Personal/Serious | Toxic Masculinity and Domestic Abuse

Why does she stay? A better question would be, why does he hit her?
Toxic masculinity is arguably the driving force behind some occurrences of domestic violence.

If you are unfamiliar with the term,
toxic masculinity is a narrow definition of manhood that underscores the importance of certain traits in men. These normally include dominant behavior, often in relation to sexual, physical and verbal aggression, all-around toughness and cool stoicism in the face of any hardship.

Some of the negative ideas toxic masculinity perpatrates are as follows:

• The belief that men are strong and rational and women are weak and emotional. End of discussion.
• The belief that showing any emotion (except from anger) is incompatible with masculinity and strength. End of discussion.
• The belief that being sympathetic/empathetic towards women (and in general) is incompatible with masculinity and strength. End of discussion.
• That men having so-called "feminine" hobbies is emasculating, bad and unnatural. End of discussion!

Of course, these social attitudes are based predominantly in sexi stereotypes. Because stereotypes are pervasive and difficult to get rid of, they can be damaging to the psyche of both men and women, even today. For example, the suppression of emotion due to societal attitudes based around ideas of "manhood" can be very harmful. 

Of course, this suppression inevitably causes emotional issues that commonly surface in male domestic abusers. These issues most often include:

• Insecurities 
• Jealousies 

These men are often unable to deal with emotions surrounding their personal insecurities. A secure man unaffected by the toxic masculinity paradigm can confront personal insecurity successfully, and can communicate his feelings clearly. Men who live a life more in line with the ideals of toxic masculinity become frustrated, as they shy away from expressing themselves.

This frustration leads to anger. Which is, of course, the safe and socially acceptable emotion for men to stereotypically express.

As men are affected by toxic masculinity, so too are women. More times than not, it is the woman who is the victim of domestic violence. Attacks commonly occur because abusive men (as I stated earlier) grow accustomed to not expressing insecurity appropriately, and instead suppress their emotions, due to the societal pressure to remain "manly."

It is much easier for the frustrated man to blame the women for his inner turmoil.

A man's history can also shed light upon his tendency to lash out. Past experiences with domestic violence, especially within a childhood setting, can be particularly damaging experiences. These are not excuses for outbreaks of domestic violence. Rather, it's imperative to find what leads individuals down such a violent road, in order for such individuals to have access to therapy and counselling.

After all, men who commit domestic violence are not often the conspicuous thug we are made to believe domestic abusers always are.

Men who commit domestic violence are often quite charming, even polite and likeable.

Women are seduced and "hooked in" by this initial behavior and indeed, it can be very difficult to identify abusers in the real world.

Therefore, it is important to tackle the very root causes of domestic violence, which are the ideological beliefs that are often borne from toxic masculinity.

Domestic violence happens to everyone. Men, women, rich, poor, educated, non-educated. Anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse, but women are particularly at risk. They need for us to challenge the ideas of toxic masculinity, for the good of women and men. 

Serious/Chatter + Natter | Random Radiation Poisoning (and how scary it is)

Ask me, what is the worst way to die? 

Getting stabbed in the chest? No.

Being shot in the stomach? Nada.

Eaten by a pack of wild hyenas? Hmm, getting close. But no.

Without a doubt, I'd say radiation poisoning tops my list.

When you're exposed to large amounts of radiation, skin just kinda starts falling off your bones.

This is because your body, once exposed to a significant dose of radiation, collapses on a cellular level. In fact, your DNA starts to breaks down, so then your cells don't get replaced, at all.

This is because your cells start to kill themselves off. Why, you ask?
Well, they recognise the damage the radiation has caused, go 'oh shit, this is very bad', and undergo the biological process known as Apoptosis.
Apoptosis is normally the standard operating procedure within the human body, which intentionally kills off your cells. It happens all the time.

Cancer generally occurs because apoptosis has stopped happening.

The problem lies in the fact that human biology has absolutely no bloody idea what to do about acute  radiation poisoning.
And because the human body doesn't know how to respond to this alien phenomenon, your cells see no other alternative other than to commit mass suicide, all at once.
This is the last-ditch effort to protect the body from radiation.

Obviously it dosen't work. You die.

Crikey.

Personal/Serious | Thoughts on Transgender Representation

Transitioning into a new gender can be an daunting experience.
Many stigmas and stereotypes exist in the world surrounding the transgender community, which are hard to shake.

Often, the only exposure society has to the transgender community is:

1.  as the butt of jokes in comedy sketches, 
2.  portrayed as crazy serial killers on TV,
3.  portrayed as perverse sexual deviants on TV.

Fortunately for us, the representation of transgender people is becoming much more varied and realistic.

For example, the acclaimed actor Sean Bean (a man we are much more accustomed to playing in a typical "hard man" role) played the part of a cross-dressing individual called Tracie in the 2012 BBC drama series Accused. In the episode "Tracie's Story", titular Tracie is portrayed as a well-rounded, articulate and well-read person, shown to have a life outside of her transgender identity. She is easily capable of verbally defending herself from a drunken bigot in the local pub she visits. By day, Tracie lives her life as a rather beige-looking Simon, an English school teacher, albeit a very dissatisfied one. Tracie loves books. Tracie is complex.

It is quickly established that Tracie isn't supposed to be a mere joke, or a punchline.

We don't find ourselves laughing at her (most of us won't anyway, some inevitably will).
This is despite the fact that Sean Bean is extremely UN-androgynous (and admittedly, quite jarring) when wearing high heels and a dress.
No, Tracie is not a victim. She is portrayed as intelligent and insightful, able to read the people around her easily.
She is vulnerable too, perhaps lonely.


Yet this only serves to represent and humanise her character in a relatively believable way, to a wider audience. And by proxy, Tracie represents the struggles of transgender people as a whole.
Not just the ones who's expressed gender appropriately or "passably" matches up to their physical build. The audience empathises with Tracie's personal choices, despite the initial gut-reaction of first seeing Sean Bean in a dress.


Tracie even goes on to have a momentarily positive and intimate experience with her lover, Tony (played by This is England actor Stephen Graham), a satellite installer who hides the fact that he is married to a cisgender woman.
This is bold, daring territory for television. Bean and Graham are nothing short of brilliant throughout the episode. The actors are able to summon up shockingly genuine emotional reactions, from both the transgender and cisgender perspectives.


In particular, Tony's unsavoury attitudes towards Tracie come uncomfortably close to reality, even today in 2017. There were some quite tender moments between Tracie and Tony, don't get me wrong. But Tony's shame in relation to his attraction towards Tracie, as well as his anger towards Tracie's appearance not measuring up to personal stereotypes of femininity...as uncomfortable as these sentiments make us, it is critical that they're brought to the forefront.


How else could we challenge them?



****SPOLIER WARNING AHEAD****



*****************************

Predictably, Tony and Tracie's relationship doesn’t exactly end on a high note. The last quarter of the episode feels a bit rushed. Everything sort of devolves into a courtroom drama after Tony kills his wife to start a new life with Tracie, and subsequently gets caught.


Which is a damn shame. After all, healthy intimate relationships between transgender and cisgender individuals are hardly represented in the media.

There are others things to question too.
Like, why couldn't an actual transgender actor have been cast for the role of Tracie?
It could certainly be argued that casting Sean Bean was a ploy to gain viewers.
Also, was it really necessary to include casual sex in the story of Tracie?
Doesn’t that just play into the deeply embedded stereotypes of transgender folk as sexually deviant?


There is still a way to go in representing Trangender people, but at any rate, I think "Tracie's Story" is a step in the right direction.

Poetry | Late Night Writing

I cannot look you in the eye,
or else I'll tear up, weep and cry.
There is no reasoning, 
behind this feeling. 
I'm sorry, I just don't know why. 

Poetry | (2nd poem on this blog, ever!)

Scars are just the new masks, I say,
but that's an avoided opinion. 

A million victim complexes spin
and snap in time, like spring guns.

Hordes of the vexed, taking offense,
Seeking injustice where there is none. 

My favorite Youtube channels in 2017 (and my favorites last year too)

Over the course of several years, Youtube has popularised such things as the “Prank Video” and more recently, this crazy shit. What? Why is that a thing?

Anyway, here are some of my favorite channels on Youtube, take a look:

• Binging with Babish

You're about to be inspired by this man's ulinary whimsies. He cooks the food we've seen in made on TV! Cool right? Check out the Strudel from Inglorious Basterds and the Goodfellas Prison Sauce! It all looks rather scrumptious to me!

• Bad Lip Reading

Nothing is more hilarious than when somebody cleverly puts words into other people's mouths.

Well, this is exactly what this channel is about! They've already knocked out some really unforgettable classics, such as this Oh, and this. I can't breathe.

• CrashCourse

This is an entertaining and truely brilliant channel. Started up by two brothers, CrashCourse introduces the viewer to weekly videos that cover several interesting course topics. 

Everything from Politics, Philosophy,Chemistry, Literature, Biology, Anatomy, History.... phew, the list goes on! The polished animations and fluent visual effects only add to the fun!

FACT: one of the brothers, John Green, wrote the book "The Fault in Our Stars."

• Epic Rap Battles of History

What would happen if Cleopatra and Marilyn Monroe met in person? Apparently, this would happen.
Epic Rap Battles of History pits renowned celebrities, historical figures and fictional folks against each other in a rap off. Who won? Whose next? You decide.

ANOTHER FACT: Famous celebrities have appeared in some of the videos, including Snoop Dog and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

• H3H3 Productions  

Hila and Ethan are a magnificent husband-and-wife team. Ethan's zany mannerisms and Hila's endearing awkwardness in front of the camera combine into an relatable, yet powerful online force. They basically take the piss out of today's culture and critique it on the daily, among other things. Great moves, keep it up, proud of you. 

• Kaitlyn Dobrow 

Long story short, Kaitlyn has no arms and no legs. Unfortunately, she contacted meningitis at a young age and her limbs had to be amputated in order to save her. Yet, she can still apply make-up really, really well. In fact, she can do the whole make-up thing better than me.
 

• Pewdiepie

Jokes. Nope.

• Primitive Technology

In the Aussie outback, a lone man silently builds some really awesome shit, only using some primitive, hand-made tools. No power drills or concrete mixers in sight, just good ol' mother nature providing her bounty. Seriously, that's a pretty neat hut.

• Zero Punctuation by Ben Yahtzee Croshaw (The Escapist)

Since 2008, Yahtzee's reviewed games,with a strong emphasis on rapid-fire sentences and over-the-topcriticism. He pretty much despises everything (except Silent Hill 2) and the simple but quirky cartoon animations illustrate the utter blandness of most of his gaming experiences. Expect profanity and dark humour.

Serious/Sexism/Personal | Rape in story writing: getting old fast, or necessary for "gritty" writing?

I have always thought that rape is seriously over-used in the fantasy book genre as a means to develop a female character, and it's rarely done well. This trope doesn't just appear in the fantasy genre, but in almost every writing genre. However, for some bizarre reason, it's popularly used trope in fantasy books, so I'll stick to that.

And before you start screaming NOT ALL MENZ THO, I'd like to mention that female authors are just as guilty of perpertrating this trope. Actually, most authors generally depict the spardonic "stranger rape" in their novels, instead of the much more "realistic" and sadly, more common, "friend or spousal rape."

So, is rape really about the "gritty" realism, if the rapes that are depicted in fantasy books are often the ones that statistcally happen the least in the real world? Hmm.

Here's a thought. Try and find a fantasy book in which a female character hasn't experienced rape or at least sexual assault, or the threat of rape in her backstory.

..............................

It's hard isn't it?

In fact, one of the main arguments poised by fantasy enthusiasts is that a woman not getting raped is UNREALISTIC, within a super-duper serious, ahem, FANTASY story (yes, I'm looking at you, Game of Thrones fans).

Yet male-on-male rape can be pretty much ignored, or left out entirely, unless it is being used as a "humorous" threat. Banter, amirite?
But in all seriousness, I do find this particularly interesting in relation to George R.R Martin's Game of Thrones series. Think about it. Game of Thrones devotes a significant amount of time and effort into narratives which are all about degrading, humiliating and tormenting male characters.

Strangely, George R.R Martin goes ahead and leaves all of the raping inside the pink, flowery narrative toolbox that's only ever to be used against his female characters. So what gives?

People everywhere seem absolutely fine (and some even seem quite eager) to see buxom, sweaty women getting brutally or callously raped. As a result, we have a truck-load of that going on.

But go ahead and ask a Game of Thrones fan to switch all of these women who get raped with little boys instead.

Suddenly, everybody don't like reading about rape. Yikes, not at all. In fact, little boys getting raped takes things too far. 

Despite the fact that child molestation is (sadly) a common fact of "gritty, realistic life."


Which begs the question. Why do people accept one sexual violation in George R.R Martin's fantasy literature, but often shudder at the though of the other? The only conclusion I can come to is that generally, the audience derives some sort of lurid enjoyment from seeing sexually attractive women getting violently raped. Rape has become fetishised to the point where people seem to completely forget that rape is actually a traumatic crime (and rape has been a crime historically too, contrary to popular fan-boy/girl belief. Ergo, it wasn't any more "forgivable" in a medieval setting either).

We're so desensitized to women getting raped in the fantasy world that we're pretty much all content to let artists use it as a tool. It's ho-hum, standard operating procedure.

But what about all of the murderz and flayingz that happen in GOT? Aren't they both horrid crimez too? Shouldn't authorz also treat those crimez with careful consideration by your anti-rape standardz?


I guess? But stop and think again about how many people you personally know who have been murdered, or flayed alive.

I highly doubt that majority of people know of anybody who has been murdered.
And I mean, c'mon, I doubt there are any flayed victims walkin' around out there...

But ask any women you know if they have been sexually assaulted at some point in there life.

And since sexual assault and rape often get mixed up and thrown together by same sort of terminology, it broadens the scope of sexual violence that women have faced.

For example, it may not be necessarily be traditional "full-on, stranger rape" you'll be hearing about.

It could be a situation where a girl get her breasts roughly grabbed at by her brother behind her parent's back.

It could be a situation where a trusted authority figure forces a kiss or a grope on your mother whenever possible.

It could be a hard slap on the arse of your girlfriend in a nightclub, who then proceeds to get stalked all night by this creep she knew a college.

It could be a conversation in a quiet hallway between your sister with her best-male buddy that suddenly becomes extremely sexual, to the point where she starts feeling nervous.

At any rate, rape (or, at the very least, the threat of sexual violence) is a very real, very tangible fear that women often confront in the real world. And it is not sexy.

To treat rape as a primary means to tittilate an audience is appalling, as it starts to normalise sexual violence and desensitise us to the nastiness of rape.

Hiding behind the excuse that rape is only used for "character/story development" is absolute, complete bullshit.

A large breasted, skinny-waisted women getting raped is supposed to be a turn-on for us. Period.

Like I said earlier, if rape was used purely in terms of realism, or to push the story/characterisation ahead, then why do we not see more "nitty-gritty, realistic" male-on-male rape, or "nitty-gritty, realistic" pedophilia, within the fantasy genre?

Video games | Resident Evil 7 **spoilers**

So, for many silly reasons - including (but not limited to) moving away to York (England) with my boyfriend - I have negleted to do anything with this blog I started a while back. You can also blame the high-octane dissertation experience, working night shifts and the actual graduating process for my prolonged absence.

Ooops, my bad.


Oh well, enough of that. I'm back! Yey! It's about time I stop making excuses and kick off 2017 with a good ol' fashioned, balls to the wall review. Why the hell not?

Now, I'm sure any avid and excited gaming fans out there will have heard of Resident Evil 7's release. Or it's imminant release, depending on where you are in the world.


I'm not going to lie, I was very, very skeptical. The Resident Evil franchise has experienced some pretty knarly setbacks as of late. While Resident Evil 6 sold plenty of units, it had become quite clear to followers of the series that things had become a little...well, stale. Don't believe me? Yikes. Not Good. 

Capcom clearly had to re-invent the big RE.

The player will now find themselves playing Ethan, a rather hapless and average protagonist when compared with Chris Redfield or Leon Kennedy from the previous storylines. We then find ourselves helping Ethan in a search for his missing wife, Mia. What begins as a mere hunt for his lost wife soon devolves into a prolonged and intense encounter with the Baker family.


After a rather crazy opening scene, one might be forgiven in thinking that Resident Evil 7 is going down the now incredibly popular "jump scare/insane people" route, focusing much less upon the gameplay elements of the game and making the player jump up and down like a possessed pogo. After all, the opening scene is hypnotisingly frightful.  Then shortly after the opening, we get properly acquianted with the Bakers. During this sequence, the player is gradually teased into the  gamplay style.
Then, before you can say "bring me a Jill Sandwich," bam! We open a set a massive double doors, into a massive environment that is positively jam-packed with keys, puzzles and enemies to run away from, screaming like a lil' baby in the process. Bliss.

This is where Resident Evil comes back with a sinister vengence. No longer is it the set-piece, action-packed, muscle-bound experience that we have become somewhat used to because of the previous entries. Nuh uh. We are back in a desolate, isolated location, only now we are sneaking around a decrepit plantation site. One thing I did notice was how much the map had to be used in-game. The heck? We haven't got this lost or stuck since Jill found herself running away from that guy with the big teeth...

But this is great, since it actually posed a challenge for the player. I can say that this is the Resident Evil we hardcore fans will remember, brought into modern times.

There is a lot that bloody thrilled me with Resident Evil 7. The locations where diverse, with the plantation area, surrounding swamp and buildings all evoking a suitably creepy vibe. The enemies look gross and intimidating. The boss fights were pretty great too, albeit not too difficult. The style and scale of the arenas were smaller than what we have come to expect from Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6. But that made the fights more clautrophobic, more uncomfortable, more intense. I loved it!

 Google Images: Kooky and Spooky. What's behind door number one..?

However, this mostly only accounts for the first half of the game. In the final 1/3 of the game, I personally felt like there was a switch. Not a completely shoddy shift, but a shift non-the-less.
The action increases quite rapidly. While there is still a need to explore your surroundings and figure out where the hell you are going, it's a different tone than what came prior. That is not to say action itself is wholly bad.  But the switch over to this more intense, action-driven gameplay was a bit too sharp for my liking. I wanted a tad bit more of a build-up. The final hour of the game is a non-stop, rather linear affair, leading up to a final boss that is absolutely incredible to look at on screen, but was basically little more than a quick time event. Hmm. A bit of a disappointment. Perhaps Capcom just had to honor their previous works in some way?

Also, I reeeeally do wish that the game was longer and had more collectables for the player to find. Something that previous Resident Evil games undeniably had was great replayability value.
It's a shame that I'll probably only need 15-18 hours to 100% the game. In all honesty, when you play through it, Resident Evil 7 loses a fair chunk of it's "creepy factor," since you'll forever know in replays what's going to happen and when. This is inevitably damaging, since the atmosphere and scares are by far the best part of Resident Evil 7. For example, Resident Evil 4 is super replayable because the fun, over-the-top combat and silly boss fights certainly makes up for the *ahem* crappy voice-acting, camp characters and shitty, non-scary storyline. 

Anyway, what I found suprised me, mostly in a good way.  Decent scares, clautrophobic environments, grotesque people/monsters, puzzles that are both challenging and rewarding. What more can a die-hard fan ask for?

Capcom is going in the right direction. They have instilled faith in me, in that they did take the major criticisms and gripes of the last few games onboard and the result is Resident Evil 7.


Rating:

Google Images