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eugene-not-flynn · 4 years

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rooftop

word count: 1993

Summary: The night before he marries Rapunzel, Eugene sits on the palace roof and finds himself with unexpected company. Eugene-centric.

Warnings: brief mention/gesture to Rapunzel’s abuse, some discussion of Eugene’s upbringing as an orphan, self-doubt and tangential themes, Eugene is not as confident as he seems in himself but he gets some reassurance, dialogue-heavy, introspective for Eugene and his relationship to Rapunzel, overall v soft, Eugene almost cries but doesn’t.

A/N: Basically, I decided there were elements of Eugene and his relationship to this character that the canon content doesn’t really address much, and I really wanted to explore potential for their dynamic.

...

Eugene liked the palace roof, especially at night.

He couldn’t explain why, exactly. He supposes the habit had started when he and Rapunzel had first arrived at the palace. Eugene hadn’t slept particularly well those first several weeks; nightmares that didn’t involve a knife in his gut usually were filled with Rapunzel’s muffled scream. Add that to the fact that Eugene’s body hadn’t yet caught on to the whole ‘it’s okay to sleep near royal guards’ idea, and Eugene didn’t get much sleep at first. The roof had been one of the few places in the palace that he’d known how to get to already, thanks to his escapade with the Stabbington Brothers. It’d also had the added appeal of the promise of fresh air and quiet.

Even when the nightmares eventually eased and his fight-or-flight stopped kicking in every time so much as saw a guard, Eugene found himself drawn to the roof. He liked the near bird’s-eye view of the kingdom, and even in the dark of night, the stars just seemed brighter to him up here. The late summer air breezes through loose strands of his brown hair and Eugene takes a deep breath as tension eases from his shoulders.

“Wedding jitters?”

Eugene jumps at the unexpected voice, glancing over his shoulder. It’s well past midnight. He hadn’t expected anyone to be up here. And even if he had, the last person he expected to interrupt his evening was the queen.

“Your Majesty,” Eugene says quickly, moving to push himself to his feet before Queen Arianna stops him by lifting her hand. She’s in the purple gown she’d been wearing earlier in the day, but her hair is loose from its usual half-pulled-back regal style. It is almost startling to see her so… normal.

“Please,” she says, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” She nods to the space beside him. “Can I join you?”

“Of course.”

Eugene sits up a bit more as the queen settles herself beside him. For a long moment, neither of them says anything. Eugene listens to the quiet hoot of an owl and the very distant chirp of crickets. The thumb of his left hand skims his ring finger almost absent-mindedly.

“Did you ever learn to find constellations?” the queen asks after a moment.

Eugene glances at her, then follows her gaze to the sky above them. “A few,” he answers, realizing very suddenly that he can’t remember the last time he had a one-on-one conversation with her Majesty the Queen. It makes him suddenly nervous. “Some of the older kids at the orphanage used to use them to tell stories.”

The queen hums. When Eugene glances over quickly, she’s smiling faintly. “When my sister and I were children, we’d make up stories for the stars. It wasn’t until I was older that I learned some of the actual mythology.”

Eugene glances down at his hands. “The first time I’d read anything formal on the stars was—” he falters, “was when Rapunzel and I were first in Corona.”

“It is strange to think that Rapunzel was within our city walls for an entire day before we’d even realized.”

A part of Eugene wonders quietly if perhaps Rapunzel might’ve been sooner reunited with her parents if they hadn’t been ducking and dodging guards left and right that day. Even though none of them—not even Rapunzel—knew at the time that she was the Lost Princess, Eugene remembers how the Queen had taken one look at her daughter and seemed to just… know.

“We didn’t know,” Eugene says, “who Rapunzel was.”

“I know,” she replies easily. “In a strange way, I think it was best that Rapunzel experienced our kingdom as a member of it, as part of the city’s community, before she knew she was to rule it.”

Eugene’s mouth quirks fondly at the memory. He remembers the way her tongue poked out between her lips when she’d painted the crest of Corona in the street. He remembers her gasp of wonder when he’d showed her Corona’s library. And then, of course, how she’d managed to get an entire city square full of people to join her in a dance. Even Eugene himself, who hadn’t danced in many years.

“She really fell in love with the people of Corona that day,” Eugene tells her softly.

Eugene senses more than sees the way the queen glances at him. “From what she’s told me, it wasn’t just the people of Corona she fell in love with that day.”

Eugene feels his cheeks warm, and he’s suddenly grateful for the cover of night. His thumb skims his left ring finger again, his heart giving a small squeeze at the words.

He clears his throat. “She, ah—she wasn’t the only one.”

The queen hums again, but when Eugene looks over at her, her smile is soft and her gaze is trained out over her kingdom. “Are you nervous for tomorrow, Eugene?”

He pauses before he answers. He looks back out over the kingdom. If the queen had asked him at any other point during the day, he’s pretty sure he would have answered immediately. Of course not! But the night makes him want to be more fully honest. Eugene wonders if the tiredness lowers his defenses. Or if the dark offers an illusion of safety. Or if the quiet of the world in nightfall forces a gravity to the words spoken in it. Eugene doesn’t know.

But he’d be lying if he said that there wasn’t a part of him that was nervous. Though now, it was more about remembering his vows and the toast the groom was expected to deliver. The details. The only detail Eugene wasn’t nervous about was the rings, as he’d put Max and Pascal in charge of those. But the idea of getting married? To Rapunzel? That… made a warm, fluttery feeling expand in Eugene’s chest that he knew to be excitement, not nerves.

“Not for the reasons I’d thought I’d be,” he answers eventually. “If you’d asked me five years ago if I’d be nervous the night before my wedding, I would probably laugh at you first.”

“Marriage wasn’t something you wanted?”

“Well, it…” He sighs. It wasn’t that he didn’t want it. It was more… “I wouldn’t have considered it as something meant for me.”

Marriage meant several things needed to be true. He’d have to want to settle down. He’d have to fall in love. And he’d have to have that person fall in love with him in return. Five years ago, none of those things had seemed attainable for him. He hadn’t even dared to dream that perhaps they could be some day. Instead, he’d convinced himself that security could be found in the accumulation of wealth. After all, it seemed to have worked for Flynnigan Rider.

But then he’d met Rapunzel. And everything he’d convinced himself of had been turned upside down.

“Something must have changed your mind.”

“Rapunzel,” Eugene answers without hesitation. “Rapunzel changed everything.”

Queen Arianna chuckles softly. “Yes, I seem to remember you had been a wanted thief prior to your return with my daughter.”

Eugene ducks his head sheepishly, turning his gaze to distant, silhouette figures of citizens moving through the streets of Corona below them. He can feel the careful gaze of the queen on him and it makes him feel, not for the first time, uncharacteristically self-conscious. He knew how the king felt about him, but Eugene had always had a harder time reading the queen.

“Well, what can I say?” Eugene rubs the back of his neck. “Rapunzel brought out the best in me. She continues to do so, every day.”

There’s a brief, thoughtful pause. “You know, I’ve never truly known my daughter without you there too. But I can see how you bring out the best in her, too.”

That brings Eugene up short. It certainly hadn’t been what he expected. “That’s… kind of you, Your Highness,” he decides. It’s a nice thought, Eugene thinks, and one that he desperately wants to believe. But Eugene can’t help the haze of self-doubt that lingers in the back of his mind, formed from years of experience and countless voices insisting he wasn’t enough for his parents, wasn’t enough to be adopted, wasn’t enough—

“You may not always believe it,” the queen interrupts as if she can read his mind. Eugene startles, then stares at her as she continues. “But it’s true. Rapunzel doesn’t talk much about her childhood, and when she does, we both know she tends to gloss over a lot of the… unpleasant details. But from the little that she has shared, it’s become clear that for a long time, Rapunzel didn’t have someone who truly believed in her. Who looked out for her in a way that encouraged her strength and independence, rather than hiding her away.”

“I—”

“You believed in her when others doubted,” she presses on, “You believed in her when doubt in herself was all she’d been taught. You looked at my daughter and… saw there was more in her.”

Eugene looks at the queen, wide-eyed. He opens his mouth to reply (because of course, of course he believed in Rapunzel, he always had and always would) but words get lost somewhere on the way up his throat, which is growing unexpectedly tight.

The queen meets his eyes, her green eyes sparkling in the dark. “You two bring out the best in each other, Eugene.”

Eugene is certain now that his face must be bright red. He wonders if she can tell in the dark. “I, um… I…” he pauses, then swallows thickly. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

The corner of the queen’s lips curl up in a soft smile. “I only speak the truth. Frederic and I fought against all odds to keep hope alive that our daughter would one day come back. It was shock enough when she did. I never, in a million years, would have expected that on the same day I get my daughter back, I’d also be gaining a son.”

Eugene freezes, his heart giving an unexpectedly warm squeeze.

“I know you are in your twenties,” she adds, oblivious to the way Eugene’s eyes are beginning to sting the faintest bit, “and I know you spent your childhood believing yourself to be an orphan. I know you’ve recently been reunited with your birth father. I know all of that, and I apologize if I am crossing any lines, but… should you find yourself wanting a mom, Eugene… just know that I already consider you my son.”

The edges of Eugene’s vision begin to blur and he blinks quickly to clear it. He had spent his entire life either wishing for a mom or berating himself as weak for wanting one in the first place. He is 26 but he feels very suddenly like he is a small child again, wondering—for the millionth time—what it might feel like to be hugged by his mom.

He should say something, he realizes, but his throat is still too tight for all the things he thinks he should say.

When he does eventually speak, his voice sounds a bit thick even to his own ears. “Well, I… That is, when Rapunzel and I were looking at Corona wedding customs, we saw that the bride and her father usually share in a dance, followed by, um, the groom and his mother. We, ah… we were going to forgo that last part, but… and I know it’s short notice, but… that is, Your Highness—”

“Eugene,” she interrupts, but gently, “I would love to share in the mother-son dance with you.”

Eugene releases a breath and smiles. “Great.” He swallows again, then pushes himself to his feet. “Well, big day tomorrow. I should probably get some rest.”

She nods. “Goodnight, Eugene.”

Eugene’s smile grows a bit more. “Goodnight, mom.”

#tangled #tts #tangled fanfiction #new dream #eugene fitzherbert #eugene fitzherbert fanfiction #queen arianna #abuse mention

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 3 years

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Michael After Midnight: Heavy Metal

Sometimes it’s fun to revisit old movies you watched when you were younger and find out, hey, this is better than you remembered! Sometimes your young mind just wasn’t ready to accept how awesome something was, and you needed time to fully understand what you look for and like about cinema to truly appreciate it. But then, sometimes, you watch something you liked when you were younger, and you realize… wow, this is absolute dog shit!

Such is the case with Heavy Metal. This is a movie I have frequently cited as a low-ranking entry on lists of the finest animated films of all time, and to be entirely fair to the film, it is important in a historical sense, being a cult classic that was passed around through bootlegs because music rights kept it from getting a home video release, and it came out around the dawn of the 80s and kind of destroyed what you would think an animated film was capable of. This film is full of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and it entirely, unabashedly unashamed of this, for better or for worse.

Now, while I do think the overall film is a bit lacking, it is an anthology film divided into segments, and there are some pretty good ones I will make note of; this is not a film with absolutely no merit. But before that, let me point out the one thing everyone can agree is amazing about this film: the soundtrack. You’ve got Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Stevie Nicks, Devo, Cheap Trick… if nothing else, the kickass soundtrack is worth a listen, though Blue Oyster Cult’s song inclusion irritates me to a great degree. The movie went with “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” for the soundtrack, despite the fact Blue Oyster Cult had a song ready to go that is literally about the final entry in the anthology, called “Vengeance (The Pact).” Why the people compiling the soundtrack made this choice baffles me; it reminds me of how they didn’t use “Jennifer’s Body” in, well, Jennifer’s Body, instead opting for a different Hole song from the same album.

But I digress. Let’s go one by one and touch on the segments:

The framing device is about an entity known as the Loc-Nar, who claims to be the sum of all evil, detailing to a little girl how it has influenced chaos and carnage across time and space. The thing is, though, the Loc-Nar doesn’t come out on top in any of the segments, and its schemes are often thwarted. So the entire movie is basically this supreme evil being detailing to a little girl how much it sucks ass at its one job.

The first segment is Harry Canyon, a story about the eponymous futuristic New York taxi driver. In some regards it reminds me of The Fifth Element, what with a scruffy, slummy, futuristic taxi driver trying to help a smoking hot babe find out the truth and all, but unlike that film, this short is a lot bleaker and gritty. You kinda know what you’re in for when Harry vaporizes a dude who tries to mug him, and if that’s not enough, the female lead of this short literally throws herslef at him, and yes, he gets to take a dive into her Harry Canyon – and you get to see it.

This is a running theme throughout these shorts – almost every female character has huge titties and is sexually promiscuous, throwing themselves at the first penis they see as if it was their job. It’s so incredibly juvenile and tacky as to be laughable, but I guess this comes with the territory considering the magazine this film adapted.

Anyway, the segment is harmless and unremarkable. It’s exactly what you’d expect from this sort of story, without much in the way of twists or turns.

The second segment, Den, is arguably the best segment in the entire film. We have a nerdy kid named Dan who gets transported across space and becomes the musclebound warrior with a huge cock known as Den. Every woman throws herself at him, every villain in his way gets pummeled, and no task is too impossible for this man! And did I mention that he is voiced by John Candy? Really, Candy’s comedic touch is what makes this entire thing feel fun and palatable; it’s a cheesy swords and sorcery romp through and through. Honestly, I don’t have much bad to say about this one, it’s just very silly fun.

Unfortunately we are back to being not great with Captain Sternn. Sternn, played by Eugene Levy (of The Wacky World of Mini Golf fame), is basically an intergalactic war criminal on trial, and when his paid witness Hanover Fiste (played by Rodger “Squidward Tentacles” Bumpass) comes up to the stand, the Loc-Nar influences him to the most evil act possible… betraying this war criminal in front of the judge and jury! GASP! I’m not sure what the Loc-Nar is really trying to do here; you’d think it would maybe want Sternn free to continue spreading wicked influence across the galaxy, but nah, it just makes Squidward hulk out and tries to kill him, only for the tables to be turned and Squidward to be dropped out an airlock, further cementing how utterly useless the Loc-Nar is.

Thankfully, once that’s over, we have yet another very strong segment, another contender for best in show: B-17. This is a genuinely creepy zombie short film, and the zombies are utterly horrifying and grotesque. This is regarded as the most nightmarish part of the film, and for good reason; this shit is certainly worthy of being called “heavy metal.” Honestly, there isn’t much bad to say about this one either, except perhaps that it is over far too soon.

Then we get to what is probably the worst segment: So Beautiful, So Dangerous. The entire segment is sort of meant to be a lighthearted comedic breather between The last segment and the final one, but it just comes off as combining every problem the movie has into one segment: the uselessness of the Loc-Nar, copious and ridiculous sex, drugs, and so on. Really all that’s missing from this is gratuitous violence, but hey, guess you can’t have everything all the time, right? It just comes off as really dull and pointless, and there’s not really anything particularly funny about anything that happens in it, unless of course you’re a thirteen year old who thinks “big boob woman having sex with robot while aliens snort cocaine” is the funniest shit on Earth.

Thankfully, we end on a strong note with Taarna, which is about a proud warrior woman dressed in horrifically impractical armor (and this actually effects the plot, I’m not kidding, somehow there was some self-awareness here) and a cool alien pteradactly flying off to fulfill a vengeful pact after the slaughter of a peaceful race by barbarians mutated by the Loc-Nar, in what may be the Loc-Nar’s sole impressive feat. Taarna is the ultimate hero, giving us the trifecta of qualities a heroine in this movie should have – boobs, butt, and bush... Er, I mean, sword, cool mount, and ass-kicking prowess. This one is not quite as good as “Den” or “B-17,” but I still think it’s a solid finale that has enough action and awesome music to make up for its tackier elements.

The movie ends with Taarna’s defeat of the Loc-Nar echoing through time and killing it which… makes absolutely zero sense, but whatever, the Loc-Nar is an absolutely atrocious villain and perhaps one of the most useless in cinematic history, he gets a 1/10 on Psycho Analysis. Then the girl gets her own kickass space dragon thing and becoming the new Taarna or something and, honestly, it’s the exact sort of batshit ending you should expect from the film.

So, is this really an awful film? In some places, no. It’s a love letter to cheesy, trashy sci-fi fantasy from the 70s, with all that comes with it, and in that regard it does succeed. But still, a lot of the film feels like the utterly juvenile fantasies of same sad high schooler, or perhaps even middle schooler, who has never had and who likely never will have sex. It’s a tashy little time capsule to a bygone era where this sort of storytelling was okay so long as there was enough blood and titties on display, so if that appeals to you, by all means, check this film out. It’s certainly not the worst thing in the world to watch, but animation has come so far and adult animation in particular is capable of so much more than adolescent masturbatory fantasies that this film has little value beyond a few solid segments and a damn good soundtrack.

Hell, just go listen to the soundtrack. I think you’d have a better time doing that.

#Michael After Midnight #Review #Movie review #Heavy Metal #animation #animated movie #sex drugs and rock and roll

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waritawrites · 3 years

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Tales from the Hood: Rhodie (black elitists) or Duke Metger (Biden) - Who was the Bigger Threat to Black People?

https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2021/05/05/tales-from-the-hood-rhodie-black-elitists-or-duke-metger-biden-who-was-the-bigger-threat-to-black-people/

#Prolife #LABlackAdvocatesforLife #LouisianaBlackAdvocatesforLife #BlackGenocide #AbortionIsEugenics #PlannedParenthoodIsElitist #Elitism

#ElitismIsHomicidal #LouisianaRightToLife #PlannedParenthoodPredators #PlannedParenthoodOwesReparations #Reparations

In Rusty Condieff's 1995 horror movie Tales from the Hood, there is a story called KKK Comeuppance which starred Corbin Bersen as senator and former KKK member Duke Metger and Roger Guenver Smith as his Public Relations consultant Rhodie (a black elitist) who are working to get Duke elected as governor. Duke faces great opposition because of his past membership with the Ku Klux Klan and AND his choice of the location of his campaign headquarters - his grandfather's old plantation. His grandfather murdered his slaves were upon finding out slavery in the south had been legally ended. There is an old legend that says that a former slave woman used witchcraft to capture their souls and place them in the bodies of dolls. The dolls would periodically come to life and their leader was the woman's husband who had been killed. A mural of the woman and her dolls was located Duke's office.

Alone, Duke was an unlikeable, arrogant, person. Yet, with the help of Rhodie, his appeal grew which made him a serious contender in the governor's race. When looking at today's political scene, one would easily say that Trump was like Duke Metger - when looking from a superficial perspective. A SUPERFICIAL PERSPECTIVE. He wasn't the most tactful. He was blunt. Some, DEFINITELY NOT ALL, of Trump's were white supremacists (some were also white "liberals" pretending to be stereotypical white conservative Trump supporters) and those who weren't white were anti-black, some of which were black. Yes, there are anti-black black people. One such character in Tales from The Hood was Rhodie. Rhodie seemed to represent a stereotypical black republican. He seems like the type of anti-black, self-hating black person who would pretend to "help" the black people improve their community by getting rid of as many Black people as possible using:

- Forget GOD and uphold multicultural, pagan ideals instead

- Abortion

- Euthanasia (gotta maintain that quality of life)

- Normalization of promiscuity

- Normalization of destructive alternative lifestyles

- The stigmatizing of traditional marriage and family

-The normalization of addiction and substance abuse, such as recreationally smoking heroin

Columbia professor: I do heroin regularly for ‘work-life balance’

https://nypost.com/2021/02/19/columbia-prof-i-snort-heroin-regularly-for-work-life-balance/

https://twitter.com/Joy_Villa/status/1363557914351403016?s=20

People who promote such self-destructive behaviors as normal or even inherently black are an enemy! They are an enemy of mankind, no matter how progressive that they think such behaviors are. Indeed, progressivism, like evolution, is an oxymoron because you don't gain anything biologically nor socially. Things regress to its most basic form. Though, a progressive such as a eugenicist might would tell you, "progressive for the purpose of efficiency - less means more." More for them, more resources for them in their quest to reign supreme in the survival of the fittest, or their horrible misinterpretation of term. Yet, we don't see the promotion of such self-destructive behavior coming from Black Republicans, Conservatives, and Independents. We see the encouragement of black self-destruction coming from Black Democrats

Most Democrat Legislators Champion Margaret Sanger’s Racist Genocide Mission – Are They Counter-representing You?

https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2019/05/16/most-democrat-legislators-champion-margaret-sangers-racist-genocide-mission-are-they-counter-representing-you/

Liberals, and some (especially paid) Social Justice activists as well as your various dose-of-distraction-from-news-and-entertainment-attractions.

Black Agents of White Supremacy in the Media endorse racist Joe Biden

https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/black-agents-of-white-supremacy-in-the-media-endorse-racist-joe-biden/

Support of the Super Predators: White Supremacists in Liberal Disguise and the Mainstream Media that promotes them

https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2020/02/17/support-of-the-super-predators-white-supremacists-in-liberal-disguise-and-the-mainstream-media-that-promotes-them/

Joe Biden & his supporters on Joe's racist association with the klansmen sound a lot like Duke Metger & Rhodie in Tales from the

Hood @ 0:56:22 mins

"We all have a past, now don't we?"

"We all, have a past. Its a better man who can learn from his failures. I know that I have learned from mine and I'm better for it."

Duke Metger & Rhodie in Tales from the Hood, https://youtu.be/5vxHfr3DLKg

Margaret Sanger also used black elitists to carry out her plan for eugenics by way of birth control.

Planned Parenthood has stalked and misinformed Black people, particularly Black people experiencing poverty as well as uneducated Black people about the personhood of an unborn child. However, Black Democrats, Liberals, and some (especially paid) Social Justice activists such as Black Lives Matter:

BLM to Biden & Harris: We want something for our vote

https://www.theblaze.com/news/black-lives-matter-leader-to-biden-and-harris-we-want-something-for-our-vote

- BLM got in the way with their grifting and clout-seeking.

Michael Brown’s father, Ferguson activists demand $20M from BLM

By Kenneth Garger

https://nypost.com/2021/03/03/michael-browns-father-ferguson-activists-demand-20m-from-blm/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Where is the $90 million dollars collected by BLM? Michael Brown’s father, Ferguson activists demand $20M from BLM

https://twitter.com/TheFabulousRee/status/1371965130578268160?s=20

Shaun King attempted to discredit Samaria Rice when she spoke against the political exploitation of racism and police brutality done by pseudo-social activists, celebrities, and politicians. Shaun King stated that she was not thinking the way that liberal white "woke" supremacy wants her to think. She isn't sticking with their destructive narrative and agenda for Black people. They're redlining us into feeling that we can't be self-reliant! Meanwhile, Closet Capitalist Anarchists ease into the neighbohoods they help to destroy to start businesses, buy real estate for commercial and residential purposes;etc. #UnfollowShaunKing

"I read Shaun King’s piece about Samaria Rice’s critical social media comments and this is some of the most patronizing ugly sh-t I’ve ever seen"

https://twitter.com/ztsamudzi/status/1371882450763329536?s=20

BLM destroyed a beautiful,civilized movement as well as communities. It could have been a beautiful,civilized movement yet they ruined it w/buffoonery such as twerking for Martin Luther King, Jr Day and WAP stupidity

Joe Biden's non-response reminds me of this scene from Tales from The Hood:

Duke Metger in Tales from the Hood, "No Reparations!" https://youtu.be/7vjwA1IkIRk

and Black ministers

Apostate False Preachers for Feticide and Infanticide: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton

https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/apostate-false-preachers-for-feticide-and-infanticide-jesse-jackson-and-al-sharpton/

have been its main proponents and propagandists since the early 1900's when it was known as the American Birth Control League. To appeal to Black people, Sanger said:

The Use of Ministers for The Negro Project in a 1939 letter to Dr. C.J. Gamble:

"The ministers work is also important and he should be trained, perhaps by the Federation as to our ideals and the goal that we hope to reach. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

In Birth Control and the Negro, Sanger talked about the value of the influence of black ministers:

“The project would hire three or four ‘colored Ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities’ to travel throughout the South and propagandize for birth control, since ‘the most successful educational approach to the Negro is through religious appeal” (as cited in Gordon, 2007, p. 235).

Dr. Albert Lasker, Sanger (1939) stated, "If we could get the Negro Universities and the Negro medical groups behind this project it will go over really big I think, especially if there is a little money to give to those for time spent and for supplies in their clinics."(para. 3)

One of her biggest propagandists was W.E.B. DuBois (See: Negroes and Birth Control, https://libex.smith.edu/omeka/files/original/16e5b6a56c2c4aedb3274e7124f3006e.jpg)

W.E.B. DuBois (1939) stated:

“Among the more intelligent class, was a postponement of marriage, which greatly decreased the number of children. Today, among this class of Negroes few men marry before thirty, and numbers of them after forty. The marriage of women of this class has similarly been postponed.

In addition to this, the low incomes which Negroes receive make bachelorhood and spinsterhood widespread, with the naturally resultant lowering, in some cases, of sex standards. On the other hand, the mass of ignorant Negroes still breed carelessly and disastrously, so that the increase among Negroes, even more than whites, is from that part of the population least intelligent and fit, and least able to rear their children properly.” (para. 4 and para.5).

Joe Biden has more in common with Duke over the course of his career than does Trump. Here are the facts listed in my article, Joe Biden has built his career by FIGHTING AGAINST EQUITY and EQUALITY, https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2021/01/22/joe-biden-has-built-his-career-by-fighting-against-equity-and-equality/ :

"Joe used the drug epidemic to target Blacks and poor people to serve longer sentences for trafficking by promoting proganda that crack is more lethal than cocaine. Blacks and poor people could afford crack for distribution and sell because it was less expensive than cocaine which Biden gave lesser sentencing. This occurred during the time the number privatized prisons began to increase. These were for-profit prisons. This first company to take over a prison was Core Civic in 1984. Civic Core took over a Shelby County, Tennessee prison.

Vox.com's German Lopez https://www.vox.com/2015/8/26/9208983/joe-biden-black-lives-matter shares Jamelle Bouie's list at Slate.com https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/08/joe-biden-presidential-run-why-its-a-bad-idea.html:

"Comprehensive Control Act: This 1984 law, spearheaded by Biden and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), expanded drug trafficking penalties and federal "civil asset forfeiture," which allows police to seize and absorb someone's property — whether cash, cars, guns, or something else — without proving the person is guilty of a crime. Under the federal Equitable Sharing program, local and state police get up to 80 percent of the value of what they seize as funds for their departments, which critics say creates a for-profit incentive to take people's stuff.

Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986: This law, sponsored and partly written by Biden, ratcheted up penalties for drug crimes. It also created a big sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine — even though both drugs are pharmacologically similar, the law made it so someone would need to possess 100 times the amount of powder cocaine to be eligible for the same mandatory minimum sentence for crack. Since crack is more commonly used by black Americans, this sentencing disparity helped fuel the disproportionate rates of imprisonment among black communities.

Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988: This law, co-sponsored by Biden, strengthened prison sentences for drug possession, enhanced penalties for transporting drugs, and established the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which coordinates and leads federal anti-drug efforts.

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act: This 1994 law, partly written by Biden and signed by President Bill Clinton, imposed tougher sentences (including some mandatory minimums) and increased funding for prisons, fostering the explosive growth of the US prison population from the 1990s through the 2000s — a trend that's only begun to reverse in the past few years. Since black Americans are disproportionately likely to be incarcerated, the law helped contribute to the mass incarceration of black Americans in particular. But the law also included all sorts of other measures, including the Violence Against Women Act that helped crack down on domestic violence and rape, a 10-year ban on assault weapons, funding for firearm background checks, and grant programs for local and state police.

The RAVE Act: This 2003 law built on the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 to impose civil penalties on businesses that knowingly lease, rent, use, or profit from a space where illicit drugs are being stored, manufactured, distributed, or used. The idea was to go after raves in which drugs are widely used. But the law has been widely criticized for making rave organizers so paranoid about anti-drug crackdowns that they stopped doing anything that would implicate them in drug use, including providing medical or educational services for drug users."

Interesting that Joe and Strom Thurmond partnered to write the 1984 Comprehensive Control Act during the same time period that Core Civic took over a facility in Tennessee. The increase in the number of privatized coincided with Biden's focus on creating crime bill's. To sell his 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act #1994CrimeBill, Biden's rhetoric was "Lock the S.O.B.'s Up" to further vilify the poor and other disenfranchised people to justify mass incarceration.

-'Lock the S.O.B.s Up’: Joe Biden and the Era of Mass Incarceration

He now plays down his role overhauling crime laws with segregationist senators in the ’80s and ’90s. That portrayal today is at odds with his actions and rhetoric back then.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/us/joe-biden-crime-laws.html#click=https://t.co/7ck1J9966W

His magnum opus was his 1993 Predators Beyond the Pale Speech

-Joe Biden Warns Of "Predators On Our Streets" Who Were "Beyond The Pale" In 1993 Crime Speech

https://youtu.be/7oDHSt-CKtc

- Joe Biden wrote the Clinton approved Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act:

Bill Clinton's crime bill destroyed lives, and there's no point denying it

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/15/bill-clinton-crime-bill-hillary-black-lives-thomas-frank "

In addition to creating legislation that racially profiles minorities into a system of for-profit mass incarceration, he has also been a loyal supporter of planned parenthood.

Current Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson says:

"Margaret Sanger’s beliefs caused irreparable damage to the lives and health of generations of Black people, Latino people, Indigenous people, immigrants, people with disabilities, people with low incomes, and many others." Read more from

@alexismcgill

: https://p.ppfa.org/3x3N29f

https://twitter.com/PPFA/status/1383827872628953094?s=20

I’m the Head of Planned Parenthood. We’re Done Making Excuses for Our Founder

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/17/opinion/planned-parenthood-margaret-sanger.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=healthtwitter&utm_content=nyt2-april21

Despite McGill-Johnson's statement of the racist activities of planned parenthood as well as Kamala Harris' expression of fear of Joe Biden's praise of the known white supremacists of whom he has shown reverence:

What bothered Kamala about Joe? Interview with Kamala Harris on the campaign trail - Face the Nation

11:35 mins: “Praising and coddling individuals who made it their life work and built their reputation off of segregation of the races in the United States........I would not be a member of the United States senate if those men he praised had their way."

What bothered Kamala about Joe?

https://youtu.be/xMqp7A-O0HE?t=695

Let's talk about Joe Biden - 10:53 mins

https://youtu.be/xMqp7A-O0HE?t=653

this year he has still allowed the government to give over 400 million dollars to continue to decimate the Black community.

Joe Biden Gives Abortion Industry $467.8 Billion, 19 Times More Tax Money Than Obama

https://www.lifenews.com/2021/04/29/joe-biden-gives-abortion-industry-467-8-billion-19-times-more-money-than-obama/

https://twitter.com/StevenErtelt/status/1388694739512348674?s=20

Black people make up 13% of the population and Black women only represent 6% of the total population yet account for 36.9% of the nation’s abortions whereas white women account for 36% of the nation’s abortions however white people are 76% of the nation’s population. (Jatlaoui TC, Boutot ME, Mandel MG, et al, 2015).

Jatlaoui TC, Boutot ME, Mandel MG, et al. Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2015. MMWR Surveill Summ 2018;67(No. SS-13):1–45. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6713a1

Regarding the near extinction of the Black population in America due to abortion, Nyhiem Way El stated to reparations group American Descendants of Slaves,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ados101/permalink/296772141208488/?sfnsn=mo,:

"- Based on the January 2018 estimate that there have been 60 million abortions in the United States since 1973,20 we can deduce that well over 18 million of them were performed on black babies.

- As of July 2017, the black population in the U.S. stood somewhere around 40 million, which means that abortion has reduced the size of the black community by more than 30%—and that doesn't include the children and grandchildren that would have been born to those aborted more than a generation ago.'

Abort73.(n.d.). Abortion and Race. Retrieved from https://abort73.com/abortion/abortion_and_race/

Essentially, this is a 50% halt in population growth if you look at the children and grandchildren who would've been born since 1973 of the aborted. (Way El, 2019)

**As of July 2017, the black population in the U.S. stood somewhere around 40 million, meaning abortion has reduced the size of the black community over 30% and doesn't including potential children and grandchildren born to those aborted a generation ago

https://abort73.com/abortion/abortion_and_race/"

Planned Parenthood owes reparations to Black people, Hispanics, those living in poverty, women, AND fathers who wanted their children that were aborted.

GOD hates the Oppression of the Disenfranchised: Proverbs 30:14 & Jeremiah 34:8 - 22

https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2021/04/17/god-hates-the-oppression-of-the-disenfranchised-proverbs-3014-jeremiah-348-22/

Proverbs 30:14

“There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.”

Hypocrisy of Joe Biden: A Legacy of Self-Entitlement and Oppression against the Disenfranchised

https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/hypocrisy-of-joe-biden-a-legacy-of-self-entitlement-and-oppression-against-the-disenfranchised/

Biden's overall opinion of Black people continues to be low,especially of those who would vote for him. In August 2020, Biden stated at a meeting with Latino voters:

"By the way, what you all know, but most people don’t, unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.”

—#JoeBiden 8/6/2020 https://youtu.be/f4lXYR0su-8

I'm glad that I'm a notable exception - I didn't vote for him.

I will never support the removal of GOD being THE GUIDE of America, abortion

Scriptures Against Abortion and Child Abuse

https://followerofthewayforever.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/scriptures-against-abortion-and-child-abuse/

HURTING CHILDREN BRINGS ON THE WRATH OF GOD

Matthew 18:5-6,10

5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea

10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven

the destruction of traditional marriage and family, the destruction of traditional gender roles,eugenics, population control,euthanasia, and government and corporate hoarding rationing for totalitarian purposes disguised as environmentalism and sustainability.

Reference

Way El, N.(2019,May 16).Predatory Abortion Industry causes 50% halt in black population growth

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ados101/permalink/296772141208488/?sfnsn=mo

Du Bois, W.E.B.(1939, April). Negroes and Birth Control. Smith

https://libex.smith.edu/omeka/files/original/16e5b6a56c2c4aedb3274e7124f3006e.jpg

Sanger,M.(1939).Letter from Margaret Sanger to Dr. C.J. Gamble December 10,1939. Smith Libraries Exhibit, Accessed January 10, 2019, Retrieved from https://libex.smith.edu/omeka/files/original/d6358bc3053c93183295bf2df1c0c931.pdf

Gordon,L.(2007). Birth Control and the Negro. In The Moral Property of Women, p.235. Urbana; Chicago: University of Illiniois Press.

Sanger,M.(1939).Letter from Margaret Sanger to Dr. Albert Lasker November 12,1939. Smith Libraries Exhibit, Accessed January 11, 2019, Retrieved from https://libex.smith.edu/omeka/files/original/087da25e33426c0e81b01eebcdcc079d.jpg

#population control #eugenics #joe biden #racial profiling #prolife #alexis mcgill johnson #abortion #GOD #Jesus #Holy Spirit #Planned Parenthood #Planned Parenthood Owes Reparations #Reparations

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hellyeahheroes · 5 years

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My (Many)Problems with Damian Wayne

Rape tw

I will be upfront and say that I have never liked Damian Wayne from the jump. The idea that Batman has a son through rape(and yes, it is rape to drug someone and then sexually assault them) and he was forced to take care of the little asshole never sat well with me. But as a character, I hate little shit asshole characters especially the ones that Grant Morrison creates as this edgy jerk, but their jerkiness is somehow endearing when it is really not like his other detestable creation Quentin Quire.

Now I am coming around to the idea that every character can be redeemed from a baseline standpoint, but Damian sits in the category for me as characters that were fucked from the jump right next to Cindy Moon and Alpha. These are characters that should be scrapped and rebuilt. Just throw the whole fucking character away, sis, and start over. You can’t develop a character if everything he is supposed to convey and represent was completely misplaced. Let me explain what I mean.

What is the point of Robin? Robin is a vehicle for kids to feel apart of Batman. Batman is cool so why not give him a kid sidekick. And each of these kid sidekicks were relatable. Dick Grayson was from a family of Romani acrobats that traveled in a circus which got on the wrong side of Gotham gangsters. Jason Todd was a street urchin. Tim Drake is fan of Batman who had parents involved in his life who were the same social class as Bruce so Tim trained himself to be the next Robin(a bit on the nose).

The only Robins that are outliers to the relatable rule are Stephanie(who was created to be killed anyways) and Damian.

Damian is the son of Batman via rape. His entire purpose was concocted through an eugenics experiment by Ra’s Al Ghul because Batman’s genes and heritage and other physical traits were seen as desirable so Ra’s raised his daughter, Talia, to either lure Batman through seduction to produce a worthy heir. Damian never suffered nor never intentionally had to suffer in a way that was not part of his character building as being honed to be the leader of the League. He trained to be the greatest and made well aware of the fact that he will be the greatest because of his lineage through Ra’s Al Ghul and Batman, the greatest detective of all time as well as one of greatest mortal fighters in the world. There is nothing in the world that Damian could not have and everything was always available to him.Damian knows he is better than you could ever be and there is rarely a moment that he doesn’t remind you that he is not like the reader or any other ordinary person.

Damian is not a character created in the same way that the other Robins were created. You, the reader, are not to allowed to relate to Damian. The appeal in Damian has little to do with appealing to kid readers, but a ton to do with relating to adult readers who are also parents or people who regularly have to deal with kids, particularly bad kids.

Damian’s snotty attitude could have been applied to any of the other Robin’s(in fact, that was what Jason was supposed to be personality wise), but Damian’s personality is supposed to bring out the parent in Batman. When you read Morrison’s Batman and Robin, Damian is this know it all little brat while Dick represents the very patient adult who has to deal with this know it all little brat.When Batman interacts with Damian, he has to constantly admonish him or teach him from right or wrong which, let me get into for a little bit. Most parents do teach their child from right or wrong shit like not taking things from the store without purchasing them, but most do not have to tell their 8 year old that no, it is not alright to kill people which is a lesson that Damian sucks his teeth at.

Now you can sit there and say that is what makes him fun or whatever, but Batman is about a kid who lost his parents in a dark alleyway. I am sorry. They were not to lost. They were killed. Batman is about a kid who took his suffering and all of his pain and turned it into something positive so no one else has to be that kid whose parents were taken away from him. Dick Grayson understood this. Jason Todd did not understand and strayed from this. Tim Drake understood this and tries his best to live up to Batman’s example. Cassandra Cain has taken life and understood how terrible murder was and lives her life trying to redeem herself. Damian is thematically against Batman as a concept.

And Damian sucks his teeth at it and sees it as a hindrance. And not in the same way that Jason does who was horrible killed by the Joker and then later learned that Batman let him live thus creating a sense of betrayal and abandonment. Damian just feels like it is easier to just kill people and right or wrong is irrelevant. There is no talking to a person who can’t fathom why murder might not be the modus operandi of a vigilante that regularly works with civilization.

All of these things would be okay if Damian was not constantly being written as the heir to Batman or the next successor to Batman when for all intents and purposes, he is the least worthy of all Batman’s sidekicks and family. He is not from Gotham yet he deems that he should be it’s protector just because his father is? He is sneers his nose to being decent and good and is rather okay with keeping a blacksite of prisoners so he can interrogate and torture them. And god forbid you say Damian is ever wrong?

All in all, Damian does not want to learn or grow. He has been the same character for years and there is no development in his personality. And him unlearning to not be an assassin and not killing people seems like shit he should inherently know not to do and why it is wrong. Damian does not kill because his daddy told him not to. And yeah, he could learn a lesson, but honestly that lesson should not have to be learned in the first place for a character in the Batfamily. They should intrinsically know and have strong feelings against and somehow they make an exception for Damian.

Then there is identifying Damian as a person of color which...okay, I caught some heat when I called Damian white but the ambiguity of Damian’s and therefore Ra’s and Talia’s cultural heritages allows for writers to not actually address culture or race. Ra’s Al Ghul’s ambiguity whether he is ethnically Arabic, semitic, or both allows for an interpretation that he could be white and people generally are okay with that read as him and never discourages it. Talia is the same way and while Damian might were the clothes, and eat the food(yes, I know Damian likes Lebanese cuisine because it reminds him of home), but it is wholly on the writer to address his racial identity because of what the League of Assassins is. It is not like Simon Baz where his ethnic and therefore religious identity must be upheld because it is part of his core character or a Luke Cage where race and racial issues must be ascertained when writing his character or even Miles Morales. Damian is from a made up cult of based off the Middle Eastern Hashashin’s of the Crusades. That fantastical element allows the writer to have a brown character without actually relating to brown people. And that is even if writer or artists makes Damian Brown which is not too far out of the realm of possibility because again, Ra’s and Talia’s ambiguous ethnic identities allows for that possibility.

I know people hate reboots. But Damian should be rebooted. That is just my opinion of the character. Feel free to discuss.

@ubernegro

#Damian Wayne #robin #batman & robin #Batfamily #DC comics

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thisisjustforschooldontlook-blog · 5 years

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ENG 230 Blog

Blog 1-Rear Window

Rear Window is the perfect example of the male gaze. Jeff finds himself privy to the actions of his neighbors around him as he recovers from an accident. Mulvey talked about in her article how at the core of the male gaze, there is a voyeuristic base. The audience can clearly see this as Jeff watches his neighbors from his window. Lisa even tells Jeff to leave his neighbors alone and that some things must be private. The way Jeff and his friend (forgot his name) talks about the dancer is a very male gaze. Her character exists for this sole purpose. She also only interacts with men throughout the film and has no girlfriends come over. I do not think it is totally far fetched to think that a woman living alone has friends and would like them to visit but I digress. Rear Window is a backhanded compliment to women. Backhanded in the sense that even when it seems like the women in the film are being strong and independent, it is for the sake of a man. For example, Lisa although she was super cool in my opinion, only gets her cool moments because she is trying to prove to Jeff throughout the whole film that she is worth marrying. I mean what is the point of having an empowered and feisty female character if the director or writers make the woman revolve around a male love interest? The audience can also see the male gaze in the way that Lisa interacts with Jeff. She always looks visually appealing but the actress truly had the misfortune of having to memorize and repeat some misogynistic lines. Lines that have Lisa wondering why Jeff does not think he can marry her or if she is good enough for him. Another proof is also the way that Lisa has to drag Jeff away from the window in order to get him to look at her through a romantic lens. Jeff only turns his head after Lisa sits in his lap which gives off a fan service-esque vibe. Ultimately all these proofs show why Mulvey would go and write an article about this film and how it relates to the male gaze. Rather than relate, this film is the poster child for the male gaze. Rear Window utilizes the male gaze in order to help the audience take note of what is important versus unimportant information. This is a detective thriller so the audience has to watching and paying attention to every detail. It seems weird but using the male gaze worked for this film.

Blog 2- Where Are My Children

Where Are My Children? is quite an interesting film. I found myself trying to figure out whether the film was pro-choice or pro-life. I am sure my initial response sounded just as confused as I was. However after a quick glance once more at the article provided for the film, I felt as though the dots were starting to connect. The film is not a pro-life or pro-choice film. This is a film that primarily deals with eugenics. Eugenics, Darwin is giggling in his grave somewhere. How is Where Are My Children a film about eugenics as opposed to a cookie cutter pro-life or pro-choice film? The way the film opens up with the story told as the babies return paints the film to be some sort of pro-life propaganda. However, there are multiple cases within the film that the audience finds themselves hearing cases argued for birth control and family planning. However, the case for eugenics comes into play once the audience realizes that birth control is only supported for people who society deems as not good enough to procreate. The young woman who ends up getting a botched abortion is just a servant or low social standing. The characters do not even hesitate to offer this kind of ‘help’ to the poor or ‘loose.’ However for someone as well off and with the social standing Edith has. The film even makes the argument that women should have a choice in case they do not wish to put their career on hold in order to raise a baby. Edith is one such woman. However, it is only egregious that she aborts her children because she is viewed to be worthy of reproduction. Someone like Lillian, however, does not even get an eye batted in her direction as the audience can see with the reaction of her would-be lover. Lillian’s lover throws her away just as easily as Edith makes the decision to terminate her pregnancies. By seeing something like this play out on the big screen, the audience can see how this film is neither pro-life or pro-choice, rather pro-eugenics. The pro-eugenics is seen in the way the court handles the doctor is standing trial for performing abortions and the way the women treat their abortions most specifically Lillian’s. All things considered, this film does a good job of keeping the audience guessing as to what kind of politics this film is.

Blog 3 Cleo

Is the ending of Cleo a happy ending? During this week’s google hangout, Professor Tolliver had me thinking really hard about this question. I truly believed up until he questioned it that Cleo really did have her happy ending. She found out that although she does have cancer, her cancer is treatable and she should be fine. However, there are many loose threads still hanging. Cleo does indeed have cancer so for all intents and purposes, she is dying. So the entire film when she is going around voicing her worries and concerns and allowing herself to entertain thoughts that she otherwise would not, is actually for a good reason. Regardless of whether or not she was sick, it is ok to be scared of one’s own mortality. The documentary cinematography style harkens back to the French New Wave. With this documentary style, one can experience events just as Cleo experiences them. In essence, rather than watching Cleo in a voyeuristic manner, the audience instead gets to be Cleo’s eyes and ears and be privy to her inner thoughts. Going back to my original point, is the ending a happy or sad one? This ending is a true open ending. Cleo does have cancer and given that the film takes place in the early 60s or late 50s, it is safe to say that medicine is not the most updated aspect of life. So while her cancer may be ‘nothing to worry about so long as she gets treatment’ there are still many ways in which cancer could spread and eventually claim Cleo’s life. Also, what if she gets treatment and gets an infection and dies as a result of that. So while things are looking up for Cleo, perhaps the ending is merely an open one instead of sad or happy. However, one thing that can be agreed upon is the fact that Cleo has most definitely changed. She has changed in regards to her perspective on life and what she cares about. This whole event has served as the ultimate introspective experience. Cleo may be happy at the conclusion of the film, and the conclusion itself may leave room for many questions, but Cleo has Antoine. Antoine goes against the average male love interest which is a direct relation to the French New Wave movement. The French New Wave can be seen throughout the film. Perhaps this stylistic choice is the reasoning behind the conclusion we get.

Blog 4 Watermelon Woman

I always find it rather enjoyable when I see multiple types of gay in a film or show. I find that many media outlets add to the stereotype problem for the LGBTQ+ community. In Watermelon Woman, there are many types of lesbians. Cheryl is the type of lesbian you do not find in excess in media. Most lesbians, back lesbians especially, are hypersexual and sexualized by the male gaze. However, this film does its best to avoid catering to the male gaze. Cheryl is the kind of lesbian that just wants to go about her life furthering her career as opposed to chasing her next tryst. The issue that Tamara has with Cheryl is that Cheryl ends up having a fling with a white woman? Is there an underlying issue when it comes to interracial romantic relationships, particularly the queer ones? Yes, there is. When embarking on in a mixed-race relationship, there is always an inherent worry for fetishization. Cheryl experiences this worry through Tamara. There is also the unease of being outside of one’s culture. The idea of someone betraying their culture just because they date outside of it is absolutely silly, however, it is something Cheryl has to combat throughout the film. This problem leads to the other main problem found in this film. Why are queer women of color so underrepresented? Queer women of color are underrepresented because they are not what society deems are good enough to watch on the big screen. Queer women of color more often than not find themselves subjected to stereotypical roles and find themselves fetishized not only for their sexuality but also for their skin color. This film is a case for why queer women of color should be given a chance on screen. The audience gets to experience a hard working queer woman of color, Cheryl and has the privilege of joining her on the adventure of a lifetime.

Final Blog Post

Rear Window tackles the issue of the male gaze throughout the course of the film. Mulvey points out that the film itself is rooted in a voyeuristic manner which allows for the audience to see the actions of Jeff’s neighbors. This, through the looking glass bird’s eye view, allows for the audience’s perspective to feel somewhat invasive. Stella Dallas deals with a mother-daughter relationship, but most specifically Kaplan talks about and focuses on the figure of the absent mother. This idea of there being such a high bar for mother’s to reach in order to be looked upon favorably by society. Kaplan especially focuses on the double standard for mothers and fathers. Stella is held to the high standard which she ultimately feels unable to meet, however, her husband is not held to any such standard. This is absolutely ridiculous seeing as Stella’s husband is a part-time father if anything. Where Are My Children deals with the issues of abortion, family planning, among other things? The film paints itself in a pro-choice versus pro-life debate, however, it ends up falling into the argument for eugenics. While reproductive rights are a very feminist quality and topic to speak on for a film, eugenics is such a far fetched and baseless practice that Where Are My Children most definitely loses the running for a genuine feminist film. Dance Girl Dance definitely shows its feminist tendencies a lot more clearly when compared to the other films we have watched through this course. For example, Bubbles plays the system for lack of better words. She finesses the system in order to suit her needs. What is more feminist than a woman using a man’s privilege against him in order to help her gain ground in life, career, and relationships? Cleo is an interesting film to enter into the battle for the most feminist film we have watched in this course. While I agree that Cleo as a character can seem rather feminist, I would argue that the film does not do enough to be considered the most feminist of all the films we watched. If I had to choose a favorite film throughout this course, it would be The Piano. This film really surprised me. All of the symbolism present throughout the film is enough to make an English major’s mouth water at the chance to dissect. While there are many hidden contexts in this film such as power dynamics in relationships and empowering women, which are very feminist, the main character ultimately seems a tad more romanticized than I would like. Fat Girl makes a compelling entry and in my opinion, comes second to the most feminist film we had the pleasure of viewing. Fat Girl tackles some very taboo topics such as teenage sexuality and rape. I find that there are many times where people like to ignore a sexual violence scene in films just because it makes them uncomfortable. The fact of the matter is, the director included it for a reason. You may not need to watch it, but you must at least try to figure out the purpose of such a traumatic scene. Rape scenes do not just get thrown into a story. Keesey likes to unpack all the hidden context behind Anais’s rape, however, despite the empowering look into rape and rape culture as well as rape fantasies, the voyeuristic feel, although intentional, leaves me feeling weird about making this film number one on my list. Which lastly leave Watermelon Woman. Watermelon Woman is a work of art in my opinion. This film needs to be a requirement for everyone going to school for the humanities. This film is ripe (pun intended) with many interdisciplinary topics. The reasoning behind my choice is simple: Inclusivity. Throughout all these films, there has been very little diversity and Watermelon Woman has just that. Not only does the film showcase a woman of color as the lead, but also a lesbian woman. Queer women of color are the most underrepresented diagraphic. On top of the representation and diversity, this film also covers a number of hot feminist issues. Sexuality, hypersexuality, fetishization, and interracial fraternizing are all issues that are covered in this film. Between Cheryl having to navigate the waters of figuring out what kind of lesbian she is versus having a white romantic partner. Is Diana with Cheryl just for her skin color? Tamara would like to think so. Not to mention that Cheryl’s entire purpose for making the film is in order to bring to light the issue of black women being absent from the film. Watermelon Woman may not be an overly flashy film, but it is a film that does justice to the word feminism. Feminism does not always have to be loud and ostentatious. It can also be inside voices but firm. For all these reasons, Watermelon Woman is the most feminist film we watched throughout this course.

I would also like to say that Fat Girl was really close but I just felt as though it would be socially unacceptable to choose a film like Fat Girl and say that it was the most feminist.

Extra Credit 1 400 Blows

I would first like to start off this post by saying that 400 Blows feels very similar to Cleo. As I am sure this was intended, I will talk about the similarities between these French films. First the cinematography. Cleo and 400 Blows both are some long shot sequences. While 400 Blows may have been the only one of the two films with a freeze frame, there are some shots in Cleo that do appear to stand still. However, shifting back to the longshots, when Cleo is walking around the coffee shop while contemplating her mortality, this long continuous shot is reminiscent of when Antoine is running away from the youth center in order to escape captivity and get to the sea. I would argue that you can see aspects of the French New Age in 400 Blows. For example, most movies rely on a happy ending, but much like Cleo, 400 Blows ends with an open ending as opposed to a happy or sad ending. One may feel sad for Antoine’s situation but in actuality, he seems to be surviving just fine. He even gets to see the sea at the end of the film so there are happier layers to the conclusion of this film. There are other similarities between the two films as well. For one Antoine and Cleo, both have experiences that lead to some much-needed introspection. For Cleo, she looks deep inside herself to figure out what is import in life, at least to her. It seems confronting one’s own mortality can be quite the spiritual awakening. As for Antoine, he learns about who he can and cannot trust. Unfortunately for him, he learns that he cannot trust his mother or his stepdad. Aside from his one trustworthy friend, Antoine has no one. A second similarity and a rather obvious one is the fact that both films are filmed in black and white. Throw in another similarity when you notice that both films are French with French spoken dialogue. 400 Blows is not necessarily a cinematic masterpiece, but it is a film that succeeds in getting the audience to think about life. Maybe not of mortality like Cleo, but certainly this notion of what comes next. Both of these films project an air of what comes next? It leaves the audience wanting to know what happens when everything falls back into place. Truly these films exemplify open endings.

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ehyeh-joshua · 7 years

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U do realize the republican and democratic parties switched places tho right. I hate both and they're both demonic but u cannot seriously be implying that the Republican Party of today has the best interest of black Americans at heart. And no ones forcing anyone to have abortions eugenics is real but women have the right to it if they want and if that right was taken away abortion would still happen just under dangerous circumstances

Firstly of all - thank you for recognising that the eugenics movement is sadly alive and well today.

However, in the rest of your ask you have one point that is semi-true and the rest are lies.

The first lie you cite is the parties' switched myth.

The basic premise is 1. that Barry Goldwater (Republican presidential nominee 1964) opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act that was passed by President Lyndon Johnson (Democrat).

2. Followed by a number of Democrats (the declared racist ones) switching to the Republicans.

3. This is followed by Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan's attempts to sway the South to vote Republican.

4. Obama, and most recently, Trump.

In order:

1. the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Usually, no one propounding the myth explains any greater detail than the above summary; for good reason, it falls apart on investigation.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act followed Republican attempts in 1957 and 1960 to get a Civil Rights Act passed - both of which were headed up by Goldwater. Democrats blocked them both.

The 1964 act Goldwater could not support because of Constitutional infringements. (detailed below) Despite this, the vast majority of Republicans voted for it anyway - 87% Republican support in house of Representatives and 80% Republican support in the Senate. Democrats by contrast, only 61% House of Representatives, and a better 69% of Senate Democrats were in favour.

Even this doesn't tell the whole story though, because unlike in 1957 and 1960 when Lyndon had opposed the Civil Rights Acts put forward, this time he realised he could get blacks voting for him for 200 years by getting it passed.

Goldwater's objections were simple, but completely ignored in a narrative to paint him as anti-black. He agreed that segregation was wrong, morally, economically, whatever area - and he was right, it is wrong. However, despite this moral opposition to it, the Constitution is designed to define the Federal government, and not the states - and he could not support the Federal overreach the act featured by violating the rights to freedom of speech, of association and use of property in forcing people who were, and still are, in favour of segregation, to be forced by the Federal government not segregated any more, that was in his view a state's rights issue. Without this problem, he would have supported the '64 act, just like he supported the '60 act and the '57 act.

Ultimately, if you don't respect someone's right to be wrong, you don't respect them at all. I hate white supremacist views. They have no place in civilised society; same with the black supremacist views held in greater numbers today. But to deny them the right to speak and to assemble peacefully (which had been the case at Charlestone, until the protesters against them turned up and started the fighting) because I disagree with their position is as morally wrong as their views.

The second section, how Racist Democrats swapped to the Republican party is completely false. For a start, only one Democrat actually swapped - Strom Thurmond. Except in situations like for example, UK Liberal Democrats who until recently had just one MP, the change of sides of a single politician is not significant. Especially not when you understand his reason for switching was that he as a fiscal conservative did not like the progressiveness of the Democrat party - unlike most Democrats, he had never been a KKK member, and went on to defend blacks from lynching and discriminatory poll taxes.

Also; the reason the Civil Rights Act passed was Republican support. Why is it that the Democrats are defined as the party of supporting blacks for not even two thirds support, yet the Republican party who had more than four fifths support the '64 Act are deemed the racists?

The premise is that Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan all tried to appeal to southern voters to get enough votes for president, in conjunction with the second premise of southern voters are racist, and forms an assertion that because the racist southern voters voted Republican, the Republican party is racist.

What this completely ignores is A) how Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan made their appeals, and B) who and what southern Republican voters were and are like.

A) Alongside the black civil rights issues that the Republican party was founded on, the Republican party has always been in favour of a small, limited government. (America in general also is in principle, if not practice)

B) Southern voters are commonly also very much in favour of a small, limited government, and by pointing out these values and applying them, Nixon to a limited extent and Reagan to a much greater extent were able to make the "solid south" swap.

Another interesting fact to consider is what parts of the south swapped; Nixon/Reagan won votes from the cities in the more fringe states of the south - Eisenhower started gaining votes in Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida, which steadily built up into wins for Nixon and Reagan. The most racist parts were some of the last places to turn Republican; Louisiana, the last, wasn't Republican until it elected Bobby Jindal as governor - if the Republican party was the racist ones, then the situation would have been the reverse.

Obama and Trump.

The final part of the myth brings itself to the present time by citing the Democrat Obama and Republican Trump - first black president and... the less said the better frankly, as a man he has no redeeming qualities and I only consider him positively at all because of the One who gave Trump his station, and the fact that when he sticks to the path laid out for him, he is actually pretty good. Trouble is, he doesn't do that as much as he should, he apologises too much.

The premise is because Democrats voted for Obama, they aren't racist, and because Republicans voted for Trump, they are racist.

Obama's legacy:

Obama should have been a high point for black americans. First black president after over a century of trying, promise of new hope to ease racial tensions and bring in equality, even bringing peace to the Middle-East.

And, like the rest of the myth, the more you dig into it, the less true it gets.

Tavis Smiley once said that “Sadly — and it pains me to say this — over the last decade, black folk, in the era of Obama, have lost ground in every major economic category.”

She isn't far off - the only metric to improve for black americans under Obama was in employment rates for blacks - 4% less unemployed in general, and in black teenagers, there was a far better 12% drop in the unemployment rate.

BUT:

Median-average income in black households is down $556 per household, the number of black americans below the poverty line was 25.8% in 2009 and by 2014 had a deterioration to 26.2%, black food stamp participants rose from 7.4 million to 11.7 million.

Far more situational, as home ownership/renting isn't necessarily fixed in benefit one way, is the fact at the start of 2016 42% of blacks owned their own home, down from 46%.

And on the race-relations issue? Well, race relations haven't been as bad as they are now in decades; try finding one black person's blog on here which doesn't document this.

And when someone uses the words "plantation politics" to describe how he himself got blacks to vote Democrat, that doesn't speak very highly of them.

On Trump: Trump is many things. Most of them bad. But, fundamentally, most of them are just verbal - he isn't like Hillary, who explained how she keeps slaves in Arkansas in her autobiography. For example.

But the problem is Trump isn't a Republican. You go back through the primaries for example - closed primaries he lost, open primaries he won. He also spent many years voting Democrat before switching in 2008.

He also has shown very little understanding of the core principles of the Republican party, and he has a party with far too many Republican-in-name-only types.

Frankly, the myth only holds up in the case of Trump.

2nd lie.

"both demonic" - demonic influenced perhaps, Democrats more likely given how strong the hold of Freemasonry is in Democrat circles; I can't be bothered to argue, given my default position is to assume politicians are lying if their lips are moving. (unless it is about raising taxes or messing up the country some how, that is usually reliable)

The "best interest of black americans at heart" thing.

Now, for one, I never mentioned that. Not even when referring to the legacy of the Republican party.

But, thinking that Republicans might hypothetically be bad for blacks and therefore rejecting them, while giving a free pass for Democrats who were, are and if the past is any indication of the future, will be bad for blacks is... you may guess how illogical that is.

3rd lie.

YES PEOPLE ARE BEING FORCED TO HAVE ABORTIONS!

Particularly rape victims, victims of sexual abuse, mothers with less than perfect health, mothers of babies with disabilities, blacks - the list goes on and on of people told or forced to get abortions; Planned Parenthood systematically aids it in cases of incestuous sexual abuse and prostitution.

The Chinese government has forced women who had too many children to have an abortion, both under the one child and two child policies, and in US sex trafficking - a slave trade part of a worldwide slavery that dwarfs anything done prior to the abolition movement - as many as a quarter of trafficked women have been forced to have abortions.

No one being forced? That is an argument out of ignorance.

And the right? Either rights are GOD-given, in which case abortion is murder and is by absolutely no means justified. Or, rights are given at the whims of a state, which can just as easily create a right as it can take it away. If abortion was illegal, you would not be saying there was a right to abortion, you'd be saying there should be one.

Either way - slavery prior to abolition was legal. The Holocaust was legal. In fact, murderers beyond a body count of 1000 dead are nearly always legal, at least the time of the murders. Legality has no basis for morality; even talking about the death penalty is not moral - the appalling rate of false imprisonments and executions is enough to mean that any legal system unable to secure beyond ALL doubt levels of guilt is not good enough to justify the use of the death penalty.

It is actually the least feminine thing about feminism, that it supports this crime against humanity - woman is uniquely gifted with the ability to create and nurture new life, and feminism smashes that and instead demands the right to spill innocent blood.

And the 4th lie.

"if that right was taken away abortion would still happen just under dangerous circumstances"

Bear in mind here that you are using this here as a defence of genocide. You cannot talk about rights in the context of a cult of industrialised slaughter in which 1.6 billion babies have been murdered worldwide. Most of them were for being female. Another significant minority were for physical/mental disability, the vast majority fall into the group of people of colour. And there is no right to murder. There is a right to self-defence, but there are so few examples of that being a justifiable reason for abortion that it is insulting to the women in that situation to abuse them to justify genocide. And there is no medical basis for it either, that is a lie pro-baby murderers say rather than face the facts that where possible both should be saved. Frankly, advances in medical science will probably render this argument a footnote within a few decades once it is possible to build artificial wombs that a baby can be transported to in the event of health complications.

And the logic - "if that right was taken away murder would still happen just under dangerous circumstances" - one word difference, this time to actually call it what it is.

It automatically is dangerous - the whole damn point is that two humans start the operation, but only one survives it. Frequently with emotional/mental trauma for her or those close to her; extremely well documented and very heavily covered up by pro-baby murderers.

But the whole basis of that argument stems from ignorance of history - either it is the coat-hanger myth, which has been admitted to be totally false with no evidence, or it is the back alley myth; which was still done by a doctor, you just entered via the back alley, not the front door.

Really - don’t use the fall back lies that get put out.

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