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kouhaiofcolor · 3 years

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Whew shit it aggravates the hell outta me how much recognition non black ppl felt they were entitled to for pRoTeStInG police brutality that specifically targets black ppl — by only acting on performative upset around George Floyd's murder. Yet Makiyah Bryant was literally murdered by a white police officer as they were reading Chauvin's verdict for killing Floyd & yall haven't said too much at all. The same performative & self-proclaimed activists haven't said a word ab this fr.

The same ppl who were (& still are) walking around w/ a chip on their shoulder ab buying fucking totes, t-shirts, wristbands & face masks that say "Africa" or "Black Lives Matter" or "Say Their Names" — haven't said or so much as put any comparable energy into demanding justice for Makiyay Bryant, Breonna Taylor, or any Black Woman or underage Black Girl killed by white people for that matter. Its like yall felt like, "well all thats finally over; guess police brutality & police officers murdering black ppl isn't a thing anymore or something we should keep protesting after things cool down; we've done 'our part'. 🙄Yall make me fucking sick the way yall showed up & out in international droves for Floyd; the way yall created & pushed hashtags for that grown ass man who OPENLY shit on Black Women (the largest & most signigicant demographic who was out there demanding answers & justice for his murder itfp).

An autistic, black child was killed by the same kind of people who murdered Floyd; working in the same "profession". She was killed by a fucking police officer in the midst of being harassed by kids her age who were bullying her to a point where her hand was forced & she sought out the police to intervene. & they killed her like she didn't mean a damn thing. Yall are silent ab it like she didn't mean a damn thing. Yall literally just went back to your regular lives, obsessing over absolute billshit & living on the internet like it didn't matter at all. Like, "Well we did all that for Floyd. Dont have the energy to do it for anyone else Black; particularly Black Women/Girls."

Where is yall energy for this?? Idk if yall realize but the way this shit reflects, it looks like Americans (& ppl from other countries that participated in the protesting for Floyd) only give a fuck ab black lives if cishet black males are the focus — & that's so fucking disrespectful. Yall are seriously ok w that child being taken from her family? Her mother? Her siblings if she had any??? What ab her dreams? What ab what she wanted to do w her life in spite of all the shit she was going thru being fucked w for being autistic? Do yall give any sort of fucks? Do yall give a damn at all? Just be real ab it. Bc this didn't just happen to Makiyah. This isn't something that's happend to just one black girl before.

This is happening more often than most care to consider fr. In fact, the perpetual concern ppl are brainwashed to have for white women being potentially unrealistically sex-trafficked, sexually abused/assaulted, kidnapped/abducted — happens way more prevalently to black women & little Black girls all over the globe. White women have international protection since they are pushed as a forced international standard & ideal anyway. Black women are not at all a protected demographic. Anywhere in the world. And black men are # fucking 1 in our assailant normalcy — yet everyone gives them all the exclusive consideration when it comes to crimes against the Black Community by non blacks & blacks alike. Fucking tired of yall fr, on everything. Yall let that child die in vain & still ain't got off yall asses to do or say anything ab it the way yall were committed to doing it for Floyd. You should be ashamed. You should be embarrassed.

Idc what you think you did out there for Floyd if you didn't do the same for Makiyah. Or Breonna. Or any Black women among the thousands of names mentioned among the "Say Their Names" outcry. Yall didn't do a damn thing but keep a hashtag trending through the summer last year. Yall give no real fucks & im glad I wasn't giving yall too much credit for doing the bare minimum, cus looking at how "concerned" yall are now, it truly was a minimum. Fuck yall. George Floyd was a grown ass man. Did all that active disapproval of someone killing his ass & then turn yall back on black women asap.

That he spent any part of his life as a black male being & acting on misogynoir — just to cry out for his Black Mother at the peak of his suffering & death, is ironic; almost funny considering how he likely wouldn't have protested for the unreasonable murder of black women himself. Yall desperately need to get your fucking priorities together, cus a lot of yall too damn grown to be this stupid & have attention spans this short. Yall just be expecting black women's support on any & everything — even if it don't make sense or if it puts us in harm's way. Then do absolutely nothing for us when circumstances absolutely more than demand it. Im done supporting these lame ass causes for ppl who don't do shit for Black women even when we do it for yall. Most of the time the majority of you don't even open your mouth ab black women lest its to degrade or defeminize them so yea its p clear to me where the majority of you truly stand unfiltered on issues around our safety & wellbeing.

I'm good. There is no poc solidarity; there is no progression or inclusion in speaking up for races who are not black as a black person — esp not as a black woman. Im quite done w the vast majority of ppl & giving a fuck ab things i cannot — but that other races of ppl v well can — control (regarding our mistreatment). I will not be speaking on this blog ab anything that does not pertain specifically & exclusively to issues within or injustices committed against the Black community. I do not have the energy or interest; just like yall don't ab us. Fuck yall, fuck your problems (cultural & personal), & fuck you being mad ab it if at all. Do not care. Black Women & Little Black Girls do not deserve the blatant disregard & neglect yall habitually subject us to for absolutely nothing. You will not get empathy from this black woman on this shit, period.

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dramaticviolincrescendo · 3 years

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Recently I had this moment where I thought "wow, in hindsight, it seems like ALL the Gallaghers' former partners weren't meant to be there in the long term". Like EVERYONE has treated everyone badly and yet Mickey seems to be a bit of an exception. I think alot of people agree he brings out something in the Ian character (and vice versa). I'm sure it's debatable cause I've definitely seen people call them toxic but I was curious on your take. Why does Ian & Mickey work while for example Fiona & Jimmy/Steve or Lip & Mandy not? I just named those pairings cause they're popular but I'm talking about all their romantic relationships.

That’s such a great point! I think my take on the subject may out me as someone who doesn’t put stock in romantic relationships carrying as much weight in most people’s lives as media would have us believe. There are so many books, movies, shows, songs, and video games that center around romance when Shameless portrays a far more realistic perspective: there are plenty of people who never experience lasting romance, and relationships don’t work just because we want them to. And that’s okay.

Take Fiona and Jimmy: they had so much passion and chemistry. They loved each other so much, even with all the rough patches they went through. The problem is that they weren’t compatible. At that point in her life, Fiona was focused on protecting her family. She was also very young, immature, and proud in a way that is very characteristic of someone in her position who feels like they’re being looked down on. (We see that with a lot of characters.) I don’t think Jimmy was trying to change her, but she saw his desire to help as a commentary on her ability to run the household—as pity, even. Had she met him in later seasons, I don’t think that would have been much of an issue, but I don’t believe that would have changed where they ended up.

I really liked Jimmy. He was funny and genuinely cared about the family. But Jimmy was selfish, entitled, and didn’t want to change. He wanted the excitement of the South Side without the struggles, and the privilege of his upbringing without the responsibility. Fiona was always about taking on responsibilities, even if they weren’t hers to shoulder. The problem with the two of them was something I think a lot of people take for granted in their relationships: both sides have to be willing to compromise, and they weren’t. He repeatedly wanted her to run away with him; she wanted him to let her make a lot of the decisions. Both sides make sense based on their respective experiences and aren’t inherently more or less valid than the other, but it also means that if they weren’t in a position where they wanted to compromise on those things (which they shouldn’t have to if that’s not what they want), they simply weren’t compatible and would be better off with other people.

Lip and Mandy are really the same. They kind of fell together out of mutual attraction but also a need for distraction: Mandy from her abusive home life and lack of options, and Lip from the situation with Karen and Fiona’s initial response to him dropping out. It wasn’t a sustainable relationship, though, because any feelings they did have for one another didn’t override the fact that they used (and, at times, abused) each other. Again, had they been in a different set of circumstances at a different time, that may have changed. The context of their interactions is important, and what they had wasn’t built to last based on what they hoped to get out of it. A lot of Lip’s relationships are like that: they are what the other needs in the moment, whether it’s sexual or for support, and then they eventually fizzle when one side oversteps. That has typically been Lip, because he also preferred to solve other people’s problems and avoid his own. (I am really proud of him for growing out of that.)

We see the same trend repeated with Debbie and all of the people she’s been with, though that has more to do with her personality in some ways. (I don’t mean that as a negative thing. Again, plenty of people don’t want or don’t have the temperament for long-term romantic relationships, and I think Debbie may just be one of those people in the latter instance.) The reasons for Debbie’s relationships have usually been pretty utilitarian. With Matty and Derek, she wanted to seem like an adult, lose her virginity, and escape into the family she always wanted. Neil was similarly an escape, but also a tool to keep Franny. When she questioned her sexuality, the way she framed her first relationship was almost experimental, and the situations with Julia and her mother were always intended to be for the monetary or proprietary gain they offered. Sandy is the first time we’re seeing her fall into a relationship with someone that wasn’t about anything utilitarian, but even now she’s been behaving less like they’re in a relationship while she focuses on herself, and Sandy is the one who takes an active role in Franny’s life on Franny’s terms. I can’t say if it’ll last, obviously, but I just don’t think Debbie is particularly suited to long-term romance. Carl doesn’t seem to be either, but that seems more like a lack of interest in serious relationships. A lot of his have been centered around helping someone or have gone from casual interest to wanting to help. That’s not exactly the foundation for a strong, healthy relationship, nor does he seem to be concerned about that at this point. He’s still very young, so that makes total sense.

Ultimately, I think Ian and Mickey are in the minority because they weren’t looking for a relationship but ended up being in the right place at the right time. I don’t even tend to subscribe to the interpretation that they brought anything out in each other, because all those traits we love (and that frustrate us) were always there. They were what the other needed when they needed them, they shared physical and emotional trauma, and they didn’t want anything from each other besides who they were. Theirs is written as such a pure kind of love in canon, even to the point of being naive on Ian’s side at times, which is why I think so many people are drawn to it and why it’s lasted this long. Ian and Mickey took it one step at a time, and they also got distance from each other. I know everyone hates Mickey being absent, but I think that was so important. Distance allowed them to gain better perspective on their feelings when they didn’t have each other so that they could appreciate just how deeply in love they were. They could ruminate on whether they were compatible, and at the end of the day, they were.

Compatibility is harder to find than fiction tells us, and if you’re not compatible, no amount of compromise is going to work. That’s why relationships are so hard. I think the Shameless writers take a very realistic approach on the subject of romance and family in general. A lot of relationships just don’t work, and many people never end up with a lifelong partner. That’s reflected here. We have Kev and V, who began as an established couple and worked through everything that’s been tossed their way because of how much they love each other. We have Lip and Tami, who have always been very up front about the fact that love isn’t easy and having a kid didn’t flip a switch. And we have Ian and Mickey, childhood sweethearts who sort of prove why it’s so unlikely that people who date when they’re kids will stay together. People grow apart or go through changes that make a relationship untenable, and that’s okay! We need to normalize that as being okay rather than promoting the concept that people should change when they don’t want to. What’s beautiful about them is that they made it work because of the context in which they fell in love and that, while compromise is still necessary, neither needed to change who they were to make it work, which is a very rare thing and portrayed as such on the show.

#shameless #shameless meta #Ian gallagher #Mickey milkovich #gallavich #you asked #i love how this show doesn’t portray people as being broken for not having successful relationships

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hvilested · 3 years

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Infatuation Is a Temporary Illusion: How to Escape the Pain

LucyJul 14, 2020

As a neuroscientist, I am fascinated by infatuation; it's such a strong, mysterious phenomenon, yet is entirely scientifically-explainable.

This Too Shall Pass

I will start this by saying that however deep and impossible your situation feels, you will leave this infatuated state. There will be a day when you can think about this special person without any type of pain or passion. You will remember how strongly you felt towards them while they didn't have the same feelings for you, and it will seem completely crazy that you were so stuck in limerence.

Albeit cliché, the concept that time is the only thing that will make you feel less magnetically drawn to someone who you cannot be with is true. You cannot magic away these feelings, because they are a strong illusion created by chemicals in your brain. Over time, your neurobiology will balance out again and this person, who is acting as a potent stimulus, will no longer inspire the same physiological response in you. Thinking about your situation scientifically helps, as it steers you away from thinking in terms of romance and delusion.

What Is an Infatuation?

Are you currently struggling with huge, incredibly deep feelings for someone that you will never be with? We use the term 'infatuation' (also limerence) to describe the state of being utterly enamored by and obsessed with someone; it is the wildest thing that a human can experience in the sober, baseline state. The invisible pull that you feel will seem so novel and colossal in strength that, if experiencing infatuation for the first time, you will be certain that you will 'never feel this again', and that this person is 'the one'. After all, your body and mind react so strongly and surely to them that it is impossible to imagine a life worth living that doesn't have them at the center of it. This is not the case, as you will experience several infatuations in your life if you are prone to them.

Due to differing genetics and brain chemistry, some people are more prone to entering limerence than others; in fact, some will never experience this roller coaster of euphoria and insecurity. Unrequited crushes are normal and not too much of an issue; unrequited infatuation not only encompasses incredibly powerful attraction, admiration and a general feeling of 'love' towards the subject, but is also agonizing and depressive by nature.

If the infatuated cannot be with the person that they desire, they will likely enter a deep depression and will feel completely out of order for weeks or months, until the feelings fade or they gain closure. Irrational thoughts and misery normally accompany this rollercoaster experience, as well as physical symptoms such as elevated libido and lack of appetite (due to an excess of dopamine in the brain).

Is It a Normal Crush or an Infatuation?

You may wonder how we can define things as vague and fluid as romantic feelings. However, the line between a healthy crush and a problematic infatuation is not as thin as it seems. Crushes can be unwanted and painful, bringing ups and downs into our lives, but a true infatuation blows a crush out of the water. If deeply infatuated with someone that you cannot be with, you will think irrational thoughts such as 'I want to die - X isn't in my life and everything else makes me miserable'.

These thoughts are falsehoods, for the world is so open that you will definitely encounter other people (as well as places, music and even fashion trends) that you find fascinating.

If you are simply experiencing a romantic crush, you will find the person very appealing and may intensely want to date them, but there will be less feeling than there is in limerence - less hormonal influence, less joy, and less crying. The highs will be less euphoric, sure, but the lows will not be nearly as crushing as those experienced in the limerent state.

The difference between a crush and an infatuation is that the former allows you to enjoy the warm feelings and be in control of your emotions, while the latter is extremely unhealthy and causes the sufferer a lot of pain if they cannot be with the person they desire. A crush may feel very strong and you may want to act differently to charm the subject of your feelings, but it will never be as delusional., destructive and fantasy-based as a true infatuation is.

So, how does one differentiate between the two? In short, if you feel so distraught that you cannot be with the person that you are googling for solutions, crying before bed and upon waking, losing interest in activities that you normally love, struggling to imagine a future without the person in your life, you are definitely infatuated and not crushing. If you treat this emotional conundrum as if it were a drug addiction, you will stop feeling this way in a matter of weeks or months.

Why Do People Become Infatuated in the First Place?

Most people go through their lives organically forming healthy 'crushes'; even when not actively seeking a partner, they will encounter a few people a year that will grab their attention and seem irresistible. After all, this is biologically advantageous; we are mammals and are meant to pursue, and eventually reproduce with, those that we deem physically and emotionally intriguing.

Having said this, I will clarify that your sexual orientation is totally unimportant in your ability to develop all-consuming, raging feelings for someone. This level of feeling is just as prevalent between people of the same gender as it is between those of opposite genders. However, we are wired to pursue, bond with and care for other human beings for the sole reason of reproduction and the survival of our species. If someone is infatuated with someone of the same gender, they will experience the same concoction of erratic emotions as a straight person. Neurochemical changes will temporarily dominate your life regardless of the perceived likelihood of the passing on of your genes.

infatuations

Rupi Kaur

What to Do? Understand That Your Feelings Are Scientifically-Explainable and Never Permanent

The wild array of feelings that come along with any form of attraction may seem intangible and wondrous, but they are caused by altered levels of different neurotransmitters. Focusing on the science behind such a strong human experience is crucial in dealing with the pain that it can cause you.

Reject dwelling in the infatuation too much. It's incredibly tempting to spend hours writing and lamenting about the subject of your "love", only to enter an even more heightened state of delusion. Even if this isn't your first infatuation and you saw that you got over your last one, remember that, naturally, you will be convinced that this person is the one and that you are ruining your life by missing out on being with them.This is nonsense and is your brain tricking you!

The best way to avoid falling into this nauseating, fantasy-driven loop of obsessing and fantasising and despairing is to understand the science behind this crazy human experience.

It is also incredibly comforting to know that unrequited infatuation very rarely lasts for more than 6-8 months, and often will fizzle out incredibly suddenly and much earlier than this. This is because infatuation is neither logical nor grounded at all. It is so, so ephemeral by nature; one day you will look back at this period of your life and it will seem like a wild but distant dream. Trust me on that one.

However, to break this person-addiction habit and ensure you never, ever cry over unrequited love again, you'll need to dig very deep and be committed to recovery. Your external world is a mere reflection of your beliefs and what you allow to imprint itself into your subconscious mind. By meeting your psychological needs healthily and treating unhealed wounds, you will become completely, 100% immune to infatuation/limerence. Potential partners will sparkle to you, make your heart sing and you'll be able to transition into real relationships with them instead of you manifesting unrequited love and crying spells. I promise you this.

infatuations

Feeling Something Intensely Doesn't Mean It's Permanent

Don't get confused and think that, just because you feel such strong passion for this person, your feelings will 'last forever' and you will 'never get over them'. For some reason, when us humans experience something intense or profound, we do what no other animals do and we introduce a poignant aspect of eternality to the situation. It's a huge logical fallacy to think 'I feel strongly about X, hence I will ALWAYS feel this way', yet we all do it. Our tragic flaw is, in many ways, that we are aware of time and the future and cannot simply live in the moment and deal with whatever strong feelings we are experiencing as they come and go.

If you think about, a large part of your pain is that you feel that you won't ever have a happy, fulfilled, exciting life without this individual. After all, they've inspired so much energy in you and you haven't felt this way with anyone else before. The truth is that, no, your infatuation will not last long and will certainly not be permanent.

Infatuation has a shelf-life because it is based in the fantasy and reality cannot maintain it. It is such idealisation and irrationality that, once the real world creeps in and you become aware that your feelings are unfounded and inappropriate, they will naturally dissipate. It is for this reason that couples who feel 'infatuated' often become bored after around 6 months. They aren't experiencing that surge of initial attraction or the wondrous mystery that their partner made them feel when they first met, because they were simply infatuated then and didn't really know their partner.

What Does It Mean If You're Prone To Infatuation?

Being a neuroscientist, my attention has been drawn to the fact that those of us who fall into infatuations are 1. prone to this state (experience it over and over again until they learn precisely how to treat the root cause, even if each "episode" feels novel and "different this time"), and 2. we are people who feel things very intensely.

Now, I am aware that virtually every single person on this planet feels certain things strongly and irrationally, but a limerence really is at the top of the scale in terms of intensity, especially since mental illness is usually thrown into the mix. Nearly every single person who I have seen who has fallen into a deep infatuation has been on the spectrum for severe depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder (BPD) or OCD (meaning, they could obtain a psychiatric diagnosis for one of these illnesses).

I don't want to scare you; I am a firm believer that we all sit on spectrums for most mental health conditions, and that there should be no fear or taboo enshrouding this type of information. Many of us could be diagnosed with different things and obtain certain psychiatric labels, but I don't think we should strive to do this unless our mental health is affecting our quality of life extremely negatively. However, I do have to tell you: infatuation at its worst is not neurotypical.

If you tend to live your life emptily, only motivated and made to feel emotion by unobtainable people who you think can make everything okay, then you are most probably mentally ill (by society's definition, at least). If your self-esteem was moderately high and you were mainly mentally healthy (no depressive episodes, no propensity to obsession, no episodes of mania) then it is highly unlikely that you would fall into an illusion so controlling as infatuation.

As I have mentioned and will continue mentioning in this article, infatuation is a deceitful trick. It's your brain's way of latching onto something that could, in theory, make you happy and take away all your troubles. For this reason, if you are infatuated with someone, you are not happy with your current life. You might want to tell me "I am happy and confident, this person is just so special/beautiful that I need them", but that statement would be yet another dopamine-driven delusion.

If you are prone to infatuation/limerence:

you have a lot of love to give to people, whether platonic or romantic (this is a blessing). I suggest that you utilise this in the healthiest possible way and focus on solidifying strong, platonic friendships. You won't feel the high of infatuation and attraction, but you won't experience the horrible lows either, and you will be immensely satisfied because you'll form close bonds and feel understood by people who want to be in your life for genuine reasons, other than desire.

as mentioned above, you are probably mentally ill in some way, and could most likely be diagnosed with OCD, depression, anxiety, BPD, or bipolar disorder. Don't let this scare you. A diagnosis would just be putting a label on what you've felt your entire life.

you will fall into more of these miserable infatuations if you do not treat the root-cause, which is unmet psychological needs and limiting beliefs regarding yourself and your worth. Don't let them shape your months and years, and don't let your life be a string of feelings for different people with you making no advancements in your own life. Even if you don't feel sound enough on a psychological level, force yourself to make friends, to exercise, to work and to read books. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you actually make new brain pathways and *escape* this hell.

you're very prone to fantasising about ideas, people and concepts that could, in theory, help you "escape" the current life or situation that you are in. Use this to your advantage - it just means that your brain is prone to creating dopaminergic pathways to motivate you. Currently, you're motivated to get this person into your life, but you can use this mental tactic to enjoy other things intensely, like academics, hobbies, pets etc. Become obsessed with another country, and make it your mission to learn the language fluently and move there within the next 8 years. Grab onto something other than a person that sparks your interest and get you thinking "my life would be amazing IF ...", whether it be the idea of gaining muscle at the gym, redecorating your house or writing a novel. Some would advise against this, but I have evidence to prove that it's a healthy way to cope with a propensity to idolising people. Hobbies/pets/languages/exercise won't turn you limerent, so obsess over them instead.

unless you work hard on yourself to recover from this susceptibility to falling hard and selflessly for people, your partners will never be on the same page as you. They will never love you as fiercely as you "love" them, because they will never be consumed by someone in the way that people consume and fill your existence. This may fill you with sadness but is reality; the fact that you have developed the behavioural pattern of limerence isn't their problem, nor is it something that many people will relate to. Wishing for someone to fall for you in this lovesick, bittersweet way is going to align you with reactive, toxic people who are generally unstable and enmesh with you too quickly.

the best comes last: you can become immune to infatuation/limerence! You'll need to do a lot of research on how to attack your subconscious mind and alter your brain's fundamental wirings, but it's surprisingly simpler than it sounds and the only path to complete emotional freedom.

infatuations

Rupi Kaur

Yes, This Is Just One of Your Many Phases!

Live in the moment and deal with any false, irrational thoughts like 'this will last forever'. Every time you think that, correct yourself and remember that you're feeling something very strong and unpleasant, but that's all it is and in no way does this equate to any form of permanence.

You can feel things strongly without them lasting forever! I don't know why we, as humans, struggle with this idea so much. There are so many sensory afflictions that come and go. For example, think of a terrible illness where you're vomiting constantly and can barely walk. You feel like you're never going to feel well again, but days later, you bounce back. The illness is just a faint memory that doesn't even inspire much emotion in you. Similarly, sometimes we come across music that we love and then can barely stand to hear it a month later.

We, as humans, go through many phases in our life. Phases are definitely valid life experiences, but find comfort in their ephemerality! This boy or girl is a phase in your life, albeit an intense one. One day, you will look back and associate them with whatever music you're currently listening to, the clothes you're currently wearing and the way that you feel. That is because those aspects of your life are also a phase. This person won't make your heart skip forever. If you take one thing from this article, let it be that. You won't believe me now, but there will come a time when you don't care who they date, and their name won't even stand out to you in a list. Human emotions are weird, huh?

Remember: You Love Your Brain's Chemicals, Not This Person

Unless you are experiencing a healthy crush within reality (just attraction and the feeling of connection), your infatuation is a result of an unhealthy dopamine reward circuit that your brain has essentially created as a survival mechanism. You are so depressed/unfulfilled/lonely that your brain knows that real life isn't offering much for you in terms of incentive to live, so it creates its own happiness in order to temporarily relieve you from unhappiness, nihilism and lack of focus.

Infatuation is the brain making its own fun through a 'fantasy bond'. Your brain provides you with a sugary high full of wonder and hope and promises for the future, and then when real life doesn't follow the illusion (e.g. when the person unsurprisingly doesn't devote their entire life to you because they have their own life/feelings), you will experience the consequent crash. There is a duality to every strong psychological experience, and what goes up always comes down.

Mocking yourself slightly and realising that your brain is 'glitching' in this way is imperative. Tell yourself, "I love dopamine, not him/her!". If the attraction wasn't there, and you knew their personality inside out, would you still 'need' them? It's almost impossible that you would. You might love them in a genuine, affectionate way, just like some elderly couples love each other after years of commitment, but it wouldn't be delightful and euphoric, nor would it be what you're craving now.

Find comfort in the above. If you find yourself thinking "I've met him at the wrong point in my life, we could have grown old together etc." remember that the romance wouldn't feel like this for more than a few months anyway. Yes, maybe if you had met this man in 5 years time you'd date and then marry him and be happy (in the stable sense of the word, with no thrill), but the truth is that that's not even what you want. You want to be able to act on the passionate feelings that you currently have, and for those to last forever, which is why the supposed "missed connection" is so tragic and hard for you to cope with. The thing is, as I've explained, the sheer concept of living with them forever and feeling this way with them forever is a fairytale that your brain has created.

In short: your brain has messed up here, and is misunderstanding the situation. We are animals at the end of the day, and our bodies function to promote survival, often not bothering about our feelings. If your life is lacking authenticity, excitement and motivation, your brain may work to ensure the survival of your genes by creating its own goals. Don't listen to everything that your mind is telling you and try not to crave the highs that it is offering you!

Neuroscience: What Causes Infatuation?

Understanding the science behind this turbulent experience is crucial, and is the only way to think practically without being nihilistic and numbing yourself to your feelings. This area of neuroscience is fascinating, as it deals with human experiences that seem so spiritual and magical that it's hard to believe that they are caused and controlled by relatively simple chemicals. However, a handful of neurotransmitters control all aspects of your mood and mental health, and therefore can explain every thought and motive that an infatuation will cause you to experience.

1. Dopamine is the 'pleasure chemical', and relates to euphoria, addiction and craving. It can also inspire goal-based behaviour, e.g. wanting to save money to plan an elaborate trip, or, more relevantly, wanting that "perfect life" with someone you have recently met where you two are alone and free, revelling in each other's happiness. When you first fall into infatuation and you cannot imagine happiness with anyone else but this individual, it is dopamine acting... and boy, is dopamine a powerful neurotransmitter! It gives us momentum in life and quite literally drives humanity, but in the case of infatuation, it is a delightful yet dangerous substance.

When noradrenaline is also released, the two neurotransmitters can undergo a reaction and produce not only an elated mood, but also focused attention, hyper-activity and loss of appetite. All of these changes can be witnessed in the "lovesick"; you develop tunnel vision during these biochemical changes. You are greatly inspired by anything to do with the other person, and bored at the rest of the world, for it all seems so dull compared to the object of your passion. While noradrenaline is a neurotransmitter and adrenaline a hormone, the two contribute synergistically to a racing heart and the novel excitement associated with love.

2. Serotonin is low when you are infatuated, which is counterintuitive, as high levels of serotonin are also commonly associated with "lovey-dovey" feelings. In fact, taking ecstasy causes a great release of this neurotransmitter, and depression is caused by low levels of it. However, the infatuated brain shows the same low serotonin levels as someone with OCD, which explains the obsessive nature of infatuation, and hence why you should avoid romanticizing your state and realize that you are essentially mentally ill while in the throes of this level of passion.

3. Adrenaline activates stress responses in the body, and is involved with the physiological signs of infatuation. It activates the levels of other hormones like cortisol, which all activate the sympathetic nervous system in a cascade-like manner, causing trembling, sweating and an increased heart rate.

4. Oxytocin is released during intimate acts, cuddling and other forms of close, trust-based contact. It is slightly different to the others, as it does not directly cause "infatuation". In other words, it does not contribute to the insanely powerful passion that one feels while infatuated. Rather, it adds to the experience by increasing the sweet feelings of trust and fondness. For this reason, it is also extremely important in relationships after the infatuation and hence the craving (caused by dopamine) wears off. If the people in the relationship do not possess adequate amounts of oxytocin (and vasopressin), it is unlikely that the relationship will last once they have passed through the drugged-up stage of infatuation and are suddenly aware of each other's flaws.

I urge you to think about the science behind your feelings, as it will help you rationalise what you feel. Allow yourself to cry but don't let yourself romanticise this 'missed connection', because it was never there in the first place. Your neurobiology has temporarily gone awry and taken control of your feelings, but this level of misery cannot and will not last.

#love #infatuation #limerence #depression #mental illness #mental health #anxiety #ocd #self hatred #self loathing #self love #dopamine #dopaminergic pathways #brain #deceit #illusion #obsessed #obsession #attachment

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dajokahhh · 3 years

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Alright, time for some pretentious sociological-esque rambling. This is gonna be long as hell (its 1822 words to be specific) and I don’t begrudge anyone for not having the patience to read my over-thought perspectives on a murder clown. CWs for: child abuse,

I think a lot of things have to go wrong in someone’s life for them to decide to become a clown themed supervillain. A lot of people in Gotham have issues but they don’t become the Joker. I think that as a writer it’s an interesting topic to explore, and this is especially true for roleplaying where a character might be in different scenarios or universes. This isn’t some peer reviewed or researched essay, it’s more my own personal beliefs and perspectives as they affect my writing. I think villains, generally, reflect societal understandings or fears about the world around us. This is obviously going to mean villains shift a lot over time and the perspective of the writer. In my case, I’m a queer, fat, mentally ill (cluster B personality disorder specifically) woman-thing who holds some pretty socialist ideas and political perspectives. My educational background is in history and legal studies. This definitely impacts how I write this character, how I see crime and violence, and how my particular villains reflect my understandings of the society I live in. I want to get this stuff out of the way now so that my particular take on what a potential origin story of a version of the Joker could be makes more sense.

Additionally, these backstory factors I want to discuss aren’t meant to excuse someone’s behaviour, especially not the fucking Joker’s of all people. It’s merely meant to explain how a person (because as far as we know that’s all he is) could get to that point in a way that doesn’t blame only one factor or chalk it up to “this is just an evil person.” I don’t find that particularly compelling as a writer or an audience member, so I write villains differently. I also don’t find it to be particularly true in real life either. If you like that style of writing or see the Joker or other fictional villains in this way, that’s fine. I’m not here to convince anyone they’re wrong, especially not when it comes to people’s perspectives on the nature of evil or anything that lofty. Nobody has to agree with me, or even like my headcanons; they’re just here to express the very specific position I’m writing from.

The first thing I wanna do is set up some terms. These aren’t academic or anything, but I want to use specific and consistent phrasing for this post. When it comes to the factors that screw up someone’s life significantly (and in some instances push people towards crime), I’ll split them into micro and macro factors. Micro factors are interpersonal and personal issues, so things like personality traits, personal beliefs, mental health, family history, where and how someone is raised, and individual relationships with the people around them. Macro factors are sociological and deal with systems of oppression, cultural or social trends/norms, political and legal restrictions and/or discrimination, etc. These two groups of factors interact, sometimes in a fashion that is causative and sometimes not, but they aren’t entirely separate and the line between what is a micro vs macro issue isn’t always fixed or clear.

We’ll start in and work out. For this character, the micro factors are what determine the specifics of his actions, demeanor, and aesthetic. I think the main reason he’s the Joker and not just some guy with a whole lot of issues is his world view combined with his personality. He has a very pessimistic worldview, one that is steeped in a very toxic form of individualism, cynicism, and misanthropy. His life experience tells him the world is a cold place where everyone is on their own. To him the world is not a moral place. He doesn’t think people in general have much value. He learned at a young age that his life had no value to others, and he has internalized that view and extrapolated it to the world at large; if his life didn’t matter and doesn’t matter, why would anyone else’s? This worldview, in the case of my specific Joker, comes from a childhood rife with abandonment, abuse, and marginalization. While I will say he is definitively queer (in terms fo gender expression and non conformity, and sexuality), I’m not terribly interested in giving specific diagnoses of any mental health issues. Those will be discussed more broadly and in terms of specific symptoms with relation to how they affect the Joker’s internal experience, and externalized behaviours.

His childhood was, to say the least, pretty fucked up. The details I do have for him are that he was surrendered at birth because his parents, for some reason, did not want to care for him or could not care for him; which it was, he isn’t sure. He grew up effectively orphaned, and ended up in the foster care system. He wasn’t very “adoptable”; he had behavioural issues, mostly violent behaviours towards authority figures and other children. He never exactly grew out of these either, and the older he got the harder it was to actually be adopted. His legal name was Baby Boy Doe for a number of years, but the name he would identify the most with is Jack. Eventually he took on the surname of one of his more stable foster families, becoming Jack Napier as far as the government was concerned. By the time he had that stability in his mid to late teens, however, most of the damage had already been done. In his younger years he was passed between foster families and government agencies, always a ward of the government, something that would follow him to his time in Arkham and Gotham’s city jails. Some of his foster families were decent, others were just okay, but some were physically and psychologically abusive. This abuse is part of what defines his worldview and causes him to see the world as inherently hostile and unjust. It also became one of the things that taught him that violence is how you solve problems, particularly when emotions run high.

This was definitely a problem at school too; moving around a lot meant going to a lot of different schools. Always being the new student made him a target, and being poor, exhibiting increasingly apparent signs of some sort of mental illness or disorder, and being typically suspected as queer (even moreso as he got into high school) typically did more harm than good for him. He never got to stay anywhere long enough to form deep relationships, and even in the places where he did have more time to do that he often ended up isolated from his peers. He was often bullied, sometimes just verbally but often physically which got worse as he got older and was more easily read as queer. This is part of why he’s so good at combat and used to taking hits; he’s been doing it since he was a kid, and got a hell of a lot of practice at school. He would tend to group up with other kids like him, other outcasts or social rejects, which in some ways meant being around some pretty negative influences in terms of peers. A lot of his acquaintances were fine, but some were more... rebellious and ended up introducing Jack to things like drinking, smoking cigarettes, using recreational drugs, and most important to his backstory, to petty crimes like theft and vandalism, sometimes even physical fights. This is another micro factor in that maybe if he had different friends, or a different school experience individually, he might have avoided getting involved in criminal activities annd may have been able to avoid taking up the mantle of The Joker.

Then there’s how his adult life has reinforced these experiences and beliefs. Being institutionalized, dealing with police and jails, and losing what little support he had as a minor and foster child just reinforced his worldview and told him that being The Joker was the right thing to do, that he was correct in his actions and perspectives. Becoming The Joker was his birthday present to himself at age 18, how he ushered himself into adulthood, and I plan to make a post about that on its own. But the fact that he decided to determine this part of his identity so young means that this has defined how he sees himself as an adult. It’s one of the last micro factors (when in life he adopted this identity) that have gotten him so entrenched in his typical behaviours and self image.

As for macro factors, a lot of them have to do specifically with the failing of Gotham’s institutions. Someone like Bruce Wayne, for example, was also orphaned and also deals with trauma; the difference for the Joker is that he had no safety net to catch him when he fell (or rather, was dropped). Someone like Wayne could fall into the cushioning of wealth and the care of someone like Alfred, whereas the Joker (metaphorically) hit the pavement hard and alone. Someone like the Joker should never have become the Joker in the first place because the systems in place in Gotham should have seen every red flag and done something to intervene; this just didn’t happen for him, and not out of coincidence but because Gotham seems like a pretty corrupt place with a lot of systemic issues. Critically underfunded social services (healthcare, welfare, children & family services) that result in a lack of resources for the people who need them and critically underfunded schools that can’t offer extra curricular activities or solid educations that allow kids to stay occupied and develop life skills are probably the most directly influential macro factors that shaped Jack into someone who could resent people and the society around him so much that he’d lose all regard for it to the point of exacting violence against others. There’s also the reality of living in a violent culture, and in violent neighbourhoods exacerbated by poverty, poor policing or overpolicing, and being raised as a boy and then a young man with certain gendered expectations about violence but especially ideas/narratives that minimalize or excuse male violence (especially when it comes to bullying or violent peer-to-peer behaviour under the guise of ‘boys will be boys’).

Beyond that, there’s the same basic prejudices and societal forces that affect so many people: classism, homphobia/queerphobia, (toxic) masculinity/masculine expectations, and ableism (specifically in regards to people who are mentally ill or otherwise neurodivergent) stand out as the primary factors. I’m touching on these broadly because if I were to talk about them all, they would probably need their own posts just to illustrate how they affect this character. But they definitely exist in Gotham if it’s anything like the real world, and I think it’s fair to extrapolate that these kinds of these exist in Gotham and would impact someone like The Joker with the background I’ve given him.

I have no idea how to end this so if you got this far, thank you for reading!

#clown in command ; ooc #i've got a million of 'em ; headcanon

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mbtiofwhys · 4 years

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How Ni and Ne (don't) binge watch

Premise

MBTI is a serious topic for us mods and we always put our best effort writing articles for this blog. However, we also find entertaining to write in a more light way about how MBTI shows off in real life. This article is one of those: we won’t discuss deeply about theory, but we’ll rather talk about our experiences with binging works of various media, be them books, videogames or tv shows. We love typing fictional characters since we also love works of fiction. Listening to other high Ni and Ne users we found an interesting correlation between those two function and media consumption, especially regarding the topic of binging. So, this isn’t hard science, it's simply a light reflection that 200% comes from our experiences. That being said, we hope this article will be relatable and intriguing.

Ni dom and binge

INFJ mod here. This may sound counterintuitive, but even if Ni is known to be a function about searching for deeper meanings, discarding options and focusing on the few remaining, I approach works of fictions with a “multitasking” method. What do I mean? Well, I’m not the kind of person who will just sit down and watch an entire season of a tv show, even if it’s the best I ever seen (there are few exception to this rule, works like Persona 5 Royal which I heavily binged. With no regrets). I simply prefer to watch a little amount of episodes, or read few chapters of a book, for example, and then stop, thus having time to reflect on what I saw or read. I just need time to process all of the data and feelings, otherwise I’ll just hit the wall of information overload.

Even if they’re just my attempt to find a correlation between high Ni and all those aspects, I’d like to talk about what the causes of this behaviours may be, with a MBTi perspective.

Binging may be hard for Ni users since they need time to analyze things, putting them in their abstract subjective system. This means, in other words, that the higher the level of complexity is, the longer will be the time needed to absorb it. For example, I can read mindlessly a novel for a mere entertaining value, but if I really like it I’ll just take my time to enjoy the journey, reflecting and talking about my feelings and first impressions to my friends (this is my auxiliary Fe showing, I know).

Ni operates by discarding elements, thus Ni users may reach a point where they simply prefer to stop. This process allows them to elaborate those information, be them characters, facts or emotions (based on personal preferences, for example feelers may tend toward the emotional aspect and T users toward puzzles, mysteries, logical consistency). As I stated above, if I absorb too much data and feelings I’ll just freeze, submerged by the information overload. With works of fiction, I have an underlying fear of missing important aspects of it and the more I read, watch or play, the more I’ll need time to stop and see how all the new things make sense, be them theories, feelings, or simply understanding what’s going on. Even while I’m actively reading/watching/playing I process all the informations as a way to put them into perspective, constantly elaborating them in the back of my mind.

Another personal consideration is: high Ni implies low Se. Low Se may find binging as a form of overstimulation. Moreover Se, in lower positions, requires little stimuli, allowing Ni users to organize the environment (rationally or emotionally through Te or Fe), since high Ni users are J and need a certain amount of control over the environment (Te or Fe) and their feelings or internal logic (Fi or Ti) .

Finally, I think there’s a tendency in high Ni user to consume multiple media, but in small amounts. This isn’t supported by hard evidences, it’s just a trend I noticed talking to friends about the subject. Ni users may prefer to approach different media rather than a single one, splitting their attention and energies through them. So, this is the opposite of binging. Personally, except for few works of fiction which I blindly burned with my passion, I usually switch from a medium to another, a sort of “media multitasking” as a way to “cool down” from one by simultaneously approach another one and still being engaged.

Ne dom and binge

ENFP mod here. I fear I’ll have to repeat the same premise as INFJ mod: This may sound counterintuitive, but even if Ne is known to be a function that works with multitasking and jumps from one topic to the other very quickly, I tend to approach works of fiction by shamelessly binging one and proceeding to be obsessed with it for months (or years.)

This happens especially for the works that end up being my favorites once I finish them - paired with the fact that I usually go through them again at least a second time after I’m finished. It almost feels like that if I’m not binging, I’m not interested/invested enough to care. I binge so much, in fact, that I’ve come to distinguish the ‘soft binge’ from the ‘hard binge’ - where ‘soft’ means a 12 episodes anime in 2-4 days and ‘hard’ means 145 hours of Persona 5 Royal in 3 weeks.

So, how might this work?

Firstly, Ne dom needs stimuli. Constantly. The more, the better. Because external stimuli means more prompts from something that isn’t one’s mind, which causes further reflection, connections and a ton of brainstorming. Ne can connect dots scaringly quickly, and even though proper reflection is appreciated to deepen the subject, connections are often made on the spot. I think it’s very difficult for me to reach a point of information overload - it usually happens with very complex topics and study subjects, for which I need to take a break and write things down into diagrams and lists in order to make proper sense of what I learned. But even in the case of works with heavy and intricate worldbuilding/plot (e.g. Stein’s;Gate, but I’m a sucker for time travel fiction so whichever is fine) I rarely stop watching if something doesn’t add up - I usually understand it later on, or wait for everything to end and search on the internet or talk about it with friends. My only time off is the one between OP/ED (which I NEVER skip and my friends hate me for that.) In that time, I disconnect my brain for 1 minute and 20-ish seconds to recharge.

Ne dom doesn’t have the patience to wait. If it wants answers, it wants them now. Binging is great because it offers both stimuli, questions and answers in a short amount of time. Also, (but maybe this is more of an F thing and for Ti aux might be different) I’m not one to make theories and speculations over fictional works - I might do that, but later, once I’m finished. While I’m enjoying a work, I’m usually so involved that all the theorising is limited to hunches and intuitions. Proper theorising needs time, needs one to stop and reflect on one’s knowledge in order to find hidden meanings and try to predict the outcome. I don’t have the patience to do that. I’m not interested in doing that - I want to know what’s going on, period. The few times I happened to reflect and speculate on a work of fiction were when I watched/read/played the thing simultaneously with some friends and talked to them about it constantly.

Which brings us to: discussing with people. Knowing a work means you’re able to discuss it with others, read reviews and watch video essays and analysis, of course Ne dom wants to devour it as quickly as possible. I literally watched the whole Evangelion (and I mean: the anime, EoE and the 3 rebuilds) in two weeks in order to finally enjoy those sweet, sweet video essays and parody and abridged YouTube wouldn’t stop to suggest me. This may sound silly, but searching discussion topics of the works I went through -even the ones I disliked- is very important to me, because listening to other people’s opinions and prompts is a way to further feed my Ne with different perspectives, viewpoints, things I might have missed while binging.

The problem: the quicker the binge, the more it’s difficult for me to remember details about plot, characters etc that, yet minor, can be important or interesting. Which is kind of the main struggle of having low Si: you know something, but you don’t remember everything you’d need precisely. You can’t pinpoint the scene where a thing happened, you feel you might have already seen a detail but you can’t recollect when and in what circumstances, and the list goes on. And this doesn’t stop once you’ve finished, obviously - it can only get worse. Typing the main Persona 5 cast was such a pain that, during my second playthrough of vanilla P5, I literally had to open a document and write down every single line or detail or plot point that could’ve helped me later. Otherwise, the situation would be: “damn, I know [character] said something alongside the line of [thing that could help me with typing] but I can’t remember what exactly! Let’s spend hours on YT watching walkthrough in order to find by chance the exact scene I’m thinking about.” This may also be why I periodically feel the need to go through my favourite works again: I may know them by heart, but there will always be things that I missed.

#mbti of whys #mbti #personality types #myers briggs #typology #binging #ni #ne #introverted intuition #extroverted intuition #works of fiction

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haloud · 4 years

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Just gotta call you out on what you said about the survey. The fandom survey was posted by an Alex Manes fan account hence the people who responded were Alex fans too and hence the results were as you said - it’s basic quantitative statistics lol. The fact that everyone knows Michael is a favourite to most fans and carina is obvious - the survey merely proves that the rest of the fandom is aware of it too.

Okay.

When i took the survey it had about two hundred responses. it was posted on tumblr, where I saw it, where most of my fandom takes place. It was a two-sentence joke about the numbers as I saw them at a time when the surveyed population was the population I interact with the most. I’m sorry I wasn’t pedantic enough for you, anon. I’m sorry my post contained a generalization. It’s almost like I don’t blog the same way I write my academic papers. I should have known someone would find me in violation.

Let’s take a look at your claims, anon, because we love analyzing things here, and since you know all about basic quantitative statistics, I know you’ll agree!

1. The survey can’t be taken as proof that Alex is the fandom darling because the surveyed population was skewed

2. The survey can be taken as proof that “the rest of the fandom” is rightfully aware of the obvious fact that Michael is the fandom darling

Can you see the contradiction taking place here? Either the survey can be used as evidence or it can’t–you don’t just get to cherry pick the responses that agree with you and ignore the ones that don’t.

Anon, if the “rest of the fandom” knew one hundred percent that Michael was the obvious favorite (over Alex specifically), my post wouldn’t have gotten any notes. It was untagged, and I don’t have that many followers. It isn’t just about the numbers, either–take a look at the comment responses, read for just a little while how the number of people saying that Alex is being mistreated or that miluca need to break up outweigh any comments criticizing Alex.

My post was responding to the same frustration I’m expressing now. On Tumblr–where most of my fandom takes place–I see a lot of claims that Alex is despised and in need of defense from a hateful fandom, but I never see any of the proof. The tag “anti alex manes?” Two posts, anonymous confessions from a year and five months ago respectively. The tag “anti michael guerin?” Two pages and active. Now, that isn’t a lot of hate either–you’ll never see me claim that Michael isn’t a popular character. The only thing I claim is that Alex is more popular than him, against the popular perception of people who self-identify as liking Alex to the exclusion of all others. That’s what the survey of the population I knew was tumblr-based confirmed and caused me to make a post about.

The survey is up to over five hundred responses now. (I took it on my phone while logged into a Google account, so I can go back and see the responses without taking the survey again.) The favorite character is still Alex by an overwhelming margin, with 47% of respondents self-reporting him as their favorite. Second place is Maria, with 16.2%, and then Michael and Liz are tied with 12.3%. Meanwhile, for the question “Who do you think is the most popular character in the fandom,” 54.6% of respondents report that their perception is that Michael is the fandom favorite. Alex is in second place with 22.2%, followed by Liz at 9.7%. The results still reflect the thing I joked about, which is the significant discrepancy between self-reported perception and self-reported reality among fans.

Any good statistical analysis includes a disclaimer as well as an examination of future avenues of study. I will state for the record that the surveyed population could still be skewed by having originated at the epicenter of Alex-centered fandom. You’ll find that this is often the case and an often-reported possible flaw in a survey study. It’s a flaw inherent in the sampling method known as snowball sampling–where the surveyed population begins with the surveyor’s acquaintances and goes outward from those acquaintances, i.e., it picks up snow as it rolls. There’s also the possibility that some individuals took the survey more than once, though Google does prevent logged-in users from doing so. This statement should not be used as a reason to throw out the results; proof of fraudulent activity would be necessary in order to demonstrate that surveyors were not acting in the good faith required of all self-reporting surveys. In regards to further study, I think it would be interesting to include a question about where respondents saw the survey as well as where they spend most of their fandom time (Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, etc.). That way, we would know more clearly what subset of the fandom was participating in the survey.

A fandom survey will never be a scientific exercise, anon, but at 513 responses, I do believe the sample size is large enough to be used for commentary on trends within the fandom. Something doesn’t have to be classifiable as science to be interesting or notable.

#fandom drama #Anonymous #long post

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dennou-translations · 4 years

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TBS Pamphlet Interview with Director Akane Kazuki

Raw || Index

Note: This interview is from TBS Anime Festa 2018, where Hoshiai no Sora premiered back in August. The pamphlet also includes a mini interview with Itsuka, but this one sadly wasn’t in TBS’s site.

——Please tell us how you decided to make an original work this time.

Akane: I had been thinking about all sorts of things for ten or so years, but then my staff asked me, “How about you stop making sci-fi and parallel universe stuff and try making something original?”. And so, since about five years ago, I had been feeling like tackling some sort of new genre.

I joined this industry roughly in the 85’s. It was exactly the period of the Gundam Boom, and I think that Gundam caused a new movement and has always been riding on its flow until now. Animation is entertainment, but I believe its trends are becoming specially strong nowadays and I feel like it is already turning into something closer to amusement movies. But the young creators can be the ones doing that. As for us, it has been more than thirty years that we have been in this business already, so isn’t it about time for us to move on to new branches and possibilities of animation? Aren’t we already at ages where it is all right for us to create new things now? While thinking about such things, I received this story.

——Was the theme in your head from the start?

Akane: When I first received the order, I think I was expecting a series based a little more on current animation – in other words, on entertainment. Yet I was like, “Isn’t it okay to not do just that, but also test out something like the possibilities of animation?”. I, for myself, want to reflect the eras through animation. I had a strong feeling of wanting to try and create not only animation simply about the funny and weird aspects of the current times, but that also properly expresses the suffering and worries of young children in particular, and other such things. Of course, it was going to be aired in television, so the fact that it is entertainment goes without saying, but I think it would be great if we had a plus alpha there, and if we managed to successfully trace the emotions and thoughts of young kids into a drama.

——What was the reason for choosing “soft tennis” as theme?

Akane: There is also the fact that I have experience with it, but I think soft tennis is a sport that seems like a characteristic of puberty and boyhood. Even though the number of competitors is enormous among middle schoolers, it cuts to about half when they become high schoolers, and when they become college students and posteriorly adults, almost nobody is doing it anymore. It made me think that this tendency was the same as some sort of teenage feeling. We also forget things that were very obvious to us during adolescence when we grow up. I wonder if this doesn’t link up rather well with emotional traits. Plus, there are no professional players in soft tennis. In a way, we can say that it is a sport with no self-interest. It is neither for the sake of earning money nor for becoming famous. We occasionally can see pubescent children make moves without calculations as well. However, around the time they become high schoolers, they gradually start looking ahead and thinking about the future. In short, self-interest starts being born. In that sense, I thought this sport was as pure as adolescence.

——What are the two main characters like?

Akane: This will be the story of children who carry with them all sorts of scars, yet I believe I want to make it into a tale of friends who do not lick each other’s wounds at all, but instead fill up and compensate for them. I cannot go into detail, but those two, who have certain problems in their home environments, want to run away but are unable to because they are middle schoolers. If they were adults, they could get away from it by leaving, but middle schoolers cannot afford to do that, so they end up bearing wounds in their hearts. Those are the types of wounds that people forget when they become adults, but I want to try properly expressing them and writing about how they will overcome them and grow up. In this sense, I also want adults to remember their own. The wounds that they used to carry. And realize that they are the ones hurting children now. I want to make it into a drama that causes people to feel what is happening in real time.

——Aside from home circumstances, how will the schools and club activities be depicted?

Akane: The boys’ soft tennis club, which will appear in this story, is a bit of a flighty existence even within the school, so if I had to say so myself, they are looked down upon. They have not had a victory in four years and are on the brink of being disbanded. As they are asked if a club like that has any right to exist, they themselves give up at first. Like, “We can’t do anything anyway”. Then, a chemical reaction happens as the main character, Katsuragi Maki, joins the club. To put it in an extreme way, this starts off as the story of a group of losers. There is nothing so terrible in the real world like being losers while middle schoolers, but our society does want to say such things about them. But I want to tell children, “Don’t give up; overcome that standard”. It might be fiction that only happens within animation either way, but I want to create a drama like this. Of course, sci-fi dramas where people try to survive in crumbling worlds are also interesting, but I want to make a drama about boys living in a realistic world while preserving their pride and identities. That might be the main theme this time.

——It seems this will be a work full of things to observe, but director, what is the point you want people to pay most attention to?

Akane: I am thinking of trying my first approach on the current situation of our society, which I had not depicted so much in animation until now. Many things that have not been a topic even in the news or the internet until now are the subject in it. I also want to get to the heart of the issues that the world is burdened with nowadays. That is quite a challenge for animation, but I believe that animation is also becoming a type of media that can portray such things. Of course, just being funny and weird would is okay too, but I want to make a drama that will not be only this, and that will make the people watching respond more strongly to it. I do not know how deep we can go or until what point we can bring out results, but I would be happy if people could pay attention to this part and think together with the characters.

——Please tell us your reason for choosing Itsuka-san for the character drafts.

Akane: It will turn into a rather serious story, so in my mind, I had imagined them as more realistic characters. That is why, when a producer introduced me to Itsuka-san, I thought at first, “I wonder about this”, but I thought it over, like, “Isn’t the imbalance of something serious like that with a design such as this very much like Japanese anime? Isn’t it a little wrong to make them realistic characters just because it’s a realistic story?”. The art that Itsuka-san draws is very sensible, and this drama is also done in an extremely delicate way, so in that sense, it is perfect. We are often misunderstood, and just because the theme is soft tennis, people go, “Akane-san, you’re making something rooted in sports this time?” (laughs). I wanted to rebound these preconception-like comments, and thought of trying my hand at challenging myself with directing an animation that used Itsuka-san’s sensible characters. In fact, we made videos as a test, and they were very easy to get familiar with.

——Then, lastly, please leave a message for the people looking forward to when it airs.

Akane: Both drama and art-wise, I am thinking of doing a new challenge and forming a new world-building, so I would be happy if people could also look forward to the synchronization between drama and art. I think it will be a peculiar anime, but I want to make it into a series that will cause people to feel the difference in that instead, so please wait for it to air while looking forward to it.

#hoshiai no sora #hns #stars align #katsuragi maki #shinjou touma #asuka yuu #asuka yuuta #soga tsubasa #ameno itsuki #futsu rintarou #tsukinose nao #takenouchi shingo #akane kazuki #interview #my translation

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

Text

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN TREVOR

But it worked so well, and we knew that buyers would have a big pool of potential users, at least. Web browser.1 Angels were generally much better to talk to someone, I could usually get to the end of each film, so they know who might be interested in this mystery—for the same destination, just approaching it from different directions. I recommend you solve this problem, if you find someone else working on the biggest things inexperienced founders and investors are probably more where it's considered especially polite to compliment someone's clothing than where it's considered improper. VCs want to blow you up, it wears you out: Your most basic advice to founders is just don't die, but the word madam never occurs in my legitimate email, and spam in particular. Basically at 25 he started running as fast as possible. And what are the universities thinking?

The next best, for startups that aren't charging initially, is active users. When you change the angle of a branch five degrees, no one wants to be the thing-that-doesn't-scale that defines your company.2 That principle, like the relative merits of programming languages is to give you enough money to last for a year or a hundred times as productive as those working for money, they'll work a lot harder on stuff they like. 5-7% of a company like Apple and think, how hard can it be? Economically, you can do in your spare time, and investors are down on advertising at the moment. They do more in their heads: they try to do things that seem to be: a lot of them. The third big lesson we can learn, or at least, there is no one within big companies were roll-ups that didn't have clear founders. When I look back it's like there's a line drawn between third and fourth grade. That's what makes sex and drugs, it would be good to solve?

Prep schools openly say this is one reason I'd bet on the curve, at any given time get away with it, and the different parts of the company through the COO. Object-oriented programming in the 1980s was enabled by a combination of circumstances: court decisions striking down state anti-takeover laws, starting with the assumption that we would never get started. Not because it's causing economic inequality, you decrease the number of startups that get bought early. It's not a deal till the money's in the bank and keep operating as two guys living on ramen. I'm optimistic. They think that there will be ten JetBlues.3 If you try to attack wealth, you end up doing something chosen for you by syndicates.

And you don't want to see the Valley itself, but it goes fast. What Happened to Yahoo August 2010 When I went to.4 What this means in practice. That makes him seem like a winner, they may avoid publishing's problems. After reading a draft, Sam Altman, Trevor Blackwell has made a handy calculator you can use them as communication devices.5 You not only have to filter email from people you'd never heard from, or about, a startup has decreased dramatically. Startups are that constrained for talent. But it's harder than it sounds.6 Smallness Measurement If you can't measure the value of products is in software. You don't have to rely on. Hackers just want power.

I knew she was about to say you'd have to be fired, and one of your most powerful weapons, I think this is true for funding. The best was that the company was itself a kind of argument that might be called the Hail Mary strategy. They don't have time to work, just like a software company. But it hardly ever is. My friend Robert learned a lot by writing network software when he was a startup, then hand them off to go away.7 Sun. Oxford had a chair of Chinese before it had one of English.

Which means the slowdown that comes from being in America. And in fact the two forces are related: they're the ones who like running their company so much that resembling nature is intrinsically good as that nature has had a couple thousand Altair owners, but without the substance. Ditto for hacking. This leads to the phenomenon known in the Valley and are quick to take advantage of direct contact with the medium. We were all starting from scratch, that's a really bad sign.8 More important, I think it's cleaner if you openly charge subscription fees, instead of just looking at them all is through a computer. Thanks to Sam Altman, Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Robert and Trevor read applications and did interviews with us. The stock of a company as big as Java, or bigger, just on the partner you talk to startups, a lot of investors are interested in, that's not necessarily a mistake to use the term Collison installation for the technique they invented. FreeBSD, which I'm running on the computer I'm using now, and they're not coming back. Court hierarchies are another thing entirely. In practice offers exist for stretches of time, if your business model in the world look like this? Startups don't win by winning lawsuits.

5 spams per 1000 with 0 false positives. When I was in college that there were about 20,000. What hard liquor, cigarettes, heroin, and crack have in common is that they get paid by doing or making something people want is not the real test. Ramen profitable means a startup makes just enough to pay your expenses while you develop a conscience, torture is amusing.9 Wouldn't that at least someone really loves. Sex, or something just as bad. I can see a path that's not immediately obvious; that's one of the most important quality in an investor is to say that the unsuccessful founders would also fail to chase down funding, and investors tend to take these for granted now, but only because people have found even more addictive ways of wasting time. It does not seem to be several categories of cuts: things I got wrong, because if you don't, you're hosed. So we should expect founders to do it yourself. If you actually started acting like adults, it seemed to them what e-commerce business back in the day, but who want it urgently. 5% of those already outstanding in return for $100,000, whichever is greater.

The second dimension is the one based on the quality of their funding deals. So I want to zoom in on one detail of this picture. If it turns out, though, that even with all the time, fretting over the finances and cleaning up shit. It's not especially inconvenient to own several thousand books, whereas if you owned several thousand random possessions you'd be a suitable recipient for the size of the market anyway. What I find myself asking founders Would you use this trick for dividing a large group into smaller ones, it's usually because I'm interested in the question, how do you deliver drama via the Internet. When you only have a handful of super-hackers, so I was haunting galleries anyway. But I know the real reason: the product is only moderately appealing. Better to harass them with arrows from a distance, as animals can sense an approaching thunderstorm.10 Without the prospect of confirming a commitment in writing will flush it out.

Notes

Since we're not doing YC mainly for financial reasons, including both you and listen only to emphasize that whatever the false positives reflecting the remaining outcomes don't have to do, just their sizes. The problem with most of their origins in words about luck. It was common in the imprecise half. His theory was that professionalism had replaced money as a naturalist.

If you wanted to than because they need them to represent anything.

From? The way to fight. The Harmless People and The Old Way. I know, Lisp code.

Do not finance your startup.

Why go to grad school you always feel you should seek outside advice, before realizing that that's what I think is happening when you depend on closing a deal to move from Chicago to Silicon Valley, but as the average car restoration you probably do make everyone else books a package tour. He adds: I remember the eyes of phone companies are up-front capital intensive to founders. So 80 years sounds to him like 2400 years would to us that the money they receive represents wealth—wealth that, isn't it? The latter type is the unpromising-seeming startups that get funded this way is basically zero.

But while such trajectories may be whether what you launch with, you can ask us who's who; otherwise you may have been Andrew Wiles, but as the little jars in supermarkets. Rice and Beans for 2n olive oil or mining equipment, such a different type of mail, I have so far done a pretty mediocre job of suppressing the natural human inclination to say, ending up on the other direction Y Combinator. This is an instance of a business is to carry a beeper? This trend is one of those most vocal on the LL1 mailing list.

The First Two Hundred Years. Who continued to live inexpensively as their companies took off? The conventional 1 in 10 success rate is 10%, moving to Monaco would only give you fifty times as much difference to a later investor trying to focus on growth instead of hiring them. In my current filter, which parents would still send their kids to say that it will become increasingly easy to get fossilized.

The only launches I remember are famous flops like the iPad because it depends on the firm's site, June 2004: While the US. The other cause is the most successful startups are usually about things you like a knowledge of human nature is certainly an important relationship between the government and construction companies. People tell the craziest lies about me. Patent trolls can't even trust the design world's internal standards.

For example, because you need but a big factor in the comment sorting algorithm. Horace, Sat.

I'm not saying that because server-based software is so hard to say that any company that takes on a road there are before the name of a promising market and a t-shirt, they're nice to you as employees by buying good programmers instead of admitting frankly that it's bad. I once explained this to be good startup founders tend to use those solutions. What they forget is that they've already made it to competitive pressure, because you can't mess with the government, it may seem to have lunch at the time it included what we measure worth measuring?

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interkomitet · 4 years

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Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of the BRICS heads of state and government, held via videoconference

President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, President of China Xi Jinping and President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa exchanged views on the state and prospects of their five-sided cooperation, summed up the results of Russia’s Chairmanship of BRICS in 2020, discussed the most relevant issues on the international agenda, and compared notes in regard to the upcoming G20 summit to be held on November 21–22.

During the meeting, the leaders of the BRICS states heard reports from speakers who have been overseeing the work on each track of the association’s activity. Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev spoke about cooperation in the coronavirus pandemic response, in combating terrorism and cybercrime. President of the New Development Bank Marcos Troyjo cited the financial institution’s performance data and plans for next year. President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergei Katyrin spoke about the Business Council events, while Chairman of VEB.RF Igor Shuvalov covered the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism. The report by Chair of the Board of Directors of Global Rus Trade Anna Nesterova addressed the establishment of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance.

As a result of the consultations, the sides adopted the Moscow Declaration, which reflects the five states’ consolidated approach to the further development of the association, as well as the Strategy for the BRICS Economic Partnership until 2025 and the BRICS Anti-Terrorism Strategy.

* * *

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, friends, good afternoon.

I am happy to see you all and to welcome you at this summit.

Prime Minister Modi, Chairman Xi Jinping, President Ramaphosa, President Bolsonaro,

It is a pleasure to have this meeting with you today within the BRICS framework.

Before we get down to work, I would like to extend my birthday greetings to the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Ramaphosa, and wish him good health and every success in his endeavours in the interests of the friendly people of South Africa.

Friends,

The topic chosen for today’s meeting is quite broad and covers matters that deal with expanding the strategic partnership between the BRICS countries for the sake of global stability and security, as well as fostering innovative growth of our economies. As usual, we will also discuss current international and regional matters in view of the upcoming G20 Summit, which is to take place very soon, on November 21 and 22. We will compare notes on the key aspects of the G20 agenda.

If there are no objections, colleagues, I would like to declare the 12th BRICS Summit open.

In keeping with the established procedure, allow me to be the first speaker at this meeting as the head of the state that has the current BRICS Chairmanship.

Friends, I would like to once again sincerely welcome you all and express my satisfaction with the fact that during the Russian Chairmanship the BRICS countries have proactively expanded their cooperation with one another in all the key areas, including politics, the economy and humanitarian affairs, despite the special conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

We have held 130 events, including some 25 ministerial meetings. Unfortunately, but naturally in this situation, many of them had to take place online.

Of course, our current priority is to coordinate collective BRICS measures to combat the pandemic, improve collaboration between our epidemiological services and protect the lives and health of our citizens.

By the way, the subject of medical cooperation is nothing new for BRICS. In this context, we are in a better situation, relatively speaking, than some other countries. Let me remind you that the Ufa Declaration we adopted five years ago included an agreement to work together to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, including – I would like to emphasise this – novel coronaviruses. Pursuant to that agreement, the BRICS countries created an early warning system for infectious disease outbreaks, which we could use during the COVID-19 pandemic. The BRICS countries promptly responded to the disease outbreak and took practical measures to combat the pandemic.

I would like to point out that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has signed agreements with our Indian and Brazilian partners on clinical tests of the Sputnik V vaccine and with pharmaceutical companies in China and India on the production of this vaccine not only for our own use, but also for third countries.

I believe that this is very important. There are Russian vaccines, and they are effective and safe. The next task is to launch their large-scale production. This is not a problem, but it is a matter facing us now. Of course, it is very important to join forces for the large-scale manufacturing of this product for the general public.

Incidentally, we have registered a second coronavirus vaccine in Russia, EpiVacCorona, and the third one is in the works. As I have already mentioned, we are ready to cooperate with our BRICS partners in their manufacturing and use.

We also believe it important to accelerate the establishment of the BRICS Vaccine Research and Development Centre, as we agreed at the Johannesburg summit two years ago at the initiative of our South African friends.

This year the pandemic forced each of our countries to take emergency measures to support national industries, finance and the social sphere, to revive their economies and return them to a trajectory of sustainable growth. This is the goal of the Strategy for BRICS Economic Partnership for the period until 2025, prepared for this summit.

The New Development Bank is in great demand in the current situation. The Bank has reserved $10 billion to combat the pandemic, while its overall portfolio of investment projects now exceeds $20 billion. As many as 62 large projects are already being implemented in the BRICS countries. Incidentally, a regional branch of the bank will soon open in Moscow to implement lending programmes across the Eurasian space.

I would also like to remind you that the BRICS countries have a special insurance tool in case of a crisis in the financial markets: the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, with a $100 billion fund.

The BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism is important in the parties’ cooperation on credit and investment policy; this year, they have agreed on the rules and principles of responsible financing of development institutions within its framework.

The five countries are enhancing cooperation in science, technology, and innovation. The BRICS Network University is up and running; the parties have held the BRICSMATH competition for schoolchildren this year, along with contests for young scientists and innovators and their research projects.

Intensive contacts have been underway between our academic and scientific centres. Their coverage is truly impressive – from ocean and polar research to astronomy and artificial intelligence. Experts from the five countries carry out joint energy research: reports have been prepared on the projected development of the fuel and energy sectors in the BRICS countries until 2040.

The parties continue exchanges on the cultural and humanitarian tracks. The BRICS Film Festival was held online, as we agreed earlier, colleagues. The first ever meeting of ministers of sport was held, and resulted in a Memorandum of cooperation in physical culture and sport. The dialogue between the authorities responsible for tourism in our countries has been launched.

Colleagues, we are still facing a challenging global and regional security environment. International terrorism and drug trafficking continue to pose serious threats, and cybercrime has greatly expanded its reach.

We are witnessing dangerous destabilising trends in the Middle East and North Africa. The armed conflicts in Libya and Yemen are continuing. There is still a lot to be done to bring about a political settlement in Syria, and the risks of escalation persist in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and in the Persian Gulf.

Furthermore, as you know, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict entered an acute phase in September. Russia went to great lengths to help stop the hostilities between our two friendly states and incite them to come to a compromise. Our mediation efforts paved the way to the November 9 agreement on a complete ceasefire and the deployment of a Russian peacekeeping force in Nagorno-Karabakh. All these provisions are set forth in the trilateral statement signed by the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan, and the Prime Minister of Armenia.

Importantly, the parties have been complying with these agreements. Hostilities have stopped, and the situation is getting back to normal. This lays the groundwork for a lasting and comprehensive settlement that would be fair and would serve the interests of the peoples of both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

It is highly satisfying that the BRICS countries have been closely coordinating their efforts on current international and regional matters. A policy document, the BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy, has been drafted for this summit. The BRICS countries are expanding their cooperation on combating drug trafficking and corruption, as well as on international information security.

The BRICS High Representatives on National Security, heads of foreign ministries and our respective missions to the UN maintain regular contacts.

In the year of the 75th anniversary of Victory over Nazism in World War II, the BRICS countries have unanimously condemned the glorification of the Nazis and their henchmen and the attempts to revise the outcome of the war and to revive the ideology of aggression and intolerance.

Our countries consistently advocate constructive relations with other states, integration entities and international organisations, including in the proven BRICS Plus and BRICS Outreach formats. In our common opinion, this interaction should continue to build on the principles of respect for the UN Charter and the fundamental rules of international law such as sovereign equality of states, non-interference in internal affairs and peaceful settlement of disputes.

Colleagues, in connection with the G20 summit in Saudi Arabia on November 21–22, I would like to note that the BRICS countries’ approaches on most of the G20 agenda items are close or overlap. This concerns reforming key global institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation and the World Health Organisation.

With the BRICS countries’ direct contribution, a comprehensive package of G20 measures to overcome the impact of the pandemic has been put together. The main focus is on restoring global value chains and the openness of international trade. Russia’s initiative on the so-called green corridors free from wars and sanctions, primarily with regard to humanitarian supplies of food and medicine, is envisioned along the same lines.

Colleagues, in closing I would like to stress once again: Russia will always give priority attention to expanding cooperation between the BRICS states and strengthening our association’s positions in the international arena.

I would like to thank you for your friendly support and well-coordinated and effective interaction this year.

Thank you.

http://interkomitet.com/news-of-the-day/vladimir-putin-chaired-a-meeting-of-the-brics-heads-of-state-and-government-held-via-videoconference/

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official-transsexual · 5 years

Text

Let’s discuss Gender Dysphoria, GID, and criticism of the DSM

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed that the mere fact that the DSM has been criticized by psychologists has become a pretty common truscum talking point lately, though most have been reluctant to engage with those criticisms in a meaningful way. One of them was kind enough to link me a study, so I’d like to take a look at it, as well as a couple of other DSM critiques that focus more specifically on the old “Gender Identity Disorder” diagnosis that was replaced by “Gender Dysphoria” in the DSM-5.

(this is going to get long, sorry mobile followers.)

Raskin, J. D., & Gayle, M. C. (2016). DSM-5: Do psychologists really want an alternative?. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 56(5), 439-456. (sci-hub)(google scholar)

The data for this study was collected in May & June of 2012, from 104 surveys (out of 128 attempted; surveys with less than 75% completion were discarded). While the title itself mentions the DSM-5, "psychologists’ familiarity with the proposed changes [in the DSM 5] (n = 103, Mdn = 8) did not differ significantly from neutral.” Already, this tells us that between the lack of familiarity and the fact that this data was collected before the fifth edition was even published, this study is not sufficient to draw conclusions about the actual validity of the 5th edition. We can, however, determine what some of the actual concerns are about the DSM-5; for instance, "participants expected the DSM-5 to be significantly worse than the DSM-IV-TR regarding “inappropriate classification of some behaviors as disorders" (other comparative concerns were not statistically significant). Despite these concerns, 94% of respondents declared their intent to use the DSM-5 (compared to only 90% who regularly used the DSM-IV-TR).

As far as the alternatives listed in the title, "psychologists are interested in alternatives not rooted in the medical model common to the DSM and ICD.” This dislike of the medical model of psychology also extended to the stated “disadvantages” of the DSM-IV-TR according to respondents, which included “places too much emphasis on pathology” (50.96%) and “applies medical labels to psychosocial problems” (43.27%). Respondents also stated that the DSM “obscures individual differences” (60.58%), “places more emphasis on diagnosis than treatment” (51.92%) and that “[diagnostic] labels distort one’s perception of a client” (43.27%) while “ha[ving] little bearing on treatment” (31.73%), Respondents also tended to agree with the statement that “DSM relies too heavily on medical semantics,” while disagreeing that “mental disorders are a subset of medical disorders.”

Through these results, we can see that there is a trend among psychologists who responded to this survey to move away from medical models of psychological care.

So, how does this apply to Gender Dysphoria?

Prior to the construction of the current diagnostic label "Gender Dysphoria," trans people seeking medical transition were diagnosed as having "Gender Identity Disorder" (GID). According to two members of the DSM-5 workgroup who constructed the current diagnostic criteria for Gender Dysphoria, the label "dysphoria" was expected to serve the same purpose as Criterion D of the GID criteria, based on the longstanding medical use of that term to refer to profound distress or discomfort (Cohen-Kettenis & Pfäfflin, 2010). (To be clear, by long-standing, I’m talking over a century of use with almost no change in how it’s used by psychologists).

This was the diagnostic criteria for GID in use during the time that the survey data above was collected (via behavenet.com):

A. A strong and persistent cross-gender identification (not merely a desire for any perceived cultural advantages of being the other sex). In children, the disturbance is manifested by four (or more) of the following:

(1) repeatedly stated desire to be, or insistence that he or she is, the other sex (2) in boys, preference for cross-dressing or simulating female attire; in girls, insistence on wearing only stereotypical masculine clothing (3) strong and persistent preferences for cross-sex roles in make-believe play or persistent fantasies of being the other sex (4) intense desire to participate in the stereotypical games and pastimes of the other sex (5) strong preference for playmates of the other sex. In adolescents and adults, the disturbance is manifested by symptoms such as a stated desire to be the other sex, frequent passing as the other sex, desire to live or be treated as the other sex, or the conviction that he or she has the typical feelings and reactions of the other sex.

B. Persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex. In children, the disturbance is manifested by any of the following: in boys, assertion that his penis or testes are disgusting or will disappear or assertion that it would be better not to have a penis, or aversion toward rough-and-tumble play and rejection of male stereotypical toys, games, and activities; in girls, rejection of urinating in a sitting position, assertion that she has or will grow a penis, or assertion that she does not want to grow breasts or menstruate, or marked aversion toward normative feminine clothing. In adolescents and adults, the disturbance is manifested by symptoms such as preoccupation with getting rid of primary and secondary sex characteristics (e.g., request for hormones, surgery, or other procedures to physically alter sexual characteristics to simulate the other sex) or belief that he or she was born the wrong sex.

C. The disturbance is not concurrent with a physical intersex condition.

D. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Code based on current age:

302.6 Gender Identity Disorder in Children 302.85 Gender Identity Disorder in Adolescents or Adults

Specify if (for sexually mature individuals):

Sexually Attracted to Males Sexually Attracted to Females Sexually Attracted to Both Sexually Attracted to Neither

Yeah, it’s... a lot. It was also the subject of serious criticism before the DSM-5 workgroup began rewriting it. The criteria for GID in children was particularly heavily criticised by researchers, who may have been particularly wary because of the disaster that was the DSM-3 GID in children criteria. These criticisms do not reject the definition of a mental disorder outlined in the the DSM-IV, instead focusing on whether GID fits that definition (bolding mine):

In DSM-IV, each of the mental disorders is conceptualized as a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress (e.g., a painful symptom) or disability (i.e., impairment in one or more important areas of functioning) or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom. In addition, this syndrome or pattern must not be merely an expectable and culturally sanctioned response to a particular event, for example, the death of a loved one. Whatever its original cause, it must currently be considered a manifestation of a behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the individual. Neither deviant behavior (e.g., political, religious, or sexual) nor conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are mental disorders unless the deviance or conflict is a symptom of a dysfunction in the individual, as described above

Bartlett, N. H., Vasey, P. L., & Bukowski, W. M. (2000). Is gender identity disorder in children a mental disorder?. Sex Roles, 43(11-12), 753-785. (sci-hub)(google scholar)

In Bartlett, Vasey, and Bukowski’s 2000 paper, the authors ask four specific questions related to the definition of mental disorders:

“Is GID associated with present distress?”

“Is GID associated with present disability?”

“Is GID associated with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom?", and

“Does GID represent a behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the individual or is it simply deviant behavior or a conflict between the individual and society?”

When looking at the first question, the authors note that the criteria for GID specifically requires that the distress be caused by the incongruence (”disturbance”) between a person’s assigned sex and gender identity, rather than simply be associated with it. Here, they argue that the present distress criteria of the definition of a mental disorder should be interpreted as requiring direct causation. The last sentence of the DSM-IV definition of mental disorders seems to support this conclusion; in order for distress resulting from the conflict between society and trans individuals to count as “disordered,” identifying outside of one’s assigned sex would itself have to be established as inherently disordered according to the above definition.

The authors conclude that “there is a lack of empirical evidence to support the notion of distress caused directly by GID as opposed to simply being associated with it,” and that “evidence from published case studies does not appear to support distress caused by ‘gender role disturbances’.” At one point, the authors suggest that “indeed, considering the minimal amount of attention in the literature devoted to the child’s distress in comparison to that devoted to the child’s tendencies to engage in cross-gender behaviors, one might infer that the child’s own feelings of contentment or distress are treated as secondary to the distress felt by others as a result of the child’s cross-gender behaviors. It is possible that this lack of attention to child distress in the literature is reflective of the actual state of affairs, that is, a lack of distress on the part of the child,” before going on to explain some of the other possible explanations for distress in kids with GID that had been previously offered by other researchers. Current research showing the mental health impact of supporting trans kids through social transition would seem to support the idea that at least some of that distress (dysphoria) is a result of social factors, and not an inherent aspect of identifying outside of one’s assigned sex (Olson, Durwood, DeMeules, & Mclaughlin, 2016; Russell, Pollitt, Li, & Grossman, 2018); while this does not disprove the mandatory dysphoria requirement, it does validate those alternative sources of dysphoria mentioned by Bartlett et al.

The examination of the second question raises the same concerns as the first did, with the authors concluding that “taken together, research would suggest that caution must be taken in making definitive statements about the mental health of children with GID.“

In response to the third question, that of future risk, the authors describe the risks toward trans people as “such negative outcomes as physical abuse, school drop-out, drug and alcohol addiction, prostitution, AIDS, and poverty,” before noting that “adolescents with GID may be caught in a downward spiral similar to that which is found among other adolescents who have suffered rejection,” which means these risks are more “mere associations” that don’t necessarily indicate that identifying outside one’s assigned gender is disordered.

The authors start answering the fourth question by looking at whether wanting to transition counts as dysfunctional, noting that while “outright repudiation of one’s biological sex certainly seems “dysfunctional,” at least in the folk sense of the word [...] this sort of intuitive “hunch” is clearly an unacceptable foundation upon which to base a clinical diagnosis.” They also note criticisms of the definition of “dysfunctional” used in the DSM-IV, before concluding that “it is simply impossible to say whether disavowal of one’s biological sex is, or is not, a dysfunction.” At this point, the authors start talking about desistance studies; I’ve linked criticism of those studies before so I’m not going to get into them in too much detail here, but the concerns raised by the authors have a lot to do with the DSM-III’s pathologization of gender non-conforming kids & lack of identity requirements, which resulted in GNC kids who identified with their assigned sex being diagnosed with GID alongside actual trans kids who otherwise met the diagnostic criteria. The authors finish by noting that research undertaken using previous diagnostic standards obscured differences between the kids diagnosed with GID under the DSM-III criteria.

Wilson, I., Griffin, C., & Wren, B. (2002). The validity of the diagnosis of gender identity disorder (child and adolescent criteria). Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 7(3), 335-351. (sci-hub)(google scholar)

Wilson, Griffin, & Wren (2002) expressed extreme concern about the use of diagnosis based on behavioural criteria and the pathologization of gender-nonconformity. Like Bartlett et al, the authors of this study highlighted the pathologization of social problems, such as those that accompany mistreatment or those which are the result of a problem not inherently linked to gender identity; note that examples of the latter are potentially the result of the intersection of multiple forms of marginalization (btw, you’ve all read Crenshaw’s 1989 paper on intersectionality and multi-axial oppression, right?). Wilson et al also focus heavily on Zucker & Bradley’s (1995) attempts to justify treating transgender identities as disordered, concluding that “it is evident from their argument that the distress and disability experienced by those individuals with crossgender behaviour, was the consequence of the perception of the behaviour by others, and not as a result of the behaviour itself.”

Again, as with Bartlett et al, the authors of this paper found no evidence to support the claim that distress (dysphoria) is an inherent part of identifying outside of one’s assigned sex.

Comparing these three critiques of the DSM-IV-TR makes it evident that there's a number of overlaps between criticisms of the GID diagnosis and those of the DSM in general, specifically with regard to concerns about over-pathologization and the conflation of social and medical issues. Bartlett et al (2000) even explicitly called out the "distress criteria" of GID as lacking empirical evidence.

TL;DR:

Criticisms of the DSM in general by psychologists do not support the idea that trans people must experience the symptom known as dysphoria. Research suggests that many psychologists think that the DSM is too focused on labeling experiences as disordered or otherwise medicalizing things that shouldn’t be medicalized. Meanwhile, criticisms of the DSM that focus directly on the diagnosis used to gatekeep people seeking transition explicitly point out the lack of evidence for the type of distress that psychologists and other gatekeepers refer to as “dysphoria” as a problem with the validity of the DSM-IV, which directly contradicts the truscum claim that the necessity of dysphoria is an established scientific fact.

okay this keeps growing so I’m going to call it here for now & give my eyes a break, if anyone notices any bad typos or absent links lmk

#long post #anti truscum #anti transmed #tucute #transsexuals against truscum #dysphorics against truscum #op

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sporadicpostbeliever · 4 years

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TwitterBlazers

The Portland Trailblazers twitter community is made up of basketball fans, specifically those who love to support (or hate) the team. This demographic is largely men over the age of 25, and under the age of 55. Most of these users come from Oregon and Washington, but the community attracts interaction from users all over the world.

In my posts I aimed to attract attention through the current events that were going on in the NBA and Trailblazers. Specifically I reflected on Damian Lillard’s outstanding performance...

and the tragic passing of Kobe Bryant...

I was unsuccessful in receiving interaction on my account, but I was successful in learning a ton of information on the who/ what’s/ and why’s behind successful twitter activity.

Twitter is governed by pure chaos, which makes the platform addicting. Not only are common users attracted to the unpredictability of twitter, news outlets and corporations join in on these trends as well. The benefit of the unpredictability of twitter is that anyone can involve themselves by providing a unique or interesting take on current events. Businesses and marketers have observed spike in attention that comes with viral content, and have learned to produce content that capitalizes on viral trends as fast as possible. Sports play a large role in this because sports moments are commonly tokens of viral content, even captivating the attention of people who don’t care for sports.

There are strategic steps that users take to capitalize on the face pace, viral nature of twitter. As fast as content on twitter is born, it dies off. With the nature of twitter being so fast paced, nothing on the platform is constant. One tweet, meme, or article will have its time in the spotlight, and twitter is quick to dissect every inch of it before tossing it into the pile of all the other over-shared memes. This means that those on the app need to be attentive, reactive, and insightful. Paying attention to twitter activity and popular trends is crucial to get on top of the attraction that they bring. Next comes being reactive; this means to know exactly how to respond in a way that will gain even more attention than the original content. Finally, being insightful; this can be done through unique takes, controversial opinions, or complementary information.

What drives the viral nature of twitter?

The twitter user social media group values quick, information, and interesting information and perspectives. This is a network that does not want to spend a lot of time reading and digesting information; they want their information concise and clear. To attract attention and responses on twitter it is crucial to use information that is controversial, and will stir up opinions from multiple viewpoints. Those who have mastered the ability to provoke interest on twitter will have endless replies to their tweets that are filled with responses, corrections, or contradictions to their content.

The Portland Trailblazer community specifically loves to agree about the physical ability and talents of the players on the Blazers and opposing teams. Further, this community will react to the outside lives, clothing, and behavior of the players, even though none of these aspects have to do with basketball.

The goal of this community is to share the various opinions, perspectives, and responses to current events and topics. Twitter is full of comedy, personal posts, and meaningless pieces of information, but content that is shared the most reflects on the events that are taking place in the world. With all news stations, media outlets, and corporations being on twitter, people no longer turn on the TV to find the news. Local, national, and international news is updated and regurgitated faster than ever through twitter, shortening the attention span of everyone on social media.

This community loves to come together to celebrate the victories of the team. Some of the most notable twitter moments have surrounded the star player Damian Lillard. Damian is known to sink three point shots - most famously during crunch time. One of the most notable moments in the Trailblazer twitter community was when Damian made a three point buzzer beater, from nearly half court. Not only did his shot win the Trailblazers the game against Oklahoma, it won them the series, advancing the team to the Western Conference Semifinals, amazing right? Not exactly. In true twitter fashion, fans from both the team and opposing teams came together to argue that the shot was “too risky” and he had gotten “lucky”. This stirred the entire twitter network, causing tweeters and professional alike to argue both sides of the game winning shot. However, negativity was not the main response to this sports moment. The official Trailblazer account, ESPN, Complex, GQ and other major media outlets tweeted out videos of this shot, using various songs, speeds, and angles to emphasize this outstanding moment.

This moment is a prime illustration of the purpose that users have given twitters. The days of waiting for the morning paper to read professional analys are over. Twitter has made it so that as soon as something noteworthy happens, the internet has seen it, eaten it up, and spit it out with the opinions from every angle.

The unspoken rules of twitter, that people have caught on to, are to seek out and expose any users that are spreading offensive or oppressive messages. This is important to recognize because it is a form of regulation for the chaos that takes place on twitter. While the speed and content of twitter is fast and unpredictable, the general unspoken rule is that users should be accepting of all types of people. Gender, race, orientation and other differentiating factors should not be used as means for bringing people down, and users regulate this internally. If people are found to be discriminating, twitter users are quick to go viral by exposing them.

So how did my twitter experience unfold?

Unfortunately my twitter account gained almost no attention, and I am not surprised. Most users who attract conversation through their large, established following. People are much more inclined to take part in a conversation with a person that has a large following, because it will attract more attention. Unless the user is sharing something extremely unique, interesting, or controversial, not many people will engage with a twitter user that does not have many followers.

The twitter community loves to feed off of users with large followings. These interactions can be both positive and negative, regardless, people share their opinions and feedback with popular twitter users. By not having the following, or particularly controversial opinions, I was not able to gain much traction on my account. If this assignment was over a longer period of time, and required more interaction, I may have been more successful in getting more responses on my posts.

Through the posts, and observing others, I noticed that the people who go “viral” are usually first to have a good take on an event or headline. Finding the generally, popular - unpopular opinion is another great way to gain attention. By this I mean that twitter uses will commonly state something that might be deemed an “unpopular opinion”, but ends up being agreed upon by lots of users.

Another way that I could have been more successful is by being super interactive. Tweeting daily, or multiple times daily, tagging and responding to other accounts, and following lots of accounts would have created more momentum on my profile. Further, I could have leveraged the fact that I am a girl getting involved in a community that is majority men. This would have helped my content because it would allow me to provide a perspective that is not as frequently shared in sports discussions.

Getting involved in this community during the NBA Playoffs is another great way to receive more interaction. During this time of the year the twitter community is extremely interactive because users are heavily invested in the outcome of the seasons. Many more users spend time on twitter looking at game results, predictions, and feedback on teams and players.

Overall, I was not successful in gaining interaction on my account, but I was successful in learning the patterns of the NBA community on twitter. Going forward I can leverage my knowledge in professional and personal settings. I can also use the information I gained from observing the twitter community in my Business Major, because it is a great way for tracking the behavior of twitter users. This can be leveraged to know when to purchase ad space, who to target these ads to, and what content to put on these ads.

https://www.gq.com/story/damian-lillard-buzzer-beater

https://www.complex.com/sports/2019/04/damian-lillard-game-winner-against-thunder-memes

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theenthusiasticblogger · 4 years

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BLOG

Alex’s Enthusiastic Blogging Peer Profile

Who are you?

Hi I am Nik and am currently studying Prof Comm at RMIT.

Why are you here?

I chose prof comm because it was the only subject that combines the various disciplines of communication into one course. It will allow me to choose and experience which aspects of communication I want to pursue in the future. Right now I am most interested in the advertising and marketing aspect of prof comm. I have no experience yet, however I hope to get into a couple internships over the summer.

What are your expectations for the course?

Well, I think that it will help me narrow the type of communication I want to pursue as a career. I am preparing to go into advertising as a major for year two, so I am hoping that it will be exciting and will help me learn lots.

What sort of career do you imagine?

I want to be head of marketing or advertising for a fashion brand.

What is something unique about you?

I hate Guzman Y Gomez for no reason. I have over 2000 hours on League of Legends.

Power of Belief

‘The Power of Belief’ is an interesting reflection on how humans can achieve success. Eduardo cites Waitzkan who was a successful chess player who turned from that to martial arts, he highlights that what allowed such a dramatic change and success in such a ne medium was that he did not feel “special” or like “a prodigy” which let him be fresh in the face of a new challenge to master. In my opinion I believe that while humility is good, having a strong mental perception of yourself is integral to achieving your goals, especially in the face of adversity. In David Ly’s article “Tips on how to use your ego” he outlines how people can use their ego to face fears. Thus while you should still be open and accept criticisms it is often self doubt that results in someone failing, rather than a hubris. Eduardo explores the idea of a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. While he highlights the clear differences between these concepts, he fails to understand that a dualistic perception of a mind is not useful as a blanket concept on all humans will never work. However if you combine these concepts into a more well rounded ideology I believe it will result in a greater success rate. Eduardo goes on to explain that providing praise to kids will only make them fearful of challenges. Personally I find this completely wrong, in my experience validation makes me want to keep the same level of success and results in me trying harder. In an article written in the Australian Parenting Website, it is stated that giving “praise to kids” will “nurture self-esteem”. Thus while I agree with some points from Eduardo’s lecture, largely I believe his ideas are flaws as they are monolithic in nature and in applicable to each person.

The Future of Media and Communication

The rapid emergence of social media has allowed for people to develop an online brand. If you use social media you have a brand whether you know of it or not. By creating a profile, letting people know your likes, letting people into your “personality” through music tastes and photos, you are painting a picture. In an article written by Katarzyna Szymielewicz she describes this picture as a “caricature” which envelops one's identity on the online realm. While it may see incredibly superficialI I for one enjoy the fact that I can “curate an identity”. However there are inherent risks with this, one being you are not really that person (as much as you would like to be) and people expect you to act the way your online persona does. People who use social media and their brand as a way to create a monetary source must consistently uphold a fake profile online and in real life. This can only lead to issues to mental health with the need to be someone you are not. In an article written by Mark Millian he highlights that online personas are rarely matched in real life. He also explores the psychology behind validation online through likes and followers. All of his findings exemplify how people often have to lives, one offline and one online, and often this can lead to people becoming incredibly self-conscious that they adhere to their own online creation.

Josh Stearns Projects

“How Black Lives Matter Uses Social Media to Fight the Power” is an article written by Bijan Stephen which attempts to highlight the way social justice movements, particularly the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement which has sprung from the recent injustices committed by white police officers, have utilised communication throughout the years. In contrast “Greenland is Melting Away” the piece written by Coral Davenport writes about how Greenland is slowly decaying due to climate change. Davenport attempts to convey the immediacy of the issue through using various primary sources and quotes from scientists as well as scientific papers. Similarly to this Stephen uses primary sources and statistics to persuade viewers of the way in which social media helps to garner a greater amount of attention to such issues. This is paralleled in Davenports article who explains how social media has been able to contextualise the issue for audiences who are less familiar with the issue. In an article written by Divikah Khandelwal she explains how social media has expanded and revolutionised the way social justice and awareness campaigns are conducted. Thus it is evident that while Stephen and Davenport have different subject matters and are not both social justice explicitly (apart from Stephens) it is the “marriage of social media and justice” that connects both articles and issues together. However they both pretain in their audiences, as both articles are targeted towards those who care about world wide issues and the concept of morality, whether it be towards people or to the environment.

Why I am passionate about advertising

To me I find advertising fascinating as it pertains to how we, as a society based species, reflect upon stimulus from brands. In each century, decade, and even year the way advertising evolved is radical and always reflective of how society at the time operates. Recently their has been a surge in ‘Brand Activism’ which is a relatively new term. The 2010’s has seen globalisation and social media in particular expand exponentially, this has allowed for people to become more aware of current events and issues that they become invested in. In a paper written by Jen Barrel it is stated that brand activism has increased by 63% this year. This reflects how advertising is an ever evolving industry and is able to identify with the current ‘wave’ effecting society. Another recent advancement in Advertising which intrigues me is the use of Data in targeting specific ads to specific people. Previously this would be found through suburb targeting or traditional demographic analysiation in specific areas. In a paper written by Joseph Clift he explains how “data can be programmed” at will, and is able to target people down to their personal habits and tendencies. Such specific and detailed profile of individuals allows advertising to be incredibly more effective and efficient. Firms can now target car ads to people who are specifically thinking and talking about purchasing a car. This is in contrast to the “blanket” technique used in things like TV ads (despite being able to choose the channel and time).

Research and Ethics, when is the line crossed?

Last century information was controlled by few, it was let out through specific streams, individuals could not be respected as real and trustworthy sources of information whether it be scientific or other. In the every expanding process of globalisation and the incredible rise of the Internet, information has become diluted, and any person with a following can become a figurehead for an issue even if they have no credentials or sources for their findings. In a paper written for the University of Hull it is stated that verified papers and books are often the most trustworthy source of information in this age. However at times even these mediums can be false, this has been exemplified in the 1998 case of a paper published in a respected medical journal ‘Lancet’, where Andrew Wakefield created false data to support his claim. This paper has led to an increasing trend of anti-vax sentiment which is dangerous and wrong. Thus the ethics of such things must be questioned, we may consider the morality of posting such papers and the outcomes they have caused, Wakefield may have taken the utilitarianism approach, where his work would have caused a greater amount of questioning to what we are injected with my medical professionals. However it remains that the data was false. This leads us to a greater and more current issue, with the availability of social media, the concept of validity of someone often comes from their follower base, as such those with high amounts of followers are usually trusted, often by impressionable teenagers. In an article written in the Crunch it is stated that “Followers do not trump all, and followers do not equal credibility.” which highlights the issue nowadays, that anyone with a large following can project information to an impressionable audience, which is in fact false and often harmful to their following.

What is News?

‘News’ as a concept is one that is hard to define, especially with the sudden and galvanising rise of social media and the drastic shift from news media being spread through physical and now through the medium of the online realm. Stephen Lamble states that news is “in the eye of the beholder” which is an interesting perspective on the way people nowadays can ‘perceive’ news. However it may be argued that Lamble’s hypothesis highlights a large issue, this being that by this logic anything can be news (news is perceived as inherently factual), which means people can present false ideas and information and create misinformation in society. This phenomenon is becoming known as “Fake News”. Thus is news really a mirror to society, or are journalists “gatekeepers” to successful democracies, and this is the problem, the news is not as simple as it was last century, and the indefinability of it allows any writings to be upheld as newsworthy. Therefore the traditional way of determining what is news has shifted to it being whatever society deems to be valuable information. This is problematic as people like Donald Trump who is in a position of authority, and his word is respected and taken as fact by millions, has often shared sources of news that have proven to be false. With information that is false being spread through channels of authority, the people are being misinformed. News in my opinion serves one purpose, this is to inform people of facts and opinions (each must be labeled explicitly), everything else, clickbait titles, random articles about surgery being performed on a grape, these are not news, these are ‘Stories’. The differentiation between the two is blurred and has led to a mountain of so called “news” being spread. In this respect I disagree with Lambles paper which outlines how news had been spread by “cavemen talking to one another about events”, to me such things are stories, but they cannot be news, and defining this is incredibly important in an age where we are drowning in information.

Pepsi’s Amazingly Bad PR Campaign

In 2017 Pepsi released an advertising campaign that sought to “to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding," through using the stage of a protest to highlight how Pepsi brings people together. It was aimed to engage the political youth of today, this was done clearly through images of young protesters, and their poster child for the ad, Kendall Jenner, who seems to be there young adult of choice for this ad. This ad was pulled 24 hours after its release due to the tremendous amount of critics and social media outrage. This campaign was the definition of an out of touch administration. Pepsi naivety was their failure to realise the awareness and seriousness of the real protests and issues going on in the world. The new trend of Brand Activism has become so widespread, and is often to transparently for profit. Pepsi fell with the others who have tried brand activism, with their “join the conversation” slogan which was so surface level and inoffensive to any part. Social Media could see that they were merely trying to capitalise on the rise in protests, rather than taking a stand for anything. The real failure here was that Pepsi tried to hard to be relevant, by hiring a Kendall and trivialising a protest, their team behind the ad failed to realise that people can have their say online, and that by taking a risk on the topic of the ad, they fall to the mercy of the online stampede that happens whenever a brand is called out.

Design Thinking

Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test and is most useful when you want to tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown. This is design thinking, a process in which you are able to solve complex problems by diluting them into 5 separate solution methods. I think it is especially good for today as it allows for firms and people to react upon the rapid changes in society and the environment. The design thinking process has become increasingly popular over the last few decades because it was key to the success of many high-profile, global organizations companies such as Google, Apple and Airbnb who have wielded it to notable effect, for example. This outside the box thinking is now taught at leading universities across the world and is encouraged at every level of business. For university projects it is a perfect introduction into how firms develop and establish their brand portfolios and projects.

Interdisciplinary

Last century it was enough for someone to be an advertising agent, or a PR person, it was simple times. Nowadays professionals must adapt to the ever changing and often erratic atmosphere of societal trends. In terms of the purpose of what these professionals now do, the plane has changed dramatically, we are needed to perform in multiple fields across communication to successfully and genuinely engage with the audience. Thus the purpose of each fold of communications (Advertising, marketing etc) has melded into one and we want to do this to achieve a holistic perception on engaging audiences. However at times this may mean that our skills are too spread out and not focused on a single discipline. However I would argue that there is no one discipline, advertising is PR, marketing is journalism, and vice versa. This is the context we live in, which is why it is needed to learn and know about all communication strategies, today's landscape is described by Russel Howcroft, a reporter at Sydney Morning Herald, “as a marriage of creative and commercial content”. The two have become indistinguishable and the message of today’s communication has suffered as a result of it. It is harder and harder to get a message out to the masses, and for it to be successful is a whole other issue. By having awareness of each realm of communication we have a better chance of reaching people, by encapsulating each medium that people engage with media and communications, we can wade through the mess and fluff. Especially when the message is not just a price, and rather a story, trying to tell it is incredibly hard. A combination of journalism and advertising may be suitable in this case, as brands cannot simply be price tags anymore, they have to be constantly engaging entities who are fresh and relevant, or they fall into the chasm of repetition and failure, e.g Blockbusters.

References

Canvas.hull.ac.uk. (2019). Determining Source Reliability: Being Critical. [online] Available at: https://canvas.hull.ac.uk/courses/611/pages/determining-source-reliability [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

Howcroft, R. (2019). Journalism and advertising - a marriage of convenience necessary for both. [online] The Sydney Morning Herald. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/journalism-and-advertising--a-marriage-of-convenience-necessary-for-both-20081205-6sir.html [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2019/01/18/the-marriage-of-social-media-and-social-justice/. (2019). [online] Available at: https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2019/01/18/the-marriage-of-social-media-and-social-justice/ [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

Khim, D. (2019). 6 Tips on How to Use Ego to Your Advantage. [online] The UP Lab. Available at: https://theuplab.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/ego-use-to-your-advantage/ [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

Phys.org. (2019). Online personas rarely match real-life behavior, observers say. [online] Available at: https://phys.org/news/2010-05-online-personas-rarely-real-life-behavior.html [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

Raising Children Network. (2019). Praise, encouragement and rewards. [online] Available at: https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/connecting-communicating/connecting/praise [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

Rmit.instructure.com. (2019). MyApps Portal. [online] Available at: https://rmit.instructure.com/courses/70878/files/9793959/download?wrap=1 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

Szymielewicz, K. (2019). Your digital identity has three layers, and you can only protect one of them. [online] Quartz. Available at: https://qz.com/1525661/your-digital-identity-has-three-layers-and-you-can-only-protect-one-of-them/ [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

The Sydney Morning Herald. (2019). Pepsi pulls Kendall Jenner protest advertisement after mockery and backlash. [online] Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/pepsi-pulls-kendall-jenner-protest-advertisement-after-mockery-and-backlash-20170406-gvenhi.html [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

West, T. (2019). Credibility, Trust and Authenticity in Influencer Marketing. [online] Scrunch.com. Available at: https://www.scrunch.com/blog/credibility-trust-authenticity [Accessed 15 Dec. 2019].

Link to the Media for the blogs which could not be added to the tumblr

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