individuals. You're seen as immature if you've never dated before, and even in middle and high school kids will make fun of you if you've never had a significant other. If you're not married by the age of 35, people will assume you're undesirable, have a terrible personality, or something else of the sort. It's always assumed that there is a problem with you. A person who wants to live on your own with a pet makes you the Crazy Cat Lady who is someone you should avoid or never become yourself. When you try to tell others that you don't experience romantic attraction, they might say you sound ridiculous, that you just haven't found the right person yet (or worse, they might even see it as a challenge and try to pursue a relationship with you), that (especially if you're cis aroace or cis aro and heterosexual) you're just making it up so that you can feel special and weasel your way into the lgbtq+ community where you don't belong.

It's scary sometimes. Society tries to hammer into you (starting from a very young age) the idea that you're meant to find the love of your life with whom you'll spend the rest of your days. You'll have your 2.4 kids and spouse by your side, so you won't die alone. It's almost like there's this guidebook for the future, and yet you find yourself flipping through the pages trying to find the chapter or even just a footnote about people like us and what we can expect. Society tells us we'll be forever alone. Yeah, you have your friends, but they're likely alloromantics and at some point they'll be too tied up with their nuclear families or romantic partner(s) to fill that lonely void you'll have. Society doesn't have a positive outlook for people like us, so we have to forge our own paths.

There's usually a lot of inner struggle involved. Because of society's emphasis on romance and amatonormativity, there can be some internalized arophobia that some of us struggle with. Plus, a lot of us don't learn about aspec identities until later on in life, so we've spent many hours, days, even years distraught because we were under the impression that there must have been something wrong with us. I only found out about aromanticism and asexuality when I was in university, so I had my fair share of years where I just couldn't understand why I was so different from my friends, the people on TV, and all the others around me. I know some aros who would have panic attacks because they thought that they'd inevitably have to get into a relationship, have kids, and so on because they were led to believe that there was no alternative or that it'd be even scarier to live alone for the rest of their lives. A few of my aro friends and I (and I would think a lot of other aros) have talked about how we're all almost always going through these bouts where we doubt whether or not we're actually aro. It's really hard to know if you're outright lacking romantic attraction or if those people are right and you're just a late bloomer or haven't found the right person yet. Like I could be demiromantic ? I can't really be sure, so there are times where I think I'm feeling something, and I have a crisis because it could be romantic attraction ? Or maybe it's just indigestion ?  I've also gone 20+ years without being in a relationship, so I can understand your concern there. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer.

It's a lot.

But it's also really liberating and something that a lot of us are very proud of.

When you're able to climb past the internalized arophobia and learn that you can absolutely live a very fulfilling and happy life without being in a romantic relationship, you really start to see life through a new lens and have a much more positive outlook on the future. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live alone, with a pet, with a close friend or friends (this is especially important !!! it's often looked down upon and people will insist that there must be something going on between two friends living together but that doesn't have to be the case !!!). All of these are options available to you. You're never truly alone, either. A lot of us have really great relationships with our friends and family (blood or found), in part because we don't put romantic relationships on a pedestal and tend to spend more time with them since we're just not involved in romance. There are interest groups out there (both locally and long distance like on the internet) that you can join to meet new people and do or talk about something you really enjoy (ex. a dnd group that meets weekly). Maybe even get to know your coworkers ! In most cases, you see them eight hours a week, five days a week, and it can be nice learning about these familiar faces (some of my closest friends have been current or former coworkers). There are communal housing initiatives out there where you can have your own space, but you are also surrounded by neighbors (similar to dorm life in university). You want kids but don't want to have a romantic partner or spouse ? You can adopt and coparent with a close friend ! There are so many possibilities out there, and I hope that one day they will become more accepted and even commonplace in society.

It's a lot to consider, and these are only my own experiences and those of my friends and others that I've read about over the years. The best way to figure out whether or not you're aro is to talk to other aros, read the accounts of other aros to see what their own concerns, experiences, and thoughts are on their own identity, and read through some helpful resources on aromanticism ! This blog is a really nice place to start, and this is also a really great resource (that I found on the aforementioned blog). If you're still unsure, that's totally valid and understandable ! If you feel more comfortable using the aromantic label in the meantime, that's absolutely okay, too ! Just like with sexuality, romantic attraction can be fluid, too. If the you today feels closer to aromantic than demiromantic, then you can identify as such. If you realize that you are demiromantic or even something else later on down the road, that's also okay ! You're just as valid either way. Remember that, anon. It's okay to be aro, it's okay to be arospec, and it's okay if that changes down the road. At the end of the day, you're you !

#i hope this helps out in some way anon ! #i ended up rambling a lot... #thank you for the ask and please feel free to reach out if you have more questions or want to talk more about this ! #asks with min

[stretchemersonarchive]

Not Just a Trope: How Mental Illness is Battling the Media

By: Hailey Norton

To mainstream medias like film, television and video games, mental illness has become a money making algorithm. In this algorithm, however, there is little truth to be found. There is usually a dramatic twist, or if you’re Hollywood film director, M. Night Shyamalan, a badass super villain known as “The Horde” brewing under the devastating illness known as dissociative identity disorder (DID). Or if you’re a video game developer like Red Limb Studio, your main protagonist actually turns out to be your antagonist who has killed their entire family in a psychotic episode. Or if you’re anyone working on 13 Reasons Why, from the hit Netflix original TV show, mental illness and suicide is a tool to be used for revenge on those that caused verbal or physical abuse.

All of these cases of popular media have a couple things in common. First, they’re problematic. They do not fully or accurately address mental illness in an educational light. By this, I mean, the lack of appropriate and complete depictions of mental health has caused many negative stigmas to build in our society surrounding violence, alienating those that suffer from mental illness. Second, they are aimed at teens and young adults.

The idea that mental illness is something to be capitalized on is not a new or shocking concept. Many things that are culturally sensitive are used as attention-grabbing tools to garner the most amount of money as possible with little or no regard for the implications it could have on an impressionable audience. In an article from the Journal of Community Psychology, it was stated that “Children, whose opportunities to encounter and learn about mental illness from other sources (higher education, job experience, etc.) are far more limited than adults, may be even more reliant than adults on mass media, and thus more susceptible to their influence” (Wahl).

In an article written for the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Naomi Kondo gave a very honest opinion about the inaccuracies found in film in particular and how they can be damaging for society as a whole. She brings up the point that those that have no connection to mental illness other than in films and other forms of media, may believe that depiction to be true (Kondo 250). She states, specifically, “The greatest fallacy of mental illness purported by the film industry is that there is a direct link between mental illness and violence” (Kondo 250). As someone who lives with schizophrenia and has never had violent urges, Kondo feels alienated by these depictions. One of her most compelling statements was “Sometimes these films even make me wonder about myself, if on some level I have a secret evil side, a side tied to my illness” (Kondo 251). This shows how those that are in the audience watching these films that also identify with the disorder being depicted can be negatively impacted by stigmas even though they know them to not be true.

I, too, have been personally affected by the carelessness of these mainstream media depictions of mental health. As someone who suffers from depression and has attempted suicide in the past, the show 13 Reasons Why seriously unnerved me. Hannah Baker, the protagonist of the show, truly went through some very troubling situations from bullying to sexual assault and rape. Suicidal ideation and intent are very hot topics among today’s youth and so many teens are suffering from depression and anxiety. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, “Young adults aged 18-25 years had the highest prevalence of [mental illness] (22.1%) compared to adults aged 26-49 years (21.1%) and aged 50 and older (14.5%)” (“Mental…”). In fact, suicide is the second leading cause of deaths among the age group 10-34 (Center for Disease Control).

I can understand the appeal of wanting to open a conversation with teens about this big issue and raise awareness. However, I cannot stand for and will not sit silently while a TV show graphically depicts how to kill yourself even though the book the show is based on does not. The suicide scene with Hannah Baker was damaging, triggering and completely unnecessary. It, in essence, showed every viewer, no matter how old, how to commit suicide. On top of just the idea of showing a suicide, they depicted one of the most successful ways to commit suicide by cutting in an upwards motion up the forearm. This can sever an artery which, without immediate medical attention, is completely irreversible. I am not claiming that this show has or will take lives, but it can validate the thoughts someone has when they are already battling with suicidal ideation (ie. “no one would care if I died”) (Henick). Before watching the scene where Hannah cuts her forearm in the bathtub, I had several friends warn me about how graphic it was. I mentally prepared myself in every way that I could before watching the scene. While watching, though, I was still incredibly triggered by how absolutely horrific the scene was. For this reason, I do not advise that those that have attempted or have had experience with suicidal ideation watch this show, or at least skip this scene.

What I am asking for is not to stop talking about these subjects. In fact, I would love for there to be bountiful information and plenty of conversation. I am not writing to end the discussion. I demand, however, that there be more honesty and truth in these conversations that take place, especially in mainstream medias. It is the responsibility of these creators to accurately depict mental illness and the right of the audience to get truthful information. Platforms like Netflix, where 13 Reasons Why aired, and Steam, an online video game distributor that sells games like Rise of Insanity (2018), need to be held accountable for the false information they are distributing to the world and are making money off of.

The movie I mentioned earlier but not by name, Split, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is a major culprit of demonizing mental illness. Like many other movies depicting mental health in a violent and unreasonable way, only the rarest and most extreme cases make it to Hollywood. Shyamalan depicts Kevin, a man struggling with dissociative identity disorder, as an immediately violent and unstable person. While instability is, in fact, a characteristic of some mental illnesses it does not define the subject as depicted in the movie. Instability in conjunction with violence, in this case, creates an idea that both come hand in hand, one cannot exist without the other.

This reminds me of what Naomi Kondo was saying about starting to question one’s own personality based on a film portrayal. Schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder are two very different illnesses to live with, but the sentiment remains. The way we portray mental illness not only affects those watching that have no further knowledge about mental illness but also those that do know and live with it every day. Kevin turns out to be a super villain added to a universe M. Night Shyamalan created in his movie Unbreakable. For fans of Unbreakable, this may be an exciting addition to a long anticipated sequel, but for those who suffer from dissociative identity disorder, this can be very damaging. In a CNN article written by Michael Nedelman, an interaction between a patient with DID and their psychiatrist is discussed (Nedelman). This patient wrote an email referring to Shyamalan’s Split asking “Do I ever scare you?” (Nedelman). With nearly 1% of the population living with this disorder (Nedelman) it is hard not to think about the long lasting impacts this could have on those currently suffering.

James McAvoy, the actor who played Kevin, did not speak with anyone suffering from the illness because he could not find anyone that was willing to speak with him (Nedelman). Perhaps getting a firsthand account from someone that suffers from DID would have influenced the way the lead actor would have felt about portraying such a disorder as inherently violent. Nedelman also mentions in his article that Shyamalan was in contact with a clinical psychologist who aired concern over the hostile portrayal of the disorder to Shyamalan himself and nothing was done (Nedelman). Shyamalan even went as far as to say that no one that had seen the finished film gave any form of backlash (Nedelman). As someone who has seen the film, and was compelled enough to write this essay, I would like to prove him wrong. I had several issues with the film that begin with my already mentioned dislike of the irresponsible portrayal of violence that is directly linked to Kevin’s illness. My next issue came when Kevin’s psychiatrist, in the movie, went as far to say that those that suffer from DID are actually superior to the rest of the human race. That they, somehow, have found a way to surpass a normal state of being. Many recognize this moment as Shyamalan’s attempt to reconcile his harsh portrayal of the disorder, but this is also problematic. Instead of villainizing Kevin’s illness like the rest of the film does, it glorifies it. It gives an equally false and damaging image of how we should view those with DID. Glorifying DID and other mental illnesses does not accurately portray the struggle these people live with every day. They cannot climb on walls and do not have super-human strength like the protagonist in the movie. It is not easy to live with a mental illness and describing it as a tool to transcend a natural state of being is ridiculous and minimizes how hard it can be on a day to day basis for those living with it.

John Squires, in an article for Bloody Disgusting, a website where opinion pieces, editorials and reviews for popular forms of media, finds no issue in the way DID is portrayed in Split. Squires does, very early, acknowledge his lack of authority based on the fact that he does not suffer from any form of mental illness and that his article is, in fact, opinion. Squires, similar to Shyamalan, claims that those that take issue with Split have never seen it. He believes that the glorification by the therapist, as I mentioned earlier, is a main reason why the movie is unproblematic. He states, “Those with D.I.D. are not ‘broken,’ Shyamalan is telling us, but rather ‘more than’ the rest of us” (Squire). In fact, this is Squire’s entire argument as to why Split is not the correct “target” when discussing stigmatizing Hollywood roles. This argument, however, is based on the assumption that the glorification of this mental illness is positive which is not true. While Squire may be well-versed in horror movies, he does not use any sources to support his opinion other than another writer for the same website that wrote a similar article. There are no references to articles or journals written by medical professionals or those that suffer from DID that support his claim. It’s hard for a reader to be convinced of an argument when there are no sources in an article that states, specifically, “Here’s Why…” (Squire).

13 Reasons Why, as a TV show, is alarming and should have been a wake up call to many in the U.S. about how we glorify depression and suicide. It is clear that Hannah Baker had serious mental health issues and her pain was dismissed. This is a sad truth that many teens deal with in high school. I will not sit here and say everything portrayed in 13 Reasons Why is not factual. The atmosphere of the high school is an extreme case, but it is a possibility and should not be dismissed. The issue I have with this show is the lack of emphasis on mental illness. Hannah displays signs of depression that I can self-identify with but the show glosses over them to focus on the bullying taking place in the series. It is important to acknowledge that a focus on the bullying aspect of the show is needed, however, the show focuses on little else. Nothing is mentioned about any mental illness and her suicide is almost entirely blamed on the bullying she undergoes.

“Blame” is something this show grapples with a lot. In fact, the entire story is based on Hannah giving out tapes, thirteen to be exact, detailing how the listener added to her decision to end her life. This is possibly the most dangerous aspect of the show, next to her suicide scene as we have already discussed. Suicide, in Hannah’s context, is used as revenge. She is able to pass the blame of her own decision to commit suicide off of herself and onto those that caused her verbal and physical abuse. This evokes an idea that there is some kind of life after death and that Hannah lived on in her tapes. This emulates some kind of retribution that can be had from the grave. Mark Henick describes this perfectly in an article for CNN, “They advance the false notion that suicides are a way to teach others a lesson, and that the deceased person will finally be understood and vindicated. They won’t. They’ll still be dead.” For those already contemplating suicide, this show could cause serious problems. The path that the series takes can be very sensitive to those that have survived attempted suicide and those that have lost others to suicide (Henick). As Henick says, which I wholeheartedly agree with, the show will not “give people the idea” to commit suicide but it could add to what he calls “suicide contagion” or “copycat suicides.”

The blaming of those who were included in the tapes creates a larger conversation about who is to “blame” for a suicide. An article that comes to terms with the ideas of blame in suicide notes in the Journal of Community and Applies Sociology states, “In particular, accounts serve the strategic purpose of avoiding or assigning blame for what happened” (McClelland 227). Blaming those around Hannah for her death is one of the most damaging concepts I have ever seen enacted on television. In the end, it was no one’s decision but Hannah’s to commit suicide and no one else should be blamed. Her suicide was not the direct result of just bullying; it had a lot more to do with severe and untreated mental illness. Instead of directing attention to this fact and promoting that teens with mental illness seek help, the show passes off her suicide as a choice others made for her. Each time I heard “Welcome to your tape” I physically felt pain for those that were about to hear why she blamed them. Also stated in the article, “those reasons which are used to excuse the author for committing suicide can be seen as legitimations of an act which is normally illegitimate. Suicide notes therefore serve as evidence of socially shared beliefs as to the conditions under which suicide is seen as an acceptable act” (McClelland 228). 13 Reasons Why tries to normalize and legitimize suicides when they are “acceptable.” Is it never acceptable to commit suicide. I would not characterize the act as “cowardly,” but I also think it is very damaging to look for reasons for the audience to accept the fact that Hannah’s suicide was warranted because of the injustices done to her.

What is possibly the most shocking aspect of this show is how proud the crew is of their depiction of Hannah’s suicide scene. Nic Sheff, in an article for Vanity Fair states that he wanted and argued for a complete and graphic depiction of the suicide in episode 13. Sheff is a writer for the show and had his own experience with addiction and suicide. In his article he detailed his attempted suicide and what ultimately stopped him from going through with it (Scheff). He had swallowed a whole bottle of pills before remembering the story of another woman who had attempted suicide in which she began vomiting blood and stomach acid and shattered a glass door, injuring herself even further (Scheff). The realization that suicide is never peaceful caused Sheff to rethink his action and was able to throw up the pills he had just taken (Sheff) which is what he credits this show will be able to do as well. Sheff’s story is very powerful and should be heard, however, the young adults and teenagers watching this show do not have a similar experience to make them rethink their actions in the same way. Sheff claimed he wanted “to dispel the myth of the quiet drifting off” that is commonly associated with suicide (Sheff) but that is exactly how Brian Yorkey, the writer of the thirteenth episode, portrayed Hannah’s suicide. After the initial pain of cutting her wrists, Hannah lays calmly in the bath, relieved, which completely discredits Sheff’s argument that this scene would dispel any myths about the serenity of suicide or provide a similar experience as the horrific attempted suicide Sheff mentioned. This show does little to address those in the audience that may misinterpret the “well-meaning” actions of those working on the show.

A few weeks ago, I was watching a gamer on youtube, John Wolfe, play a game made by an independent developer called Rise of Insanity. In this game, your main protagonist is a psychiatrist that works with patients suffering from schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. The game begins with a radio broadcast about a crazed man who murdered his entire family. John, jokingly, made an assumption that the protagonist was actually the murderer and that the family was his own (“Rise of…”). Sadly, his assumption was all too right and I shared in on his frustrations. The storyline continuously describes a patient that has become violent and has possibly killed an entire family. This is a common storyline that I have seen among independent developers, and some larger developers such as Konami, the creators of the Silent Hill franchise. The entire point of the plot relies on the fact that the main character is not only mentally ill, but also unstable and violent. The only times that the homicidal ideation of mental illness is brought up is when it is carried out. This is just not a correct representation of the norm.

On their own website, the developers, Red Limb Studio, claims that this game was “inspired by the greatest psychological horror movies” (Red Limb Studio). This was particularly alarming to me because it truly showcases my point: these depictions of mental illness bleed into other aspects of the media and into popular thought. Is it really “just a movie” if it inspires others to adapt and recreate the same storyline repeatedly? It creates a hive-mind that the only way to depict the horrors of mental illness is through violence. I do believe there are ways that mental illness can be accurately portrayed in a strictly horror-centric movie or game. Mental illness is very scary, especially for those living with it every day. It is scary to not be in control of your own emotions. There are so many video games, however, that rely on violence such as Outlast, Remothered: Tormented Fathers, Descent: Silence of Mind, Please, and many, many more.

I cannot simply say that all video games that feature mental illness are entirely problematic, though, so I will mention one that I believe did quite well. About a year ago, I played a video game called Alice: Madness Returns that follows the character of Alice from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. This game, in particular, really struck a chord with me because of its depiction of mental illness in context of trauma and memory. While I am not very fond of the title of the game, the word “madness” being one that provokes interest for the sake of insanity, a general money-making move, I feel the developing studio, Spicy Horse, attempted with great effort to create a game that did not villainize or glorify the force of mental illness and instead depicted the trying process of piecing a fractured memory back together.

In Christina Fawcett’s “American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns and Traumatic Memory,” the true intentions of the game are discussed. As adjunct faculty in the Department of English at the University of Winnipeg, she has been researching the psychological and emotional representation of villains and monsters in video games (Fawcett). She discusses the problem with the therapy Alice is receiving in the game in which Dr. Brumpy focuses on repressing Alice’s memory which weakens her and leaves her vulnerable. The goal of the player is to piece her memory back together by finding fractured memories. Fawcett describes that this method is meant to “[restore] dissociated memories and return a sense of wholeness to the patient” (Fawcett 496). When I first began playing the game, I criticized this process because I felt it was too easy or concise. However, the developer was able to simulate the difficulty of the task by giving Alice side-quests that distract her from her main goal. Her path to recovery is not depicted as a linear, steady path.

This representation of memory trauma is what I hope to see more of in the future with other illnesses as well. The developers of the game never questioned how real Wonderland is to Alice. There is no expectation for Alice to remove herself from “silly fantasies” or discredit her experience. It also does not glorify her trauma as the closer she gets to remembering, the darker and harder the environment becomes to traverse. Wonderland is not a place where she can escape her trauma, she lives in it no matter where she goes, which is very characteristic of mental illness. As the game progresses Alice also becomes engrossed in more combat but this is characterized as part of the game as Alice is never described as violent and it is never linked to her illness. This refreshing take on how mental illness can be depicted in video games is something that is rare and highly valuable as a lesson to other developers.

These stigmas manifest themselves from our television and computer screens into our everyday lives. These stigmas as described by writers for the Graduate Institute of Professional Psychology, “are acquired gradually over a lifetime and that their roots are established in childhood” (Wahl). A very specific instance of this stigma infesting how we view those with mental illness is crime, specifically gun violence. According to a database article written for the Salem Press Encyclopedia, about 64% (1.2 million) of those in jail suffer from a mental illness (Saral). Whether or not their illness was related to the crime they were sentenced for was not included. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, 44.7 million Americans suffer from mental health issues (“Mental Illness…”). This means, that less than one percent (.02%) of those living with mental illness are serving a sentence in an American prison. Saral also states, “among crimes committed by those suffering from mental illness, only 7.5 percent could be associated directly with the symptoms of the illness as a causative factor” (Saral). This information came from a study conducted by the American Psychological Association. Despite these facts, “According to the University of Washington School of Social Work, public perception of mental illness as connected to violent and dangerous behavior has steadily increased, spurred by depictions in news media and entertainment sources” (Saral). This is an interesting assumption for Americans to make since only about 4% of the violent crimes committed in America are done by those diagnosed with a mental illness (Metzl).

There are and should be restrictions on gun ownership based on mental health. That is a necessary way to protect not just the community, but especially the mentally ill person. It is unfounded and truly damaging to claim, however, that gun violence is an issue of mental illness because, “growing evidence suggests that mass shootings represent statistical aberrations that reveal more about particularly horrible instances than they do about population-level events...basing gun crime---prevention efforts on the mental health histories of mass shooters risks building “common evidence” from “uncommon things” (Metzl). The general idea that mental illness causes gun violence and jumping to connections without finding clear evidence ignores contributors like substance abuse, domestic violence, availability of firearms, suicidality, social networks, economic stress, and other factors (Metzl). Mental illness is not a pathway to violence. In fact, according to an article written for the American Journal of Public Health, “nearly 1 in 10 adults has access to firearms and also has a problem with anger and impulsive aggressive behavior” (Metzl). This does not state that the 10% included in this statistic has a mental illness. As this article states, there is plenty of talk of the small population that commits acts of violence but little about the victimhood the mentally ill can face daily and, “blaming persons with mental disorders for gun crime overlooks the threats posed to society by a much larger population—the sane.” (Metzl). Based on my reading of Metzl’s article, there is a much higher chance of a mentally ill person being a victim than they are of being the perpetrator. So, to assume that gun violence is an issue of mental illness, is ignorant and not factual.

I ask that we stop having the gun violence debate as if it is centered solely around mental illness, and talk more about the causes within small communities that could attribute to this larger problem. The issue of gun violence is an ever growing and hot topic currently in the United States but is clouded by the use of false claims and financial gain. It is time to pay more attention to how we give back to our small communities to create a larger change for the safety of all Americans.

Acknowledgement

I have always been very passionate about how the mentally ill are depicted in movies and TV and this was an essay I have been wanting to write since the release of 13 Reasons Why. I want to acknowledge everyone working to break down stigmas about mental illness in their lives that inspire me to do the same. I would like to recognize the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation for their amazing work with connecting researchers to funding. I would also like to thank myself for having the ability and courage to recognize when the media gets it wrong even when their ratings are good.

Works Cited

Brian Yorkey, creator. 13 Reasons Why. Netflix, (2017). Accessed 5 March 2018.

Center for Disease Control. “5 Leading Causes of Death, United States - 2016.” National Center

for Injury Control, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for

Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System, (2016).

https://webappa.cdc.gov/cgi-bin/broker.exe Accessed 30 March 2018.

Fawcett, C. (2016), “American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns and Traumatic Memory.”

Journal of Popular Culture, Vol.49, Iss.3 (p. 492-521). doi:10.1111/jpcu.12414 Accessed

15 March 2018.

Henick, M. “Why ‘13 Reasons Why��� Is Dangerous.” CNN, (2017).

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/opinions/13-reasons-why-gets-it-wrong-henick-opinion

/index.html Accessed 28 February 2018.

Kondo, N. “Speaking Out: Mental Illness in Film.” Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Vol.31,

No.3  Boston University, (2008).

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.emerson.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=0ec0687c-

ee81-4a9b-85db-f3f17c7bbf8a%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ

%3d%3d#AN=2008-00786-013&db=pdh Accessed 10 March 2018.

McClelland, L. et al. “A Last Defense: The Negotiation of Blame in Suicide Notes.” Journal of

Community and Applied Social Psychology, Vol.10, Iss.3, p.225-240, (2000).

http://proxy.emerson.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&

db=aph&AN=11820052&site=eds-live Accessed 25 March 2018.

Metzl, J. PhD. et al. “Mental Illness, Mass Shootings and the Politics of American Firearms.”

American Journal of Public Health, Framing Health Matters, Vol.105, No.2, (2015)

https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302242 Accessed 8 April

2018.

National Institute for Mental Health. “Mental Illness…” National Institute for Mental Health,

(2017). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml Accessed 1 April

2018.

Nedelman, M. “What Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ Gets Wrong About Dissociative Identity Disorder.”

CNN, (2017).

https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/23/health/shyamalan-split-movie-dissociative-identity-dis

order/index.html Accessed 15 March 2018.

Red Limb Studio. “Rise of Insanity” Red Limb Studio, (2018). http://redlimbstudio.com/roi.html

Accessed 25 March 2018.

“Rise of Insanity - You Won’t Believe the Twist!” YouTube, uploaded by John Wolfe, 8 March

2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSnk3VxesYY Accessed 8 March 2018.

Saral, T. "Mental Illness and Crime." Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2014. EBSCOhost,

proxy.emerson.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers

&AN=95342956&site=eds-live. Accessed 25 March 2018.

Split. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, performance by James McAvoy, Blumhouse

Productions, (2016). Accessed 30 September 2016.

Nic Sheff. “13 Reasons Why Writer: Why We Didn’t Shy Away from Hannah’s Suicide.” Vanity

Fair, (2017).

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/13-reasons-why-suicide-controversy-nic-

sheff-writer Acessed 22 March 2018.

Wahl, O. et al. “The Depiction of Mental Illness in Children’s Television Programs.” Journal of

Community Psychology, Vol.35, No.1, (2007). http://proxy.emerson.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=23289239&site=eds-live Accessed 3 April 2018.

#identity #society #academia #essay #vol3